The Preschool reading of "Stone Soup"

Oh I can just imagine the number of times this theme has been done by teachers all over the world! It certainly is a classic. I'm sure Marcia Brown, the author of "Stone Soup" had no idea how this book would take on a life of it's own. Here a some of the highlights of our "Stone Soup" week and the making of our soup on Friday. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

This is the sign up sheet I created for the parents. I made sure I created a space for each parent to bring at least one item. However, some parents brought two or three items.

                                    

                            Chicken and Vegetable Stone Soup

  

Parent	Ingredient/Supplies
	1 onion
	Garlic
	Carrots
	Cooked chicken breast
	Celery
	1 can/bag of sweet corn
	Chicken Broth
	1 bag of Noodles
	Salt
	Pepper
	ladel
	1 can of tomato sauce
	Small bag of cut potatoes
	Crackers
	1 Can or Bag of green beans
	1 small bag of parmesan cheese
	1 small stone

                                                                  

                            Here we are creating pots with black play doh.

We colored vegetables, then cut them out

to glue on black crete paper pots. 

These cauldrons were left over from Halloween.

They were perfect for the housekeeping area, outside games, 

and circle time activities. 

My favorite was watching the kids stir in alphabet blocks 

and play vegetables to create

"alphabet soup". 

We talked about the word "ingredient" and "directions".

We touched and/or smelled each of the ingredients for our soup. 

We washed our stone and vegetables.

Added the ingredients to our soup. 

Each child had the opportunity to add an ingredient and stir the pot. 

Then we all enjoyed "Stone Soup".

I found this site to be helpful

http://www.dltk-teach.com/fables/stonesoup/index.htm

and one of my friends found this site for me today. I bookmarked

it for next year! 

http://kidsworldexploration.com/id22.html

All of these book were available at my public library. We didn't get a chance to read all of them, but we sure gave it a try. 

Surprise Soup

Lentil Soup

Alvie Eats Soup

Mean Soup

Carrot Soup

       

My friend Laura said it best, we had a "souper" time with this theme!

The Gift of Togetherness

I have a class of 18 four year olds. Each day I walk in to work there is always a dilemma. It could be the teacher that called in last minute. It could be the lesson plan I forgot to print, or the supplies I don't have. Sometimes it's the surprise tantrum, or the misplaced lunch. Honestly, I have grown acccustomed to some sort of chaos. Today was just like any other day. The chaos started with me. I have a 30 minute commute to work and I woke up at the time when I should have been opening the Center. Bah Humbug! Not a way to get back into the groove. 

Buzzing like a bee, I went to cleaning, clearing and organizing the classroom in preparation for what else may come my way... and you wouldn't believe it...there was nothing. I had 13 students, and three of them went home at before 12:30. Throughout the day, I felt like I met every need. I felt I voiced every concern and had an awesome time singing, dancing and just lovin' on my few. 

Don't get me wrong, I love my 18, and our class family wouldn't be complete without each and every one of them. But, just like in any other family, each of the members must spend that quality time together to connect, share, and just enjoy each others company. At nap time, I unwrapped, enjoyed, and was grateful for the gift which was today.


Happy Holidays,

Dear Preschool Teacher, Is this what you love?

It has been a month since I've blogged. Yes, I have awesome pictures. Yes, I have great material. Yes, I still love writing. But no, not as much as love being in my classroom. I have found writing is not my first love as I suspected. I came to this conclusion after I lost yet another assistant for my class. I've had to work twice as hard to keep our school family running smoothly. I've thought of writing and wished I was writing...but every piece of time and energy not used for my family is used for my class. I wish for more hours in the day. It seems by the time I prepare my Centers, have class, go home, love on my family, it's bedtime and it starts all over again! Confucius says, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." Dear Confucius, I did choose a job I love but every part of it feels like work. However, I still look forward to doing it all over again tomorrow. 

Preschool Sensory: Bathing Babies

Ah the joys of bathing babies!

For our "All About Me" unit I pulled out the babies and and those new absorbent cloths. I cut the cloths into small squares and put them in them water along with the dolls. Yes, you can imagine the "water table" talk, almost as good as the "water cooler" chats we hear about in corporate America. 

"My baby is peeing." "I need to wipe her face."

"I don't have a towel to dry my baby!"

The only difference between their chats and ours is my kids are actually learning from their conversations.

Books we enjoyed with this unit:

The Wonderful World of Writing in Preschool

We have a table designated for writing only.  On any given day there may be pens, markers, crayons, note pads, or envelopes for the kids to explore. However, writing is not exclusively for our "Writing Table" only. Here are some other ways we explore the wonderful world of writing.

We use shaving cream on the tables to practice our letters. 

We use sidewalk chalk to be creative. 

The white board provides a smooth easy to wipe surface. 

Making name tags provide great detail and concentration.

Whatever the medium, surface, or opportunity it's worth it to explore the wonderful world of writing. 

Preschool Potato Print Families

This is a tried and true project. Teachers have done this for years but I pulled it out of my "bag of tricks" and you would have thought it was a new invention. For "Our Family" unit last week, I cut potatoes length wise. The children painted one side of the potato and made potato prints to represent each member of their family. After the print dried they added facial features, arms and legs to each family member. As with any preschool project enjoying the process was the most fun.

Books we enjoyed with this unit

Our Preschool Birthday Celebration

I just love birthdays! I make it a point to go all out on my students birthday. Since the VPK year has just begun we have already had our first birthday celebration. While majority of my students have been with me for months, Niona has only been in my class for two weeks. In that time she has only spoken a few words here and there. Nevertheless, you don't have to speak to party! Her mom brought in a cake and drinks for the class. I put their birthday hats on, blasted the music and they all danced like they had never danced before. The Mom thought this was hilarious. Niona danced to the music and Mom smiled proudly at her. We sat Niona in front of her cake and all the kids sang Happy Birthday to her loud and off key. Once the party was over Mom gave Niona a big hug and paused patiently while Niona whispered. She turned to me and said, "Niona said, Thank you Mom for my party."

I just love birthdays!

For more ideas on how you can create a memorable birthday in your preschool class visit this link
for Deborah J. Stewart's Teach Preschool site.

Preschool All About Me

Last week our class did an "All about me" unit. On Tuesday we talked about our feet. For art we made footprints. Each child chose a colored piece of construction paper and a paint to make their foot print. They took only one shoe off, I painted the bottom of their foot and allowed them to place the print on a piece of paper. We got to chat about the coldness of the paint, the way the bristles tickled and how the choice of paint would look on the paper.

During Circle Time we read, "My feet" by Aliki. After the story we took off our shoes and put lotion on our feet. We talked about the sole, the heel, the arch and our toes. We recited "This little piggy went to the market" and appreciated each toe.

We plan to put our painted footprints in an "All about Me" book to take home.

Here are some of the other books we read for this unit.