The Countdown is On

Ahhh,  there is nothing more calming for a teacher than the week leading up to a major holiday.  Except maybe a hurricane klaxon blaring under the bed after a really long trip to the grocery trip.  There are seven days left until Halloween and I already know who is going to be Ninja Turtle, who is going to be a princess, and who is going to be a tiger. 
Halloween is one of those traditions that is really full of hype and anticipation and then has a sugar-infused melt down for days after. 
I think I'll put on my go-to costume....Tired Mommy.

Stay Off the Mountain!!

Really, I am suppossed to keep four and five year olds off a mountain of mulch?!?!  Okay, we will all try very hard but it is so tempting....
Anyway, we did talk about the mountain of mulch (which will disappear sometime before Monday).  We know we can't climb on it because we might fall, we might get buried, we might get hurt...What we don't know is how did it get here!!!! After some brainstorming here is the list of possibilities we came up:
40 dump trucks, 10 dump trucks, some dump truck
10 dumps and some shovels, a tractor
some people working together, Holy Moly!!
maybe a puppy, a gigantic puppy
(they do like to dig) or JoJo
or maybe just a run of the mill stinky truck
In all fairness, JoJo likes to dig as well.

It's Been a Few Days

I apologize that it has been a few days since my last post.  Life has been catching up to me.  Your children are still being awesome little White River Kids. 
We went on a Leaf Hunt yesterday (despite the fact no one showed up with a hunting license).  I did get some good reasons why.  "Mommy couldn't get to the store"  "I forgot it at home"  "The store didn't have any more".  Anyway, we managed to evade the park rangers, maybe they are furloughed, and everyone collected two leaves of different colors.  We returned to the classroom and charted our results.  One color dominated, maybe it is a little late in leaf season.  Ask your child what color fell off our chart.

Spontaeous Combustion of Sleep?

So, we were outside today in, you guessed it, the middle of nowhere, when I looked around and saw a child laying on the ground kind of curled up.  As I got closer I could hear snoring!  I asked her friends to please be quiet that their friend was asleep. A few minutes later I looked around and two more kids were snoring in the mulch.  It was an epidemic!!  Your children would be running and giggling and then they would be snoring (and giggling).  Some of them may need a good shampooing tonight.  We started an apple project today with water and lemon juizzz.z.z.z.z.z.z.

How Many Hippopatamaseseses Do You Have?

You may have heard of the gigantic turnip by now; it was humongous, it was large, it was ginormous!  and it took a whole farm load of animals to pull it out of the ground.  We have been counting those animals using 10-frames this week.  I handed out bags of different animals to a group today and then we proceeded to fill up our frames and check our count with each other.  We did pretty good with the geese, the pigs, and even the mouse.  But when I asked how many hippopatamuseseses they had, all I got for answers were giggles and guffaws.  You might want to check for large grey animals at home.

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

One of the biggest advantages to preschool attendance is that the students get exposure to the school routine.  Our classroom runs on a routine, both for the benefit of your children and for my sanity. 

Some examples of how great these routines have become second nature to your children are as follows:
One little boy says goodbye at the door, comes in and takes off his backpack, washes his hands and finds a teacher to read the sign in question to him, and then sets off to find a friend to hang with.
One little boy sits on my blue stool with the poetry book in his hands and starts to sing the meeting song.  (I have to nudge him off when it's my turn)
After the two minute warning is given with the light flip, one little girl cleans up, puts away her ticket, hangs up her necklace, and is the first to be sitting for meeting.
One little boy watches the fourth graders go inside from recess, raises his arm, starts walking backward and yells "preschool line up".

There are times when Mrs. Paronto and I sit back, look around, and smile at the confidence and growth that is exploding all around us.

A Fine Fall Friday

I love running in to my kiddos at places other than school, it kinds of freaks them out.  My family and I headed over to Storrs Pond to enjoy a Fall Festival that I heard about from one of my kiddos.  After parking and walking(and walking some more) we made it down to a field full of cool looking things to try and play and eat.  We bounced with Finn, got French fries with Rachel, chatted with Owen, and stood in line for ice cream with Ella.  It was a great way to start the weekend.

The Middle of Nowhere

Recess seems to be the favorite part of the school day for many children and now I must agree.  Four and five year olds work hard at their play.  Some of the kids in my class have invented a running around and searching for dragons (and other fairy beasts) game that involves following maps that are "written" on their hands.  One boy comes running up to me, shows me his "map" and says "we are in the middle of nowhere!"  I asked him if it was safe to go visit the edge of nowhere.  He said "yes, we can go there, too".  I'm glad we have that option.

And We Did Not Get Lost

Today was The Pumpkin Trip!!  22 children, 8 adults, and 1 bus driver made the trip out to River View Orchards today and had a grand old time.  We ate our snack at the dew covered picnic tables, saw apples in crates and pumpkins in crates, said hi to two dogs, and found, wait for it, LEAVES!!
Some of us saw Dr.Speigel who was there with his this-year's-class. He gave out hugs and high fives.  
Before we pulled a Peter Piper, we entered the corn maze...and we all made it out!!!!  I was walking near the end of the line with different children at different paces.  One little friend was so excited when we made it back to the flags that marked the entrance...."Mrs. Trombley, we did it and we did not get lost"  (we didn't use a GPS either)

43 to the ceiling!

In another effort to encourage some mathematical thinking, we put out the number peg boards along with a few more than 43 pegs.  I know this amount thanks to the hard work one of the boys did.  He started by stacking the pegs on tops of each other and then used a stool to reach higher.  At about 27 pegs, we had to move the tower to the stool.  After a few more pegs, we moved to tower to the floor and the boy to the stool.  Once we hit his height this way, he decided to move the tower back to the table top and I started stacking pegs.  By this time, two other boys had joined us and they all took turns handing me pegs to stack.  When I thought we were done, my original mathematician suggested I stand on the stool and we could continue.  At 43 pegs we had reached the ceiling. 

Did I mention we had to count the pegs after the addition of each new one!!!

Like I said in the title, it takes 43 pegs to reach the ceiling.

Plum Crazy

Today was fresh fruit day at school and we got a bucket of plums to enjoy.  They were passed out at snack time and we talked about their color and taste.  Of the ten children who were given this fresh opportunity, three did not like the plum, five did like the plum, and two chose not to try it.
Speaking of plums, I covered the morning class while Mrs. Berman was at a training and I had a blast.  While we were at recess, two of the girls ran up to me and said I was crazy.  Ahh, it's good to be among those who understand me the most.

Funny Cakes

So...we followed the recipe for Bunny Cakes and had a grand time making inedible funny cakes.  We talked about how the ingredients felt, what the mixture looked like, and what the dough smelled like.  Some of our cakes went home for baking and some will be baked by Mrs. Berman.  I hope no one comes in tomorrow saying they have to stay home sick because they wanted to find out what their cakes tasted like!!

What's That Smell?

Today was a smelly day!!
It started with a chart entitled 'What Does It Smell Like?' and ended with answers like vanilla pudding, sour-y, and poop (we are preschoolers after all).  The real three smells were vanilla extract, cinnamon extract, and almond extract.  Of course I couldn't smell any of them thanks to a "sports injury" several years ago.  Check back tomorrow to find out about our bunny cakes.

Counting Backwards

Mrs. Berman and I have been doing a lot of work with your children regarding rote counting, one-to-one correspondence while counting, and counting on (start counting from a number that is not one).  Today the AM class did some activities centered around counting backwards.  They started with ten and counted down to zero and then instead of Blast Off! they yelled Line Up!  Mrs. Berman asked one particular child to count backward, and so he did; while walking backward he recited his numbers.  Ah, the innocence of a child is a wonderful thing.

Look Boss, da plane!!

We have started our third week studying our five senses and have had some interesting conversations about tastes and smells particularly.  Today we had an indoor sound hunt in which we heard people walking by our classroom, other children talking, and traffic noises through the window.  For comparison, we also had an outdoor sound hunt in which we heard a plane. There were actually lots of other sounds but that one jet engine captured everyone's listening attention.

Can we sing the No Song?

A few kids and I were sitting on the floor with some instruments singing different songs.  Of course we sang Jingle Bells and the Alphabet Song, those are always favorites.  One child asked if we could sing the No Song.  I told her I didn't know it and asked if she could sing it first.  The melody and rhythm were familiar but the words were a whole new twist on a classic:
E-I-N-B-O
E-I-N-B-O
E-I-N-B-O
And that's how we know to say no.

Always keep a tune in your head and a smile on your heart.  Have a great weekend!!!

How Do You Know?

Mrs. Berman and I are trying to encourage our kiddos to meta-cognate so a frequently asked question in our room is "How do you know?"   While counting the days of the month, we'll ask "How do you know 19 is next?" Kids playing at the water table who are talking about the temperature of the water are asked "How do you know it is going to be cold water and not hot water?"
Metacognition is thinking about your thinking and learning about how you learn.  It is a very valuable skill that all of to practice.  And it's pretty fun to see the looks on their faces as they try to figure out exactly how do they know that ice in the water is really going to be freezing.

Picture Day Rocks,

     Ah, today was picture day.  For parents this is a day of picking out the right outfit; for preschool students this is a day where snack happens a little bit later, and for us teachers this is the day when we see those squished lipped, scrunched up eye, "do not giggle" smiles that we will all enjoy so much every time we look at them.
    My kiddos traipsed down the stairs and through the cafeteria full of fifth graders in a perfect line of four year olds.  Then we turned around and went back to our room because the photo line was running late.  We had our group shot taken in our room and then we went back downstairs and through the cafeteria, this time not quite so full of fifth graders, and gave the photographer our best squishes and scrunches.
    In case you're wondering, the final count for our Making Memories tour was 6 hallways, 9 doors, about 24 stairs, and 2 tissues.  We rock!!!!