B is for Backyard!

Thankfully we've finally had a break in our 

100 plus degree weather-- 

Just in time for B week!

What did we do?

B is for Bunches of Blue Bubbles . . . 

I used Ms Morgan's fantastic bubble recipe 

and just added blue food coloring, 

poured a little in plastic cups,

passed out the straws

And let the kids BLOW!!!  

What a BLAST!

(but positively an outside activity!!!)

B is for Big Blue Ball Game

The kids run around the backyard, 

Ms Tamra throws the Big Blue Ball

If it touches you, you have to go stand at the tree

until a friend gives you high five and rescues you.

We love this game! 

Sometimes Ms Tamra is a Dragon 

and the ball is a fireball . . .

or she's a shark and it's a bubble . . .

or . . .

well, you get the idea :)

C is for color

We started off today's exploration of both color and Jazz Music with this fun book . . . 

I got this at a music teachers convention two years ago--
but you can get it online.
I LOVE  it and the kids do too!

After reading the story, we listened to the accompanying CD and drew pictures of whatever the music sounded like in the color we heard. 

Everyone heard something different--

 We had a pink dancing princess, a big brown bear,  

and even a green trumpet!

 Then we ended up with an impromptu dance--

the kids LOVED the Jazz music!

One of our gross motor activities for the day used these simple plastic lids with flashcards taped on the bottom.  

We put them upside down on the floor and marched around listening to our new favorite Jazz music.  

When the music stopped, we ran to put our toes next to a circle, then got to flip it over and name what was on the bottom.
We'll use this game throughout the year with letters, and numbers.

Did you know that some colors are made by mixing other colors?  

Ms Tamra used a green marker to draw a big green dot on this coffee filter then she used a straw to drip a little water on it. 

When it dried, we could see that the green had yellow and blue it in!

We also did this with orange and purple.

 We'll do more with mixing color magic on Friday :)

Finally, here's a picture of Ms Munching Mouth . . . 

She LOVES to eat letters!  

During our one-on-one assessments this week, the kids named letters as they fed them to her.  

There were lots and lots of giggles as she almost nibbled little fingers :)

See you Friday!

The Quiet Queen's Quest

Today we had so much fun going on the Quiet Queen's Quest.  It was really exciting for everyone.

Moko greeted us at circle time with a note from the Quiet Queen asking us to go on a special Quest. She had several crowns with various quests to complete quietly (it was a fun challenge and we did a lot of whispering).  After each quest, the children reported back to Moko, received a jewel for their Qq crowns, and learned what the next quest was.

It was so much fun completing our quests! Take a look . . . 

Painting the royal fence with water and brushes (kids LOVE doing this!) . . . after the fence they moved onto the bricks!

Signing names on the castle steps

The final quest was to steal the treasure from the dragon.  

I (the dragon) laid down on the back porch with my arms around a basket of dragon eggs (plastic easter eggs).  A treasure box was put across the backyard. 

There were four rules. 

1) No opening the dragon eggs.

2) When the dragon roars, freeze in place.  

If she sees you move, you have to put any eggs you have in your hands back.

3) No throwing dragon eggs.

4) Your quest: get all of the dragon eggs (one at a time) from the dragon and into the treasure box.

There were lots of giggles as I snored and roared and kids froze in place.  This was so much fun we'll have to play it again soon. 

Inside the dragon eggs we found a large jewel with the letter Q (old scrapbook letter stickers work great for this! How often do you use Q??) for the center of their crowns.  We also found a lot of edible jewels (m&m's). 

After all that hard work . . . we had to take a picture to show off our completed crowns!

Quiet Queen, thanks for the very fun Quest!

Lightsabers!

One of our very creative parents made these lightsabers for the class. 

 It was such a great idea! The kids LOVED putting them into action--and what is better than lightsabers/swords that don't hurt? 

They are just pool noodles wrapped with black tape on the bottoms.  What a simple and fun idea!

Here they are in action . . .

This would be another great "I'm bored" actvitiy . . . and a bonus . . . you could try them in the pool!

Bonus: Hearing the kids talk to each other in their best Star Wars imitations!

B is for BALLS!

Today we had lots of fun with BALLS!

I started out with a big bag full of balls.  The kids came up and picked a ball and compared it in size with the large green ball, and as balls were added, the other balls in line.  We did this with each ball--until we had all the balls ordered from largest to smallest.  We talked about the variety of balls, what we do with them and our favorite ball games. 

THEN it was outside to PLAY ball games! We played Soccer, baseball, basketball, golf, dodgeball, and a our all time favorite game (one we made up as a class) . . .Bomber (I'll have to explain that in another post). It was so much fun not only playing, but making up cheers as we celebrated our team mates.  

Finally, I have to share with you this adorable moment.

Kids were getting on shoes and I heard this . . . 

"Come here, little buddy, and I'll help you!"

and I turned to see this . . . 

Gotta love THAT teamwork!

N is for Nursery Rhymes

As part of our Letter N week, our preschool theme today was Nursery Rhymes and Numbers.  Here is an activity that was a huge hit!

Jack Be Nimble

After comparing sizes amongst a variety of candles and ordering them from smallest to largest,

The kids lined up . . .

Then took turns jumping over the candles! We started with the smallest and when everyone had a chance to jump over that, moved to the next candle.  We did this until everyone had a chance.  For each jumper, we chanted the following nursery rhyme:

Jack be nimble.

Jack be quick.

Jack jump over the candlestick!

Make it lively,

make it quick,

But don't knock over the candlestick!

The kids absolutely loved this! And they showed some pretty sweet jumping skills . . . 

A super fun preschool nursery rhyme activity that you could easily do at home!