Best Day Ever

 We had the BEST day ever yesterday.  I already love my job, but days like yesterday happen and my happy meter shoots to the moon.  The weather has been stunning.  Cool and crisp with sunshine.  This is perfect nature walk weather! We have been talking so much about the colors of the leaves.  We thought we should take a little walk down the street to see my favorite tree.

Off we went!

Walk... walk... walk... we don't all go to the bus stop the way we used to, so it's not as easy to keep these kiddos walking in a nice line.  It's so helpful to have Adam in front while I bring up the rear.  See the tree?  It's just a one minute walk to it from our house. 

We got right up underneath it to get a feel for just how large this tree is.

It's a majestic, beautiful tree.  

I love to walk underneath it and notice the changes with each season.  We were noting the color of the leaves.  Mostly green, right now.  We will return in a couple of weeks to see if anything has changed. 

My photos do not capture the enormity of it.  We felt like ants. 

I was happy that the kids really looked at it.  

Then we found leaves on the ground. 

On our way to the giant tree, we noticed a smaller tree that was turning red.  We hopped on over to see it up close.  Both trees belong to the church at the end of our street. 

Look how beautiful it is, all dressed in red! 

There were not any leaves on the ground, so we picked one to look at. 

The kids knew where they were.  Behind those trees ahead, is a park.

We enjoyed the rest of our morning schedule at the park.  It was the BEST day ever.  Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

"Best Day Ever" by Spongebob. ♫

♫Leaves Are Falling♫

"I wonder what is hiding inside the treasure box today.  Here's a clue.. it grows."  We love to use the guessing treasure box.  This time it was filled with fallen leaves from the bus walk.  I tried to pick out a couple of different colors. 

It sparked a song! In the grouptime basket is a stack of tissue paper leaves lined with wire that we use to sing our song with.  To the tune of Frera Jaques:

♫Leaves are falling,

Leaves are falling,

On the ground,

All around,

Red, yellow and orange,

Many different colors,

To be found,

 To be found!"♫

They sing and wave their leaves around until the end when...

They have fallen to the ground.  

It's the perfect song for our two weeks of  talking about and looking for the color red. 

We read this library book.  The kids enjoy pointing out the red items.  It's a very cute book, too.  The chicken is in love with the red truck and accidentally goes for a ride in the back of it.

Meanwhile, my Great Great Grandmother is gracing our fridge.  I have been learning some interesting things about her from my grandma.  My mom looks just like my great great grandma. (Her name was Inez Duncan.) She was very particular and had her clothing made just for her.  She would never wear anything store bought.  She was very severe with the kids and a rowdy bunch would be calmed immediately by her warning, "Once now..."  I think I like her.  I would've enjoyed meeting her.  I'm so glad to have a photo!  Happy Wednesday!  There is a cat in my lap- what to do now?♥♥♥

Repeat offender here, but I love the video and the song.  "Welcome Home Son" by Radical Face.♫

This And That

This year I decided to staple the flannel board to the wall instead of folding it up and putting away every day.  This is so much easier! We are working specifically this week on the sound of Aa. 

Back to the worksheets!  The kids pointed out and colored the pictures of things that start with the Aa sound.

After a summer of slacking off big time- several of us needed reminding about how to hold a crayon and pencil correctly.  I know that some people hold them differently, but I can at least aim them towards what I think is the most efficient way.  "Pinch" I remind them, it helps.   Once they get control over that they can work on the actual act of coloring. 

Meanwhile- this is just too cute not to share.  She is so happy all of the time. ♥

Adam and I are breathing a sigh of relief this week because Chippy has returned.  We hadn't seen him in quite a while and were getting worried.  Then last week when we popped over to a park behind our house, we found an injured and suffering squirrel.  We really thought it was him.  I balled all of the way through making lunch because Adam had gone back to "take care of" who we thought was our beloved Chippy.  I felt so stupid for getting so worked up over a squirrel- but I really do love his antics.   Thankfully- I don't know how- the kids didn't have any idea that anything was going on.  Then yesterday or maybe the day before- Chippy showed up on our porch.  I felt so much better!  Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

One Red Apple

 Friday is our review day.  We summed up the things we learned last week by creating One Red Apple.  I keep a supply of stencils that were cut out of manila folders in my curriculum book.  It saves me so much time to just whip out the stencil to trace onto paper without having to search the internet and print one out.

We used Q-tips to paint our apple red.  I chose the Q-tips because I wanted the project to take some more time.  

When the kids finished painting, they glued on a stem...

..and a leaf.

One red apple!  Happy Monday.♥♥♥

"Pressure and Time" by Rival Sons.  These guys are rockin'.♫

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.