Business is Good in Pre-K

This morning Ms. Paula's Pre-k class was walking down the hall when they saw Mr. Kenny, the custodian, emptying recycle containers into a larger receptacle.  As they passed, Marley looked up and said "Hi, Mr. Kenny!  How's business?" 

Let There be "Wight"

My least favorite part of fall/winter is watching the days get shorter.  I think my three-year-old friend Audrey would agree. 

Audrey:  "Mom. I don't wike it dawk.   Make it wight."

 Mom:  "I can't do that honey, only God can. If you want it light outside, tell Him."

Audrey:   "God, GOD, GOOOOOOOOOOOWD. I want it wight pwease. And I sing you a song. Jesus wuvs wittle chiwwin. Wed, Yewwow, black, white, piiiiiiink, and pwecious. De end".

Mom:  Oh my.......

Show and Smell

During a Pre-K show and tell circle Tucker brought a can of AXE chocolate scent.  After spraying the body spray for his classmates to smell, one classmate shared this thought:  "That smells like handsome!"

NO NEED TO SCREAM!

Olle is a student in one of my all time favorite Pre-K classrooms.  She is non-verbal, but sometimes it's just not an issue.  For example, the other day a classmate ran up to Olle and took the toy she was playing with.  She rushed up to him, wagged her little finger in his face with a diva head toss and let loose a fierce stream of non-words.  In a panic, the "toy thief" ran up to the teacher: 
 "MS. PAULA!  MS. PAULA! OLLE SAID SHE GONNA KICK MY BUTT!"

Gone Fishing

Three year old's vocab word:

Fishening---to finish eating Goldfish Crackers

Do you think Webster's will pick that word up for 2013?  Makes perfect sense to me. 

Tiny Tornado Talk

Here in the Midwest tornado season seems to be in full effect.  Recently, a tornado wreaked havoc in Branson, Mo and surrounding areas.  Earlier this week a pre-k teacher was presenting a very timely science lesson on TORNADOES. She read CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS by Judi Barrett to introduce the lesson and followed up with a YOUTUBE video of an actual  tornado.  To reinforce the lesson children were invited to make swirly, twisty tornadoes using cooked spaghetti noodles.

I now invite you to be a "fly on the wall" and  listen to the comments made by the pre-schoolers during the TORNADO lesson.

"  LOOK AT THAT VOLCANO!!!!"  .

"Wow!  It gets busy inside a tornado!"

"Hey, if you are in front of a tomato you can get hurt!"

"I have one of those at my house."

"Are these Spaghetti-O's?"

"I can hear (the tornado) vibrating"

...and the ever popular pre-k comment no matter what the topic:  "My dog is in heaven."
 

FREEZE!

While in a pre-k classroom yesterday the teacher played one of my favorite classroom songs for her kiddos to dance to:  FREEZE DANCE.  Basically the kids dance to the music until they hear the word "FREEZE".  Then, everyone stops in mid motion. 

After the song ended one very excited boy looked at his teacher and said, "I frozen you!!" Interpretation:  "I was FREEZE dancing with you and I don't want it to end!"

Just have to love  pre-k vocabulary.  How expressive!!! 

Little Bo Peep Needs Help

Pre-K teacher:  Little Bo Peep has lost her....
Joseph:             BALANCE!!!

Awkward

Lucas and Max are best buddies at pre-school. One day Lucas had an overwhelming urge to share his feelings.  "Max,"  Lucas said, "I wike you...and I wuv you."  Max quietly contemplated this new information, looked at Lucas and said in his three-year-old-sing-songy-high-pitched voice, "AWKWARD!", turned around and walked away.

Sadly, Max was not feelin' the love that day! 
    

Cock-A-Doodle-Do

On a typical high energy day in Pre-K 4-year-old Keith was shocked to see the substitute classroom aide nodding off after lunch.  He turned to another aide and said, "Hey!  She can't be sleepin'!  Wake up!  Wake up!"  When she continued to doze, he raised his voice and added, "Cock-A-Doodle-Do!" 

A Pre-K Day

On a typical day in Pre-K, Ms. Jarrah was asked out on a date by one of her students.  When she asked him where he would take her, he responded, "Maybe out to dinner." When questioned where they would go after the movie he thought for a moment and said, "Let's just see where the evening takes us."   He'll be a good boyfriend one day. 

DAY 20 PRE-K

During a language lesson, our speech therapist Ms. Michelle was reading a book to the 3,4 and 5 year olds. "He was startled be a knock at the door," she read. As she read she wrapped her knuckles on the nearest table to make the knocking sound. She then posed this question to the boys and girls: "Who do you think is at the door?" Several children shouted in excited response....TABLE! Thus the need for language lessons!

DAY 19 PRE-K

One day I introduced L to Reid. It went a little something like this:

Me to Reid: Reid, you know Lela from my class.
Me to L: L, you know Reid.
Lela to Me: Ms. Michele, I don't know how to read!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this age!

DAY 18 PRE-K

One student's rendition of the ABC's...

"ABJ2XRZ....How I wonder what you are!"

Sadly, you can not see the HUGE smile on her face after completing the ABC's. She was so proud!

Day 17 PRE-K

While learning the life stages of a butterfly/moth, we used a lot of repetition. EGG, CATERPILLAR, CACOON, BUTTERFLY....EGG, CATERPILLAR, CACOON, BUTTERFLY....EGG, CATERPILLAR, CACOON, BUTTERFLY.

When asking for volunteers to tell the class the life stages of a butterfly one very excited little guy exclaimed: EGG, CATERPILLAR, RACOON, BUTTERLFY!

Day 16 PRE-K

As PRE-K skill checks continued on, I couldn't help but smile when some of the kids named shapes for me. Can you guess the shape?

Egg............................OVAL
Obo............................OVAL
ELBOW..........................RECTANGLE

Day 15 PRE-K

To my loyal followers and those of you that just happen to drop by.....SORRY! Our oldest daughter just graduated from high school and her scrapbook, graduation and party CONSUMED me (Not to mention this full-time work thing!). But...I'm back.

Here is a FAVORITE that happened while I was "gone" in PRE-K:

Mrs. G. was practicing shapes with her pre-k class. She held up shape cards one by one. Each student had to name a shape BEFORE lining up for the playground. "C" was the only kid left.

Mrs. G.: (holds up a "square" card)"What shape is it?"
"C" : (silence)
Mrs. G.: "What shape is it?"
"C" : (silence)
Mrs. G.: "It's a square. Just say square."
"C" : (silence)
Mrs. G. : "Just say square."
"C: : "STOP SQUARING ME!"

I guess it's no longer hip to be square!

Day 14 Pre-k

BUTTERFLIES is our final theme of the year in Pre-K. We've been reading amazing stories like THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR by Eric Carle. We even watched a short DVD that featured Eric Carle explaining where he got the idea for his book and what his childhood was like growing up in Germany. As we are watching I'm talking to the boys and girls about how Eric Carle never thought he could write books and now he is a famous author.

I announce: "You can be anything we want to be."

"H" enthusiastically shouts: "I want to be a caterpillar!"

Well.....maybe not ANYTHING!

Day 13 PRE-K

Some cute and funny clowns visited our Pre-K to teach us about the character education word of the month: PERSEVERANCE. I don't know who made me laugh more, the kids with their reactions to the clowns or the actual clowns.

At one point Lilly the clown was doing a "magic" trick. She tried and tried and tried, but nothing she did made her successful. She even said, "abracadabra" but that magic word didn't work. So...she asked the boys and girls if they knew a word she could use to make her trick work. "J" shouted out in a very excited voice, "hoperpatopic" very convinced that HIS magic word would do the trick.

Can you guess what the correct "magic" word was? PERSEVERANCE

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the moms, step-moms, and grandmas. If anyone knows about perseverance it's MOM! Hope your Mother's Day is FABULOUS!

Day 12 PRE-K

The Pre-K class across the hall just finished up a very cool dinosaur unit. (I don't really get into the dinosaur units, because I have a hard time pronouncing all their names. It is very interesting to me that the kids--no matter what their age--ALWAYS learn their correct names and love naming them.)One of the math activities Mrs. B. did with her students during this unit was to make patterns using Marshmallows and chocolate chips--which represented dinosaur teeth. During this activities two boys are overheard having this conversation:

Boy 1: Why do they call them marshmallows?

Boy 2: 'Cause they're white and small (duh!).

Pre-K logic...can't beat it!