Water Day, Tennis, and Clifford

Our First Water Day!
(June 16th)

Early Childhood Tennis Project

Clifford came and visited our preschool classrooms.

Camping Anyone?

For the next couple of weeks we are going to be discussing camping. We have already set up a tent in our dramatic play area. The children so far have pretended to be camping out and having picnics. We went on a nature letter walk, made a camp fire, made inside s'mores (golden grahams, chocolate chips, and marshmallows). We also went on a Bear Hunt and started to make lanterns. Here are pictures of some of the activities that we have done so far.

Letter Walk:

Starting to make Lanterns:

Making inside S'MORES YUM!!!

Family Picnic

Thank you to everyone who was able to come and participate at our End of the Year Family Picnic.

We enjoyed making fruit kabobs, eating sack lunches outside and playing on the playground. It was fun to watch the DVD of this years memories.

Thank you to all of the parent(s) for allowing us to spend time with your children. We will miss the ones going onto kindergarten and look forward to another year with the ones that we have for one more year.

Our doors are always open so come on back and visit us!

Planting and More Chicks

This morning we went outside and planted Sunflower and Impatiens seeds.
The children had a lot of fun.

Day 2 of the ChicksWe have a total of 14 chicks and still more to hatch. We got four chicks out of the box today so that the children could take a closer look.

Chicks Have Arrived!!

As you can see, from the pictures below, the baby chicks have decided to join the Firefly Freeway classroom. So far we have 7 chicks and three more whose shells have started to crack. We have a total of 36 eggs that can possibly hatch but we are not sure if they were all fertilized (which means that they won't hatch at all because there is not chick inside the egg).

The children came up with the following rules for the chicks.

1. Keep your hands out of the box.

2. Leave the light alone.

3. No toys inside the box.

Welcome!

Welcome to Firefly Freeway!  Here you will find updates on the classroom, important dates to remember, photos of activities we have done in the classroom and much more!  Feel free to leave comments and come back and join us here often!

(NOTE:  We didn't want to lose all our older photos and posts!  Below this welcome post you will find ALL the previous updates and photos.  Have fun taking a look back!)

Older Posts!

March 21-25
Sorry I missed a week!
It was nicer out this week so we were able to go outside.

Driving to get some soup
(too cold for ice cream)

Say cheese!

Watch out below!

Trying to stay warm in the house.

We love to swing!

We finished learning about the number 5.  On Friday the we made groups 1-5 using goldfish.  Then the children were told which number they could eat.

 

Important Days Events to mark on the Calendar

April 1, No School

April 12, Family Night at the

Bettendorf Children's Museum

April 22, Early Out 11:45

May 12, Petting Zoo at CV Hayes

March 14-18

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Throughout the week we have been doing educational activities incorporating a St. Patricks Day theme. 

We have read St. Patrick's Day books, learned and illustrated in our Nursery Rhyme journal The Leprechaun Song.

We have sequenced pictures using various sizes of shamrocks.  We use shamrocks, leprechauns, or pots of gold to make an AB or ABC pattern.  We also fingured out what color was missing in different rainbows.

Finding the missing color
in the rainbow.

ABC patterning



Sequencing from
smallest to BIGGEST



Sequencing from
smallest to BIGGEST

Sponge painting
Shamrocks

Sponge painting Shamrocks

Finding the missing color!

Finding the missing color!

We also had a Leprechaun visit our classroom today (Thursday). 
He left gold and gold objects for the children to find.

Evidence that a
Leprechaun was
really here!!

He left footprints
on the tables

He left behind his golden
kleenx box



A gold button was found along
with many other golden treasures!




































February 28-March 4

This week was read across America and my Firefly Friends were fortunate to have the Pirate Bulldog Beard come and visit us.  He was able to stay long enough to read the book How I Became A Pirate Melinda Long.

Prirate Bulldog Beard



Firefly Friends acting like pirates!
AAARRGH Mateys!









Four in a row



For Math we have been working on the Number 4.  The preschoolers grouped four objects in different arrangements.  Using popsicle sticks they made shapes that have 4 sides (square and diamond)

Four in a row





One in the middle and Three in a line

One at the top, Two on the sides,
and One on the bottom





This week we have been working on the Nursery Rhyme I'm A Little Teapot.  We acted it out, glued it in our Nursery Rhyme Books, and then illustrated the rhyme.



Pouring themselves out



Turning themselves into
a Teapot

February 22-25

We started an experiment with white carnation flowers and colored water.  The students put one flower in 4 different colors of water to see what would happen.  Take a look at the pictures to see what the children saw.  

 

In Handwriting Without Tears the children have been working the letter D.  Before they write in their workbooks they make the letters with wood pieces and the stamp and see screen .  Here are some pictures of the students using the stamp and see screen.

 

Have a good weekend!

February 14-18

Monday was Valentine's Day.  To celebrate we had Pajama Day and had a Friendship Celebration.  Ms. Megan Sones class joined us and made friendship mix.  Thank you to everyone who donated food for our mix.

 

We have been exchanging Friendship Cards with Ms. Teri's class.  The children have been delivering them and especially love to receive them.

 

 

The weather has been getting warmer, which means the snow is melting and the ground it wet and mushy.  So we are still playing in the gym.  Here are some pictures.

 

 
Ms. Katie will be gone Friday through Wednesday and will be back Thursday Feb. 17th.  Reminder NO SCHOOL Monday Feb 21st
Have a good Weekend!

  

January 24-February 4
(2 weeks including 1  2 hour early out and 2 snow days)
For Handwriting Without Tears we have been reviewing the letters C, O, Q, and U.  The children have been making them with wooden pieces and writing them on the stamp and see screen.

-For Literacy we have been talking about types of transportation.  We talked about different types of planes (planes that take us on vacation, jets, paper planes, planes that can land on water).
We also talked about trains.  The children explained that some of them rode the train at the zoo.
-For Math we are talking about patterns.  The students are good at patterns since our calendar has a different pattern on it each month.
-For small groups we started to work on: matching numbers, toys, and dots 1-5, making groups  of numbers 1-5, and mathching pictures with the
beginning letter sound.

Have a good weekend!

January 18-21

Thank you for everyone who was able to come to parent teacher conferences. I appreciate the time you took out of your busy schedule. 

It was nice to talk with you about your child; they are all making great progress.  If you were unable to come, I hope to talk to you at the May conferences/home visit.

This week we have been working on the number and quantity 1-5.  We made the groups, counted objects, and worked on more and less.

We started back into our Nursery Rhyme Book.  The children practiced "reading" Row, Row, Row, Your Boat.  Please remember to bring your child's book back every Monday!

For Handwriting Without Tears we practiced tracing and writing the letters U and C.

Here are pictures of some of the things that the children like to do during
center time.
Ms. Katie will be gone on Monday.  So have a great weekend!

January 10-14

For literacy we have been learing about our Community/Neighborhood and Community Helpers.  We were fortunate enough to have an Author, Julia Cook, come to CV Hayes/ Hayes Elementary and read the preschoolers some of her books.   

This week we have also been going on a letter and number hunt in the classroom.  The children go for a little walk in the hallway while a teacher hides the letters or numbers.  The chidlren then come into the room and the letter or number hunt is ready to start.  Once they had found one letter or number they came back to the carpet and told me what it was.

Have a great three day weekend!