New school year calendar

Here it is!
Clever Sprouts '10-'11 Calendar

Y is for Yearbook

May 25th was our last day of school.  My sister took this great class picture for us!

We talked about the letter Y and made a yearbook.  I had the kids paste pictures of themselves and their classmates next to their names in the book, and their class picture at the bottom.  Then we filled in details dictated to us like their best friend in class, their favorite craft during the year, and their favorite snack.

We then had a bit of a party outside where the kids jumped on the trampoline,

and ate yummy cupcakes!

I sure loved my preschool class this year!  Thank you little guys and gals for making my first year of teaching so much fun.  I think it was a success!  YAY!

T is for Teddy Bear Tea Party

On May 18th we learned about the letter T.  We started out by making teddy napkin rings out of toilet paper tubes.

They turned out terrific!

Next, the kids helped me make some treats for the tea party.  We made tapioca tarts by spooning pudding onto vanilla wafers.

Then we made teddy treats out of toasted coconut marshmallows, peanut butter, and mini chocolate chips.

We made the tea out of raspberry herbal tea and lemonade.  Tangy!

We invited some teddy bears and ate our tasty tidbits!  In addition to the ones we made, there were teddy grahams, tangerine sections, and toasted tuna fish triangle sandwiches.

For a craft, we folded paper towels into triangles and painted with watercolors.

Some came out looking more "tie-dyed" than others!

We sure had a tremendous time!!!

U is for Unicorn

After school was out I didn't get back here to update the blog!  Well, I'll get it caught up with the last three posts right now.

On May 11th we learned about the letter U.  We started by watching the old Disney version of "The Ugly Duckling" and then doing a story sequencing project.  The kids are doing much better with their cutting!

We made umbrella pictures.

We found and colored Utah on some maps of the U.S.A.

We learned where to set the utensils.

We had a unicorn horn snack (Bugles).

And made sparkly gem unicorn shoes

which we used to play a game of unicornshoes (horseshoes)!

Lastly, we had unicorn races!

M is for Mother

On May 4th we learned more about the letter M. They started by coloring the covers of the cookbooks for mom. You can see what's on the inside at the end of the post!

Then we got working on our other Mother's Day gift. We mashed strawberries,

measured how much we needed,

measured the sugar,

and mixed it all together. I poured in the hot pectin mixture and they mixed it in well. I put the freezer jam into tupperware containers and they were ready for mom!

We read the books Are You My Mother and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

Next, we talked about Mexico and Cinco de Mayo. We decorated marvelous maracas with stickers (white address labels and red & green price circles) to marginally resemble the Mexican flag.

Side note: I made these from large plastic Easter eggs. These conveniently had holes in the bottom and I just used a knife to make a slit between them. (I tried slicing one that didn't have the holes, but the plastic was a different kind and the whole thing shattered!)
I then pushed a plastic fork (I didn't have any spoons on hand) down through the slit and glue gunned it in place. I filled the top with rice and snapped the egg together. Using electrical tape, I sealed the thing shut.

For our snack we munched English muffins with butter and our marvelous, newly made strawberry freezer jam on them.

Right at the end, the kids enjoyed moving through the masking tape maze that I had set up in our music room (our formal living room lacks seating and has only a piano and an antique stereo for furniture :)

I knew we wouldn't have time for this craft during preschool, but afterward I had Christian color a paper plate mosquito mask. He loved using the straw "mouth" to drink "blood" red punch!

And now I have to show off my student's masterpieces:

and the pages of the cookbook:

Aren't they adorable?? You should be able to click on the pages to get a larger view.

N is for Nest

On April 27th we learned about the letter N. We started our day by going on a nature walk and collecting nature in our bags that we could use for our nests. Even though it was super windy, the kids didn't want to come in they were having so much fun! Finally back inside after nearly being blown away, we glued our items from nature onto our rolled down sacks to make nests.

For a little added nonsense, we made neat footprint birds to go in them :)

We read lots of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and even practiced reciting a few.

For snack, we strung nifty cereal necklaces. We used Froot Loops and Chocolate Cheerios. Maybe you can see the lines of cereal on the table that I used to work on patterning with them.

I got a little needlessly perfect with mine :D

Next, we made noisemakers. We took so long on our nature walk and nests that Porter and Breck had left at noon, but we sent the supplies with them! I already had the noodles strung and tied on a loop of string, and Christian loved threading one end of the loop through the holes and putting the noodle through to attach it.

We decorated them with stickers and then made some noise!

I had them roll long triangles of newspaper (we used the comics) onto a pencil, starting with the wide end, and glue the point down with a glue stick. They then pulled the newspaper bead off of the pencil and strung it on a necklace.

Nice!

Lastly, I had them practice writing numbers (or more correctly, writing numerals) on a worksheet I'd made. Sierra did a great job and Christian decided to just draw a picture on the back {sigh}.

I'm pretty proud of the worksheet, all the numbered items start with N!