Preschool Orange Week {Frankenstein, spiders, and scarecrows, Aaaaaaah!}

We had a great week with Letter A. We made lots of scary things to scare him. It wasn’t too hard, because Letter A is afraid of everything. The children pretended to be letter A. Everything I picked up to show to them, they would yell, “Ahhh!” I picked up a stapler, “Ahhh!” A crayon, “Ahhh!” A book, “Ahhh!” We found words like apple and alligator, ant and appaloosa! We yelled the whole day!!!

We also celebrated orange. We sang and danced and twirled and strutted our orange. We spelled it and found lots of orange, pumpkins, carrots, and even oranges. Madden said, “Num-nums are orange. I asked, “What are num-nums?” He pointed to the bag of Skittles on my shelf. Oh! Good job, Madden. Num-nums are orange! Ha!

ORANGE SONG: (The Wheels On the Bus)

O-R-A-N-G-E,

O-R-A-N-G-E,

O-R-A-N-G-E

Orange is what that spells.

Jack-O-Lanterns are always orange

Carrots are always orange

Oranges are always orange.

O-r-a-n-g-------e!

Monday, we made a scary Frankenstein mask to scare letter A. Brody said, “Letter A is going to scream like a girl!” Lena said, “My mom has a Frankensti-nan stamp! Drew said, “I’m gunna scare my mom with this!”

During Girl’s Show-N-Tell, Navy told us about her toy phone. Sometimes, I ask the children where they got the thing they are showing and talking about. If they say, they don’t know, I have asked them, “Did it just fly in through the window one day?” They always laugh and say, “NO!” Monday, when I asked Navy where she got her phone, she told us, “It just flew in my room!” I love that fun girl!

Wednesday, we cut out 8 spiders for a counting game. The children did a great job cutting all of their spiders ‘right on the line’! I told them, “This is a contest to see if you can cut exactly on the line!” They are becoming such great cutters. Tolson loved the contest. He asked the next day, “Can we have a contest again?”

Thursday, we made a scarecrow. That would surely scare letter A! The children had to rip a lot of paper to make a scarecrow face. 

Miss Kristin was amazed by the number of children that did not know how to rip up a sheet of paper. Some children are so well behaved; they possibly have never ripped up a thing in their lives. On the other hand, some took to that sheet like water! Ha! All of the scarecrows each had a unique look and personality. They were adorable! One of them even glued the hand print hair on top of the hat! Too cute! Something for your Halloween wall! Ask your child what letter A says. They should be able to tell you, “Ahhh!”

Miss Kristin caught this conversation:

Quinn: I’m gunna grow up a mommy!

Sam: I’m gunna grow up a daddy!

Brody: I’m gunna grow up a daddy with a beard!

And while waiting outside:

Walter: Mrs. McClure, I’m so embarrassed that I called you Grandma!

“That’s Okay! I am a Grandma!

Benjamin: I will call you Miss Fantastic!

You can call me that everyday!!!

Congratulations go out to Rondy, for bringing a new little baby brother for Bradley into the world this past week! We hope all went well. We pray for a speedy recovery! We look forward to Jaxson getting a new sister very soon, too! Good luck, Kelsey!

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Ghouls and Ghosts and White Week!

White Week was wonderful. And why wouldn’t it be, with so many wonderfully white things to talk about? I just kept writing furiously, recording everything I heard and each day, your children seemed to find more and more white in the world. The list was lengthy, but watching their little minds at work, thinking of more and more white things to say, was adorable. Rudger said bathtubs, Brooklyn and Sam said snow. Gracelyn said pillows. Marshall and Karina said clouds. Katelyn said milk. Madden said ghosts. Walter, soap bubbles. Trey, skeletons. Talli, stars. Embree, Santa’s beard. Davis said spiderwebs, Quintin, marshmallows, Mason D, sheep, Jaxson and Emmett said polar bears, Niki, glue, Benjamin, sidewalks. Bria said goose feathers, Tallin said eagle feathers, and Drew added, “or a white duck!” Scarlett said a whiteboard. Kensi said chickens, Brody said eggs, Jacob said mummies, Mason E. said the stuff inside of coconuts and Quinn said the face on a clown like the one on ‘Tangled’! Don’t you just love the amazing minds of these children? I love to see them think and then express themselves. When I say, “Oooh! That’s a good one!” They beam, validating their brilliancy!

Of course, we sang our white song, twirled in our white clothes and memorized our # 8 poem. Then, we sang our fun Halloween songs and pulled some more hair! We learned about letter Gg and found lots of Gg words, green grapes, girls, gorillas, ghosts!

Number 8 Poem

Monday, we made a fun ghostly puppet. I have gotta say, the hands on that ghost were very difficult to cut, but everyone of those children did an outstanding job of weaving in and out, around each finger in an amazing fashion! I kept picking them up to show Miss Kristen, “Look at this one!” “And even this one!” I was so delighted! I told the children they could color their ghost eyes any color they wished. That was enough to excite Brody, “Can I even color my ghost eyes black?” Tallin said, “Black is the spookiest color in the whole world!”

Wednesday, we created a very fun skull and Thursday, we made a happy ghost with streamers. Jace was funny. He smelled the streamers before gluing them on, “Is this toilet paper?” Miss Kristen and I cracked up! Too funny. He was also funny at the carpet squares as he noticed someone picking their nose, “Don’t pick your nose! Don’t! Don’t do it! Stop picking your nose!” I love when someone else takes the reins as boss for a time, making my job easier. Thanks for keeping us in line, Jace. 

I also noticed Marshall as he squeezed glue out in a cute little happy face on the back of his ghost face just before gluing it on. I asked him, “Did you just draw a happy face with your glue?” He looked as if I had just discovered an inner secret by mistake. He dropped his head in embarrassment, “Yes.” “Good job! I love that! It’s so cute!” Then, I watched him turn it over and smile as he pressed it to the plate. I adore that quiet little Marshall. He has completely stolen my heart with his sweet quiet ways! It is remarkable how something, no matter how small, that I get an opportunity to see or hear from one of these little ones at school, can bring such a smile to my face and burn such a sweet impression upon my soul as to endear them to my heart. These are the rewards of being allowed to hang with the most perfectly aged people on the planet. They are priceless. Thank you for entrusting them to me. I love them so.

Niki was full of information for us this week. She told us she watched a movie of a really ugly, ugly girl. We laughed and laughed. The next day she told us that her chicken, Alice died. “She got an egg stuck in her.” Then she asked me, “How does a chicken get an egg up her?” Ummm…My goodness! The questions I have to field at preschool! Ha!

We had a chance to hear what each had plans to dress up as for Halloween. The holiday excitement is building. Plan for your child to wear a costume on Halloween day to school. We are planning a festive time together ending in a parade around the cul-de-sac. We look forward to that.

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Preschool Black Week Bat Tutorial

This was such a fun project for our preschool to do. We practiced all sorts of skills like cutting, and gluing. We began the day by tracing everyone's hand on a piece of black construction paper that we folded in half and stapled, giving us two of each. These will be the bats wings.

 In the center you will see a white circle. This is stapled onto a black piece of construction paper the same size. That way the children can have a nice thick black line to see when they cut the circle. Throw the white one away, and keep the black on for the bats body. Glue one of each of the hand print cut outs to either side of the body.

 

Above is the pre painted version of the eyes. We recommend the cardboard egg cartons with the long pointed centers. They make the perfect bat noses!

Below you can see that but cutting a little extra, you can give your bat cute little ears to go with his long pointy nose. 

 Glue his face on the body and your bat should be coming together! 

We love seeing how each child adds a little bit of their own touch to each of their bats. For the moon, we pre-tied strings to yellow circles and let the children cut out the rest of the way. We also happened to be learning about the letter Cc this week so they each finished it off by cutting out their "C's". 

Finally, for the best part! The red spooky eyes. Just add a some glue dots and shake in the red glitter!

Aren't they the cutest little spooky bats?! Comment below with how your preschool does black week! We'd love to see! Thanks for stopping by the Bearly Ready for Threeschool Preschool Blog!

Scary cats, cackling witches, spooky bats, and a crazy cook! It's black week!!

Things are getting a little spooky around here! We are getting ready for Halloween!

Black Week was very fun, especially as we introduced our Halloween songs. One, in particular ends by singing, “IT will come and PULL YOUR HAIR!!! Of course, I have to circle around and pull as many heads of hair as I can before the song runs out. Ahhhhhh!!! Maybe by the end of the month, your child will have learned this song so well, that you might be protecting your head! Ha, ha! Stay tuned for our fun video of all our Halloween songs and activities!

Monday, we learned our black song and our number 7 poem. The children are really getting very good and reciting these poems. I love to hear them chant together! 

Seven Poem:

Across the sky

and down from Heaven,

That's the way to make a seven!

We also introduced Letter Cc. We sang about the ‘crazy cook in the corner café’ and we found lots of Cc words. Ask your child about the crazy cook and you might just get to hear a very fun story. We found lots of black things to talk about, cats, hats, bats, bugs. Gracelyn said the lines on a bee were black. Katelyn said a fly was black and Tanner said a TV was black but Bradley corrected him and said, “only when they are off!” Thank goodness we have Bradley to keep us all in line. He is very sober and I don’t think he has made a single mistake in his entire life. We need Bradley to keep the rest of us responsible. We love him!

We colored a very black cat and played a fun candy corn counting game, more letter Cc words, and the children were able to use their new number skills to identify and count while enjoying the rewards of a sweet treat.

Wednesday, we traced hands and created a very fun bat against a bright yellow moon. The children especially loved shaking red glitter into the deep-set eyes of the bat to make him very spooky! Ahhhh!

Aren't these bats just the cutest? Make one for your own preschool or just for fun with toddlers! Check out our how-to here.

Thursday, we colored a very black hat for a green, warty witch to wear. We attached her to a stick with the cat and created a fun singing prop. I hope you got a great rendition of “The Mean Old Witch”! Hang on to the prop. We will be singing that song all month, and renditions will be improving daily. Ha!

Next week will be White Week and we will be celebrating with ghosts, skeletons and ghouls. We look forward to a fun week.

Yellow Week

Yellow Week was loads of fun as we celebrated everything bright in the world. Walter said the sun was yellow. Talli said baby ducks were, too. Brooklyn remembered daffodils from our yellow song and Tanner, lemonade, Katelyn, scrambled eggs and Londynn, a happy face. Jace said bees were yellow and Trey named a lion. Davis thought of a giraffe. Isla said light. Mason D. noticed that even our preschool shirts were yellow and Karina thought of a school bus.

We sang about yellow, twirled around and spelled it, too. I think the best part about yellow this year is our bright yellow preschool shirts, all showing up, lining in a row or clustering on the carpet squares, looking so darling together. Yellow never looked better!

We learned about letter Oo and the sound he loves to make when going to the dentist. Ask your child to explain about that. I hope you get a full report!

We talked about the shape of letter Oo and discovered a circle. Our number this week was 6 and the children had fun watching Mrs. McClure keep a hoola-hoop in motion. Being a nice plump granny, I had to use my neck, but there are some things that only 4 year olds are allowed to witness in preschool and that, my friends, is one of them. Ha! Six looks like a hoola-hoop!

SIX POEM:

Go around the curb

and in a loop!

Six looks like a hoola-hoop!

We had great fun painting a yellow octopus with all it’s arms. The children did a great job. They were so cute.

We had a second octopus day on Wednesday, making an octopus puppet, and we especially had fun rolling out eight legs and a big head to make a pretzel octopus, too. Children this age love to sink their hands into a good blob of dough almost as much as I do. 

The octopuses were adorable and everyone was so proud of what they had created and what each had become after baking. This was the first year that I have ever attempted to make octopus, especially with so many. 

I heard about this idea in the summer and I have been thinking about it ever since. I just had to try it. Oh, we had great fun. I wasn’t sure we could get them all done in time, but wha-lah! We did it. Admittedly, we could not have done it without our dear, amazing Miss Kristin and Jaxson’s mom, Kelsey, and our student helper, Brittley, also helped, making it easy as pie! Thanks so much!

Thursday, we cut lots of circles and created an owl, the first of many Halloween decorations for your holiday pleasures. I am simply thrilled with how well these children are managing their scissors and cutting exactly on a line. They are making great progress.

September is rapidly coming to a close and Halloween is about to explode with black cats, and black hats and creepy black bats. Not hard to guess that next week is Black Week. We are very excited for the children to walk into a newly decorated room with Halloween fun everywhere.

We have been receiving lots of collectables for school. I thank you for those. They are invaluable for our projects. I feel to clarify the milk boxes on the list. I am seeking the large boxes that house two jugs full of milk from Costco or Sam’s, not the half-gallon milk boxes with the screw top. Thank you so much.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend, now that the weather is cooling a bit. The children especially loved a longer recess time. The cooler breeze was a delight and the children seemed to feel it, too, as they exploded with squeals and screams we had not the chance to witness until now. Aaaaaah! Maybe they were just rehearsing the sound of letter Oo! Ha! A nice thought, but I think not! Gotta love em, it’s in the contract! Until Monday! Wear black!

Red, White, And Blue. American Week!

Now, that my out-of-town family has just shoved off, I find myself in a nice quiet home to recap our American Week. This week is a favorite of many and I appreciated hearing it from several American-loving parents. Dusty, Walter’s dad, was especially vocal. Having lost his own dear brother in Afghanistan, he knows first-hand, the cost of freedom and the precious blood spilt to protect, defend and serve our country. I loved his expressions of honor and great meaning. I would just like to add my own feelings of love for this free country and reverence all those who have participated to help in this cause. May God bless this nation of ours.

In school, we talked about many who had fallen and had given their lives for each one us and even how the father of our country prayed to God at Valley forge and lead his troops triumphantly into battle, being miraculously spared, securing our freedoms.

We particularly made mention of 9-11 and the sad day in which we lost so many Americans due to the “bad” airplanes and the events that followed. Jace was very moved by this story and shared his brave, strong feelings on the matter, “Well, I would just kick ‘em in the nuts!” This incited many to share their own tales of bravery. Ha! Don’t mess with this crowd! I wish I had written all of their threats and promises down, along with who may have made them, but honestly, I was still giggling about Jace’s initial statement! Thanks, Jace!

We sang and twirled in our American colors and everyone got to hold and wave an American flag while singing, “My flag, my flag, my country’s flag. I love to see you wave!…” We talked about Uncle Sam and what he represented and how he wants each one of us to love, serve, and protect this country. We talked about George Washington, the Liberty Bell, the parts of our flag and Lady Liberty. The children had fun coloring and creating red, white and blue patterns on the hat and bow tie for Uncle Sam. They did a fabulous job.

We also learned the number poem for 5 and found 5 fingers on each hand and 5 toes on each foot. The revelation of having so many things of 5 was an astonishing event. “Wow! That is so cool!”

Number 5 Poem:

A big fat five is flat on top,

go down and around,

then you stop!

We have been learning America, the Beautiful as our flag song ever since the beginning of school, along with its sign language. While loading Benjamin in his car, I overheard his mom, Brittny, ask him if he had learned anything about America. He broke out in song, “America! America! God sent His face on thee!” So darling! Thanks, Benjamin. You made my day!

Wednesday, we painted an American eagle on a flag and twirled and waved and sang some more.

Thursday, we made our Statue of Liberty hats and the children squealed with excitement when they discovered they could each go home with their own bright torch of a cup cake in an edible cone. 

At the end of the day, I asked them all what they knew about America. “The Statue of Liberty!” shouted Scarlett. “The flag!” shouted Drew. Mason E. said, “America!” Six more in rapid succession, “The Statue of Liberty!” “The Statue of Liberty!” “The Statue of Liberty!” again and again and again! Does anyone else know anything else besides The Statue of Liberty? Quinn raised her hand, “When an eagle flies, it’s an American one!” Perfect!

Our "Lady Liberty Torches" were modified by using a simple cupcake recipe in ice cream cones. You can find a great tutorial here!

Our Statue of Liberty crowns were made with a blue paper plate with star punches glued on the front and red and white triangles glued on the back. They turned out darling and each little crown had it's own personality to go along with it. Some had great repeating A-B patterns and others were goofy with all sorts of patterns. We loved the all! 

Here is a little snippet of the many activities that happened during our Preschool American Week! Leave us a comment below and show us how you celebrated America.

Shark Hat Tutorial

This is by far one of my favorite projects to do during our Blue Week at preschool. We try to implement all of the skills we've learned so far. Cutting on the line, gluing, and matching things together. So here is the fun tutorial to make one for your own little explorers.

 We start off with a basic triangle "newspaper" design hat. Need some help folding? Check out this similar tutorial here. Make it big enough for your ones head. Our's measured about 17 inches on the longest side. We then hole punched (reinforced with tape) and added elastic string.

This is the shark tail. You can draw your own similar one, or print out from the PDF below. If you print it on white, be sure to print two copies. Otherwise, just add another sheet behind and staple them together so you have two of the same cut outs as shown below. Remember don't cut the dotted line!

Next step is to glue the bodies to the shark "head" triangle hat. The dotted lines are designed to line up perfectly with the top of the triangle hat angle. Shown below. Begin gluing one to one side, and match up the other body on the flip side of the hat. Glue all loose pieces down.

The rest is pretty simple, just glue on the eyes and teeth. One eyeball on either side.

Finish off with the best part! TEETH! We designed the teeth to fit perfectly inside the triangle hat. Glue them on the insides of the hat and on either side.

Don't forget to put them on your little one's! We'd love to see how they turned out, post a comment below and show us how your recreated them!

If you need more blue week ideas, check out our whole blog post here for some more ideas including B-L-U-E songs!