Big Energy-Little Learners...Can I do it all?

New Classroom Because we moved we have a new classroom/playroom.  We took a tour of the classroom where I showed the kids where we would be doing our activities. We have a Work Zone where the dragons will be doing their cutting, gluing, and folder work. The help yourself shelf is the area we will be keeping trays, themed toys, and a prop box.  Below this shelf is the art supplies.  Each Dragon has their explorers box with markers, crayons, paint, glue, scissors, and tissues.  Alphabet wall-lining the stairs- where we will be practicing and hanging our alphabet projects. (We put this up together on the first day of preschool) Number wall we will use to review numbers 1-10 Circle time area.  Where we will be going over the days of the week, months of the year, and today's date.  Also doing our reading, bible verse, and other weekly activities.  Felt board area.  This is used for weather and is available for play ...

The second half of the week was filled with yarn activities.  We had plenty of yarn cut up from the sensory activity so the yarn was ready to go.  The left over yarn that we didn't use for a craft is now a play item, spaghetti mostly, for the play kitchen. Bible To help incorporate and remember the bible verse The Dragons drew a picture of themselves with Jesus.   They did this on white paper. (color of the week.) Bible Verse:  Let the little children come to me       -Matthew 19:14 The Dragons enjoyed this activity a lot.  They were very excited to draw themselves with Jesus.  As they were drawing they told stories of what they would do with Jesus if he were here.  This was really nice to hear. :) This week our theme is 'you' because 'you' are special to Jesus.  Children are special to Jesus.  So we took some time to learn about ourselves.  Earlier in the week The Dragons made an all about me book to...

Sensory Play I had kitchen sensory bin written in my lesson plan but I could not remember what I had in mind when I wrote it.  I didn't write down any clues or tags to jog my memory.  The kids have a toy kitchen in the playroom but they tend to enjoy playing with real kitchen utensils more.   I put some spices in the bin along with some measuring cups filled with some leftover baking supplies,  walnuts and butterscotch chips.  I also added potatoes.  They don't make a mess and won't spoil or bruise easily.  Of course there were also pans, spoons, plates, and bowls.   Creative Play Together Little Dragon and I built a Lego Castle.  Little Dragon lay down his blanket for the moat.  He also built two Lego boats for the moat. He also built chairs for our Lego people to sit it.  We worked on number recognition with the number Legos.  Once the castle was finished we played pretend with the people.  D...

After waiting a week to start preschool I was definitely ready to get the ball rolling this morning.  I was up and out of bed with coffee going as soon as the alarm went off.  No slouching on the couch trying to get another 10 minutes of sleep. Jerry headed off to work and to pick up Athena giving me some time to set up a couple things.  I could have done it the night before, which was my original plan, but knowing I had a few hours of extra time in the morning I decided to wait.  Spencer really enjoyed setting up with me too.  He was so excited to start while we were prepping. His favorite prep was the Forest Dramatic Play area int he playroom.  When we were finished getting ready Spencer and I headed upstairs so I could quickly  make new behavior cards and check in with Jerry on his ETA.  There was no good news.  After the week of vacation we were excited to see Athena again.  Jerry contacted the mother and she said Athena wou...

We have lived in the same place for about two years and have not made use of the basement.  It leaks so we never wanted to put something down there and it get ruined.  I talked to the landlord about it and he said it was a foundation problem and there was nothing he could do, if we wanted to use the space we would have to place things around the water leaks. Alright then. I bought a rug that was on sale for $20 last week because my in-laws were bringing over some chairs.  I knew with the chairs and the rug I would be more likely to start getting the basement in order. My original plan was to use the basement space for preschool.  It was a big area and it would be designated just for learning not double as a living space. After buying the first rug I realized I could use more space then I originally planned and got to work moving/organizing some storage boxes.  This took me a couple hours.  When Jerry came home from work he went down stairs...