Christmas Party

We had a great Christmas party that W put on for our last day of Blue Preschool of this year.  It was a lot of fun and we were so glad to have everyone there!

The kids started out by painting popsicle stick Christmas tree ornaments with their Moms.  After they were dry the Moms could put a picture of their child in the tree!

After the painting we played pin-the-nose on Rudolph (that R had made) and the kids thought it was pretty fun to put on a blind-fold.

 Next B helped the kids play Santa bowling. All the kids were pretty good at this and had fun knocking the pins down and helping B set them back up again.

The kids then got to take a whack at a candy cane piñata that C had brought.  Some of those kids have very strong arms!  They thought that was fun and were excited to get little airplanes and treats from the piñata when they broke it open.

B and J then took the kids into another room and they read some Christmas stories while the other Moms got lunch ready.  For lunch we made quesadillas, carrots, snowman pretzels, reindeer sausages, and had a wonderful fruit Christmas tree that J made.

Finally all the kids got to sit in a circle and pass around their white elephant presents that they had brought while singing Once There Was a Snowman!  After the song ended they got to open up the present and see what they got!  It was a fun party and we hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year!

Christmas and Giving Lesson

We had a lot of fun in preschool this week though we did miss little EM. I was sure grateful to have helper M (EW's daddy) around to help out too.

As the boys arrived we put on their paint shirts and had them stamp white paper lunch sacks with fun Christmas stamps. These were then put aside to be used later to wrap a parent gift.



We gave the boys a little free time while we cleaned up the stamp stuff then we gathered them back together and sang "Higgely Wiggely Bumble Bee" to get there attention. We went over the calendar, wather, etc., and counted the number of days until Christmas. Then talked about the letter G. I had each child trace an uppercase and lowercase G with a dry erase marker on a laminated sheet which they all really enjoyed.

For a number review I had 10 red ribbons with the numbers 0-9 on them hidden throughout the room and had the boys hunt and find them. We then put the numbers in order and counted them.

I then had each boy pick a nativity mask and we quickly acted out the nativity.

T, EW, J, and G showing off their masks.

Then we went back to the table for our blue binder project. We made pictures of baby Jesus with a red bow to remind us that Jesus was Heavenly Father's gift to us and Jesus made it possible for us to return to our Father in Heaven. (Not sure if the boys got this point but we tried).



Once again we gave them a little free time while we prepared snack.

For snack we had triangle shaped triscuits, peanut butter in a cup with a toothpick for spreading and craisins. The idea was to have the boys make trees with craisins for decorations. I don't think any of them actually put theirs together but they enjoyed the snack anyway.



While they ate their snack, helper M (EW's daddy) read "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" which the boys loved especially because he did fun voices and really got into the story.

T, P, Helper M, and G enjoying the story

Once again we gave them free time while we got the last activity ready.

We finished the parent gift (Spoiler alert: The parent gift was a 1/2 sheet of paper with a 2011 calendar printed on the bottom half. the top half had a picture of the boy and a space for the boy to color a picture. We then laminated them and put magnets on the back so they could be hung on a fridge or file cabinet.) The boys then wrapped their gifts in their stamped bags and wrote their names on the tag.


We finished with a little free time as parents arrived.

I really liked breaking things up with the short free times rather than one big free time at the end. Something to consider for the future.

First Day of School

Today we met for our first day of Blue Preschool.  We all met together so the kids could get to know each other and all the Moms that would be their teachers.  Each Mom took a segment and we all had a great time.

We started with a gathering activity- puzzles

We then had singing and wiggle time with R.

Here are the songs we sang:

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Name Chant

Higgelly, wiggelly, bumblebee who can say their name for me?
(child says name)
let's all say it (name)

Let’s all yell it (name)
Let’s all clap it (name)
Let's all whisper it (name)

I Like to go to School- to the tune: "Farmer in the Dell"

I like to go to school.
I like to go to school.
Heigh-ho-the-derry-oh,
I like to go to school.

I like to play with friends.
I like to play with friends.
Heigh-ho-the-derry-oh,
I like to play with friends.

I like to dance around.

I like to dance around.

Heigh-ho-the-derry-oh,

I like to dance around.

I like to jump up high.

I like to jump up high.

Heigh-ho-the-derry-oh,

I like to jump up high.

I like to sit down quiet.

I like to sit down quiet.

Heigh-ho-the-derry-oh,

I like to sit down quiet.

Can you Find? to the tune:  “The Muffin Man”

Teacher:  Can you find ______?
                 _______, ________?
               Can you find ______?
               He has a blue shirt on.

Children:  Point to the child.

After that we had the lesson on Rules from C.  She told the story of the preschool with no rules and how the kids and teacher at that school were very sad, then she went over the rules.  The kids were really good and listened very well, even T who wanted to sit in the back.

W then read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  She read the story with little cutouts of Alexander and the hard things he had to endure.  She also talked about having a case of the bad attitudes.  She then showed the kids our "Australia" area where they can go when they are having a bad day to take a moment, then when they are feeling happy again they can join the rest of the class. It is called Australia because that is where Alexander decides he wants to go after his bad day. 

In the Australia corner we'll have pillows and quiet activities like books for the kids to look at.

After story time we had snack provided by B.  We also sang the snack song:

Snack Song- to the tune “Bring back my Bonnie to me”

Thank you, Thank you.  Thank you so much for our snack, today.

Thank you, Thank you.  Thank you so much for our snack.

The kids then got to make place mats with pictures we had taken earlier and stickers for their names.  J led the craft and all the Moms helped with the glue and stickers.

J then took each kid into the bathroom and painted their hands so they could make hand prints for their place mats.  C laminated them at the end and they turned out very cute.  Here is little J getting his hands painted.

At the end the kids sang Happy Birthday to T since he'll be turning 3 on Thursday.  S led the song and made him a big button with a shiny 3 on it and his name- he was very happy.