STORMY - OUR NEW FRIEND

 October is adopt a shelter dog month, so to celebrate, Stormy came to visit us for a couple of days. I volunteer with Coastal Pet Rescue (CPR), and Stormy is my current foster dog. She is about 8 months old and is a great little puppy - all 4 1/2 pounds of her! 

 Teaching the children how to properly meet a dog is very important and could prevent injury in the future. I feel this is a very important skill. Having a non-threatening dog in the classroom also helps children who have a fear of dogs.

 Stormy loved the children and gave out lots of kisses.

The children were great about waiting for her to come to them and then being gentle, petting her on her back and not on her head (as some dogs don't like their heads touched). Stormy even helped supervise the children during project time.

 Stormy will definitely be back to visit us soon.

 What are we doing here? Practicing our "HUG and BUBBLE" before we walk down the hall. Having a hug and a bubble allows us to walk quietly with our hands to ourselves.

 

 And of course, we couldn't go a week without working on projects. We've been trying to catch up since so many days were missed due to Matthew. We've been painting and glittering and working the small muscles in our fingers!

SPECIAL SCHOOL DAYS

Every Friday we go into Mrs. Jen's room (the 4 year old class next door) and have music with Miss Rebecca. We love singing and learning new songs!

 

We look like animals in a zoo. What are we looking at? 

  A colorful parrot!

And a wonderful tortoise that weighed more than most of the children! 

                                        

 You never know who will come visit us at WIPP! There are always special days at preschool!

CREATIVE DESIGN AND THE MOON VISITS THE PLAYGROUND

 At school, we play with many different kinds of building blocks. These types of toys are wonderful as they allow the children to design and build their own creations!

 The moon came out to visit us on the playground one morning and the children loved it.

 It almost seemed to have a calming effect on some of the children as I found some of them sitting and taking a "rest." Believe me, THAT never happens during our mornings at school! 

Some of the children took it a step further and decided that if the moon was out, than they should be lying down!

 And, of course, we had a group who just wanted to kick back and look at the moon and talk about what they saw. You gotta' love the power of the moon!!!!

OUR DINOSAUR DIG

 Our unit on dinosaurs ended this week with our preschool version of a dinosaur dig.

 

 

 The children loved  digging and searching through the sand and finding the hidden dinosaurs and bones.

 After the dig, we returned to circle and put on the dinosaur hats we had water colored earlier in the week.  

What a great day!

SCHOOL DAYS AND DINOSAURS

 We have been spending our mornings learning and practicing our school rules. Here we are sitting at circle. We sit here before transitioning to the next activity planned. This helps us prepare for the upcoming change and gives us confidence because we always know where to be.

We have been learning all about dinosaurs and fossils. We've learned how fossils were made by being buried under lots of dirt and mud for a very long time. Here we are making some mud of our own and then using it to paint with.

 Like the Paleontologists we've been learning about, we have been taking turns using a small chisel and mallet to knock away at a block with dinosaur fossils hidden inside. Learning about dinosaurs has been great fun!

GETTING BACK INTO THE SCHOOL GROOVE

We spent our first week back in school getting back into "the routine." We also reconnected with

old friends and made some new ones. Everyone in our class is happy to be here and we are sharing lots of smiles.

We got our fingers dirty working on the first projects of the year.

Here we are making our September place mats using yellow paint

to make popcorn. 

 Then we broke out the glitter and added some "lava" to our prehistoric calendars! 

We are looking forward to all the new adventures this year holds.