Little {RED} Hen Week {ONE}

Our days were cut short for Red Week because of the holiday, but we managed to fill them up completely!

We wore red, we spelled red, we sang about it, we twirled in it and we named everything we could think of that was red. Jace said fire trucks were red. Chance said, “Strawberries!” Claire said, Roses! Allison said, “Hearts!” Navy H. said, “Blood!” Trig said, “Our tubs!” Lincoln said, “Apples!” Ryder said, “Suckers!” Preston said, “My shoes!” And Avery said, “Santa’s Hat is red!” I like red! R-E-D!

Red Song (Are you sleeping tune)

I like red

I like red

R-E-D

R-E-D

A firetruck is red

Lady Bugs are red

R-E-D

R-E-D.

We also learned the number 1 poem and practiced making a ‘one’ as we repeated it again and again. Have your child rehearse that for you. Your children are awesome!

One Poem

Find all our number poems and printouts here!

As the children came into the classroom on Wednesday, I instructed them to cut out a set of googley eyes and a beak. Trig asked, “What? We’re making a woodpecker?” It’s a red hen! He was funny because after he had completed his chicken face he asked, “How does my woodpecker look?” Ha! It’s a hen…like a chicken! 

Our red hen hats this year turned out so cute!

Added tissue paper for chef hen hats!

 Ahh! So cute!

I began reading the story of The Little Red Hen and I stopped to show the children what real wheat berries looked like. Everyone got a chance to grab a pinch of them. Some crunched them between their teeth. Some smelled them and some just rolled them for a time between their fingers as the story went on. When we got to the part about the miller, I turned on my wheat grinder and the children got a chance to see the grain pour into the grinder and hear the roar of the motor crushing the grain into flour. “Oooh!” Madden said, “It’s like magic!” When we finished the story, I pulled all of the flour out and asked, “Who will help me make the bread?” 

I have had several requests for the bread recipe we used for the children on Wednesday.

I am happy to share for anyone that is interested.

Red Hen Bread

6 cups lukewarm water

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup oil

1 cup potato flakes

Combine and add:

2 1/2 tablespoons yeast

4 tablespoons Vital Wheat Gluten

2 tablespoons Dough Enhancer

10-12 scoops of freshly ground white wheat flour*

10-12 scoops bread flour*

1 tablespoon salt

1/3 cup chia seeds

Add enough flour to make a nice firm sticky dough. *(totalling roughly 8-10 cups of flour)

Knead in Bosch (or mixer) for 7 minutes

Place in greased pans

Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees after raising in pans .

Yields: 4-5 regular loaves or 12 -15 small loaves

We made two batches simultaneously with two Bosch machines. 

The room exploded with eager helpers. Everyone got to help scoop up the beautiful warm flour and dump it into the bowl or add another ingredient. We watched it churn and churn. Then, each child with a bib on, took a seat at the worktables and held out their little cupped hands to have us spray them with oil. Oh, how I wish you could have seen the excited faces, twisting and shaping dough to fit into pans. Adorable! Trig said, “It looks like a person lying in a bed!” Jace said, “It looks like a baby!” Trig said, “Yah, only sticky!” Ha!

The bread rose and baked just in time to whisk it from the hot ovens to load into bags to send home. They donned their hats and marched happily out the door with their fresh loaves of bread like a parade of proud bakers with something to squawk about. It was a great day!

  

Too much fun with these crazy chickens!

The next day, we talked about rectangles and identified many objects in the school that looked like rectangles. We glued red rectangles on a plate to create a beautiful apple masterpiece! They were just lovely. We also practiced our gluing skills, “Make a dot! Not a lot!” The children are getting better and better. I love the great progress they are making!

We played a game, Know Your Apples and we also read a story about a big sister and how well she could help out (as opposed to the unhelpful cat, dog or pig in the hen story the day before). We had a great discussion about how the children could help as well. Que said, “I could sing a song for the baby!” Jaxson said, “I could give the baby a ‘paci’! Nash said, “My dad reads us a book!” Great job, helpers.

Speaking of great helpers, Reagan was so sweet to want to help write Kaylee’s name beside her. She is so helpful, but I had to carefully back her off to allow Kaylee to have her own experiences. I hope all of you parents are doing the same, as your children work on their fun sheets. We are seeing a few names that are still coming back displaying expert parental writing skills, which makes it difficult for your child to write his or her own name at school. Breaking these colts also requires training a few fillies and studs in the process. Ha!

Next week is our American Week honoring 9-11 and celebrating our country and freedoms. We encourage everyone to wear red, white and blue, if possible. We will allow all of those to come to the treat line first.

We want to especially thank Mrs. Walters and Miss Jessica for helping with our hats this week. We could not have finished the baker’s “toque blanche” poof without them. They were spectacular!

Have a great weekend!

Much, much love and devotion,

Mrs. McClure

Miss Julie

Bug Week

We had a great bug week. It was so fun dressing up these little critters and watching them file out the door. Adorable. 

We learned a lot about bees and bugs and the children were able to get a lot of experience cutting circles for buggy eyes. They are all doing so well, cutting precisely on the line. I am so pleased with what I am seeing. 

Monday, the bee hats and bodies were so fun. The children had a great time planning and fashioning their faces, antennas and stripes “just so” to complete their bee. Twisted little faces of deliberation and satisfaction brought the room next to silent, as each toiled away. I always wish I could give all the parents a secret peephole into the things we get to hear and see. They are priceless moments. The best I can do is to try to capture what I can and report them here. We then sang another rousing rendition of “Baby Bumble Bee”. The children squirm and scream as I smear all of the pretended squished bee guts on everyone’s head at the end of the song, “It’s all over you! Ah, ha ha ha ha!” So fun! They beg to sing it again and again! 

The design for the bee hat was pretty simple as shown above. You can easily replicate it at home with some black and yellow card stock. 

 Teaching how to assemble the bee face and use tiny glue dots and not big gluey lakes. 

  

 Mrs McClure and Mrs Julie are always so helpful!

To assemble, we just stapled a few pieces of card stock cut long and
layered to make "stripes".

Our bee bodies helped teach "AB" patterns and how to use small glue dots.





We had so much fun with our busy bees. We love our bee hive friends!On Wednesday, we cut more circles and made a caterpillar face. We also linked lettered fuzz balls to create our names across the length of a caterpillar body. The children did a great job recognizing the letters of their own name and linking them together in the right order. Afterwards, we learned all about the process of a caterpillar spinning a cocoon and changing into a butterfly. 

Allison said, “I had one land on my head at the Butterfly Garden!” Taeya said, I saw a butterfly at my house!” Preston said, “I saw a butterfly in my flowers!” Que said, “Some butterflies are rainbow!” Rustin said, “I saw one at Lake Powell!” Navy said, “Caterpillars can turn into butterflies and make honey!” Eva said, “I saw a yellow one at camping but it went into the bathroom!” Josh said, “I saw a lot of butterflies at the museum! They have rules! No stepping on butterflies!” Lillian said, “I wish I could be a butterfly!” Lilly said, “I don’t want to be a butterfly! I’m a little girl and sometimes I’mscared of butterflies!” Trig said, “They don’t sting!” Navy said, “They just land on you. They’re nice!” Nash said, “I have seen butterflies on my dad’s truck. Miss Julie said, I have seen them on the front grill!” Nash was quick to rush to his dad’s defense, “But they’re alive!” So sweet! 

During our wonderful discussion, Cannon posed a question, “Why can’t zebras turn into butterflies?” So, I asked the children what they thought, and the classroom exploded with answers. Dani said, “There’s no stuff to make one!” Navy said, “They don’t have magical powers!” Kohl said, “If they turn into caterpillars, then they will turn into butterflies!” Avery said, “Zebras can’t spin and they can’t climb!” Trig said, “They don’t have the right stuff to do it!” Jace said, “They don’t have cocoons!” Madden said, “I think they turn into bees, but they don’t!” 

So, the next best thing about talking about caterpillars on Wednesday, was that the following day, our project was all about butterflies! The children had a great time gluing beautiful brightly colored pasta bows onto a page to display a colorful butterfly garden. They were all perfect masterpieces to hang up and adore, for at least a week! We ended with a butterfly story about Mittens, the Kitten, who followed a butterfly until he was lost. That completed our week. Next week is Red Week, but only after Labor Day, which is a day without school. We will plan to see everyone back on Wednesday, when we will learn the story of the Little Red Hen and crack some real wheat to grind it into flour and make our own little loaves of bread to take home. It will be a great day! We look forward to that. 

We hope you have a wonderful time with your families over the long weekend. We look forward to the stories and tales we will be greeted with as they return. We love our time with your perfect little children. Much, much love and devotion, Mrs. McClure And Miss Julie, too

Preschool Open House

Dear Preschool Parents,

We had a wonderful Open House to begin our week, meeting you all and your beautiful children, while putting faces and names together. We loved renewing some old acquaintances and even chased a few new ones around the room in order to get together, but all in all, it went very well.

Because of that chase, we geared up for the possibility of a difficult time ‘breaking in the colts’ but surprisingly enough, our first day of school went even better than expected without any criers or runners and everyone even managed to steer clear of the time-out chair.  Yeah! It was a wonderful first day, barring the terrible heat, which we waited in during pick-up time. Even a few minutes in that August heat was enough to melt us all! It will be nice when the weather eases up a bit. Our comings and goings went so smoothly. We appreciate your compliance and patience with our caravan ‘stay in your cars and move up’ system. It’s working!

This week, we learned about “criss-cross applesauce” and “the great honey tree” was christened properly by being occupied most of the time. Ha!

We sang songs, colored hats and strung necklaces with bright cereal rings. We learned to open and close our glue bottles, using only baby dots, placing our writing tools back when done, cleaning up our spaces, flipping our nametags and pushing our chairs in properly. We learned to take only one toy down at a time and put it all back in before returning it to the shelf. Next week we will learn how to make AB patterns with them. We are learning to say The Pledge of Allegiance and salute with our right hands before singing God Bless America. We will be learning sign language with that soon.

We learned where to place our backpacks and where to get them and how to put them on before leaving. We learned how and where to line up for treats, drinks, and going home, all in different places and times.

In the weeks to come, we will be zeroing in on listening skills, coupled with gluing, coloring and cutting skills, while celebrating how great the children are, how amazing their hands are and what they are actually capable of doing. I can’t wait!

We will be learning a letter a week soon, as we follow a bit of the Lippincott Method by beginning to read and write letter O, because drawing a circle is an easy movement for small hands and large motor skills. Those who have an alphabet book, please have your child get familiar with why each letter says the sound that it does. These are little stories that can help children remember letter sounds. My two-year-old granddaughter knows all of her letters and sounds because of this book. It is not a read-through book. It is a reference book with 26 stories. Chances are; your child will not be able to sit through more than 4 or 5 stories at a time. I encourage you to learn a few and then, play a question and answer game, ie: What do you know about letter H? (He’s tired.) What does he say because he is tired? (Huh-huh) or, What letter is tired? (H) What does he say? We do not need your book at school. Please keep it in a special place at home. It is heavy in their packs.

My hope is to have all of these letters learned, so when we introduce them, all of our children will be able to relate and contribute and more importantly, understand and retain them. You will be able to see which letters we will introduce in calendars to come.

That about completes our report of the first week. We hope to keep our ears to the ground and record all the fun things we might hear and do to keep you informed and entertained. If you have questions along the way, please feel free to email me. I believe communication between teachers and parents is so important.

I recall, as we sang our farewell song and hugged everyone goodbye, I breathed in a huge sigh of contentment, watching all those adorable children file out the door, all decked in their hats and their necklaces with big smiles on their faces and I thought to myself, “It’s gunna be a great year!”

Much, much love to all,

Mrs. McClure

And Ms. Julie, too!