Sour strawberry, a king kid, climbing Santa and a crying mouse: MONDAY K WEEK

Our Monday “Red Day” Class welcomed December with a new color of the month, listening to Raffi sing Christmas songs, making ornaments, adding wings and beaks to red birds and more. We also took time to observe our memorial for the pumpkin plant that died last week.

Read on to learn more details about today…

Who did we watch climb up and down a ladder today? 

Where did you put the king crown on your K? 

Did you choose to make your king a baby or a child? 

What K things did we have for snack today? 

Who cried in our book today?

1. Who did we watch climb up and down a ladder today? 

Santa! Here’s a movie of us watching him (including the part where Ms Kristin forgot to stop the video). When he reached the bottom we left to get our coats and backpacks on!

2. Where did you put the king crown on your K? 

Some people put it on top some people put it on the bottom. Some people put it in the middle. It was kind of funny to see the K dressing up to be a king today. 

3. Did you choose to make your king a baby or a child?

All of the dolls we painted last week are now being either wrapped in a blanket or have a cape put on them. Ms Kristin will get the crowns on soon!

Grandma Vicki used her special sewing supplies from home to cut the pieces of blanket for us.

4. What K things did we have for snack today? 

Kix cereal, kiwi and Kool-Aid! Rex also brought pretzels. It was determined that the kiwi tasted like a sour strawberry. A spot on description I had never thought of! Thank you Rex! 

5. Who cried in our book today?

The mouse. He felt so sad for the bear.

Reading through and comparing both books leads to many conversations! We’ll continue learning through these books for the next two weeks.

Jam sandwiches, a pumpkin funeral, eating Js and a snow hunt: FRIDAY J WEEK

Our Friday “Purple Day” Class welcomed December with a new Color of the Month…red. This means we had red things at the Project Table, Tiny Things Table, red ornaments for our little Christmas trees, red Play-Doh, red magnet wands and jingle bells in the Tub Table and lots of new books.

We also sang Christmas songs, did jumping dot paint, made candy cane J ornaments and went on a wintery walk to hunt for snow. We read about a missing mitten and all the things the girl imagined might have happened to it…like it growing into a Mitten Tree! So silly. We had three Golden Letter friends to celebrate too: Jackson, Jacob and Julian!

Here are five questions to learn more about today…

What J things that we have for snack today? 

What did we do with our Dirt Pumpkin today?

Did you jump today? 

How many people said no, there wasn’t any snow at their house?  

What was your favorite candy cane?

1. What J things that we have for snack today? 

With our snow cloud hanging in the middle, we enjoyed Jell-O, jam sandwiches and jumbo goldfish. Thank you, Theo!

We ended up coming up with other words to describe the Jumbo goldfish, introducing the concept of synonyms.

2. What did we do with our Dirt Pumpkin today?

We had a pumpkin funeral. We decided that it was time to let the pumpkin seedling die all the way and take it to Ms Brenda’s compost pile.

We referenced our book about Grandpa Abe who died, processed our experience with the pumpkin thus far, talked about things that went wrong with the pumpkin and then wished it well. 

3. Did you jump today? 

Jumping Land was in full swing again today! We have 15 pillows that can be piled up in variety of ways for people who want to jump on them. We also hold or sit on those pillows during Circle Time. 

Fun Fact: we’ve named each pillow…fuzzy purple, smooth blue, mermaid, circus, You Matter, red ball, yellow ball, orange ball, big pickle, fuzzy brown, quilt block, rainbow, ketchup and mustard, Ms Kristin and Clifford. Sometime we’ll take a picture of them all lined up.

4. How many people said no, there wasn’t any snow at their house? 

Zero! Every single person in our school did have snow at their house earlier this week. We counted and we have 49 people altogether. 

However, during our wintery walk aka Snow Hunt we checked and almost 100% of our preschool snow has melted. There was a tiny bit by the bike rack and some in the neighbor’s yard. Incredible!

5. What was your favorite candy cane?

Either green or red.

We first determined by sight only which were real and which were plastic. Then we taste tested together and shared property words: hard, sweet, sticky, spicy, minty, fruity. There were varying opinions on them and we were all able to choose a favorite.

P.S. The candy cane J poem is on repeat: You might think it’s just a J from our alphabet song, but really it’s a candy cane about to be gone! So if they say we ate the letter J, this is why.

A clear parking lot, a moving snow cloud, missing brown play dough and the last day of November: THURSDAY J WEEK

Our Thursday class had a fun day working with each other on this last day of November!

We were also busy making candy cane J ornaments…check pockets and backpacks!

Here are 5 questions to learn more…

What did you jump off of today?

What did we eat at snack today?

Where did all of the brown play dough go?

Did we see any snow melting outside?

What color jumping dot paint did you use?

1. What did you jump off of today?

The wooden steps or the table.

There was only one accidental bump into each other, and there was a lot of communicating about whose turn it was. Quite impressive! 

2.What did we eat at snack today?

Max brought us Jell-O and veggie straws. Thank you, Max!

Then Grandma Bonnie brought out all of the leftover cereal and cracker boxes. The snack store was very busy with children, choosing what they wanted more of. During Snack Time, Ms Brenda checked the weather to see if it was raining.

Ms Kristin hung the snow cloud up over a table so that we could have animals, trains and pretend people go under the snow cloud. At Snack Time the tables moved and the snow cloud was in the middle for all of us to look at.

3. Where did all of the brown play dough go?

With it being the last day of November, Ms Ashton put the play dough in little bags and sent some home with everyone.

The next time people come back to school, the play dough will be red along with all the other things that changed with the Color of the Month like the Tiny Things, the supplies at the Project Table and the tools in the Tub Table.

4. Did we see any snow melting outside?

Yes! We heard it and felt it too!

After reading The Mitten Mystery, we went outside to check on the snow. We could see puddles and drops of snow melting off of our pavilion roof. We also found tracks from animals and people. The most noticeable difference: the parking lot was clear! 

5. What color jumping dot paint did you use?

Color options: red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, pink, black and brown.

We looked through the journal work from yesterday’s class and noticed what colors they chose before we went to the big table to do our own jumping dot paint work. Somebody might have thought that we were hammering with all of the pounding sound! 

A jingle bell pickle, fake marshmallows, lots of banging and snowy slides: WEDNESDAY J WEEK

Our schedule board gets more detailed as the school year goes on and today included a couple of new items. We had more Snow Talk, a separate journal time and a winter walk. Read on to learn more about today…

What J things did we have for snack today?

What color beads did you use to make your candy cane J decoration?

Where did the lost mitten end up?

How did you make a banging sound at the table today?

Were the marshmallows real?

1. What J things did we have for snack today?

Jell-O, jelly candy and jungle bites.

The jungle bites had an ingredient list and we’re happy to report that the children love them! We looked at a book of another family eating jelly beans too! Thank you, Malcolm.

2.What color beads did you use to make your candy cane J decoration?

Check backpacks to see!

Some friends did patterns, some did only sparkly beads, some made them look like a realistic candy cane. It’s the perfect time to say our candy cane J poem:

You might think it’s just a J from our alphabet song, but really it’s a candy cane about to be gone.

3.Where did the lost mitten end up?

On a snowman!

We read The Missing Mitten Mystery during our Snow Talk and were delighted to see where she found her mitten as the snow melted. That was the perfect thing to do before we went outside to see where the snow is melting on our playground as well.

4. How did you make a banging sound at the table today?

Using dot paints in our journals!

We called them jumping dot paints. This class knew exactly what to do: there was no sliding or rubbing with the paints…only jumping.

5. Were the marshmallows real?

No!

We were using the brown play dough for hot chocolate again and one friend noticed we didn’t have any white marshmallows. Ms Kristin was very happy to find a container of white play dough that we could use to make pretend marshmallows.

BONUS: who had a pickle with a jingle bell sticker in their backpack?

Henry R! He was as surprised as Ms Kristin!

31 yeses, pretend hot chocolate, skin shades and a jelly surprise: TUESDAY J WEEK

Our Tuesday “Yellow Day” Class started off with lots of jumping in Jumping Land, finding jingle bells and baby Jesus’ in new books, looking for jumping animals at the Puzzle Corner, getting jingle bells on our shoes or backpacks and playing with animals in the pretend snow at our Tub Table.

Here are 5 questions to learn more about our day…

What J things that we have for snack today?

Did it snow at your house? 

What color was at the painting table today? 

What did we do with the brown play dough today?

Where did we go outside today? 

1. What J things that we have for snack today?

Wilmer brought strawberry jelly filled muffins and juice boxes!

The muffins looked like plain muffins until you opened them up! We also had goldfish and animal crackers from Zander and decided that all of those creatures can jump! 

2. Did it snow at your house? 

Yes!

Everyone at school today and yesterday answered yes to this question….that is 31 yeses so far. We have a few friends who were gone and we will wait to see what their answers are when they return. During our Snow Talk, we also had our big snow cloud pass over the imaginary towns we live in or near. 

3. What color was at the painting table today? 

Different shades of brown!

We needed it brown for making baby Jesus’ skin color and we’re also honoring these last few days of November. When these wooden dolls are dry we’ll wrap them in blankets just like the baby Jesus’ in our books.

4. What did we do with the brown play dough today?

Pretended it was hot chocolate!

Ms Kristin found all the cups from the Family Corner that she could for children to fill up with brown play dough. Then we used pretend candy canes for stirring. 

5. Where did we go outside today? 

To our big parking lot!

Our church preschool has a parking lot off of Pine Street that was filled with snow and tracks of all kinds. We had fun exploring the snow that was melting and that had refrozen in the shade. We also noticed houses in the neighborhood that had water dripping off the roofs…it was snow melting!