Monday, January 28, 2008

Nuts









This week we have continued our study of winter animals. Today we focued on squirrels and what they do to prepare for the cold weather. We read the book "A Busy Little Squirrel" by Nancy Tafuri where a little squirrel is too busy to play with his friends because he is gathering fruits, nuts, and corn for the winter.





Then I pulled out a bag of mixed nuts. We compared the shapes of the different nuts and then predicted what would be on the inside. One child said a train would be inside and another said a doll. Then one said, "we need to crack it to see what is inside!". So we did and everyone tried the various nuts. Then I let them have a hammer(with CLOSE supervision) to try and crack the nuts themselves. We used the broken shells to cover the letter "Nn".

Monday, January 21, 2008

Bear Snores On


During our study of winter animals we have focused on bears and hibernation. We have also been reading Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. Each time the story read "and Bear snores on" the children would act as if they were asleep. It is a very fun book to read.
Then we crumpled lunch sacks and folded down the tops to make a "cave". Then the children placed their sleeping bear inside his cave for the winter.

Friday, January 18, 2008

New schedule for 2009-2010 school year

Learning Adventures Preschool
2009-2010 Preschool Year

Classes will be offered Monday-Thursday from 9:00am-1:00pm. Students will bring a sack lunch each day.

4 day program - I will have 4-5 spots available for this schedule. This schedule is ideal for children entering Kindergarten the following school year although other ages are welcome to come all 4 days. $140/month

2 day program - I will have 2-4 spots for this class(depends on how many full-time students I have enrolled. 2 spots for sure). This is ideal for students who are 3 years old or who have 2 more years before entering Kindergarten. $75/month

(these spots will be filled on a first-come-first-served basis...please ask for more information)

If you are interested in my program please contact me through email or by phone. I would love to talk with you!

Thanks for your interest!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?

We have started constructing our own version of the popular Eric Carle book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You Hear?". Each day the children get an animal to color. We also add another element -- like yarn or colored foam or tissue paper squares(seen here)--to give the picture another layer. When we finish coloring all the animals we will put our book together and the children will take them home.

Contact Information

Mary Kate Villamor

home: 706-884-3861

email: bowhair@bellsouth.net

Thursday, January 17, 2008

The Mitten

This week we did activities centered around the folktale "The Mitten" using the version written and illustrated by Jan Brett. This story is about a boy named Nikki who loses one of his white mittens out in the snow. Some winter animals find it and crawl inside. To help with the storytelling I made a white felt mitten along with these animal cut-outs that the children are coloring. As I read the story the children put the animals inside the mitten but something happened when the mouse sat on the bear's nose....be sure to ask your child what happened next.


The children each cut-out their own paper mitten that we glued together leaving the bottom open. They also had the same animal cut-outs to color. Now they can tell this story to their families.

Here the children are making AABB patterns using red and blue mittens. They are really getting the hang of patterns!



Wednesday, January 16, 2008

A treat for the birds


After reading "Animals in Winter" by Henrietta Bancroft we discussed how animals find food in the winter. Then we made a cranberry/orange garland for the birds.




Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Our new T-shirts!


For Christmas the parents suprised me with T-shirts printed with "Learning Adventures Preschool" on them! I am so excited!! We all looked so sharp sporting our new shirts on Tuesday.
Thanks everyone!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Snow in Georgia?

I borrowed a snowcone machine and so we could make snow! I wish I had a video of the the children's squeals as the machine spit out the snow. It was very exciting. Each child got a bowl of snow and and eyedropper. I added the food coloring to the water today and they enjoyed coloring their snow and watching the colors mix together.



Thursday, January 10, 2008

Snowmen

Today we read "Snowballs" by Lois Elhert and the children created their own snowmen like in the book. First they were to put the "snowballs" in order largest to smallest and then they could glue on the embellishments. It was fun to watch their snowpeople take on a little personality.




Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Welcome Back!

It was fun to see everyone today after the long Christmas break. For morning work I had the children draw a picture of what they got for Christmas or something they did over the break. I am going to keep these pictures for their journals. During circle time we discussed winter. It is hard to comprehend this season with our nice warm tempatures!! We also did some observations of ice cubes using magnifying glasses and eye droppers. It was a fun day!

Here are some pictures of our activities:


exploring ice and the properties of water

play doh is always a hit!


the children all painted a picture on the new easel.