Smelling french fries, sweet shamrocks, scary things, a cup problem and a real dog: TUESDAY S WEEK

Once upon a time everyone had their own cup. They knew it was their cup because their name was taped on it. Then one day a teacher noticed that there was dirt stuck under the tape so another teacher took all the names off. Then when it was snack time, there was a cup problem.

Read on to learn about the cup problem, smelling french fries, the sweet shamrocks, a lot of scary things and a real dog visiting us.

Why did Ms Kristin talk about smelling french fries?

In the book we read it states that the bear could smell a red, ripe strawberry a mile away. Since McDonald’s is a mile away from preschool (and Ms Kristin loves french fries), she talked about that:

What color was your sweet shamrock sugar cookie?

Scarlet brought us yummy shamrock sugar cookies, Smarties and Skinnypop popcorn. So good! Thank you, Scarlet!

Getting our snack trays was a little different because normally children look for the cup with their name on it to know which tray is theirs. Today they got to take any tray and any cup!

What came to visit us when we were on the hay bales?

Wilmer’s dog, Lily!

Everyone was very respectful of Lily and waited on the hay bales or behind the hay bales for Lily to come to us. Lily is a girl, almost 9 years old who eats kibble and sometimes eggs, drinks water, wears a purple harness, has a leash, sleeps in her bed or with Wilmer’s mom and dad, has a tongue and is very soft.

Thank you, Wilmer, Millie and Ms Jasmine for visiting!

What did you say you felt scared about?

Children took turns coming to tell Ms Kristin about times when they or their siblings felt scared. Then we read them at Circle Time and we did a little (or big) shiver shake after each one to feel those fears and let them go a little bit.

What languages did Ms Kristin read the story in?

English and Spanish. This class was very interested in saying words and phrases like, “¡Que rica!” (Yum!) and “¡Ven conmigo!” (Come with me!) and “Estoy asustada/o” (I’m scared). If you are blessed to have multiple languages in your child’s life, use it! If not, you can use technology to find and listen to words and phrases in other languages.

By the way, the mouse was scared the bear was going to come and eat the strawberry. We took notice of the fact that we never see the bear and we never hear the bear. All of the mouse’s fears were about ideas of what could happen. As someone who lives with anxiety, I am very familiar with this cycle!

Enjoy more photos and a video from our day:

Our leprechaun shelter is back. This reminds me of March 2020 when we had S Week, then schools were shut down for the remainder of the year. What a time to be alive.

A former preschool family donated strawberry baskets for us and amazing creations were made. Some leprechaun shelters, some fancy baskets and some skyscrapers. They were very creative because glue doesn’t work for this so they had to use tape or string/wire/zip ties.

There is a mirror on the ceiling over our swing.

The letter S wanted to dress up like a strawberry!

Bonus: At the beginning of Circle Time we did snake breaths together. Each pointer finger was a snake and after a deep breath in through our noses, we exhaled long making a hiss sound. There were a few more stories we told about our snakes hiding in our laps or behind our backs. I bet your child can retell them and make the hiss sound!