One more week!

It's very difficult to believe that there is only one week left to our first semester! These 4 months have sped by! We had a wonderful winter concert last week. The children performed beautifully and even the papparazzi (parents with cameras) didn't scare them! Thank you to all the parents that helped with setup, cleanup, and donating goodies for after the concert!

The 3's class had a visit from Santa last week! They were awestruck! It was so nice of Santa to take some time out of his busy schedule to visit with our three year olds! Thanks Santa!

With the new year quickly approaching, I want to thank all of our current families and former families for devoting so much time to Coop and their children! Coop is such a wonderful place for children and the parents involved make the teacher's jobs easier! Thank you!

Welcome December!

Wow, it's December already! This is the time of year that makes preschool life sometimes difficult! It's best for parents and teachers/caregivers to remember that keeping to normal routines as much as possible is vital for children! It can be difficult. Whenever possible limit holiday excitement. I know this can be difficult. Does anyone watch TV? Holidays are all over the television world. There are parties, concerts, shopping, gifts, so much to do and so little time! Take the time for your children, it's so important!

The four's classroom is busy this month learning about rhyming through nursery rhymes and related activities. Each day a new rhyme is introduced and the activities that day center around the nursery rhyme. At circle time we identify the words that rhyme and we find other words that rhyme with the common rhyming word introduced. The kids are having a lot of fun doing this. It's OK if the word they rhyme is a nonsense word. The focus is on the rhyming sound and identifying it.

Today we did Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick. They identified all kinds of words that rhyme with quick and stick. We practiced jumping over a candle stick and other ways of getting over and around the candle stick. For art we made candles by painting a toilet paper tube white and sprinkling it with gold glitter. We glued the tube to a small paper plate and put in a red tissue paper flame. The candles turned out beautiful and can even be a great holiday decoration!

November Happenings!

November is flying by! Since my last post we've had a visit/demo from a local Tae Kwan Do studio. The kids loved it! It amazes me how they listen so well to the instructor during this enrichment activity. I also like how the instructor talks with them about stranger awareness. You can never talk to little about that topic with young children.

We also had an enrichment activity from the U of I's Vet med's wildlife department. They brought two owls and a hawk. The kids were very interested in them, but then one of them "pooped" and you should have seen the excitement. Come to find out that it wasn't "poop" at all but urine. Very interesting!

Our fundrasing event at a local department store was another great success! Thanks to our parents that pitched in and worked in the store and selling the coupon books! Coop couldn't be such a success without the parents!

Thanksgiving art:

Take a clear latex glove, fill the fingers with different colored tissue paper, fill the thumb with red tissue paper, fill the body of the glove with rice or sand and voila, you have a turkey!

Love this community!

Our school is very lucky to have a large, prestigious University in our community. Last week the four year olds visited the University's poultry barns. They had a great time learning about chickens, their eggs, and playing with baby chicks. The two educators, a husband and wife team, were extremely knowledgable about the chickens, and they were wonderful about educating at the children's level. A wonderful time was had by all!

The school's Halloween party was a great success! Lots of food, games, prizes, and costumes were enjoyed! It's always nice to see our student's entire families having a great time too!

We went to the zoo,zoo,zoo! How about you?

Wow! It's been such a busy October at Coop! The three's and four's classes went to visit the Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington this past Monday. We all had such a great time! The day began with gray, windy, and cool weather but it warmed up and became sunny as the morning went on. The sea lion and otter feeding was fun to watch! We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the park before heading back to C-U! Thanks to all the parents that helped on this trip! We always appreciate the extra help!

This week we'll be celebrating Halloween! It's hard to believe that we're almost two months gone for this school year! The Fall season always flies by!

A Zoo Book:
Though there are lots of great zoo books my 4's really enjoyed:

"The Zoo" by Suzy Lee

Zoo Song:

One Elephant went out to play,
on a spider's web one day.

He had such enormous fun,
that he called for another elephant to come!

Begin this with one child who walks around the inside of the circle of children, acting like an elephant is fun, he selects another child, who selects another child, and so on and so on and so on.

An easy Zoo craft:

Lion mask - Paint a paper plate brown, curl strips of yellow construction paper around a pencil, glue around the plate to make the lion's mane. When paint is dry draw on nose and mouth. Cut holes for eyes and attach to a tongue depressor. Very cute!

October

We've been learning about Fire Safety this week. I am always amazed at how quickly 3 and 4 year olds acquire and keep the knowledge of fire and its dangers. It is important to keep reminding them to not hide from fire but rather make their presence known (if they can't get outside) by standing near a window and yelling as loud as they can so that help can find them. They have a fun time practicing "Stop, Drop, and Roll". Our 3 and 4 year old classes went to a local fire department's puppet show and activities. They have such a fun time and really learn. The fire department does great job relating to the kids! Way to go Urbana, IL Fire Department!

A cute song to sing that helps kids learn about Stop, Drop, and Roll:

To the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

What do you do when your clothes catch fire?
Three simple steps to put out the fire.
STOP where you are,
Don't run,
DROP to the ground, and ROLL all around.
What do you do when your clothes catch fire?
Three simple steps to put out the fire.

An art activity: Fire Painting

Paint yellow, orange, red, and black on a piece of paper, use globs of paint, cover the paper with wax paper and rub. Remove the wax paper and see the fire!

A good book:

Barn on Fire written by Heather Amery and illustrated by Stephen Cartwright
Look for the little yellow duck hiding on each page!

New Year

The 2009-2010 school year is underway! We've been busy in all three classrooms learning about ourselves, our families, and our friends! This week we'll begin a unit on "Germs". On Monday the C-U Public Health's "Germ Busters" will be visiting our three year old and four year old classrooms. We'll continue doing the activities on keeping germs at bay the rest of the week in our classrooms. We'll learn about proper handwashing, covering our noses and mouths when we sneeze and cough, learn about the importance of sleep, exercise, and healthy foods in keeping germs at bay!

A cute book is "Wash Your Hands!" by Tony Ross

A cute activity is taking a small paperplate and having your child draw their face on it, trace around their hand and cut it out, attach a tissue to the hand and staple the hand to the plate so that when it sneezes, it cover the mouth!

A science activity to demonstrate how a sneeze lets the germs fly through the air:

Take two balloons, put some hole punch confetti in each, blow one balloon up and tie it off, leave the other balloon deflated. Talk with the children about the importance of "catching" or "blocking" the germs when sneezing and coughing. Blow up the the deflated balloon and hold a tissue in front of the opening, let the air out and the confetti will go into the tissue. Then take a pin and pop the inflated balloon and watch the confetti fly!