Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween -- J is for Jack o' Lantern!

Happy Halloween!!


We had a great day at preschool. 

The kids were excited to see a special pumpkin for October 31.


Carly was our special person today during Circle Time.

We revisited a lot of what we learned on Tuesday, and we reviewed the nine J words we learned.

We decided to count with our jellybeans again.



And then we sang some Halloween songs.

One about a witch's hat with three sides...


And good thing Zeegan was here, because she knew all the words to 

1 little 2 little 3 little pumpkins...

She did a great job leading the class! 


Then we all took turns pulling out a mystery letter from our Jack o' Latern.

He held A-Z, and we didn't know which letter we would get!

When it was your turn to pick a letter, you got to think of something that starts with that letter that has to do with Halloween!!

The kids thought of all kinds of things! 



Then we learned about pumpkins.

Where they grow, and how to change them into a Jack o' Lantern! 


We also read this book and learned about the history of Halloween.

It was cool to learn that people who lived a long time ago wanted to protect their crops and make sure they had food to eat and only happy spirits would stay! 


We also learned about spiders. How they make webs and how they catch bugs to eat.

Then we sang itsy, bitsy, spider!


After circle time, we moved to the table for work and crafts.


Our first project was connecting the dots to make a ghost.

Then we tried to find matching Jack o' Lanterns. 

This was a little hard, but if we guided them through it one by one, they did great! 

Then we practiced our names on the back and just colored!


Our next fun activity was gluing Jack o' Lantern shapes to make a face on the pumpkin.


It took real concentration!! 


We read another book about a ghost who tried to say BOO! They enjoyed saying BOO every time I read it in the story.

Soon  it was time to eat our Jack o' Lantern pepperoni pizza....

and lots of other orange snacks! 



Some of the moms came for our party and ate a little lunch too!!

We got to decorate pails to take Trick-or-Treating.

They loved putting stickers on them!


Levi got a little creative! 



Then the moms helped us change into our costumes.

We had the kids line up down the hall and I had a microphone to announce each child as they came down the hall into the room with the moms.

We all cheered!

Some of the superheros showed off their moves, and the princesses did a little twirl!



Each child felt special! 


Snow White, Butterfly, Minnie Mouse, Captain America, Superman, Rapunzel, Ariel, and a Kitty Cat! 

They are the cutest!

We ate some more snacks...



Played with the Jack o' Lantern bean bag toss..



And danced to Halloween music!! 




Oh, and we also played with our Jack o' Lantern masks!! 


It was a fun day! 

Happy Halloween!! 

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Fun with J Today!

Preschool went great today!

Lexi was our special person during Circle Time and showed us some of her favorite toys.
She brought a pony, a puppy, and other fun things to tell us about.




We had lots of good helpers today! 


We started off singing our "We're all together again" song.

We had fun talking about the rainy weather today and all about the storm this past weekend.

The kids shared what they did since last time we saw them, and they're excited for Halloween!



We sang our alphabet song and then introduced the letter J.

We talked about how J's make a hook shape, just like fishing!

They each made a J out of pipe cleaners.



Our J activity for the day was fishing for Jellyfish.

Each Jellyfish had a special J word that had an activity for us to do!

We took turns holding the J hook fishing pole and going fishing in the other room for an activity.



We caught lots of Jellyfish!!

The Jellyfish had a picture on it that matched the poster.

They found the picture and uncovered the word.

The kids loved feeling special and did well taking turns!

First up was Jazz!





We played the trumpet and pretended to use different instruments.

We also listened to this jazzy song:




After Jazz, was Jar...

We took turns playing "Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?"

It's a game where you take turns saying,

"______ stole the cookies from the cookie jar"
Boy: "Who me?"
Everyone: "Yes, you!"
Boy: "Couldn't Be!"
Everyone: "Then WHO?"
Boy: (picks someone new!)
 The kids loved it!!
 Then Levi got to choose which book we read about cookies!!

Then we had Jump rope!

We all took turns jumping the river!!
 The kids loved to see the jump ropes shake, and it was good for them to move around!


We also had a Jellyfish that told us to do Jumping jacks! Just like at Miss Kristen's!



Next up was walking in the Jungle!

We listened to this fun song and the kids walked in a circle. They loved listening for new animals.









 After our Jungle walk, it was time for Jellybeans!

We each got to count 1-12 Jellybeans and filled up the muffin tin.

It was good to work on some numbers!



 Last, we talked about Jets and Jokes, since we were missing two of our friends.

Jerry really liked the Jet, so he got to keep it! 



We also did a charade game of different jobs around the house from this website.

They loved pretending to vacuum, dust, and even weed the garden!

Then it was time to go to the table!

We made a fall craft using Jigsaw puzzles and glue!

They all loved the glue....I was glad I did the tree part ahead of time because that was tricky. Thanks Hiedi for the puzzle pieces!!

Then for snack time we had jello, juice, and goldfish. Because, you can't go wrong with goldfish! haha.
We also talked about Jelly...



I think everyone's favorite part was JUICE!

We asked where juice comes from and they all replied, "The STORE!"

We learned that juice actually comes from fruit, and the fruit grows on trees!

We peeled an orange, smelled it, and took turns squeezing juice!

 Yum!

 Carmen wanted a picture to show her grandma. haha.



After snack it was time to play. Swings are always a big hit.


Then last we read a story and it was time to go!! 

 So fun to teach J!

--Miss Jill