Happy Halloween!

Harvest greetings from our class! It was kind of dreary today, but here is a picture to make you smile.

Show & Tell Day #4

This was our last day of show & tell. (Yes on the same day as all of our Halloween festivities.) Today we had an elephant named, "Cupcake Sprinkles" and a dog named, "Jo Jo." We also had another gorilla from the zoo and Buzz Lightyear. What a great way to end our week. Happy Show & Tell!!!

Beauty Shop

I know you read this from me all of the time, but our classroom is amazing. Today, as we were working, our home living center was transformed into a beauty shop. It is fun for boys and girls - really!!! I love to see the creativity in these children. They have the most wonderful imaginations. I'm sure that you wouldn't admit it, but play time sounds fun AND if we occasionally indulged in this we would probably be much more productive in our lives. Take a moment to learn from these very wise boys and girls - imaginary play is good for your mind.

Special Friends

Today we had some special friends visit our class. My special helper came during the early part of the day to see the boys and girls. Marshall was all dressed up for a fun day of Red Ribbon week. (Middle school features special dress up days to help motivate the children to "just say no.") He really isn't an "army man" but this point was lost to the children. (I also did not even begin to address "Red Ribbon Week" because our lives are good and we don't have to make them sad by talking about drugs & alcohol.)
The end of the day was crazy with excitement as former students visited with us. One of our friends even came to read us two books. (Yes all by himself.) He is in Kindergarten but is already an excellent reader. He came to share his love of reading and show the children that they will be readers very soon. We also had other students stop in to say "HI." It is so much fun to see how much everyone has grown. I LOVE seeing everyone. It makes me so happy to see everyone continuing to grow in God's love - even if we aren't here sharing it with them. We always keep our friends in our prayers. (Okay - one of us isn't a former student - he is a brother - but isn't he adorable?)

Show & Tell Day #3

Day #3 and more to learn about the friends in our class. We saw a pirate ship, a unicorn, a special baby doll & a picture of a friend holding a pig. Don't you love show & tell? You can see from our faces that this is "the best." It is just so much fun to share something special from home.

Thank You God For The Sun This Day

After the rain this week, we were so happy to get to the playground. Singing, painting, learning and playing games is great - but we need our playground time. (Especially with a waning full moon and Halloween.) The balmy breeze was so nice as we ran and played with our friends. Thank you God for the sun who came out play!!!!

Pumpkin Bats

Our pumpkin project this year was really fun. This is something I have never done, but we transformed our little pumpkins into "bat" friends. We have been talking about bats, especially with "Vincent the Vampire Bat" from Zoo Phonics. The children had fun painting these little guys and adding their funny faces. Don't be alarmed, these bats are really nice and some are even girls.

Pumpkin Patch

It was a rainy day for the pumpkin patch this year, so we did a quick visit to select our pumpkins and returned to the classroom. Although there is an epidemic of "Halloween fever" we were well behaved. Even rainy days can be kind of fun at school.

Show & Tell Day #2

I apologize in advance for the picture quality. My camera batteries died at school and somehow my extra set was not in my camera bag. (Although my children deny it, I think they ended up in an I Pod this weekend.) These pictures were taken with my camera and I applaud those who have mastered the camera phone. Day #2 of show & tell was just as good as the first. We had a fancy Barbie car, a toy doggie that made real doggie sounds, a favorite race car & Iron Man.

Show & Tell Day #1

I love show & tell. (I mean I really love to show off my favorite stuff.) So it is no surprise that this was very big deal for us. Monday was our first day of real show & tell. The children did such a wonderful job picking something important to share with our class. Since we do not have weekly show & tell - these scheduled times make it very special. Each child was comfortable presenting their item to the class and this really is no small endeavor. There are 14 little faces watching - so they deserve lots of praise for their public speaking skills. Stay tuned for more show & tell.

Fall Weather Is So Nice

We have so much fun on our playground - especially when the weather is so beautiful. The temperature is perfect for playing outside. We love to enjoy God's creation!

Yes We Can Spell!

Even though we just started "Zoophonics," we are putting those skills to work. At the end of the day the children asked to play with the "Zoophonics" cards. You can see from the group picture that they were concentrating as they looked at each letter. Your children are so very smart - because you can see now (below) that they spelled "cat." Not a big deal to some - but a very big deal to me. This was totally child directed. If you haven't asked your child to share their "Zoophonics" with you - give it a try. We may have a "mini" open house soon to show you how it works.

Papa Hoover

Who can talk about fall without talking about scarecrows? Today we stuffed our scarecrow and had lots of fun. Mrs. Laurie brought "Papa Hoover" for us to use at the preschool. He is a real scarecrow used by her dad to actually protect his garden from those nasty crows. We stuffed him with paper (because straw was just too itchy) and will show him off during car pool next week. Welcome to Pilgrim Preschool Papa Hoover.

Have You Ever Tasted A "Push- Up?"

Push-Ups? They were a staple treat of my childhood, but really kind of rare these days. This was our snack for the color orange and it was a tasty treat. Some of us had never eaten a push-up - so the concept of pushing the frozen treat up and eating it was really fun. If you haven't enjoyed a push-pop lately - you should - it was great!

Playing Together

Much of our day is spent working, while playing together. There is a lot of learning that occurs while the children are in centers with each other - learning social skills. Here are some fun pictures of our classroom. It is a little louder than it looks because - 15 of us talking in classroom voices is, at it's very best, is loud.

O is for Owl

On Monday you should have a found a special treat in your child's bag. A friend did a project for the letter Oo and made one for each child. Here is the little poem that accompanied our owl gift:

There's a wide eyed owl with a pointed nose -
two pointed ears and claws for toes.
When he sits up in the tree & when he looks at you,
he flaps his wings and he says "whoo, whoo."

Thank you to our friend for this fun, fall treat.

My Best Work

One of our class sayings is "always do your best work." Well this person did their very best work and deserved to have a special post here on our blog. While some of us hurried and maybe didn't take our time, he stayed right on track and did super work. Amidst center play and friends coming and going he excitedly counted and colored his pumpkin booklet. Great job to our friend.

Helping Others

We are such good friends in our class and love sharing our talents with others. Some of us are even learning to tie shoes. This is a great picture of two friends working together. My favorite thing about this picture is that we are learning that it is okay to accept help from others and to say "thank you." God is so good. This is the perfect reminder that everyone needs help sometimes and usually when we need it - it is sitting right beside it. Thanks friend.

Whoo? Whoo?

Do you recognize "who" this is? These are our beautiful owls and we had so much fun making our masks. There is also a cute song that we learned about the little brown owl. If you haven't heard it yet, ask your child to share it with you. It is really silly, but quite catchy. We have all been singing & humming it all around our house. (...la, di, da, di, da....)

Another Community Helper

We met another community helper - a pediatrician. This is usually a person that we are not so joyous to visit - but she taught us all about her job and let us see all of the instruments she uses to examine us. It made us feel much better about going to the doctor. She talked to us about staying healthy during cold season and taught us how to cough & sneeze safely. (Right into the bend of our elbow.) Thank you to our doctor friend for calming our fears and bringing the really fun treat bags.

Gran Suka

Today we had a visit from Gran Suka. She came to visit from California and we were so happy to meet her. When we get to the letter Gg we will celebrate all grandparents and invite them for a quick visit with us. It is so much for the boys and girls to introduce their loved ones to their classmates.