Thursday, December 19, 2013

A former student makes the front page!

I had Kortney (the elf in front!) in preschool when we ran Rock Bridge Playschool many years ago :0)  I was so happy to see her on the front page of the paper today!  She will graduate this year...does this make me old??!  I love seeing what my students are up to as they grow up...

 Rock Bridge High School students give gifts to elementary kids in need
th_A01_presents_1219.JPG
Nick Schnelle/Tribune

Please see http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/education/rock-bridge-high-school-students-give-gifts-to-elementary-kids/article_4398c294-68de-11e3-9f39-10604b9f6eda.html for full article

Monday, December 16, 2013

Last day for 2013!

Working on matching number symbals with units, also ordering numbers

We will miss everyone so much - maybe we'll have a playday during our break so we can keep in touch, or even a mom's night out :0)  We're hoping to get to Florida for a few weeks as well, so when our plans are squared away I'll let you all know when our next session will begin.  Also - big news - Jamie Deters (Gigi & Zach's big sister) will be co-teaching with me next semester!  She is Abbie's age (19) & is very experienced!

Ok, on to the pictures....
My big Zach came today & brought some legos!  Zach D. has been requesting that he come, and also to bring legos - so here he is :0)  They were both a bit hit!

Lots of cooperative play as everyone is really getting to know each other better - love it :0)

Ruth came to visit today for the first time & did great!  She is Silas's little sister...and we were so glad to have Silas back for our last day, too - we've missed him!


Time to feed the birds - these are pinecones smeared in peanut butter & rolled in bird seed - Josie's has already been devoured by the birds at our house!

Gigi counting who is here today - we sing a little song at circle time as we count how many boys we have, girls, all together, etc.  Basic math & graphing.

Rachel & Mandolin

Everyone loved sound matching bingo - and these 3 played game after game after game, taking turns being the 'caller'



Ruth working with the geoboards

A trip to the free paper place over Thanksgiving break yielded some great new paper for painting!

All dressed up!

Just enough snow left for snowballs




the girls were so busy playing today I tried letting them stay inside w/ Abbie - they were still playing bingo!

It's Isaac the snow angel!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Oh, December....

Can you believe it?!  And to think my kiwi friends are missing their warm New Zealand summer so they can visit us!  Here is one of my favorite poems about December...

I heard a bird sing in the dark of December,
A beautiful thing, and sweet to remember.
"We're closer to spring than we were in September!"
I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.


Ezra getting into the block play - and with a new haircut!

These two work so well together :0)


The mermaids are being attacked by a fierce tiger!!  Thank you to Rachel & Isaac for sharing more dress ups!

Ian & his sisters Emmaline & Corin came to visit this week!

making stained glass with colored leaves


Emmaline squishes playdough while Mandolin works on her stained glass

Zach made a cool cave for his dinosaur - with some soldiers to guard it

May I take your order?

leaves blowing in the wind

mmmm, turkey sandwiches for lunch!  Just right for the week after Thanksgiving :0)

Ella has her first loose tooth...can you tell?


Next mitten coming up for Rachel!

Lots of large branches were down near the creek this week - and we had some awesome workers who just started doing clean up!  I made a comment about how strong they were - and Zach said, "That's called teamwork!"



That's Corin (Ian & Emmaline's big sis, age 13) helping with that huge branch

The new playground has been ordered - but these guys can find fun anywhere!  There was a little talk of the fulcrum under the teeter totter but mostly just lots of fun ;0)

It was just starting to spit rain when it started snowing cattail seeds!

Welcome to Jude Matthias!  He was born the day before Thanksgiving :0)

Big brother Silas & big sister Ruthie!  Hopefully they will be able to join us this coming week for our last day of prek in 2013!

Last session of 2013 & a kiwi visitor!

Our New Zealand friends are finally here - and their youngest daughter Laura came to help at prek this week!  She attended our mother's day out at Rock Bridge Playschool years ago in Columbia, and at 13 is now a perfect age to come help at Countryside :0)  She may come again next week if she is feeling better (a bit under the weather this weekend).
Miss Abbie, Josie & Laura painting a tree on our wall

Zach drawing a tree on our chalkboard

Grrrr...Isaac!

partner painting with Rachel & Gigi


Zach's tree

watercoloring some leaves that say what we're thankful for

soaking the watercolor paper for wet on wet painting

Ben is so much like his big sister Miss Abbie!  She always covered her paper with paint - no white showing!



mixing some color into our new playdough


our finished tree!


Josie requested we make volcanoes today - so out came the baking soda & vinegar & dinosaurs!

everyone who wanted a turn got to make 'hot' lava - we'll have to try the diet pepsi & menthos version for a larger explosion ;0)



Isaac & Zach have been loving the blocks the last couple of weeks - working so well together!

Deja vu for me: a former student reading to Josie....and Laura was Josie's age when I last had her at preschool....

a bit of Montessori!  Gigi got all the numbers in order & then used the Math U See counters underneath

Rachel working on her mitten some more



Josie & Gigi really got into drawing this week - Gigi did great with the step by step pictures!

Done!