New Additions

We have three new additions to our classroom.  We now have goldfish as our class pets.  Before we got them, Easton's parents came and talked to us about the fish they have in their aquariums and how they care for their fish.  Tony even made a video, so we could see the fish in his tanks.  The children suggested names for the fish, and then we voted.  The names of our fish are:  Melvin, Naz and Princess.    I think "fish feeder" has become our new favorite job in the classroom.

Read Across America

     We celebrated Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss' birthday by having guest readers come to our class.  High School students read Dr. Seuss books to the morning class.  The third grade class chose books to read to the afternoon class.  The preschoolers enjoyed the time with the older students.

Swan Visit

We had a special visitor come to our classroom.  A trumpeter swan came to see us.  The preschoolers were amazed at how big she was and they got to touch her feathers and web feet.  She even made the trumpet sound for us.

FFA Week

During National FFA Week we had some students come down to our room to talk about dairy. One of the things we talked about was how cows make milk and other dairy products.  They shared homemade ice cream with us as a special treat!

Valentine's Day Parties

We celebrated Valentine's Day a day early because of a professional development day on the 14th.  The preschoolers had fun making owl boxes for their Valentines.  They were super excited to learn that they would get to take them home full of candy and cards from their friends.  Thank you to the moms that helped with the parties.  We had a great time!

Post Office Visit

This month we have been learning about mail.  We have been making "mail" for our friends in the writing center.  We have a post office set up in the dramatic play center where the preschoolers can buy stamps and mail their cards and letters.  We also made Valentines for the parents and went to the Newell Post Office to mail them.  The children got to see where the mail is sorted and cancel their own stamp.  We thank Rick for letting us visit each year!

Pajama Party

We had a lot of fun learning about the letter P.  We wore our pajamas to school and brought pillows and pillow pets.  We ate popcorn and drank punch for snack.  We watched a video about a shark that needed something that started with P to help him sleep.  The highlight of the day was having pillow fights.  I think you can see by the pictures how much they liked the kids vs. the teachers pillow fights.  :)

Animal Program

Katie, the Buena Vista County Naturalist, visited our class room to teach us about animals.  She taught us about mammals, birds, fish, insects, amphibians, and reptiles.  She brought examples of each type of animal.  Some of the animals were alive, which the children really enjoyed getting to see and touch.  We thank Katie for providing these programs for our classroom.

Christmas Parties

     We had our Christmas parties before we left school for break.  Thank you party committees for the such a great time.  We ate yummy Christmas treats, played some really fun games, and opened presents.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Gingerbread Man

 
     We spent the month of December involved in many activities around the story The Gingerbread Man.  We read many different gingerbread stories, made gingerbread ornaments for the tree, did some gingerbread math activities, made our own class book, and the best part....made gingerbread cookies.  We were really surprised when we went to get our cookies out of the oven and they were GONE.  They had us chasing them all around the school (good thing they left us notes).  We finally found them back in our classroom.  Good thing we caught them because they were yummy!