Once upon a time the preschool classroom was so quiet that we could hear each other eating crunchy things. Read on to find out what the crunchy food was and more!

Some friends really enjoyed the changing letters work again.

We also finished alphabet projects by gluing on octopus limbs and drew in our journals today, making as many limbs on the octopus as we wanted…sometimes there were very clever stories about them.

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But we also celebrated Groundhog Day and learned some facts about groundhogs in general and Punxsutawney Phil from Pennsylvania. We made paper pillow groundhogs by stuffing them and stapling them shut. Then they got to go hide in their burrow.

Where did our groundhogs hide during Circle Time?

In the corner hideout with all the pillows and blankets. Ms Kristin had to really dig around to find them all!

Do you like fruits or vegetables?

We talked about things we have in common with groundhogs. If you like any fruit or vegetable, you are just like a groundhog!

Where does the groundhog go to the bathroom?

Groundhogs make a separate room in their burrows to go to the bathroom in! That’s like us at preschool! Your child can show you the bathroom in the above picture.

What crunchy things are the groundhog’s favorite food?

Most groundhogs like tree sticks but there is one groundhog who loves granola bars! Punxsutawney Phil likes oat and honey granola bars during his time in his indoor habitat. At Snack Time today we were like groundhogs and had crunchy cheerios and oreros! Thank you, snack friend Theo!

We had a sneaky thing on the schedule board today: Show and Tell was hiding under the Snack Card! That’s because we did telling during Snack Time and the showing during Outside Time.

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Did you see your shadow?

We ended the day outside and looked for our shadows AND our paper groundhogs’ shadows. The sun came and went behind the clouds so it was kind of tricky!

Happy Groundhog Day!

P.S. When you go to sleep tonight, you’ll be acting like a groundhog again! If you burrow under blankets, you’re even more like a groundhog!

Our clever Thursday class finished the day outside with the children doing another “undercover” safety practice by going to the fence. Little did they know what an incredibly important skill this is should I ever need them to all be in the same place at the same time.

Thursday class also welcomed in February with a lot of pink things! Despite my best plans, we ended up surprised when it was 11:45 and we were still cozy visiting around the snack table. This is after a busy morning and a very engaged Circle Time.

Read on to find out more about our orange mouths, ice cream for breakfast, geography in the bathroom and not enough ice skates.

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Why did we keep saying “orange mouth” at Snack Time?

Because some friends would put the orange in their mouth and it looked like their mouth was an orange! We also worked with the concept that an orange is orange (whereas a banana is yellow, our cookies are brown…). Mind blowing!

We also had cookies, nutella and breadsticks from Scarlet! Thank you, Scarlet!

Our snack friends were very helpful with Grandma Bonnie today too:

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How many limbs did you glue on your octopus today?

Check your backpacks to find out! We continued our important conversations on limb differences and at Circle Time, talked more about physical disabilities. I’m curious how your children will answer the next question…

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What is happening in these pictures?

In short: In the first picture, if the worker had shoveled the ramp first, everyone could go in at once. In the second picture, the children had many ideas of what the teacher could do instead (get more skates or take turns so the octopus could have enough, etc). Watching their faces consider these concepts was beautiful.

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Who said they’d be having ice cream for breakfast on Sunday?

Wilmer! During Show and Tell, friends can have an item to show or something to tell that Ms Kristin writes down. The upcoming treat of “ice cream for breakfast” got some surprised responses! Here are the rest of our Show and Tell things that we then got to see and hear in action outside:

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Where is there a map at our preschool?

In the bathroom! Today I had the delight of overhearing Ms Brenda giving a spontaneous geography lesson in the bathroom while children were washing hands. This is the epitome of taking the opportunity! I only got a snippet of it but you’ll get the idea:

Happy Thursday, everyone!

We had everyone at preschool today for a lot of play, a lot of laughs and learning new things (even the teachers!). It is the last day of January, so we enjoyed the black and white things at the Tub Table, on the Tiny Things table, at the play dough and the cutting tub. Tomorrow all of that turns pink!

We worked in our journals as well, finishing up work from previous weeks and drawing octopi!

Read on to find out about the made up words, the injured octopi, kidney surgery and why we kept saying, “not today, bench!”

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What letters did you use with the dry erase work?

Some friends colored on individual letter cards and some friends drew letters on the sentence strip from Monday’s Kansas Day work.

Instead of ever telling a child that the letters they put in order “aren’t really a word,” I will gladly sound out the letters as best I can. It’s usually quite silly or surprising.

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How many limbs did you put on your octopus?

While octopi typically have 8, our friends today could choose how many they wanted. For those who put on fewer than 8, some had an injury story to go along with it…usually involving a shark.

We looked again at our book, What Happened to You, and our doll who has one arm.

She got dressed and demonstrated crawling techniques which we tried out as well:

If your child was at school today, I am confident they can explain what is happening here:

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What O things did we have for snack?

Thanks to Lane we had double O OreO cookies, Jell-O and honey nut CheeriOs!

Thanks to our snack helpers for working with Grandma Mona to get everything ready!

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Where outside did we put our backpacks today?

Usually we put them on the bench, but today we brought them all the way to the pavilion. As we walked past the bench, we began saying things like, “Not today, bench! See you next time! Thanks anyway!” But “Not today, bench!” stuck and was repeated often. So, in case you hear this phrase, now you know what it comes from.

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Who brought the human body book to Show and Tell?

Walter! It was full of a lot of details including how to do kidney surgery! There were a lot of curious children…head to the non-fiction section of the library, folks! You can see the kidney surgery page and so much more here including an orange balloon, 2 monster trucks, binoculars, a flying kitty, a princess card, a princess decoration, a soccer ball, a duck in a tutu and a case full of Playmobil.

With this being the last day of January for these friends, we finished up our January art project and played with the black and white things one more time!

We had some new swing play today: letting 4 on at a time AND allowing pushing each other.

Our schedule board came to Circle Time with us so we could really get a grasp on the new Show and Tell plan…read on for more about that and more about our day…

What teacher friend came back today to vist?

Ms Ashton! She didn’t have class at Bethel College today so she got to come visit. Some friends wanted to take a picture with her before she left for lunch. Thank you for coming, Ms Ashton!

What is the safety plan for the bathroom?

To be extra slow and careful without moving someone else’s body. After a friend got accidentally pushed in the bathroom, Ms Kristin demonstrated and made a movie about it. 

In our book, what was the question that Joe did not want to answer? 

What happened to your leg? Thankfully the friends he met at the park stopped asking about it and started playing together.

We looked at our doll that has one arm and talked about ways they might be mobile if they were a live baby. Sure enough, our bodies crawled using one arm and two legs as well!

How many arms did you put on your octopus?

After reading and visiting about limb differences everyone got to make as many limbs on the octopus body as they wanted. While we may typically see an octopus with eight, many of the octopi we made today had more or less.

Did you like the applesauce today?

We had cinnamon applesauce from Ella and Everett, animal crackers from Zander and Kix cereal. Some friends really noticed the flavor of the applesauce (that they either squirted out into their tray or slurped right from the pouch). We also visited about our favorite animals and if we had seen them in real life or not.

Thanks to our Snack Helpers for very helpful work. Look at these skills!

Where did we do Show and Tell today? 

Outside in the pavilion!

See you in February, Tuesday/Thursday class!

We tweaked our schedule a bit and took a break early to work on a Kansas Day project before Snack Time. Then we got our coats and backpacks before Show and Tell. The capacity for change is growing tremendously in these children and it’s really fun to experience.

Read on to find out about eating octopus AND the letter O, the roaming buffalo, the vowel exchanging and the glue surgery situation…

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What were letter O and the octopus we ate really made out of?

The donuts were shaped like the letter O, the octopus was made out of string cheese and we had oranges. All from our Golden Letter friend, Owen! Thank you, Owen!

These friends helped Ms Brenda find out who the helpers are!

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How can you make your buffalo roam across the prairie?

I imagine your child can tell you first and then show you…

We sang a couple of versions of the Kansas State song in honor of the fact that yes, we CAN have clouds all day.

However, it sure was nice to be out in the sun today to show us how these things work in the mud!

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What color were the vowel letters that Ms Kristin used in the song?

Red! It’s a little like our song about apples and bananas with the vowel play. Ms Brenda and I both noticed a lot of “light bulbs going off” as we watched the children’s faces.

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Why did we take all the lids off of all the glue bottles?

There were so many glue bottles not working that we decided to wash all of the lids. This is because the problem is in the lid, not in the bottle. The glue gets dried and clogged up. So we took the lids off, put the lids in a tub of warm water and saved the glue bottles in other containers. They will stay overnight and tomorrow morning Ms Kristin will put the clean lids back on!

Where are there scissors at preschool?

On the shelf, on the project table, at the play dough table, in the wagon and in each child’s School Box. I found the remnants of some very careful cutting work after preschool.

Allowing children to cut a variety of materials (paper, fabric, felt, cardboard, plastic, leaves, grass, etc) not only increases their cutting skills, but it strengthens the hand muscles for things like writing!

The children pictured here writing are here because they wanted to.