N is for Nest

[As mentioned below, I wish I had photos to share...but I don't.]
Last month I taught preschool on colors (sorting, patterns) and the letter N.

Circle Time: Welcome, Pledge, Weather Chart, Calendar
I made a new calendar since our original was worn and bent. I was pleased with how the new one turned out.
Brett got an American flag for Christmas which we put up on our front porch. Our little preschool flag went missing, so I took the kids outside. They looked so cute standing under the flag and saying the pledge. Even if our little preschool flag shows up, I think I'll continue to take the kids outside in front of the big flag.
We have little carpet squares for the kids to sit on during circle time. I think that I have decided to forgo the carpet squares in the future. My own child seems to be the most distracted by them. Since he likes to grab the corners of his square and roll back and forth, he usually ends up getting it taken away. Some of the kids argue a little over colors. Since I have a sectional couch, there is plenty of space. I think it will be less distracting for them all.

Intro to Lesson (Letter and Word of the Day)
I introduced our letter of the day with our alphabet train puzzle again. The kids really seem to like that. I made it a little easier on myself this time and had the pieces set up in order in the box. I handed them out to the kids one at a time and let them add their letter to the train.
I also collected items from around the house that started with the letter "n" and put them in a basket. I let the kids take turns picking something out of the basket and saying what it was. I will definitely do this again. Our basket was filled with the following: a toy net, a big nail, a box of noodles, a number nine magnet, a letter "n" magnet, a necktie, a clown nose, a napkin, a bottle of nail polish, a necklace, a notebook, a newspaper, a crochet needle, and a nutcracker. I will definitely do our letter basket again.
Then, we read My "n" book.
I first started talking about colors with the following poem/activity:
"Color Poem"
If you're wearing red, pat your head.
If you're wearing blue, count to two.
If you're wearing green, let your smile be seen.
If you're wearing brown, hop up and down.
If you're wearing yellow, jump like a funny fellow.
If you're wearing black, pat your back.
Then, we were ready for the fun. I borrowed a big bag full of colored balls from Anne's baby ball pit. I took one ball out of the bag at a time and had the kids identify what color it was. I sang "Do you know what color this is?" with each ball. After the kids had identified all the colors, I had them sit on the couch while I set up six Rubbermaid buckets against the wall. I dumped the bag of balls out in front of the them, said "Go!" and had them sort the balls by color. I had practiced this a few times with Todd and Ryan a few days before, and they had a great time. Todd and Ryan played the ball game a few times, trying to see how quickly they could sort them all. I thought it might be more crazy with twice as many kids, but because they were younger, the preschool kids were not as competitive and weren't racing around trying to get all the balls. They were sorting and having a good time, but they weren't running around knocking each other down. That's a good thing. [Wish I had photos of this!]

Art Project
We made pasta necklaces for our craft. I was glad that I had tried this out beforehand and had found a few tricks. I got out a paper plate for each child and wrote their name on it. (That way I could keep track of whose necklace was whose after they finished the craft.) I scrounged up 6 big, blunt needles for them to use. (Don't worry, they were also highly supervised during this activity). I cut a length of green yarn, threaded the needle, poked the needle through the paper plate, taped the yarn to the back of the plate and kept the needled threaded for the kids. I had purchased a mixed bag of colored noodles. I separated out the green penne, purple wagon wheels, and plain little wagon wheels. When we were ready, I let the kids pick out some noodles and put them on the their plate. They needle really helped them thread more easily, and I didn't have to worry about the noodle falling off the yarn. When they decided they were finished with their necklace, or when it became too full for more, I tied the knot. Presto! Ryan was quite proud of his creation, and I was pleased that it was not too complicated for the kids.

Snack
I made individual Jell-o molds for the kids. I used three different flavors of Jell-O (raspberry, lemon and grape?) and made them in layers (chilling the first layer and letting it set before making and adding the second and third layers). We also made little "nests" with Tostitos Scoops filled with dried fruit "eggs". I cut N-shaped toast topped with Nutella. I served milk to drink and let the kids pick a color of food coloring to put in their milk and stir.
(Perhaps I put a little too much thought into the snack? Oh well, that's all part of the fun.)

Writing
In addition to printing off a letter worksheet for each child, I also printed off some color worksheets.

Story time
Our city library was so helpful when I asked for some book suggestions for preschool. Here are some of the books we looked at:
Kid Tea, by Elizabeth Ficocelli - this was a hit.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
Lunch, by Denise Fleming
Cat's Colors, by Jane Cabrera - this quick read was also a hit
Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll Walsh - Our generous youth services librarians let me borrow their lap-sized book because the regular size was checked out. I felt so honored that they trusted me with it. The kids thought it was great having story time with a great big book. They did point out that if the white mice wanted to hide on the white paper from the cat that they would have to do something about their flesh-colored feet and tail.
I learned my lesson from circle time and had all the kids sit on the couch for story time instead of their carpet squares. I sat on a chair in front of them so they could all see the pictures. That seemed to work out really well.

Music
We played the "6 Little Jelly Beans" game again. The kids like "eating" the jelly beans as I say this little poem.

Free Play

I felt pretty good about my planned activities, and I was very happy that I was prepared for the most part. However, I was surprised that things didn't go as smoothly and perfectly as I had expected. Then, one of the moms reminded me that the kids had been on Christmas vacation for a few weeks and I was just "lucky" enough to have them for their first real day back. No wonder things were a little more off than usual. I have started to look ahead to my next lesson ("S is for Science") and am grateful that the kids will be back in their routine by then. So many cute ideas, so little time.