What Did You Do At School?

A Visit from the Dental Hygienist

Why should we take care of our teeth?

Because we use them for eating, talking, and...

smiling!

We take care of them by brushing...

and by using something called floss.

The children watched a video with Kirby the monkey showing them how to brush

and floss.

They listened attentively as the hygienist showed them how to brush using a model

and then using some of them as models.

She even flossed the model "teeth".

They talked about foods that are good for you and for your teeth.

Like apples.

Apples got a big thumbs up!

Skittles?

Thumbs way, w-a-y, w--a--y down! (Double bad -- sugary and sticky. That's the worst!)

Bananas?

Carrots?

What about milk?

Milk is a sideways thumb. It's good for making your bones and teeth strong, but it has sugar. Did you know if you eat a carrot after you drink your milk that it will help remove the sugar from your teeth?

And, the very, very best thing for you to drink?

That's right. Water. You can even drink water after you brush your teeth at night.

The children saw another short video about going to visit the dentist. Buddy and Andy showed them about the cool chair that goes up and down, getting x-rays,

and all the tools the dentist uses -- like the suction-thingy that helps to keep your mouth dry while the dentist works.

 
One of the children helped show the things the dentist and his helpers wear...

 
the "sneeze-guard" and the gloves.

Then all the children helped count Joey the Kangaroo's teeth while the hygienist used the special tooth-counting tool.

 
Some of the classes extended what they had learned from their visit with the dental hygienist, back in their classrooms.

All of the children who attend school on Monday or Tuesday (except for the toddlers) visited with the dental hygienist and brought home a little bag of goodies to help them apply what they had learned. Thank you to our friends at Laxer, Long, and Savage for helping teach the children about the importance of taking good care of their teeth!   

Doughnuts for Dad: The Event

 

The tables were set.

The doughnuts in place -- 7 dozen for Monday, 12 dozen for Tuesday.

The guests of honor sat in little chairs.

And interacted with their children in fun ways. 








Some classes had special presentations for their dads and then gave them a card or a picture or a story or a bookmark to take home with them.

The children enjoyed showing the dads their classrooms and their morning routines.

A fun time was had by all!   

A Cord of Three Strands

I was walking past the TK classroom today and had to run back to my office for the camera when I peeked in and saw this.

 
You should have heard it. The silence. They were concentrating like you wouldn't believe.

"Put the white yarn in your left hand and the blue yarn in your right hand."

"Put the blue over the white and drop it."

 
Some of the skills they're practicing:  listening, following multi-step directions, staying with the group, left hand, right hand, over/under, crossing the midline.

Oh, their braiding isn't perfect (yet), but the quiet, focused attention shows that they are gaining skills that will serve them well in kindergarten and beyond. And that is very exciting see.   

Hot Chocolate Days

We've really had a lot of days suitable for hot chocolate this winter, haven't we? In January the TK class learned how to make their own cups of hot chocolate by following the teacher's directions step-by-step.

Remove your shoes. (This first step is optional...)

 
Gather the needed supplies and listen carefully as the teacher gives tips on how to successfully tear open a packet of hot chocolate mix.

Once the packet is open, carefully pour the contents into your cup.

Add hot water until your cup is about 1/2 full. Hold the cup with one hand and stir carefully with the other. Discuss how the water dissolves the powder and how filling the cup just half full at first helps you to avoid lumpy hot chocolate.

If you get a little on your finger, it's OK to taste it.

 
Add more hot water and stir some more. Add marshmallows.

Get ready for your first taste.

To gauge the temperature, take a sip at first.

Then drink up.

 
Mmmm.  

 

Preparing for Christmas: TK

These photos were taken in TK as they prepared for Christmas.

Practicing for their Boomwhacker performance at the Christmas programs. If you look closely you can see the "music" in the front of the room.

Thanksgiving Feasts

Many of the classes have "feasts" on their last day of school before the Thanksgiving holiday. The children love it! Here are some photos from feast day.

The Monday/Wednesday/Friday 2B class has what they call a sharing feast. Each child brings a fruit to share and they make a fruit salad for their snack.

Good to the last drop!

The Tuesday/Thursday 2B class set the table with their handmade placemats.

They made Indian headbands and went down the hall to visit a teepee.

 
The T3 tables were ready for the children to sit down and eat.

 
They made special turkey hats to wear. Some liked them...
...and some did not.
3B put their tables together into a big square.

 
The 3C children patiently colored Thanksgiving pictures while waiting for their feast to be served.


T4 invited their moms to join them.
4C had a story time before their feast.
Their placemats were doubled-sided. If the pilgrim side was up, the child dressed as a pilgrim for the feast. If the Native American side was up, the Indian headband was worn.
Their teachers set up a cafeteria-style line for serving the food. (Practice for getting hot lunch in kindergarten?) 
A set of parents and their recent "graduate" had come in a week or so ago to do a Thanksgiving activity with the children — a surprise for their teachers. It was proudly hung on the 4C classroom door.
4D also had their tables pushed together for one long feasting table.
After their feast, they played a rousing game of "Pass the Turkey."
TK's feast table had their turkeys lined up in the center.
And they had fun checking them out to see whose was whose. 
That's it for Thanksgiving. Be ready. Since it's December now, it'll probably be all Christmas, all the time!
(3B started before Thanksgiving. Can you tell what these will be? Stay tuned...)    
   

  

Preparing for Thanksgiving

Thought you might like to see some of the things that took place in November as the classes were getting ready for Thanksgiving — along with some of the artwork on display in the classrooms and along the hall. (I started this post a week ago during our Thanksgiving break. In retrospect, I should have broken in up into age levels, but — well, now it's finished and this is the way it is... long. Very long.)

2A

 
2B

T3

Making Indian Headbands

Making Placemats

Art in the Hall

3B

Thankful Wreaths

Turkey Feathers

Making Placemats

The 3B and 4C Door Art

3C

Indian Corn

Making Placemats

Thankful Wreaths

Teepees

Indian Headbands & Pilgrim Hats

T4

Nut Trees

4C

Making Placemats

Making Patterns for Indian Headbands

 

 

 
Sequencing the Thanksgiving Story

Decorating Teepees

4D

Making Placemats

TK

Making Centerpieces

Making Teepees

Thankful Chains

   

Musical Chairs

Five year olds need to learn how to win and lose gracefully. The TK teacher uses a good old game of musical chairs to help teach these skills.

 
As the game goes on and there are fewer children involved, they are taught not to pause in front of a chair. We want them to play fair.

  
When a child is "out", he removes a chair. This gives the child a job to do and it gives him a place to sit and watch the rest of the game.

 

The game moves quickly and the group of watching children grows. Watching is not a sad or isolated experience. They enjoy the music and cheering for their friends.

How do they handle it when two children go for the same chair? This is another opportunity to learn sportsmanship.
 

The game continues.

Another is "out" — and with a smile on her face, too! If there is any pouting or grousing about being out, the teacher ends the game and no one gets to enjoy it anymore. A hard, but important, lesson for the culprit, as the rest of the children are not happy to have to stop play because someone is being a poor sport. Nothing like a little peer pressure to bring someone into line — and to teach about how poor sportsmanship affects a group. 
 

And, as they cheer for the winner, it looks like this group took to the idea of being good sports well.

(On a side note — did you see all the untied shoes in these pictures? Just so you know, five year olds are old enough to learn how to tie shoes. Put that on your list of things to teach your child this year — we've even seen a few four year olds learn this skill!)
  
 

Teachable Moments: Hurricane Ida

Today we're getting some of the Hurricane (now Tropical Storm) Ida rain. Made for rainy carpools — both morning and afternoon. Good thing I was prepared. :)

 
The TK teacher was prepared, too. She had a plan.

It started with a map. A really big map. And magnifying glasses.

 
After a period where the children were examining and exploring the map by themselves, there was a little lesson with the globe. Both the map and the globe show the whole world. They found North America and the United States on both.  

 
They talked about hurricanes. What are they? What do they look like? Where did Hurricane Ida start? Where is it now? How will it affect us?

They moved to paper. H-h-h-hurricane. What does hurricane start with? Let's write the upper case 'H' at the top of our paper.

Now let's write the lower case 'h' at the bottom of the page.

They turned the paper over and drew a big spiral — like the swirling of a hurricane.

Now the clouds were beginning to form.

And an eye was developing in the swirling clouds.

 
The clouds were spreading.

The hurricanes were now fully formed.

And it was time for lunch.

Learning about Native Americans

During the month of November, our 4 year old and TK classes learn about Native Americans (or Indians — we use the terms interchangeably). To introduce them to the subject, we brought in a special speaker.

She did a great job of engaging the children.

She brought examples of items and talked about how the Native Americans used what was around them to make their tools, clothes, and houses.

 
 
They learned about the every day lives of Indians and each child got to dress up in "Indian" clothes.

Each child was given a drum or a rattle and they learned about storytelling with instruments.

  

A teacher got to be the "chief" and some children got to be dancers.

 
And at the very end they got their backs scratched with deer antlers!

It was a great way to introduce a topic that the children enjoy very much. The idea that other people lived here a long time ago is fascinating to them. They are just beginning to understand a little bit about how life gets different as time passes.