FEEL GOOD FRIDAY

I APOLOGIZE FOR MY BLOGGING SKILLS, (OR LACK THEREOF), BUT I'M GONNA TRY:

Today we had a great Friday! Debbie & Randy are in Mississippi, but Miss Beth and Miss Bethany were here!

We also had a Ashley, Katelyn's mom, join us this morning to play and read books and have fun! Thanks so much for helping us! :)

We learned more about our feelings and the names they have. Ms. Beth told the story of Corduroy, the bear who wanted a home, so he was sad. He lost a button, so he was embarassed, he went to look for his button in the department store and got excited because he thought he was in a palace. He found a button, but it wasn't his, so he got frustrated. And so on... The kids really enjoyed the storytelling pictures that we used and I had many who came to sit at the table and hear it more than once! That's a good sign!

In circle time, we read a book about feelings called "The Way I Feel" that gave us even more names of feelings: jealous, disappointed, bored, excited... The children also taught me the Laurie Berkner (love her!) song they have learned about things we can do to feel better. We reviewed the calm down steps that we use when we are upset and William put them into a song & dance that he performed. It was...interesting. :)

Thanks for the chance to hang out and play with these sweeties! I am hopeful that the preschool I open September 6th will be filled with as much laughter, joy and happy kids like I was surrounded with today. It has been a pleasure! HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! :)

I will leave you with the randoom pics I snapped throughout the day. :)

I'm scared

Look at this cool group of kiddos. They dont scare me... much. :)

Have you noticed our lost and found board on the cubbies ? Please check it periodically for your child's treasures.

Today we cooked together again. We made mini chocolate pies from pie crust and hersheys kisses. First of course, we washed our hands . We washed them again if we picked our nose or sneezed. Man... hurdling all those germs takes a huge hunk out of our day. But... being healthy is important.

We pounded the pie crust flat and placed a hersheys kiss in the middle.

And we made yummy deliciousness !

Our circle time today was about being scared. We read a story about being scared and then we talked about what makes us scared. Out of the eight children in my first group ALL of them said something about bedtime or monsters at night.

If you want more information about how to help your child at night not be scared here is some info .

Randy and I will be leaving for Mississippi for his uncles funeral. We will be singing at the graveside services so prayers are appreciated. Beth and Bethany will be in charge while we are gone and I am confident their days will go great.

The ANGRY MONSTER

We all get bit by it ever once in a while dont we ? The angry monster comes up and bites us on the hiney and we start to yell... and yell ... and cry and kick. No, I didnt explain anger to the children like that . This blog is for YOU... so I put it in terms you can enjoy. Have you ever been bitten on the hiney before and spewed anger before you even realized it ?

Today we talked about anger and read the book " When Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry. " Sophie's little sister took away her toy and her mom let her do it. " It IS her TURN!" ( Just so you know.. that is called Hi-jacking. When a child is playing with something you can encourage them to share but allowing someone else to take something or YOU taking it away is like you driving down the road and someone jumping in your car and saying.. " GET OUT, you have been driving this car long enough. " Have you ever looked at it like that ? Ok, on with the story. Sophie was so angry she ran and ran until she was exhausted. Today, I introduced our method for controlling anger here. MINE..if you watch me on facebook OR just notice my size would be DORITOS. :) Yep. If I get angry just give me some carbs and I will self medicate. For the kids we teach them the calm down steps.

!. Take 2 deep breaths.

2. Count to 5.

3. Say " Calm down, Calm down."

I promise you I still have parents say the kids use this at home from two years ago. Try it ! At home if your child gets angry, remind them of our calm down steps.

We even have a song from Al's Pals that goes with out steps.

Mr. Randy is in charge of science projects. Today he tried the first one. Fail.. or so he thought. I am not sure what he was trying to do. Maybe get the packet he placed inside the water bottle to get pulled down to the bottom ? Anyway, the kids still loved it and there was still a LOT of learning going on. I could hear their questions and their problem solving as they tried to make it work. In my book, that means the science experience was a success.

We tried a new recipe today - Homemade Pizza Cups. If you cant see it below just let me know and I will print it for you. The kids loved it and it was so easy.

Many have asked how the mud kitchen is going . GREAT! !! Each day we are learning more ways to make it more fun but with less clothing clean up at the end.

Last night at 11 pm we got a call that Randy's uncle had passed away. Thankfully we just saw him a couple weeks ago and enjoyed a great conversation. They have requested Randy sing at the funeral so Thursday evening or early Friday morning Randy and I will be leaving for Mississippi . Bethany and Beth will be here working. Beth has two more weeks before her program opens so we are thankful she can still sub in when needed. Things are still a little hectic with all the new routines. If any parents would like to come in from 9-12:30 to volunteer I am sure it would be appreciated. Extra hands are always welcome.

Puddle Jumpers

Today our lesson plans said " Feelings and Emotions," but several of the kids came in all wound up about the thunderstorm that was happening when they arrived at school. A couple of them were expressing very STRONG emotions about something. I cant help but think that it had something to do with the weather - they were two veterans. When it is storming ( this is the Debbie's opinion version ) it is our job to worry and protect our children. If you are visibly shaken- they will be also. I feel our kids are too young to understand the complications of weather patterns and the consequences of weather so why worry them with it? Sure teach them to be safe - but at 3 and 4 it is our job ( again ) to keep them safe. Just call me Mary Poppins but I dont like to see kids stressed out . SURE! We know what to do incase of an emergency but even that is done with routine and lack of drama. ( ALSO, NOT assuming that this was what was wrong with these kids this morning and you are a drama mama ( HA) Just found this as an opportunity to teach.)

Ok. Moving on...

Today I introduced the kids to Al. Al teachers us that we should be nice to our friends. So far, he only talks to Ms Debbie ( weird huh ?).

The kids LOVE this song by Laurie Berkner. We have the book and she sings the words. We are lucky enough to have Mr Randy and his guitar and we can do it all by ourself. Aveary really loves this song, She asked me this morning if I would do it again before we even started circle time. That made me smile.

But before that we read stories about rain and puddles and then we went outside to explore.

We jumped the puddles. We saw our reflection in the puddle.

We looked to see if we saw anything living in the puddle.

We even JUMPED OVER the puddles !

The boys telling us what they know about puddles. I love watching these videos . I mean, they all walked off at the end. Like seriously Ms Debbie, this is NOT interesting right now, stop quizzing us for the camera and let us be kids.

It was a good day.

Not even a mouse...

Our first nap time of this year just started and so far so good.... We have had no screamers or runners. As the norm we started the " I gotta go potty one more time" parade. This early in the year you hate to say "no" even if they just went.

This is the way our day started out . Kat is the youngest and has found a way with her sweet voice to wrap each one of us around her little finger.

I spent the day Saturday in a training called TIPS. This is a great parenting tool I will be able to offer you . I have information on a wide range of topics and as the need arises we will use them. I am excited about the possibilities with these four little boxes.

Today we started talking about our feelings and our emotions. What did a " what we know " chart and these guys know a LOT about emotions. One of the biggest things we can do to help children learn how to deal with life is teaching them to recognize their emotions and giving them a name. For instance if a child hits another child we say " Look at your friends face. Does he look happy or sad? ( Wait for answer) How does it make you feel to you made your friend feel sad. When you hit someone they feel this way." Learning to read OTHER peoples feelings also is a learned skill. Dont we all know people that have no filter or no knowledge of others feelings? The book below is about many emotions that this little boy goes through. As we read we made the same face or emotion he was making.

More friends playing dress up.

Everyone likes to feel important - like a star ! Today we decorated a star with each child's picture on it.

We also acted out with figures the nursery rhyme of Little Miss Muffet.

Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider, who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

It is important that children learn that letters make words that can be read back , like in a book. One way we do that is I dictate a LOT . Today we dictated ten things that make us happy.

Today was our first MUFFIN TIN MONDAY ! Mondays is almost always finger food and served in a muffin tin. Muffin Tin Monday is a great way to serve a new food or even make a themed lunch such as all one color. The kids love it. Today Aveary said " Ms. Debbie, are these trees good?"

And then we all fell asleep - exhausted.

Kat will be a big sister this week ! Randy was holding her and read her a book. She retold the story to him. His heart melted and he asked me to video. I thought her mom might like a video of her baby... before the new baby comes home. Both are obviously very lucky kiddos to have a mommy that finds reading important.

Friday

We made it to the end of our first week. I could tell many of the kids were really getting worn out near then end. There is very little " sitting and relaxing" while the kids are here. These kids go 100 MPH for the most part. Hopefully the weekend will give them time to rest and recoup for next week. On Monday we may have a few that have forgotten how much fun we have and struggle with drop off again.

Today we went on an inside scavenger hunt. I gave each of the children a picture of something in the room and they set off to find it. This type of activity engages many skills including recall and problem solving.

Bet you never say a dinosaur play with blocks. This ones name is Scarlett.

By painting with little brushes we learn how to hold a pencil.

The nesting dolls were one of the favorites today.

Emeri enjoyed playing with the playdoh that one of the moms made. Thank you !

We read " The Kissing Hand " today. The last page of the book has Chester Raccoon doing the sign language for " I love you." Kimber was excited to show us on his picture he brought from home that his mom was doing that too.



Did you notice different tables today? I HATED the new tables . Thankfully I had " sold" them to friends that were willing to let me have them back. Today felt much better. I was able to put more materials out. I now have 4 24 inch high tables for sale. I will bite the shipping on them if anyone is interested in buying one for 90.00 each. It is a good buy, I got them on sale.





I hope everyone got the note I sent out today. I know sometimes we do have to be flexible but i promise you the things we are asking you to do, will make it easier and better for everyone in the end if we all hang in there together.

Bring on week 2 - Im ready.