Friday, March 28, 2008

Hey everyone. We had a small but really fun day on Friday. I was the MIC. My mom was here still and she helped out as well as Kristin and Jessica. We just had my two hoodlums (Tate & Norah) and also Gretchen and Natalie. We decided that since my mom was still in town we would talk all about families. We started off the day with our opening song. Then I showed a picture of some of my family members. We talked about what a family was and who was in a family (mom, dad, sister, brother, grandma, grandpa, etc.). I read a cute book called "Just Like Mommy" by Megan E. Bryant. Then we did a family tree activity. We had premade the trees and had precut out pictures of moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, sisters and brothers. Each child was allowed to pick out whichever picture they wanted of each family member and then they glued them to their trees. It was really cute. We had a yummy, healthy snack. Thanks to Jessica for bringing that in!! Later we sang songs about family members. We sang "A Happy Family", "It's always fun when grandpa comes", and "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home". They loved that. Then we talked about their specific families. We counted out how many family members each student had. We counted them out on our fingers and then we made a poster of the number with each family member inside the number. That was about it. We closed with our closing song and the jump up and down song. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Kristin and Jessica for the help and a big thanks to my mom for helping out too. We had a blast. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to post pictures too...

APRIL SCHEDULE

Here it is!!!
Ariane is gone this month so we need to fill in a bit. It looks like this may happen to at least two of us a Month so it may be a good idea to rotate. If there is a time that works better for someone please let me know and we will work it out.

March 29th- Melissa S. / Gretchen
March 31st- "Spring Fling" - Everyone bring a treat, and I will bring the games. Dress for spring!!

APRIL
M.I.C/H.M.
4 -Gretchen/ Melissa S.
7- Kristen/Jessica
11-Jessica/Kristen
14-Gretchen/Becci
18-Becci/Gretchen
21-Melissa M./Melissa S.
25-Melissa S./ Melissa M.
28- Any volunteers?

Monday March 24th

We had a Really fun day at preschool today! Melissa M. was the M.I.C and she did a great job!
I don't have the lesson plan in full, but I was there and can give a summery of our class.
The theme of the day was emotions or feelings.
Each child was asked how they were feeling and then they got a strip of tape with their name and a little drawing of how they were feeling that day. The strips of tape were put on the floor to show each child where their "spot" was to sit. Melissa had them in a semi circle on the floor with her own "spot" in the front.
We did our opening songs and then talked about different emotions that we each have. (happy, sad, shy, silly and so on) Melissa used pictures of cute little faces for each feeling.
We read a story about a tricky little pig, I need to get the name and author from Melissa. It was a good story that I remember from when I was little.
Next we all gathered around the table and made little Pizza faces. Each child got their own dough to shape and toppings to make into little faces. We baked them and the kids ate and ate and ate! While they ate they got markers to color on the table cloth. They loved every second of it!
Much happier on full tummies, each child got a balloon with picture of how they were feeling on it! This was great because once again the children had to think about how they were feeling and try to identify it.
We had more songs, including "jump up and down!", and ended with our closing song "the more we get together".
I'm sure I got the order a little off, and possibly left a few things out. Sorry, my memory is a little fried. It was a really fun day though so thanks to Melissa for a great lesson! I did not have my camera with me, I really wish I had.

Notes:
We did use "time out" for our little escapees. It worked great.
Class was held in the Relief Society Room to be close to the kitchen.
I was not there for Becci's class or Jessica's class but I know that they were really good. I caught part of Becci's and it was very cute. I would love to have a little outline of your lessons.

Talk to you all very soon!
Gretchen

Day 5 preschool

LOOK! I'm posting!!!

I just thought I would add this little picture af Aria at a mud festival in South Korea, pretty cute I think.

OK, I just have a few little notes for everyone. Congrats. to Jessica, I hear you did a GREAT job. Sorry we were not there, Aria wanted to stay in her pj's at home for her Birthday. Wow! She really is like me!

Congrats. to everyone who has made it through their first MIC day. It's the hardest, and will get easier each time.

I have some concerns for each of us to considar as we move on.

1. We need to be sure the door to the Church is locked while we are there! This means that we will have to be on time (this will only affect me :) and come up with a way of letting someone know if we are going to be late. I suggest we use the door by the Primary rm. and knock loud. Hopefully if someone knows you are running late they can watch for you.

2. I really think we need to go over some rules with our little ones. I want everyone to have fun, AND learn. If we as moms go over the rules on our way to preschool with our children so that they know what to expect I think it will help. We also need to have the MIC reminde the children at the beginning of each day by having a rule review. Mom's work hard on these lessons, and they will be a lot more fun if they are able to do most of what they have planned. Games are fun, and our moms always have them in the lessons. Lets try reminde the children to keep the free play for the very end, and maybe end ten min. early or so. That way the kids get a chance to have some.

3. MY BIG WORRY!!! Break outs, Break outs, Break Outs!! I'm afraid that someone is going to get lost or hurt. If the HM is chasing children through the hall, she cant really help in the class, which is the point. And because one child out usually leads to ALL children out, we need to nip this in the bud. Any ideas are welcome to solve this issue.

4. Lets make a list of rules and consequences that we all agree on for the children. I need ideas here. That way we will be consistant and since we all agree then no ones parenting style will be offended. For instance...I don't spank or stick noses in the corner but I think time out is a great tool.

5. Last thing, if everyone can let me know if there are any special days in April that you CANNOT teach, let me know by Friday. I will have the April schedule up on Monday!

Thanks Again everyone.

I still need some Themes...I'm thinking "Feelings" will be next.

I need everyone to post what supply they think we need, I'm working on a list. I hope to have all of it compiled and price breakdown to everyone by next week.

Gretchen

Day Four Lesson Plan

Hello all,

I've been so impressed with the lesson plans so far and I think the kids are having a great time. Following was my lesson plan--sorry it took me so long to post it!

Opening songs

Language Arts:

I continued the body theme that Becci started. I introduced
Birdie, my sock puppet and asked the kids what was missing on her face (she
doesn't have a nose). We talked about what kinds of things she misses without a
nose (she can't smell). I read a book called The Holes in Your Nose and
we spelled NOSE in big letters on the floor.
Each person got a letter and we sang the Jumping song with letters.

We talked about how we take care of our bodies and one of the ways is to
dress appropriately for the weather. I had pictures of rain, sun and snow and
paper dolls dressed in different clothes were matched with the picture that
looked like belonged with each doll.

Math:

I hung numbers 1 through 4 from the ceiling. We played a game--"I'm thinking of
a number that is equal to the number of eyes on my face" and they ran to the
number that was the answer. The game continued with several more
riddles about the body.

Snack: St. Patrick's Day cookies, oranges and cheezits.

Art: Each student dressed their own paper dolls.

Things pretty much fell apart at this point and I was alone in the room, so I began the closing song early.

Tentative LP

Here is my lesson plan for Friday. I am planning to do Spring/Easter/Senses. I may make minor changes, but this is the basic idea:

10-10:15
Opening Song/Welcome

10:15-10:30
Easter Egg hunt for plastic eggs that will be filled with items related to the season Spring
Intro. of Spring and activate prior knowledge of the topic

10:30-10:45
Read a good Spring story (does anyone have ideas?)
Sing "Popcorn Popping"

10:45-11:00
Experiment - What does Spring look/sound/feel like?
What do we wear in Spring?
What can we do in Spring?

11-11:15
Snack

11:15-11:45
Brief review of the morning
What Holiday is coming up? (I will discuss Easter, but I am planning to leave the religious aspect out of the discussion)
Easter project - making a bunny ear headband
Read the story Corduroy's Easter
What do we know about bunnies?
Act like bunnies

11:45-12:00
Close and clean-up

Materials Needed:
Book about Spring
Plastic eggs with Spring stuff inside (flower, umbrella, etc.)
Pictures of what Spring looks like
CD of birds singing (Does anyone have something like this that I could borrow?)
Fan/Heater/Spray Bottle
Pictures of kids in all different kinds of clothing
Pictures of Spring activities (planting a garden, playing outside, etc.)
Pink and White construction paper
Glue
Stapler
Book: Corduroy's Easter

**Materials listed in Red are materials I currently do not have, if you have it, please let me know! Thanks!

Day Three

Well I just want to start by thanking Becci for putting so much time in for preparations. She had some amazing activities.

Day Two

Well I'm sorry to say that I have no pictures to post. Today was my turn teaching so I couldn't take any pictures. I was pretty nervous about teaching but I think in the end it came together. This was my day:

Opening Songs: Good Morning To You & Here We Are Together

Language Arts: I brought a bag full of stuffed animals and other items. Each child held a letter stuck to a stick (A B C or D.) Each time an item came out we would say what the first letter of it's name was, and then the children would hold up that letter. IE: "What's this?" "It's a Crown." "What letter does crown start with?" "C" "C sounds like, k,k,k." "Who has a C, hold it up."

Art: Decoupaging Snowflakes to construction paper. (I cut the snowflakes out in advance.)

Story Time: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess, Cowboy Baby by Lissa Rovetch, & The Me Book by Jean Tymms

Snack: Strawberries and Fruit Loops on a string! (Great job Becci, the kids loved it.)

Presentation: Natalie brought a bunch of her fun furry friends (stuffed animals) and told us their names. We especially loved Natalie's great puppets.

Exercises: The Jump Up and Down Song. (I really need to video this because it is the greatest.) Yoga: Tree, Forward Bend, Downward Facing Dog, Cobra, and Corpse Pose (at Aria's request.)

Science: We talked about Snow and Freezing rain. Basically I explained convection in layman's terms. We also sang Snow Is Falling All Around and danced.

We ended with Announcements and the song, The More We Get Together.

Opening Ceremomies

Well I think I can safely say that we have all been looking forward to this day! Gretchen did a great job with Opening Ceremonies. I especially loved the songs Gretchen picked, go figure. So here was the agenda for the day.

Songs: Good Morning (Robert & Gigi) Hello Everybody (Robert & Gigi) & Here We Are Together (Primary Children's Book)

Theme: Welcome to Preschool. Gretchen opened by showing the kids a welcome sign. The kids had an opportunity to pick out letters they new and guess what the sign said. Our Preschool rules.

Language Arts: The kids played a word scramble with the letters A, D, E & R. Gretchen helped them recognize the letters and helped them spell READ. Then the kids played a running game with the letters A, B & C. Gretchen had each letter posted on separate walls of the room. When a specific letter was called the children ran to that letter.

Story Time & Snack: Jessica brought some amazing bannana bread. The kids (and parents) enjoyed their bread while Gretchen read, 5 Little Piggies.

Yoga: Tree, Forward Bend, Downward Facing Dog, Cobra, and Child's Pose.
Exercises: The Jump Up and Down Song.

Art: Gretchen introduced a square to the kids and then they worked on some "square art."

Mathematics: Gretchen introduced addition and subtraction by grouping the kids together. IE: Add four kids together then take away one.

Announcements: Natalie will be presenting next preschool day.

Closing Song: The More We Get Together