Wagon Wheel Preschool.

(I had my first day of teaching preschool today. Charlie used to be in the city preschool but there were a few issues (teacher changes, etc.) that made me and a few (new) friends decide to do a preschool rotation of our own. We are all former teachers and I must say that I had so much fun teaching today.)

Theme: Christmas

We read some Christmas books to begin the day.

Question of the day:

After determining that the girls do not have a "c" in their name and the boys do, we found other similarities. Charlie, Merrick, & Berkleigh all have a "r" in their name and Molly and Merrick both start with a "m." The kiddos thought this was pretty awesome to find so many "matches" in their names.

Math Center:

Making a pattern with cereal... and eating some along the way! :)

Dramatic Play:

I told the kids they could play doctor or Mr. Potato head. Molly was very creative and decided to put the two together and doctor up Mrs. Potato Head.

ABC Center:

Alphabet train puzzle. Charlie and Merrick had great teamwork here. Charlie would find the letter in the alphabet and hand Merrick the puzzle piece, then Merrick would put the puzzle pieces together.

Writing center:

Here we wrote the letter "c" next to all the c-words. (This lasted for about 2 seconds for the boys and about 2 minutes for the girls.)

Music:

We had a SERIOUS dance party to Christmas music. Some favorites: Jingle Bells, Rudolph, and the Chipmunk song!

Storytime

The Little Reindeer by Michael Foreman

(This was such a cute story that the kids really got into.)

Learning Activity:

We went on a hunt for reindeer food while pretending we were reindeer. The kids collected berries, read leaves, and a pinch of grass outside. Then we went in and added oats and "sparkles" to complete our Magic Reindeer Food.

On the night before Christmas

In the light of the moon

We sprinkle this mixture

Outdoors with a spoon.

For Rudolph will smell

The oats from the sky

The sparkles will surely

Capture his eye!

As we were walking inside from collecting the reindeer food I realized that I had not taken a picture of the kids picking berries. I saw this bush and told the kids to add one last magic berry to their bag (while I snapped a quick shot.) Bad idea. The berries were mushy, unlike the hard red berries we picked earlier. You can sort-of see from Molly's examining her hand that these "magic berries" made a MESS. The kids thought it was funny though so we took a pic of them showing off their messy fingers. Oh, and I think they all said "Ewww gross." about 50 times!

Art:

Reindeer ornaments

Bonus:

Charlie shared some of his gingerbread house candy with his buddies.