Thanksgiving Feast

We had a great preschool "field trip" making a Thanksgiving feast together.  The kids first sponge painted a tablecloth for our feast.  Then we read a story about the first Thanksgiving and how the Pilgrims and Indians had a feast to give thanks for all they had. 

The kids then got to go around to stations to help make our Thanksgiving feast with the Moms helping- one kid at each station then they rotated.  Station 1: they helped make air popped popcorn and cut up apples.  Station 2: they made turkey rolls.  Station 3: they learned to make mini pumpkin pies and rolled up slices of turkey.  Station 4: they helped make green beans and stuffing.  (When they had extra time we wrote a list of all things each boy was thankful for which we read at the feast together.)

The kids then all learned how to set a table properly (using their place mats from their lesson on Tuesday as a guide).  Afterwards we laid out our whole spread of food and, after a nice prayer, had a great feast.  We all had a great time and it was so much fun for the kids to help make the food and set the table.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

Turkey rolls: You start with the Rhodes dough that comes roll shaped. You need two rolls per child. Take the first roll and just put it on the tray this is the body of the turkey. Take the second roll and with a rolling pin roll it out flat. With a butter knife have the child cut the flat circle in half. With one half of the circle roll it into a snake shape and this is the neck and head of the turkey. With the other half of the circle, cut with a knife to make the feathers. When you have all the parts of the body done, have the children brush on a beaten egg white. This makes it shinny and it also helps it to stick together. Bake the turkeys at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. You don't need to worry about letting them rise. When your turkey is done, place 2 pretzel sticks in the bottom of the turkey for the legs. *We found that one roll cut in half (half for the body and the other half for the head and feathers works best!)

Mini Pumpkin Pies for dessert!

Mini Pumpkin Pie:

Makes 12 mini pumpkin pies

1.      Use Pillsbury Allready Piecrust- Using a cup or 4 inch round cookie cutter, cut out 12 circles from your 2 9-inch pie crust doughs.

2.      Place each circle into a pre-greased muffin tin. Press them in, letting the sides come up for a fun look. Score the bottom of your dough with a fork to keep the crust from bubbling up as it cooks.

3.      Pour your filling into each muffin tin cup. Fill them to the very top

4.      Bake your muffin tin pumpkin pies at 425* for 15 minutes. Then turn your heat down to 350* and bake them for 25-30 minutes. (This is 15-20 minutes less than a regular pie)

5.      Add a dollop of whipped cream to each individual muffin tin pie.

**Blue Preschool mommies- if you have other pictures please post them!

Thanksgiving- Giving Thanks!

Today we had a great preschool for Thanksgiving. Here is my lesson plan:

Thanksgiving Gratitude Lesson

Objective: Students will learn about gratitude, what we can be thankful for, and how to give thanks.  Students will also learn how to form the letter T and learn what it says- be able to recognize and name the oval shape- be able to recognize and name the color brown- and recognize and form a number 8 and count up to 8.

Gathering Activity: Play-dough.  Boys will be able to play with the play-dough when they arrive and each have their own ball that will be put into a plastic baggie with their name on it for further use. 

Welcome: Welcome song, pledge, calendar, and weather. Here is T as the star helper!

Introduce: Color BROWN- sign brown and look at brown fabric then point out brown objects in the room. Number 8- form a letter 8 with play-dough and practice counting to 8 together.  Letter T- tuh, tuh, tuh (Turkey)- each form a letter T with play-dough.  OVAL shape- say oval and form an oval with play-dough.

Use all the information to create some tuh tuh tuh Turkeys!- Brown color with 8 ovals.  Have each kids pick 8 oval feathers for their turkey then bring them to the table and show them how to make the turkeys with glue.  While turkeys are being made one kid at a time will go to the bathroom with Teacher W to get hands painted for place mats.  clean up for snack- clean hands and table off.

Free Play

Snacktime/Storytime:  Use half apples, toothpicks, marshmallows, and raisins to make Apple turkeys- then eat! Discuss how Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for all that we have and there are so many things in our lives that we can be thankful for.  Like in this book: My Book of Thanks by B. G. Hennessy.

Discussion: Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for all that we have.  Another way to say that we want to give thanks is to say we are grateful. 

Grateful Song: "If you’re grateful and you know it, clap your hands… stomp your feet… spin around…"

We can give thanks by saying thank you and helping others.  There are so many things in our lives that we can be grateful for.  Like in the My Book of Thanks and in this song:

Let’s Be Thankful song: (to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star")

Let's be thankful for this day
For our friends and our play
Let's be thankful; let's be glad
For our food and the things we have
Let's give thanks for you and me
And our home and family.

It makes people happy when we tell them thank you.  We especially need to say thank you to our Father in Heaven for all that he has given us. 

Thank you jars: Brainstorm things that we can be thankful for- each kid takes a turn and we write it on their oval and stick it in their thank you jar along with a few others that will already be filled out- family, sun, food, bed, clothes, friends, happiness, no owies, no sickness, blue preschool, etc.  The jars will have this little poem I wrote on them:

This Jar is for you to use on your way

To help you be thankful night and day

At time for prayers just pick one or more

And you’ll always have something to be thankful for

 Place mats: After place mats are dry attach poem and draw feet, beak, and wattle.

"This turkey is a part of me—

It is made from my hand you see.

I have so much to be thankful for,

like my family and so much more.

 It is time to say:

Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!

Boys can use this place mat for our Thanksgiving feast on Thursday and remember as we eat our big yummy meal that we should think of all the things that we are thankful for. 

Playtime

(P was not able to come today because he was sick.  We missed him and hope he feels better soon!)

Fire Station

Today the Blue Preschool Boys and their siblings visited Sandy Fire Station #35 for a tour.
They got a very detailed explanation of the fire engine and all the tools on board,
and they loved it.
EW, T, G, P, J & EM

Sandy Firefighters Friel and Taylor, along with the preschool boys & their siblings. (Thanks to those brave firefighters for taking on such a group of kids! Whew!)
(BPS Moms- if you have better pictures than these, please add them on. I won't be offended.)

Here are some of W's pictures:

 Making silly faces:)

Hooray for fire trucks!!!

Here are some of R's pictures and a little video

 In the ambulance

 On your mark... get set... GO!

The kids had fun racing across the bay together.

Fire Safety!

Today's Blue Preschool was all about fire engines, fire trucks, fire fighters, and fire safety.

LESSON PLAN:
Gathering Activity: Puzzles
Welcome: Pledge, Calendar, Weather, Happy Birthday to E.W. (he got a special birthday button to wear), introduction of RED, RECTANGLES, LETTER E, and NUMBER 7.
Discussion: Fire Safety at Home.
(We talked about why you shouldn't play with matches or fire. What is a smoke detector, and what does it sound like? We should find at least two escape routes from any room in our house. What is a fire extinguisher? Stop, drop and roll. Crawling under the smoke to get out of a room.)

Practicing Stop, Drop, and Roll was fun:
We used a sheet to simulate "smoke" and the boys had to crawl under it. They could choose whether they wished to be blindfolded or not. The blindfold would simulate crawling in the dark.
I had intended to, but completely forgot to teach the kids this cute "911 Song." My plan had been to talk about only using "911" for emergencies, never just for fun. Then we were going to learn this song:



911 (to the tune of "This old Man")


9-1-1, 9-1-1,

Press the buttons, 9-1-1.

If you're hurt or scared or you don't know what to do,

9-1-1 sends help to you.



We read a book called "The Fire Engine Book" which basically goes through what firefighters do when they are called to a fire.

For snack time, we made fire engines out of crackers and pretzels, stuck together with cream cheese:After snack time, we made another fire engine out of a RED RECTANGLE. It's cute to see how much these boys enjoy making paper crafts. Professional glue-stick-ers, I tell you.

After completing our paper projects, we had free playtime. Some of the boys chose to listen to a book about Curious George, when he accidentally calls the fire department. Other boys played with toys or played the "Fire Matching Game."Most of all, I think everyone is VERY READY for our trip to the Fire Station tomorrow morning! See you there!

Parade and Flag day Picture add on

I was just going to add these pictures into R's post but it wouldn't allow me to so I am just adding them in a new post.

T helping hold the flag for his Dad.

G,K,T,EW,J intently learning about the flag.

...and they're off!

T

J

G

EW

Patriotic Parade and Flags

For patriotism week we got together at a park by C's house and did a little lesson on flags and a patriotic parade. P and EM were sick today and we all missed them- we hope they feel better soon!

First we had a guest teacher come speak to us about the flag of the United States of America.  The guest was T's Daddy who is also a Sergeant in the Army National Guard.  He talked to the kids about each color on the flag and what is represented.  He also taught them why the flag is special and how we should take care of it. 

 

 Each kid got a chance to hold the flag and then they all did the Pledge of Allegiance together (they have been learning this in preschool and some of them have it pretty much down).

 

After that the kids painted some flags with their watercolors. They all found their blue and red paints and tried their best to paint in the right areas on their flags.

The painted flags were then taped to their bikes/scooters for the parade.  The kids also were able to decorate by putting streamers, stars, and balloons on their bikes and helmets.  When they were all ready we had a little parade around the track with R waving the American flag, W and B holding up a USA banner, C taking pictures and helping, and the kids all riding around and singing songs.  It was really cute and we all stayed together for one or two minutes before a few of the kids took off, but they all had a great time and it was fun for them to do.

After the parade we had a flag for snack made by W.  The kids all loved it and so did the Moms.  C also provided string cheese and water.

Flag and Voting Day!

Since S has been sick, I decided to help her out and post a little about what we did on Tuesday. Sorry I don't have any pictures to add but maybe she can add them when she and her family are feeling better.

As the gathering activity S put out lots of fun puzzles for the boys to do. After the puzzles were cleaned up, S put out little foam squares with each students name on them, so they had their "spot" to sit on during class time. They introduced EM as the Star helper and went over weather and the calendar.

S introduced the number 6 and color blue and had each boy count 6 blue paper clips and place them on the number 6. They all really enjoyed this and got so excited they often got ahead of the paperclips.

S also talked about the star shape and the letter F. She had an F shaped hole punch that she had each boy punch out of a blue paper.

Next was the pledge of Allegiance and talking about the flag. She had a fun song about the flag that they sang to the tune of Mary had a little lamb. (Sorry I don't remember well enough how it went to write it down.)

Since preschool was on Nov. 2nd, S talked to the boys about voting and had each one in turn vote for their favorite color. While the boys were voting we kept the other boys busy by singing some more songs. After they voted and received their future voter badges S counted up the votes to reveal that blue one the election 5 to 1 against purple.

For the blue books S had the boys put foam stars on a flag and color it. The snack followed.

Lastly was the much anticipated free time which the boys always seem to enjoy:)

I may have forgotten some things or gotten the order a bit off, but this gives you a general idea of how things went down.