Do you SEE what I see ?

Did you know we have a treasure chest ? It is a decorated chest that we let the children get in when they do something special or their behavior is extraordinarily good. Today they ALL got in the chest for the first time. Ask your child why !

Orrin got glasses out of the treasure chest .

I want Ms. Bethany to be good at EVERYTHING we do so today she did small groups.

We have had an exciting day today. We had our first walking field trip. I want to say that this group was BY FAR the BEST " field trippers" we have had in a long time. They obeyed all the rules we talked about before we left. Parents, you would have been so proud of them. We had 14 with us and they walked into the hospital SO QUIET and respectful. ( " There are sick people and babies that need to sleep in there." We saw Kat's new baby sister . Her grandma greeted us in the hallway and was so excited. I actually had chill bumps thinking of the day I will be with my daughter to have a baby - IF, that day ever comes. :) What a joy to help this family celebrate today. Kay was SO excited. If course, when we got home the "baby business " ensued. We had babies being born all over the house. I heard one little girl saying her " mom found her in a trash can." I laughed, she knew it was a joke and who hasnt said that to their little one a time or two when you dont know how else to answer the question. If you want some help or information on how to answer that question for your little one - click HERE.

When we take walking field trips we learn safe ways to cross streets.

Kingston playing a Brown Bear letter tile matching game.

What would we do if we could not see ?

I had to show off Dillion's journal today. Awesome writing buddy !

MUFFIN TIN MONDAY ! And yes, several of them DID eat the brussel sprouts.

Today was a Monday... and it was A GREAT DAY!

First Day Frenzy

Today was our first day back. I think no matter how much you plan and how many hours your put into making everything perfect -- it never will be. I mean... everyones' idea of a perfect day is different , right ? Some days perfect is everyone got home and no one was bleeding. Some days, it is a child that has a hard time making friends breaking a barrier and bonding with a another child. Somedays it is a DING moment as a teacher when you realize something new about yourself. Today was a perfect day too. We made it. We made it .....

I have been SO excited about starting back to school. You will hear me say this 1000 times this year , but I LOVE MY JOB! I have been working on all the little details and planning our day. I get up at 5 am to walk and go to the gym. Yesterday I did and I was SO pumped about getting into routine. This morning at SEVEN AM Randy says " OH MY DEBBIE - IT's 7 !" Overslept on the first day of school, really ? Agh......... Anyway, thankfully, I had put the awesome peach french toast casserole together last night to pop in the oven this morning. ( Awesome as in.... only two children ate it. Hmm... tomorrow we will try something more simple. ) We made sure everything was ready and opened the door on time. As we met the kids outside today, we didnt have one crier. There was one that thought about it, but decided against it. ( Thank you little guy! ) Tomorrow might be different. WHY? You ask.. today should have been the hard one ? The first day they are excited about new friends and new stuff ! Tomorrow, we are old news and they realize, " hey wait.... you mean we will do this EVERYDAY?" So, please remember to keep your goodbyes quick and I promise to hug , hold and console anyone that has a hard time

( Oh yeah! KUDOS on the moms that met at Cafe on Broadway for breakfast this morning. KLEENEX AND COFFEE is what we called it ! Was kleenex needed ? If you took pictures, please text them to me and I will get them on the blog tomorrow. )

Today was spent talking a lot about " what we do " and yes... " what we don't do." All in all, I think it was a good day. I mean, some of these kiddos have never been anywhere like our type of setting so we cant expect them to come in and just KNOW what to d0. We did have two extra hands helping us today ( Beth and Jodie) and I honestly don't know what we would have done without them.

We did initial art today. Kids are really big on knowing the first letter of their name. Many times it is the first letter they can pick out. This year I have 5 K's and 4 M's. This should be interesting.

We played outside twice. Tomorrow we may have to rearrange our time out a little . After lunch was pretty hot today. The kids did love the new stuff out there though.

I think it is important to make a room pretty for the children as well as functional and a learning environment. These shelves hold pictures from home. Parents, if you havent brought in yours , please do so. I have frames here if you need them.

Also, isn't our tree BEAUTIFUL! Julie , Scarlett's mommy painted the tree for us and today we put our fingerprints on it. I was in a awe . Look how much detail is on there - the heart in the middle ... wow. I want to do one each year and save as a keep sake . I already had some moms ask would Julie do more and I approached her about it. She is going to come up with a price. So, if you think you might want one for a family tree or a present for grandma etc.... I'll let you know soon how much it will cost you !

It made my day to see the kids make friends !

I can't wait to do it again tomorrow ! ( I will be uploading TONS of pictures on Facebook.. so what for them and tag yourself if you would like. )

Open House

What a great Open House we had. I hope that everyone left as pumped about our new year as I was. It was wonderful to meet the new sweet kids and families and to see the " oldies" again after the summer. It is amazing how much growing a child does in the summer from three to four years old. Each day ( starting tomorrow - our first day! ) I will blog about our daily adventures. Please check here daily around 2 pm to see what we have been up to. This blog is a great way to connect with your child and talk about what they have learned. Here is the normal conversation without background knowledge. " What did you do today? " Child's response " Play." With this blog your can say " I saw that you cooked something today, what was it? Was it good? What did you do to help make it? I saw you had something new in the block center today, what was it ? Did you go for a walk today? Did you have a special visitor today?" Using this blog you can help me by building on what I am doing at school.

Here are a few pictures from last night.

This old fire truck is getting old. I actually thought earlier in the day about taking it out but then Katelyn and Emeri jumped in and rushed to a fire. When they got there Emeri grabbed the hose and put out the fire and Katelyn got a gas can ( I was worried at first... ) and made sure they truck was filled up with gas. I'll be keeping the fire truck. :)

Creating wonder for kids is not all that hard. How do you like the flags?

The art center is under the loft. We added the patio lights to it. Hopefully it wont be a QA problem. They dont get too hot. LOTS of learning and creating goes on in this little space.

I moved the dress up area downstairs this year. Did you notice the old phone on the wall? It has a cord and a receiver.

This is Ty, Orrins little brother ( future student ) playing with the cars. I love the way they put them around the stump in a circle. Learning... right under our noses.

I can tell all our parents are going to have a close bond this year and that excites me. As a matter of fact, many of the mommies are having a " coffee and kleenex" party at Cafe on Broadway tomorrow morning.

My helpers last night.. thanks girls!

Kids spaces deserve special touches too !

Future Picasso area.

I dont " teach" a letter a week but I can highlight one, right ?

Everyone needs to be alone ever once in a while.

We dont do a daily calendar time but we do count down to special events.

Bringing home.. to our home. Each child is bringing a picture framed for our room.

Comfy reading area. I still need to clean the couch- that is on today's list.

I love my new science area.

Writing center . I do not "teach" handwriting but I give them lots of writing experiences.

Music... did someone say.. MUSIC?

Art work area --- empty frames ready to be filled.

Mirror in the kids bathroom - they deserve pretty too !

3 d art display area

Randy made a plexiglass outdoor painting easel.

The MUD KITCHEN. This will be new this year and I will admit I am a little nervous but excited too. I made mud pies when I was little .. therefore, so will they.

As we get into the year I will try to highlight each area and what we learn in those areas.

Everyone get excited tomorrow is our first day !

LEARNING IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT SO LETS START PLAYING !

Kindergarten Tour

Today was the day that we go to tour the kindergarten where the older kids will go in the fall. I have six that will be moving up.

First thing this morning we were greeted by Emeri's pet !

Mr. D met us outside, he is the counselor.

We went in the library !

The computer room !

We peeked into Mrs. Fox's room.

We met the music teacher.

The gym is awesome. It has a climbing wall.

We met the art teacher !

We sat in Mrs. Freking's room . They were acting out a story that we know called " The Little Old Lady Who Wasnt Afraid of Anything. "

In Mrs. Freking's room the kids sat on balls. I plan to email her and ask her opinion of how she feels this works.

Mrs. Braun met us in the lunchroom .

After getting back home we stayed outside to practice our program for Friday night. We had to take a break to watch the tree limb truck come by and pick up some large limbs. I love this picture of all my little farm hands peering over the fence. While I was gone Beth ( Cohens mom ) and Mary ( Williams mom ) played outside. The kids said they had fun playing with the parachute. Thanks girls !

To little cow pokes....

This is a good example of how I teach letters.