Winter

This week your preschooler is learning all about the season of Winter.  They have been busy decorating (cutting, gluing, and decorating) the classrooms with snowflakes as they learn about the weather during the Winter.  They have also discussed the concept of hibernation and learned different types of animals that hibernate for the Winter.  As it gets colder outside we often find it too cold to spend a lot of time outdoors.  The kids were able to get in some gross motor action by playing the games "Freeze" and "Freeze Dance."  All classes are currently practicing songs and skits for the Christmas Program.  We hope you will be able to join us next week when they perform! 

The Older Ones class made squirrels to go with their lesson on winter animals and hibernation.

Merry Christmas!

Sunflower Station is excited that Christmas is just around the corner!  Your preschooler(s) read the story of the birth of Jesus and learned all about the real meaning of Christmas this week.  They also learned the letter S, the number 9, the color white, and the shape of the week was a circle. 

A big thank you to everyone who came to the Christmas program on Tuesday night.  The kids worked hard on their parts and I know they were excited to see you in the audience.

We ended the week with our classroom Christmas parties.  The kids had a blast playing holiday-themed games, making Christmas crafts, and eating the delicious treats that you all so graciously suuplied.   

Danila decorates cookies. Yummy!





Dominic and Adrian play a bean bag toss game.



The Twos class enjoys a treat!





Joseph and Blake decorate Christmas ornaments.



Maggie and Archer make jingle bell bracelets.

 Enjoy your Christmas break and we will see you all next week!

Christmas Around the World

The preschool staff is getting excited about the Christmas season and we hope you all are, too.  This week the kids learned all about Christmas Around the World.  They learned how to say "Merry Christmas" in several different languages and learned about the Christmas traditions of other cultures. 



Poinsettias were made in honor of Christmas in Meixco.



The Pre-K class sweeps the floor with their homemade brooms after learning about the good Christmas witch, La Befana, from Italy.  La Befana kept to herself all year long, tidying up her home, until Christmas Eve when she delivered treats to the young children.

 

The kids made Gingerbread Men for snack on Thursday.



The letter of the week was Q. The kids learned that Q is for quilt and they made quilted Qs to go along with the lesson.

Reminder: KP3 will take place next Friday night, December 14th.  Be sure to sign up before all spots are filled.  This would be a great opportunity for you grown-ups to do some Christmas shopping or enjoy a quiet night out.



Ecosystems

Welcome back!  We hope you all had a peaceful long weekend with your family.  The kids were busy learning about ecosystems this week.  They discovered the animals and plants that live in arctic ecosystems as well as those that live in the rain forest, in ponds, and in oceans.

The Older Ones decorated owls to remind themselves about what the letter of the week, O, looks like. Hoot! Hoot!  All five classes prepared Oatmeal Bars for their cooking project this week.  Yummy!

Thanksgiving

This week the younger kids practiced identifying the letter N, the number 4, and the color red, while the older kids practiced writing the letter and number.The kids learned all about the first Thanksgiving and enjoyed a Thanksgiving lunch with family members.  Thanks so much to all who attended our feast on Tuesday!  We hope you had a great time.   

Young Ones



                                                                          



Twos



Threes



Pre-K

Phew! What an exciting Thanksgiving week! We are thankful for all of our preschool families and hope that each of you has a restful Thanksgiving break.

Indians and Pilgrims

                   In preparation for Thanksgiving we learned all about Indians and Pilgrims this week.  

The kids made Indian vests and headdresses.  In addition, the boys made hats and the girls made bonnets that look similar to those worn by Pilgrims during their voyage on the Mayflower.  Looking fabulous, PreK!

Adorable mice were made as an example of our letter of the week, m, and the kids enjoyed baking Monkey Bread for their cooking project.

Nutrition & Health

After all the candy from Halloween, we decided it would be a good time to talk about Nutrition & Health.  This week's topics of discussion ranged from eating healthy and exercising to germs and staying safe!  The children learned about the food pyramid and the foods that are healthy and unhealthy for us. They also did an art project to learn about covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough so you don't spread germs.

 By the end of the week, the children became "Safety Detectives" and earned their very own badge!

Pumpkins, Bats, & More!

Oh wow!  The children are so excited about this week and they have every reason to be!  We have so many fun activities going on!  All of the classrooms have different things planned with pumpkins like decorating a pumpkin to look like Mr. Potato Head, carving pumpkins and exploring the insides, compaing pumpkins based on size, shape, color, and feel.

Making Pumpkin Shakers!

On Wednesday, we had Pumpkin Rotations in the morning where the children got to go from classroom to classroom and do something different and fun in each room!  We had hand painting, Pin the Face on the Pumpkin, costume dress up, Go Fish, and creepy exploring boxes!

Reaching in to feel EYEBALLS!! 

(Also know as grapes!)

 Then, Wednesday afternoon, we had our Pumpkin Party!  Parents joined us and brought in delicious treats for everyone to enjoy!  After the children enjoyed a plate full of goodies, they did some fun games and art projects in their room!   

  Such a fun filled day and we are all exhausted!!

Farm

We're off to the farm this week!  We have had so much fun learning about animals on the farm, the crops that grow there, and of course, farmers!  The children made a list of all the farm animals they could think of and then pretended to be each animal.  They also did a math activity with sheep, an art project of making a duck mask, and a movement game about horses.  Even our cooking project related to our Farm theme and the children made some delicious "Pigs in a Blanket". 

The Pre-K class had some fun talking about corn being grown on the farm and then they even got to paint with corn!  How fun!

Our letter of the week was "J".  The 2 year old class made their letter of the week art from something they really love- jellybeans!

Fall

Since we are enjoying a change in the seasons with some cooler weather, we are learning about Fall this week! We have spent a lot of time talking about leaves and why their colors change.  Several of the classrooms did a leaf hunt in their classroom and on the playground. The children learned a song and a finger play about leaves and even pretended to rake and play in the leaves!  Of course, we can't forget our wonderful art activities like making a leaf look like a person!  Unfortunately, it slipped my mind to take a picture of these cute creations!

Our letter this week was "I".  The children made "I is for Ice cream" as an art project!

Happy Fall Y'ALL!!!

Apples

To celebrate Johnny Appleseed, we are learning all about apples this week!  For a science experiment, we observed what happens to an apple once you cut it open.  We estimated the number of seeds inside the apples for math and learned some fun apple songs!  Of course, we did several art projects including apple headbands!

For our cooking project, the children made Mini-Apple Pies!  The Pre-K class also made their very own apple sauce made from scratch!

Our letter of the week was H.  Some classrooms did "H is for Hippo" while others glues hearts on their H!

Dinosaurs

It's time for one of our favorite weeks at Sunflower Station Preschool- DINOSAURS!!  This week is always so much fun because we all have to use our imagination!  We also do so many neat activities throughout the week!  The children got to pretend to be paleontologist and dig for fossils, they made their very own fossils, and they did a hunt for dinosaur eggs (Easter eggs)!  One of the classrooms made a graph showing which dinosaur was each child's favorite- such a fun math activity!

 Our letter of the week was "G", so for our cooking project, we made Gumdrop Cereal Dinosaurs to tie everything together!  They were delicious and the children really enjoyed them!

Butterflies

This week we began talking about the Life Cycle of a Butterfly.  The children did several activities to learn how an egg turns into a butterfly and how a caterpillar plays a part!  To actually see what we were talking about, we had 5 live caterpillars in each of our rooms.  We will get to watch the life cycle with our very own eyes!  Once the caterpillars turn into butterflies, we will release them on our playground and watch them fly away! 

But before we have actual butterflies in our school, we need to learn more about them!  We did several math activities with butterflies too, like learning about symmetry and patterns!

 After reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", we talked about all the fruit that he ate!  We then of course had to make some delicious Fruit Dip for ourselves to eat with our fruit!  Plus, our letter of the week is F!

My Body

It's important to know about the different parts of our body and how to take care of ourselves!  This week we did several different games to learn the names of our body parts and of course, the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" was a big hit!  We also practiced counting by counting how many of each body part we have. 

The Pre-K class did an art activity to reinforce some of the body parts.

This week, our cooking project was related to our color of the week- red.   The children made Strawberry Jam to eat with bread!

Smashing up the strawberries for our jam- FUN!

My Family

Sunday was Grandparent's Day so we spent this week talking about our families, especially our sweet grandparents!  The children talked about the different members in their own family but also how families were different from others. 

We wanted to do something special to honor our grandparents and since we couldn't squeeze it in the week before, we decided to celebrate with them a week later on Friday!  The children made special art work to give to their grandparents using their hands and feet to make a flower!  For our cooking project this week, the children made Granola Bars to enjoy during "Granola Bars with Grandparents". 

It was so nice to spend some time with all of our sweet grandparents!  We hope they enjoyed getting to come visit their grandchildren and of course, we hope they felt special!  Here's a peek at some of the pictures from our Granola Bars with Grandparents celebration!