Colorful Trees

Finger painting is so messy.  I think that no matter what happens, (insert disaster here), if you give a child yellow, red and orange paint then something beautiful will emerge.  The colors of fall. 

This is a repeat offender project.  EVERY September it returns.  Every year, the kids think that the leaves only go on the very tip of the branches.  " Remember, the leaves can go all over the top of the tree."  I tell them.  Something about September makes me want to fill the art wall with fall colors.  

It really did take some encouraging to get the kids to mix the paint colors together and make large colorful tree tops.   They did a pretty good job using "just one finger".  We are learning the letter Aa and the number one this week.

There he goes, making a big beautiful tree top! I really love this project.  It's fun to notice the changes happening around us outside and to talk and recreate these changes inside.

Splat, sploosh... swipe swipe swipe... 

The art wall looks great.  Preschool helps me to be productive.  It's a great feeling! 

Smudge took a break from his insane mouse catching to follow my every move for a couple of days.  He's so funny.  At naptime when I escape for about half an hour to read outside, he sleeps under my chair. 

Happy Friday! ♥♥♥

Spoonman by Soundgarden.  Now playing at Henle House.  For those of you who don't know about the spoonman, Artis, he is a local legend in Seattle.  He really does set up and play the spoons on the streets and has also performed live with the Seattle Symphony.  Youtube him! It's been a crazy week and I needed something like this.♫

Unexpected Friend

 A parent gifted us some tissue paper squares.  We use these for so many different projects, I am thrilled! 

 We looked for and talked about the color red yesterday.  The idea was to glue red tissue paper squares onto the apple on our worksheet.  Suddenly, there was a loud "BANG".  

This bird had crashed into our glass door. It was just laying there, dazed.  We brought it inside.  What else was I supposed to do with a dazed bird?  I just figured that everyone wanted to see.  Don't worry- nobody touched the bird.  

We did, however, create a grass nest and placed the bird inside.  Bird watched us work on our papers for a little while.  I could tell it was slowly feeling back to normal.  The kids couldn't believe we had a bird on the table. 

We couldn't do our work.  Bird was too entertaining.  I thought it might be best to move it outside before it found it's wings.  For once, I was grateful that Smudge wasn't around.  He missed the whole ordeal. 

We moved Bird outside.  It stayed in the "nest" for a couple of minutes.

He mustered up the strength to fly around the apple tree and then stopped here.  (Bad photo alert.. most of my photos are wrong lately.  I give up.)  I imagine that Bird was just saying goodbye, because it took off and was up and away right after this photo was taken.  

Now we can finish our work!

Glue, stick, glue, stick.  We will continue this week to look for red items. 

Something a little more random for the babies. 

The kids spent a little while looking for Bird afterward.  Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Happy September!

 I did not get to blog yesterday.  It was the first day of school!  Things were a little mixed up- wrong bus, confusion and delay, long telephone calls with transportation.  It was a miracle that our first day of preschool actually convened.  Happy September!  It is the beginning of my favorite time of year.  I got out our scarecrow greeter. 

Fall decorations always make me happy.  Just a little touch here and there to let the kids know that the seasons are about to change.  

Our playroom tree has fall leaves now.

Some leaves are dangling above, too. 

The sticky leaf clings are in the playroom window.

The daycare bathroom is even dressed up!  My daughter and I made it to Bath & Body Works over the long weekend and we found some delicious fall scented soaps.  We have the "Warm Apple Cider" soap out for September.

Our kids were off to school!  8th grade, 3rd grade and 1st grade.  They all go to different schools this year.  It feels so strange.  My babies are scattered.  I love the look on Aidens face- not sure what he was doing. LOL

Preschool has begun!  We start with the letter Aa and the number 1.  Most of us are just learning to hold the pencil.  Some of us are able to write the letters and numbers.  That is the beauty of in home learning, everyone can learn at their own level. 

We provided coloring pages for different age groups.  I love preschool so much.  It feels great to be teaching again and I genuinely love group time.  I thank God each and every day for allowing me to be in this position.  Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

"We Built This City" by Starship.  ♫  Isn't Grace Slick awesome?  About 13 years ago I was having a bad day and took off alone.  I ended up at an Edmonds music festival and there was Grace Slick, singing her heart out on stage.  It was also my birthday.  Best surprise EVER.

Pet Rock

 I found these cute little match boxes and thought we should create pet rocks.  In a large supply bin of leftover stuff, I found some small rocks that we spray painted orange last year to create 5 pumpkins to be stored in small bags.  They were the perfect size for our project this time, too.

The kids chose a tissue paper square to glue into the box.  This is the blanket for rock. 

The next step was to add a small construction paper pillow.   Rock needs to be comfortable, you know.

Then it was time to choose a rock and add a face.  I love how kids think anything with a face is alive.  Almost immediately, kids were making their little rocks talk to each other.  This is cheap and easy fun! The little match boxes can be easily made out of paper.  Happy Friday!♥♥♥

American Girl by Tom Petty.♫  Enjoyed seeing Tom Petty a couple of years ago.  Of course, Eddie Vedder had to crash the show, why does he ALWAYS do that?

Foam Monsters

 When there is a project ahead that involves lots of small pieces, we use paper plates.  This time we had a foam monster magnet kit from Oriental Trading.  *Tip: The magnets that come in the foam kits from Oriental Trading usually DO NOT posses the strength required to actually hold the project on the fridge.  For this reason, I either keep a better supply of magnets on hand or tape the project to a stick instead, creating a puppet. 

These were really cute little monsters.  It sparked a conversation about whether or not monsters are real.  "Of course not." I replied for the hundredth time. ☺

Glue and stick, glue and stick.. easy squeezy!  These kids actually followed the picture of the project very well.  When making monsters, it can be especially fun to mix the pieces up a bit. 

Ta-da!  When the monsters were dry, we added a popsicle stick to the back of them.  

For the younger kiddos, a paper to color! I learned the hard way (isn't it funny how quickly we forget the eating habits of little ones just because our own kids have grown out of this stage?) that the little ones can only manage one crayon at a time.  They need to be handed one crayon and then watched constantly to ensure that it doesn't become a snack. ♥  Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

"Sunburn" by Muse.♫

Table Manners, Please

 Every snack and lunch time we usually end up mentioning table manners at least once.  "Please chew with your mouth closed" is a popular one.  "Please use your fork" is a close second.  Followed by "please chew and swallow your food before you speak."  I suppose I feel like a lunch and snack time table manners nazi at times, but I am truly hoping that some of it sinks in. 

"Elbows belong at your sides" is more difficult for them to follow, as is "inside table voices, please."   Table manners are important!

I love to see the kids learning things that are not in the curriculum.  Every day behaviors and manners are so very important.  Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

"Tick Tock" by Mother Mother. ♫

Finger Paint

I had a brain freeze the other day and there wasn't anything on my curriculum schedule except for the word "art".  I rolled my eyes at myself and then popped online in search of something to create.  Then it dawned on me- art doesn't always need to be organized.  Let them finger paint.

Everyone had their piece of paper on a tray.  I just squirted out different colors onto their papers and let them do the rest.

It's almost like a science experiment.  They paid attention to the colors as they changed with each swipe. 

Gotta love the bright Crayola colors. ♥

 Even the littlest one of our brood enjoyed the squishy paint experience.  Happy Tuesday!  We have a new little one here this morning. ♥♥♥