Monday, September 29th

Letter of the week “E”
Word of the day: Expedition (English) Estrella (Spanish)
Theme of the week “All About Me”
9:30-9:45 Opening Circle time. Opening song (“Good Morning/Buenos Dias”). Calendar time. How was your weekend? What is a “Weekend”? Introduce letter of the week & words of the day.
9:45-10:15 Center exploration: Color/trace letter of the week, Paint, Play dough, foam shape art, interview each child for the “All About Me” questionnaire. Take picture of each child to put on the questionnaire for that day. Hermit crabs.
10:15-10:30 Special project: Crayon Melting
10:30-10:45 Story time, “Shopping Expedition” and “Zen Shorts”
10:45-11:15 Wash hands/Snack time
11:15-11:45 Free play time
11:45-12:00 Closing circle time: Movement/stretching using the exercise step.
Today was a busy day. Lorien & Darius told us about their weekend, both participated in the Primary Program the day before so we talked about it amongst other things. Darius was eager to tell us that him & Papa went to the dumpster, while Lorien shared with us that she went hiking wither her Mommy. The children loved the special project, ‘crayon melting’. We used an electric griddle, and lined it with two 8x11” foil paper sheets. The children were very careful, thankfully, and had a great time making art. We even pulled out the glitter & some Q-tips to enhance their experience! The rest of our school day was filled with stories & lots of activity. The children played well during free play time & such it was such a beautiful day, we decided to having closing circle time outside in the backyard! We sung some songs while running around, did some stretching, and then used the “Step” to do some more stretching & exercising. Of course, Leilah & Vanessa were eager to join in on the fun!

Library Time, again. . .

Our wonderful disguises, Vanessa is a fairy, Leila is a rock star, Lorien is a Lady, and Darius is Mysterio Jay (I think!). We look so good undercover! Darius is trying to help Leila keep her wig on.

We're trying to get Leila to keep her wig on!

Perfect fit!

For free craft time Darius decided to observe the Hermies.

9-26-08

Circle Time, 9:30am: Sing opening songs (we need to start saying the Pledge of Allegiance). We checked out our disguises, went over D words and meanings. Found out what day it is, Library Day!

9:45am: Color in Journal, Free Art time: Lorien and Darius played with play dough, and Darius observed the Hermies.
10:15am: Wash Hands for snack time. We read A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle while the kids ate.
10:40am: Library time. I was looking for E books and found a dragon book I loved! I wish I had found it last week. The art was awesome! So here it is: The Dragon Snatcher by M.P Robertson. I read it to them after their time with the librarian. I think they liked it. And we discovered that Darius can spell Pokemon all by himself. It was an amazing day!

Feed the Birds

Farah Cuenca is brave!

Lorien's dumping ingredients into our bird feed mix.

Darius is mixing the lard into the mix.

Time to hang them up!

9-24-08

Circle Time, 9:30: Sing Opening Song. Share and Tell, Lorien brought her Deputy Badge that she got from the Home and Garden/Family Expo. Darius brought his Dump Truck, it carries dirt, sand and rocks. Then we went over the new English and Spanish D words (Delta, Dia) and what they mean. Figured out the date on the Calendar. Then they Colored D pages. I told them their Assignment for Friday was to bring or wear a disguise on Friday.
10:00 Free craft time: Paint, Play Dough, Building blocks, Train.
10:30 Feed Hermit Crabs, Darius got the food and Lorien did the water. Farah tried to get us all to hold the hermies, but we were a bit nervous about those claws!

10:45Science: We mixed bread crumbs, bird seed, crushed nuts, oats and lard together to form bird food cakes. The only problem was that lard melts. So after we hung the cakes up they melted. Darius scooped it all up into one cup. So now we need to find another way. Perhaps we'll do peanut butter next and see if we get better results.

11:30am Read 2 Books: Dreams by Ezra Jack Keats and Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
11:45: Wash Hands, Eat, free play.
12:00pm: Closing Circle time, reminded everyone to bring disguises.

It's D Week!

He really is having fun!

Very serious buisness!

Chillin' at snack time. . .

Yeah, they're done!

This is Darius' project. I would have had to dig Lorien's out.

9-22-08

9:30am Circle time: Sing good morning songs,Talk about date, Letter of the week, words of the day (Delta, Dinosaurio). Go over day on the Calendar. 10:00am Color letters in book and Spanish page.
10:15am Science: Talked about Fossils and how they were made. Fossils are made when a plant or animal dies and the mud around it hardens. The plant or animal or insect deteriorates. That leaves an empty space, which forms an imprint of a fossil. Sometimes that space is filled up with minerals that become hard rock, that’s called a fossil. I brought plaster mix and jewels and shells. This kids grabbed rocks from the yard. They had such a fun time stiring the plaster. And of course it got all over the work table! But I think the best part was puting the jewels in it. Lorien's shell was too buried in the plaster to work, but Darius' worked just fine!
Math: Work on adding and subtracting things. Have the kids go out into the yard to find rocks or sticks or leaves, bark. Write problems down on paper. So this kind of worked. We'll have to try again on Wednesday. . .
11:00am Exercise: We pretended that the rocks were lava and we couldn't step on them. It was fun to "explore". Darius led the exploration first and then Lorien got a turn. We played Duck Duck Goose. It was a little tricky with just 3 of us. Maybe we'll get the babies to help us out next time. I couldn't get them to stretch with me. Oh well! Too many things to do.

11:30am Read two books. The Dragon Nanny by C.L.G. Martin illustrated by Robert Rayevsky and There's a Dragon in My Sleeping Bag by by James Howe illustrated by David S. Rose. They really enjoyed both books. They asked questions and I'm pretty sure they used their imaginations to see the story. It was great!
11:40am Wash Hands and eat, free play time.
12:00pm Closing Circle time: Talk about assignment to bring something that starts with “D” on Wednesday. I read the following nursery rhyme and tried to sing Do Your Ears Hang Low and Down by the Station. They did not know the songs very well. I'll have to do them again on Wed.

Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John,Went to bed with his trousers on;One shoe off, and one shoe on,Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John!

Do Your Ears Hang Low?
Do your ears hang low? Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie them in a knot? Can you tie them in a bow?
Can you throw them o'er your shoulder like a Continental Soldier?
Do your ears hang low?

Down by the station early in the morning, See the little puffer bellies all in a row.See the engine driver pull the little throttle:Puff, Puff, Toot! Toot! Off we go!

Friday October 19th

Is was macaroni day. And Lorien pointed out that we forgot to do the Hungry Caterpiller puzzle. She loved it. I made the mistake of trying to help Darius with his macaroni structure, and he did not appreciate it. Now I know why you shouldn't "help" on the kids projects. They get very attached to thier own creativity. It was a great learning experience for me. We went to the library and had a great time searching for D books.

Wednesday, September 17th
9:30-10:00 Circle time- Sing “Good Morning/Buenos Dias” Review letter/words from Monday, introduce new words: Catapult/Comida. Sharing time, introduce special projects for the day. Read “Apples”
10:00-10:35- Make apple sauce together!
10:35-11:15 Free Play + Centers- Journal writing + free arts/crafts. Making crafty caterpillars!
11:15-12:00 wash hands/lunch/TASTE APPLE SAUCE!
We got off to a bit of a late start, but things really took off as we had such a busy day planned! As we had opening circle time Anne was busy peeling/cutting up apples. When the children arrived in the kitchen they washed some apples by using a sponge & tooth brush. They sure did a great job! Lorien found a “grub” on top of one of her apples! Some found it cute, I found it repulsive!
After they children were done cleaning some apples, they came over to the kitchen scale & weight out 3lbs of apples. They weighed a little bit over, so Lorien & Darius had no problem eating the extras to make weight! In fact, I couldn’t get Darius to stop eating them!
Making the apple sauce was a success, and we were eager to taste it- boy was it good- not good, GREAT!
Making the caterpillars during their free play time was time consuming, but the children were able to use some great skills while making them- they used scissors, painted, and threaded yarn through the holes, all with the assistance of Sister Stevens (THANK YOU!).
We had a good day.

Monday, September 15th

9:30-10:00 Circle time- review calendar days in English and Spanish, introduce letter of the week (C) and words of the day: Courage, Corazon. Introduce routine opening song, "Good Morning/Buenos Dias"
10:00-10:45 Free play+centers
10:45-11:10 Story time "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle
11:10-11:45 Wash hands/lunch time
11:45-12:00 Closing circle time- review letter/words. Sing "if you're happy & you know it"

Good morning/Buenos dias (to the tune of "where is Thumbkin")

Good morning, good morning

How are you? How are you?

Very well, Thank you

Very well, Thank you

How about you?

How about you?

Buenos Dias

Buenos Dias

Como estas?

Como estas?

Muy bien, gracias

Muy bien, gracias

y usted?

y usted?

Busy, fun day. Introduced the "Good morning" song, which will be our routine opening song. Anne kept the babies busy by exercising with them & having them eat...I mean "color" with crayons:) The children completed a caterpillar craft project and we read one of my favorites, "The Very Hungy Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.

Hermit Crabs

Day 5

Circle Time, 9:30am: We figured out that the date is Friday the 12th of September. We went over our words and letter of the week. Darius and Lorien remembered Bashful, Bombero, and Buho. Beseech is still a little elusive to them.

Hermit Crab Time, 9:45am: I spent some time going over the proper care and feeding of a Hermit Crab. We discussed his eating habits. What a habitat is, what an exoskeleton is and about molting. Lorien and Darius both got comfortable with picking them up by their shells. We learned that they pinch hard, and we shouldn't be too rouch with them. We found out that they like to hide. So we took the box that the crabs came in and cut a hole for the door and painted the outside. It was a great craft.

Free Art Time, 10:15am: Well, this was part of painting the box for the crabs. They did get to draw 'B's in their journals and I taught them how to draw Bee's. Darius didn't want to write 'B's but he did a great job.

10:30am: They washed their hands and ate. They wanted to play, but it was time to go to the library.

Library Time, 10:45: We all piled into our seperate cars and went to the library. Reading time was fun as always. I didn't get to observe the kids much since I had to take care of the fussy Vanessa. I forgot her blanket again! But from what I saw, both Lorien and Darius sang songs, did the motions to the librarians activities and listened very carefully when the stories were being told. They left nicely and got lots of books to read at home.

Field Trip ~ Class Room Pet

Day 4:

Circle Time, 9:30: Lorien, Darius and Anne sat in a circle and talked about the letter B. We found more words that start with B. Our word of the day was Beseech, meaning to beg. I think the work should have been beg. And the Spanish word was Buho which is Owl. Then we had sharing time. Darius brought a bag that he uses to carry everything in. Especially cars. Lorien brought her Barbie, and a butterfly finger puppet she got from Armstrong Grove. We then moved to the table (so the babies couldn't get in the way) and did math with buttons! I used flashcard with addition equations. They both knew all the numbers and made piles of buttons for each number and then counted them all together. They had a hard time starting on a number and counting from there. They had to start from 1 to be able to find the answer. We'll have to work more on counting, starting with a number other than 1, in the future.

Free Art time, 9:50: Lorien painted and made sure there wasn't any white showing (She had to leave it there 'cause it didn't dry on time.) Darius drew a picture on lined paper and cut it out to paste it onto construction paper. That also was super wet, so it had to stay on the counter to dry. They they got the play dough out!

Science, 10:15: We studied the different types of bark. Bark is the outer layer of trees. They took paper and crayons all around Farah's backyard and set the paper against the bark so they could rub the crayon on it and see the design it made. They had lots of fun. They found some trees that were rough and some that were smooth.

Reading, 10:30: Soon Baboon Soon, by Dave Horowitz and The Secret Science Project that Almost Ate the School by Judy Sierra Pictures by Stephen Gammell. We forgot to do the calendar at the beginning so we did it after reading time.

10:45: Wash hands, eating, free play time.

Field Trip, 11:30: We all piled into our own cars and drove to Petco. We looked at lizards, turtles, fish, snakes, hermit crabs, mice, rats, guinea pigs and forgot to go look at birds. After talking about what needs to be done for fish and hermit crabs, the kids finally decided on hermit crabs. We picked out water bowls and food bowls, new shells, and of course the hermit crabs. Lorien and Darius got to choose the ones they wanted. It was limited to the ones that came out and moved around! We'll keep you posted on whether they survive or not!

AS

First Science Experiment

BabyZilla attacking Leilah

Adding the Yeast

It Worked!

Day 3, 8-8-08:

Circle Time, 9:30am: Calendar, Letter of the week is B, Word of the week is Bashful meaning Shy, Spanish Word of the Day is Bombero which is a firefighter. The kids found LOTS of B words and keept shouting them out the whole morning! I wrote them all down as we thought of them. We counted bears and subtracted and added them to their piles. They did great figuring out the problems Anne gave them.

Free Art Time, 9:55: The kids colored their Bombero and Baker pages and copied all the big B's and little b's. Lorien and Darius did a great job! Then Darius glued paper together and put a tamp of a Panda on it. (He named it Kung Fu Panda). Then the kids both went to make play dough structures. They made birthday cakes and sandwiches. They must have been hungry!

Science, 10:45: We studied yeast. Anne filled water bottles halfway with warm water. Then Lorien and Darius pored in the yeast and sugar. Anne put the balloons on top. We learned that the yeast is a living thing. They grow and "burp" and that's why the balloons blew up. They were so excited that their experiment worked so well!

Reading, 11:00: We read The Brave Little Seamstress, by Mary Pope Osborne and Beach Day by Patricia Lakin

11:30: Wash hands, eat and play. Darius and Lorien played Pirates, while Vanessa and Leilah destroyed the kitchen with Farah.

Closing Circle Time, 11:45: We stretched, sang lots of songs that have B in it, like Baa Baa Black sheep, Little Boy Blue and Book of Mormon Stories. We talked about what we would bring that starts with B to share on Wednesday and found more B words to put on our B poster. All in all, it was a great day!

AS

Day 2!

9:30-9:45 circle time: Review letter of the week (A) and previous word of the day (Absorb). Introduce spanish pronounciation of "A" and coresponding word (Abeja). Introduce the new word of day (Aquaintance). Calendar time. Sing "Head, shoulders, knees & toes". Review centers for the morning. Sharing time!
9:45-10:30 Centers & Free Play: Color "Abeja" work sheet, journal work- draw a picture of something that begins w/"A", and practice writing the letter. Free time w/play dough (that we made during the previous class), paint, toys, reading.
10:30 Wash hands/snack time.
10:45 Off to the Library!
11:00 Story time @ the library: Check out books, obtain library cards for the children.
Today went very well, as expected! The children both looked forward to their 2nd day of preschool. Upon entering our home, Darius & Lorien put their lunch boxes in their cubbies & their items for sharing time on the bottom cubby.
Circle time went well, and both children were eager to share their items. Lorien shared an Alphabet book, and a can of Apple Juice. Darius shared an Anchor that he took off of our wall earlier this morning! Both children seemed to grasp the concept of the different sound of the letter “A” in the Spanish language, and pronounced “Abeja” very well.
When free play time came around, Both Darius & Lorien gathered around the play dough. Leilah & Vanessa were quick to join, and began nibbling on some play dough :)
Our first trip to the library was a success! Lorien and Darius did really well, and participated frequently. Lorien was so eager to sing the library songs & share her thoughts with the librarian!
After story time, we went to the juvenile book section where we all picked out books for the following week at preschool. We then obtained library cards for each of them. Boy were they excited to have their own library cards!
We look forward to our library trip next week, and I know they are excited to use their library cards again!
fc

The first day of school!

Lorien and Darius eagerly waited outside and put their lunch boxes away in their cubbies. Lorien had her huge Disney Princess backpack and lunchbox, and Darius had his hand-me-down lunch box from his big bro (he doesn't care as long as it's filled with food!). After putting their items away, they waited in line for me to open the door to their new Preschool!
Here is an outline of their first day, followed by a summary of the day:
Letter of the week : "A"

word of the day : "Absorb"(eng) "Abeja"(Spanish)
9:30-9:45 Circle time (getting to know you, going over the class room calendar, introducing the letter of the week and word of the day)
9:45-10:30 Centers + free play (Decorate the letter of the week, journal decorating, free play w/learning toys and art (magnatiles, blocks, painting, crafting, etc)
10:30-11:00 Special Project (making play dough)
11:00-11:15 Story time "Rooster's off to See the World" by Eric Carle
11:15-11:45 Wash hands/snack
11:45-12:00 Closing circle time (review Letter/Word, stretching, singing)
The children had a great time today. Lorien could be found putting her sweet arms around Darius intermittently- so adorable! When we made the play dough Darius wanted blue or red, and Lorien of course wanted pink or purple! They came to a compromise & decided on purple this time, and Darius's choice the next. We talked about how the flour was "Absorbing" the water to reinforce the concept.
Leilah & Vanessa had a good time as 'preschool observers', I am hoping to get Leilah's room organized one of these days so they can have another place to play:)

fc

Our Decision

So one day Farah Cuenca and Anne Stevens (me) were talking about schools. I mentioned that I was just doing stuff at home. Farah was concerned about finding babysitting during her volunteer hours for Darius's second year at his Co-op preschool, so we decided to do it together. We met one night to talk about what subjects we wanted to cover. We wanted to cover, reading, writing, science, math, exercising, cooking, art work, singing and of course their favorite subject- playing.
So Yesterday was our first day of school. Farah taught. We will switch every week. We are really excited to the possibilities for our children. They are so eager to learn and love to learn together! We'll be posting every thing we do everyday. We'll take millions of pictures and have loads of fun. We hope you all will enjoy this site and support our kids in their effort to learn.