Preschool

The other day I started looking at preschools for Jordan to maybe attend, but was soon frustrated by how expensive they all are. $40 a week is not in the budget right now, especially for something that I felt I could easily do at our house for a minimal amount of money. So, after a week of planning and preparing Jordan, we started preschool today. Last week I spent a lot of time looking at websites and books coming up with fun ideas for our preschool. I came with a different theme for each week and got started on all the planning.

This week our theme is winter. Our art projects, songs, math, science, sensory activities, snack, large muscle activity and letter of the week will all have to do with that theme. I also bought a huge bulletin board at the D.I. to decorate each week and checked out a whole slew of books on snow, winter activities and animals that migrate or hibernate. I am excited! (If you can't tell)

Jordan had a lot of fun this morning and so did I! Sam was kind of in and out of the room, but he had fun when he was there. I came up with a transition song that when I start singing the boys know it's preschool time and run to their toy room to sit down. It's called Once There Was a Preschool (to the tune of Once There Was a Snowman--a favorite song in our house right now)

I sing:
Once there was a preschool
preschool
preschool
Once there was a preschool
Fun
Fun
Fun!
Meet at the table
the table
the table
Meet at the table to
Learn
Learn
Learn!

I was pleased to see how excited the boys got this morning when I started singing that song. They ran as fast as they could to their little table to start.


We started out talking about winter, playing our bulletin board game, singing a few songs and reading a book.

Then we made marshmallow snowmen.

For math we did mitten patterns.

Then we had a sensory activity with different white things in zip lock baggies, since the color of winter is white. This was the biggest hit of the day.

"Rice is crunchy and hard!"

"Soap feels smoooooth!"

"Cotton balls feel like a pillow."

I'm just happy with anything...

Then we learned the letter W, and made winter W pictures.

For science we mixed colors in spray bottles and then sprayed the snow outside.

I usually want to have a snack that they help prepare and that is healthy, but today I thought hot chocolate and candycanes would be a lot of fun!

We'll do preschool Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Everything lasted about 60 minutes today and didn't seem too long or too short. This will be fun!

If you're interested my two biggest resources for activities and art projects are,

notimeforflashcards.com
If you haven't ever been to this website and you have little kids, go check it out! It is awesome! We have been doing art projects on her website for over a year and they are all so creative and fun. We love the letter of the day, we'll be doing one each time we have preschool.


This book is fabulous! They have 67 themes with theme goals, bulletin board idea, music, fingerplays, sensory, math, social studies, large muscle, science, dramatic play, arts and crafts, field trip, group time and cooking ideas for each of those themes!