Getting Ready For The New Year

The ten week summer session is over and Beth did a wonderful job while i was gone. I learned so much about her and about myself over the summer. I will start with her....

A. She is very witty and quick. I like that!
B. She is a paranoid freak... made my summer a little easier. I mean, someone that was not paranoid might not have been as particular.
C. She loves kids and has a way of talking to the them that i appreciate This is something you cant " teach" a caregiver, it is there.... or not. Thankfully for me and the kids, it was!
D. She thinks Randy is a doll. Makes me feel good. If I ever decide to make a change in my life, I know he will have a safe place to go.

Myself:
I learned that I can let go.. and it will be ok.

I owe that to Beth.. thanks girl, I needed that lesson!

Now , on to fall planning! I am so excited for the school year . We will start off the year with a Royal Welcome. Much of our first two weeks will be " themed" ( if you will allow me to say that...) We will have out princess and knight costumes and read fairy tales. The better part of the two weeks is spent getting to know each other and our routines we have. All of my slots are full. It looks like we will have 10 girls and 6 boys .

I have decided for the fall semester to not take any college classes. I am taking some time to get my life chaos free for a while. For the past few years I have felt like I worked on "something" from the time I got up until I went to bed and then the list kept turning in my head. I am sure the list will still be there but it will be a little shorter. I am excited about the possibilities of enjoying my kids all day and then sitting on my porch and listening to the crickets chirp at night. Oh.. I will still be in and teach trainings, there is a little state wide association that state is backing me to get started for family childcare homes and then there is planning our music tour for next summer, but it all... will..... be ... at ... a ... slower.... pace....

Some school related goals this year!

I hope to have parent workshops once a month. I want to collaborate with the other programs in town to do this so I dont feel all the pressure. I think it will work. The first one is scheduled for the first Thursday in Sept. " What is DAP teaching?" Oh... I cant wait!

I have asked the school down the street to allow us to visit twice a month for " buddy reading". I think this will be great for our kids and for the older ones reading to them.

WORKBOXES. I want to use these for my kids... anyone know how to get started? The original workbox lady says 12 boxes for each child ( a homeschool concept ) . I obviously cant do that with 16 kiddos... hmm..

Those are my major projects.
I am too excited about the new year. I have started a stock pile of new " elements of wonder" to add to my classroom in the dining room . I cant wait to get started!

Until Next Time...

I cannot believe that ten weeks has passed by so quickly! It seems like only yesterday I was trying to remember the children's names and they were showing me how Mrs. Debbie and Mr. Randy do things at school. I have to express my overwhelming gratitude to Debbie and Randy for opening up their hearts and home, and entrusting their precious children to me this summer. They definitely took a huge leap of faith, and I hope that I met their expectations for what the summer would be. I pray that I will again get this opportunity in the years to come. I have loved every minute of it. I will miss these little guys, and all their antics and sweetness. Even today, as I was being serenaded by the "Rockstar Showoffs", (a rock and roll cover band that was formed before my very eyes and apparently knows only one line to "Rock You" by Queen), I felt bittersweet. I have been so blessed to be able to spend this time with them. I figured it has been almost 400 hours! If you are a parent reading this, please know that I love your child very much and thank you for trusting in Debbie enough to take her word for it when she came to you and said: "I met this girl, and I want her to run my program this summer...".

Last week of summer preschool!

This is our last week of the summer session; August 19th will be the start of the new school year, both for the kindergartners and the preschoolers. We have had such a fun summer that I cannot believe that has been 10 weeks already...time sure flies when you are having fun like we have at school.

Our unit this week is focusing on homes. We are learning about where people and animals live: houses, trailer homes, apartments, duplexes, caves, stys, lodges, hives, castles, etc. We read A House for Hermit Crab and did activities this morning about homes. One activity was cutting out various household items and placing them onto a house shape in the appropriate area. It was very interesting where the children put the various items. One child, for instance glued the scissors onto the bedroom space because he said he likes to do art in his room at home, while another glued them in the kitchen because she said her mom uses scissors sometimes when she is cooking. This activity was available all morning and I think almost all of the children did it. When they finished their homes, we put them on the wall to compare what the houses looked like. A few had glued every single item in the bedroom, because they said that's where they keep all their things! We also made our books about homes to color and read.
Keegan and Whitlee had a good time building in the block center this morning, while Adam and Jadan and Sharae enjoyed Ms. Beth reading lots of books. Mykah and Katie had fun pretending in the dress up room.
After circle time we made a special snack to enjoy this afternoon...mud and worms! I had been telling the children we were going to eat mud and worms, and they were insistent that they were not going to try it. When they realized it was pudding and gummy worms, they quickly became eager to try! Funny how that works...isn't it? We each took turns smashing up Oreo cookies with a rolling pin and hammer, and mixing the milk and pudding together and stirring in the cool whip. We then got to spoon the mixture into a cup and top it off with "dirt" and gummy worms. They love cooking projects when they can be involved. It is such a treat for them, and I am sure we will enjoy them this afternoon. :)

Now this is what I call summer weather!

I knew this morning coming to work that we must take advantage of this wonderful cooler (80's!) summer weather. My courage is not quite up to the walk to Barnett's, but I thought we would definitely go to the park for some playtime. The children were very excited when I told them during circle time that we were going. We did our calendar and morning message listened to The Napping House, and I read This is the House That Jack Built. Then we lined up to go to the park and we were off!

I was surprised when we got to the park that we were the only ones there! I am by no means complaining, but just thought there would be more kiddos and mommmies taking advantage of the cooler temperatures. We played and swung for about 45 minutes, and then headed into the library to turn in our summer reading logs. We have read enough that we all got to pick a prize! We have been waiting for this all summer, and were so delighted to get to choose our reward. Tattoos, rings, plastic bugs, and coupons for free french fries were what we chose. On our way out of the library, we spotted a community helper-a pilot in his uniform. I asked the children "what do you think this gentlemen does"? "He protects people!" "Well..." I said, "I think he flies an airplane. What do we call someone who flies an airplane?" Silence for a moment as the gentleman awkwardly stands there holding the door for us to exit. "A commander?" Adam responds. I smile quickly at the pilot and shuffle the kids out the door. Poor guy. As we walk along the sidewalk, I turn to my precious children and say "Isn't it exciting we got to see a pilot?!" honest to goodness, one of the children said "Not really."
From the mouths of babes, right?

Lions, and tigers, and bears, (and monkeys, and camels, and zebras)!

Yesterday was our much anticipated trip to the safari. We had the most wonderful time. I had three parents join our class for the trip, and that was such a blessing to have those extra helpers. We somehow avoided the heat of the day, which was my main concern. We began with the petting zoo and got to pet goats, chickens, and a VERY pot-bellied pig. We then continued on to the walk-through part of the safari. We saw all sorts of things, from monkeys to emus. We saw a giraffe, a zebra, huge tortoises, parrots, some sort of orangutan that was literally putting on a show for us, dancing and taunting us in his cage, and we petted a lemur. One of the workers took us into a barn that housed howler monkeys, sloths, snakes, and a baby hedgehog. He let those that wanted to hold the snake and teeny, tiny baby hedgehog. We continued on to see the lemurs and parrots. Just about then we began to feel the heat and headed back to the coolers to get our water bottles. On the way, a worker had one of the capuchin moneys on a leash so we sat around her in a circle to see if the monkey, Chloe, would play with us. She jumped on Sharae one time, and ran around the circle jumping and climbing all over her trainer, but clearly was not in the mood to be groped by preschoolers. We moved onto the car and cooled off at a picnic table for a minute, then went to the kangaroo exhibit. There were kangaroos, lazing on the ground in the shade of the trees, and one let us come up to her to get a closer look. We felt her tail, which was thick and strong. We all loved touching her soft fur and talking about her pouch. Just about the time we noticed her pouch and began discussing what it was for, we saw it wiggling. How neat that there was something inside! Instinctively, she must have known we were discussing it, because she moved her front legs to cover it. We were hoping the joey inside would peek out at us, but he or she was content to stay right where it was, comfy in its' mama's pouch.
We were ready to get in the car for the drive through portion of the safari in the cool air conditioning, but not before stopping to pet a zebra and giggle at the baby monkey wearing a diaper and drinking juice from its' bottle.
Our three vehicle caravan began the 4 mile tour of the safari with anxious occupants peering through the windows to see whatever animals we could. There were lots of deer, and emus that blocked the road so we would stop and they could come to the windows to look in and stare at us. It made the children shriek in excitement. We couldn't help but stop for every emu in the road along the way. The same happend when we came to camels. It was so neat to come literally face to face with them. We saw more zebras, buffalo, cows, and monkeys along the way. We saw 8 tigers, two lions, and a porcupine. We passed through a prarie dog area and tried our best to count the heads popping up from the earth. We saw bears and Keegan spotted the alligator in the murky green pond. We were told after we were through that there was a hippo, but our carload didn't spot it. Maybe next time.
This was such a great field trip, and I am so thankful to the parents that came along to help. I know the childen had a great time seeing all the animals we have been talking about the past few weeks. What a way to reinforce the lessons with real life experiences!
I have to brag on my kids...one of the safari workers came to our picnic table as we were taking a water break and complimetned our group for behaving so well. She said we were one of the best groups she had seen this summer! I was beaming...

Make new friends, but keep the old...

Today we had two new friends join us! Keegan and Audrey came to play. Keegan is 5 and will be heading to kindergarten in the fall, and Audrey is 3 and will be back at Bright Beginnings when school starts. We are very happy they are with us, and glad to have new faces at school.

We played outside this morning and had lots of fun with the parachute. We wiggled it fast, slow, high and low. Then Ms. Beth would call a name and that person had to run under the parachute all the way to the other side. those who chose to play with us had lots of fun!

We began a new book study today called The Napping House. It is a very cute story with lots of repetition about a snoring granny all the things that sleep in the bed with her. It opened up all sorts of discussion about how we sleep at home and who sleeps with us. Do we have big beds or little beds? Do we share a bed? Do we wiggle when we sleep? Do we ever crawl into bed with mom and dad? :)

We are very excited about our field trip tomorrow to the safari in Gentry. We have been talking about what we will do and see and what it will be like. One thing I know...it will be hot!!! I hope the animals are out and give us lots to see!

A good day for a picnic...or not

Today was a great Friday as we finished up our zoo study. The kids are so excited to go to the Safari on Tuesday. They wonder if it is like the zoo? I say no, we will touch some animals in the petting area, but have to drive around to see the others because they stay in their habitats. It is so nice that we have something like the safari so close that we can take a day and go to it. It will be our first BIG field trip, and thank goodness I have a mom to help me. Other parents have mentioned that they may go to, which is wonderful, but the pressure is on to make it a success. I have never been to the safari before, so I hope that we do good. I am sure we will do good. It will be great, I am sure. I have great kids that are excited to go and see animals up close. Now if we can get it to be not so hot...

Today in circle time we played a game of Zookeeper, Zookeeper, Where Is Your Key? We played this game yesterday, and it was a huge success. One person sits in the middle of the circle and closes their eyes (today we used a blindfold to do away with the peeking), and I point to a student to sneakily tiptoe to the middle of the circle and steal the zookeeper's key. Then the zookeeper uncovers his or her eyes and has three chances to guess who took the key. Yesterday it took at least three rounds before I could convince the children to not whisper the name of who has the key. Or point to them. It's funny how hard a secret it is to keep! Anyway, they really like this game, and we have already said we will play it again after naptime.

When it was time for lunch we took a vote to go outside for a picnic. Silly Ms. Beth! We got out there and it was just plain HOT. Even under the shade of the umbrella it was really warm. We did good eating and getting inside to cool off, but I think next time I will be the judge of whether or not a picnic is appropriate. Today is definitely a popsicle day!

Bike Washing

Today was a great day...we started in centers and many of us flocked to the block center to use the blocks to make a zoo for our animals. We wrote on the signs in the block center "zoo" and "Please do not feed the animals!" They enjoyed setting up the zoo together. When the zoo was complete we moved on to using the wood blocks to stand on and "skate" all around the room. Man, I wish we had a skating rink in Siloam. That would be an awesome field trip! During circle time, we charted which zoo animal we would let sleep in our bed at home. Monkey, gorilla, giraffe, etc. We played animal charades again as promised. We did a phonological awareness activity using the letter "F". They are so good at those and have alot of fun learning. After lunch we went outside for water play. I bought sponges, buckets, soap, spray bottles, etc. and we had a bike wash. This was by far a hit. They worked so well together, washing, rinsing and drying all the outside trikes, scooters, and bikes. We will definitely do it again...they LOVED it!

More Zoo Fun

Today we continued our zoo theme. After playing in centers we went outside to enjoy the great summer weather. The kids had fun in the water table, riding trikes, and moving all (and I do mean all) the toy cars, trucks, trains, tractors, dump trucks, etc. up onto the porch to create their own toy store. They were really enjoying themselves. We came in for circle time, and marked on the calendar all the birthdays we have this month. We marked on the 24th of this month the last day that we will be together for the summer, and we counted the 18 days we have left. Time sure has flown by this summer! We then did our morning message and took a survey of what we do before bedtime, as the zookeeper locks all the cages before he goes to bed in Good Night Gorilla. Of the three options given (read books, watch T.V., and play with toys) we unanimously-6 to 1- watch T.V. before we go to bed. Hmmm...maybe we need to think about that! Then we played a game of animal charades. The kids absolutely loved playing that, and after two rounds, I had to PROMISE that we would definitely play it again tomorrow. We read two zoo books, including a non-fiction book about wild animals that answered some questions we had about certain animals.
We are looking forward to Wet Wednesday tomorrow!

Ms. Beth had to go to the doctor today, so Ms. Debbie came to play and have fun with us! In her words:
Today we...

talked about where Randy and I have been and where we are going
Read Good Night Gorilla and found the little mouse on each page.
explored the zoo animal stickers and made a picture with them - Adam remembered there was a blue key in the playroom so he found it and everyone traced it on their page, just like the book has! Smart kid! We talked about the letters in key and some of them wrote it on their page.

Te kids formed an impromptu band ...

They explained to me that the helper of the day is also the line leader.

I really missed the kids. It feels so good to have their sweet smiles crowding me.

What a treat to have Ms. Debbie back for the day! I know the kids loved having her back and I sure appreciated getting to go to the doctor!

Girls Only

Today we had only five children at school due to the holiday. We had all girls! Needless to say,we did not leave the dress up room all morning during free choice centers. We played hair parlor for awhile with me being the only client and all five girls acting as stylists. Some pf the girls had picnics and tea parties and the others put on fancy dresses and went downstairs to dance to the music.I offered a few times to go play a game I had set out for today or read a story but the girls were to wrapped up in dramatic play. Another testimony to how we learn through play! Hope you all have a safe and fun holiday!

A Walk to the Library

Today we only had six children at school. With such a small group, and the weather being a lot cooler than is has been the past few weeks, I thought "what better day for an impromptu visit to story time at the library?" We got there in plenty of time to get settled in for a story or two. Then SURPRISE!!! There was no story today, but a family of actors(?)-a mother and her 4 children acted out some stories for us! We got to see Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and another story I had not heard of about a young boy and a magic pot that made pasta. My kids had so much fun and were completely captivated by the show. Afterward, they each got to make masks decorated however we wanted. For my group that means lots and lots of glitter! ;) Seriously, we had glitter all over the place. But the kids had a great time making their creations and that's all that matters. I am so glad that I work in a program that is flexible enough that we can walk to the library, or wherever we want, at any time. Getting out of our schedule provided us an opportunity to see a live drama. I am not sure any of these children have gone to see a play or musical yet in their 4 years, so I was happy they got the chance to see another way to tell a story. I am interested to see how their experiences in dramatic play or the book center may change due to what we saw today.

Another WET Wednesday!

Today we had another Wet Wednesday! I bought a new beach ball sprinkler that was fun, but did not hold a candle to the slip & slide! They LOVE that thing! We had a lot of fun, of course!!!
We did a zoo math activity this morning in the manipulative center, and read From Head to Toe at circle time, as well as Animal Strike at the Zoo, It's true! We did phonological awareness activities involving the letter D, and we worked on a class picture book this afternoon.