Zilker Elementary PPCD

Hearts and the Color Red

2012-02-01T12:28:00.000-06:00

February is here! That means it's time to learn all about the color red and the heart shape. This week we've been creating a heart mural. We've already used crayons, markers, and glue. With Valentine's Day coming up, we've also been creating our own heart-shaped pouches for our Valentines exchange coming up on the 14th (I'll be sending a list of names home tomorrow if you'd like to participate). As soon as Valentine's Day passes we'll begin learning all about fire fighters, fire trucks, and fire stations. So exciting!

Stars, stars, stars!!!

2012-01-27T14:34:00.000-06:00

We've had a great week!! We've been working on our star paper every day...adding crayon, marker, glitter, and more stars on top! Dinosaurs have continued to be a big hit and we've been building caves for our small ones, sorting them by color, and counting them. What fun! Be sure to look in the hallway to see the sparkly white stars we created this week! Have a wonderful weekend!

Dinosaurs and a BIG Snowman

2012-01-19T12:30:00.000-06:00

We've had a very busy week so far! Dinosaurs showed up in our room this week and you would not believe the conversations we've heard about them! We've been building all kinds of structures for them to live in and some structures for us to live in, too. What fun! We've also had dinosaur and winter books in our reading center. We've created a BIG snowman for our bulletin board and talked about the words "small", "medium", and "large". Check it out when you can.

Castles and Snowflakes

2012-01-10T15:05:00.001-06:00

Today we created a BIG castle with our BIG blocks. So much fun! We've also been working on the color "white". We used white paint to paint snowflakes and our big white paper.

Blog will be down for a bit.

2011-12-16T04:48:00.002-06:00

The district is repairing my school computer. As soon as it's returned to me I'll get the blog up and running again. Thanks for loving my blog!!!

Winter, Reading, and Home Center Shopping

2011-12-13T13:21:00.000-06:00

We've been having so much fun! We put bags in the home center and look what someone got at the store! I love the ideas they come up with! We've been loving our winter/holiday books in the reading center. And, be sure to check out our Winter Wonderland scene on our classroom door! It's looking great!!! We've also been talking a lot about our color of the month, green, and our shape of the month, the triangle.

Feeling Wintry!

2011-12-09T12:11:00.001-06:00

Today we created a background scene for our winter door decoration. We used our hands to create a snowy ground cover and then, with our paint-covered hands we created snowflakes at the top! Check it out on Monday. We'll be adding our creations to it as we make them. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Reindeer Headbands and Being Together

2011-12-08T12:34:00.001-06:00

We've been creating reindeer headbands for the school sing-a-long. Our song is "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." So...we created headbands by choosing different things to glue on a sentence strip. We even cut or tore them ourselves! We also cut out our hand shape to create antlers and then glued them near the middle. They look great!

We've been working really well together this week. I love when kiddos choose do do things together! Yay for teamwork!

Triangles, Stars, Gears, and Sandwiches

2011-12-06T13:08:00.001-06:00

This week we've been working with gears every morning. We are loving building structures with them and experimenting with what they can do. It's really fun to put our toy dinosaurs on top of the gears and see how long they can stay on when the gears are moving. We've had our home center filled with food and dishes and there has been a lot of sandwich making going on. Our art project this week has been creating stars out of two triangles (our shape of the month). We've painted them blue and have begun adding sparkly glitter to them as well.

Mr. Potato Head, Brown, Diamonds and the Letter H

2011-12-02T14:48:00.001-06:00

We've had a great week! Mr. Potato Head has been quite the conversation starter and such of source of cooperative play. We even had fun trying on some of his accessories! We've been learning about diamonds and some of us cut diamond shapes out of paper. We've also been learning about the letter "H". Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!!

Bears, Shopping and Helping Friends

2011-11-29T13:02:00.001-06:00

This week we've been working on bears. We've used sponges and paint to create bear shapes. We've begun adding details to them so they will look even more like bears. This morning we talked a lot about how we can help a friend if they're hurt. We talked about how when they're hurt they're sad and when we help them the get happy. We practice this on a daily basis. We've also been acting out a story in the home center about bunnies, elephants and birds shopping for carrots, peanuts and worms. So much fun!

It's been so much fun seeing so many friends wearing brown, the color of the month. Keep it up! And, a heads up, next month is green.

Cutting and Cinnamon Turkeys

2011-11-18T14:21:00.001-06:00

Today during centers I put out scissors, paper, and markers of fall colors. The kiddos were so busy creating things! We also completed our cinnamon turkeys. Check them out, they're on the bulletin board. Have a great weekend!

Turkeys, Cutting, Gluing, and Bears

2011-11-16T14:10:00.001-06:00

We had a center set up today purely for the fun of cutting and gluing. It was a HIT! Yay! We also discovered there's nothing better than reading a bear book while relaxing ON a bear. And, we began working on little turkeys today. Here's what we've done so far. Keep an eye out for more additions!

Our Tree Home

2011-11-14T12:29:00.001-06:00

Our Tree Home is finished! For the remainder of November we'll be working with this home and the animals that live in and around it.

Our Tree Home

2011-11-10T14:23:00.001-06:00

This week we've been working on creating a tree home. We've painted three boxes brown (our color of the month!). We had a big box, a medium box, and a small box. We'll stack them and add paper towel branches, cut holes in the front of them and then animals can live in it! Check it out next week when it's done!

Fall has Arrived in our Classroom

2011-11-04T14:30:00.000-05:00

We've had such a busy week! I'm sure you've noticed that our entry activity has changed. We've seen some amazing things! Our friends are all eager to go right to the activity, which is wonderful. We've also seen SO MUCH language during this activity and an increase in cooperative play. Look for more floor activities to come. We are loving what we're seeing!! And hearing!! This week we've created fall leaves. We took the paper we painted earlier this week and cut leaf shapes out of them. Our classroom tree is sporting beautiful fall colors. Have a wonderful weekend!

Red, Orange, Yellow and Brown

2011-11-02T12:28:00.000-05:00

We worked with fall colors today! I read a book about a bear and we observed that the leaves in the book were red, orange, yellow and brown. We painted big pieces of paper with fall colors. In the next few days we'll be cutting this paper into leaf shapes for our classroom tree. Look for the season to change in the classroom! We also worked with blocks, bears, books, and threaded spools. Busy day in PPCD!

November!

2011-11-01T12:29:00.000-05:00

November is here. This means we'll be studying the color brown, the diamond/rhombus shape, bears, turkeys, Thanksgiving, fall/autumn, and more! This is such a fun month!

Today we began creating fall trees. We also worked with bears and blocks of many different colors. We counted, sorted, and sized those bears. We even made little beds for the bears! Our reading center is full of bear books and we loved looking at them today, too.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T12:23:00.000-05:00

We've had a fun Halloween so far! This morning we created spooky Halloween scenes. We also read Halloween books and worked with some big trucks and planes. We had a lot to talk about today! Wishing everyone a fun, safe Halloween evening! Boo!

In and Out and Everything In Between!

2011-10-24T14:25:00.000-05:00

We had so much fun today! During centers we worked with large Duplos, puppets, and a BIG box. There's nothing more fun than a BIG box. We had fun getting in the box, being under the box, walking around the box, and tapping on the top of the box. We worked on all kinds of position words. In our art center we've been making ghost costumes for our self portraits to wear for Halloween! We also had a great time running cars around an oval track!

Gears, Potato Heads, a Box, and Orange!!

2011-10-18T14:53:00.000-05:00

We've had so much fun this week. We have gears in our home center and have been putting amazing machines together! We also have an amazing big box that we get in and out of and have so much fun. We began painting a HUGE piece of paper orange so we can make a HUGE jack-o-lantern. Exciting times in PPCD!!

Sorting Legumes and the Letter "C"

2011-10-13T14:29:00.000-05:00

We've been busy! We've been sorting three types of legumes and gluing them in squares (our shape of the month!) on orange paper (our color of the month!). We've also been learning about the letter "C" and the sound it makes.

Check out what we found on the counter from the bottom of a paint container...it's clearly happy just like the rest of us in PPCD! :-)

Pumpkins and Orange!

2011-10-11T14:53:00.000-05:00

We went on a learning walk this morning and we found so many things around Zilker that are orange! So exciting!!! We also painted orange pumpkins!

Orange Play Dough!

2011-10-07T14:20:00.000-05:00

This morning we created orange play dough! We followed a recipe, taking turns to pour ingredients and stir the mixture. We also added red and yellow food coloring to make ORANGE! It was like magic! Then we all kneaded it till it was smooth. So much fun! (I don't have any photos because our hands got VERY goopy, mine, too, during this activity) We also observed that it was raining outside and for the first time since we've started doing weather we were able to put our "rainy" symbol up over our classroom tree. This afternoon we painted orange on big letter "B"s and practiced the letter "B" sound.

Have a wonderful weekend! Remember there's no school on Monday...see everyone on Tuesday!

Shapes and Positions

2011-10-05T12:56:00.000-05:00

This morning we worked with our cool castle block set. We observed that on the ends of the pieces there were familiar shapes! We traced circles and squares with our fingers. We also worked on our position word, "top", by placing blocks "on top". On our walk this morning we noticed SO MANY things that are orange. Please be sure to keep an eye out for orange in your environment! This afternoon we worked on writing our names. Yay!

Squares

2011-10-04T12:26:00.000-05:00

This morning we talked a lot about squares! They have four sides and four corners! We glued squares of different shapes on to a piece of paper. Squares are so cool!

New Month!

2011-10-03T14:31:00.000-05:00

This morning we noticed that our bulletin board looks VERY different! There are all kinds of orange things on there! Orange is our new color of the month, which is perfect because pumpkins are orange! During our morning activity we painted squares (our new shape of the month) orange. We also used October themed stamps and an orange stamp pad to create art.

Sunny Day

2011-09-30T14:14:00.000-05:00

This morning we got to see the most amazing performance. A mime came to Zilker and he did magic, juggling, and many more amazing things. Wow!!! We've started doing weather as part of our circle time. Today our weather helper observed that it was sunny, so our sun went up over our classroom tree. We worked with shaving cream today and made many shapes and letters with our fingers. This afternoon we painted the letter "A" yellow and had fun scooping and pouring rice in the science center. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Houses, Playing House, and the letter A

2011-09-29T14:41:00.000-05:00

Today we each painted a house shape. We chose between 3 colors (pretty sure everyone ended up using them all). We also played in the home center and did a lot of pretend play with the babies and the food. They were VERY well taken care of today. This afternoon we worked on our letter of the week, letter "A". We glued objects that start with the letter "A" on to a big letter "A" paper. We've been noticing the letter "A" in our environment this week and practicing its sound. The letter "A" pretty much rocks!

Homes

2011-09-28T12:31:00.000-05:00

We've been talking a lot this week about homes. We've been pretending in our home center. We've had the dollhouse and little people out for pretend play. We've been building homes with our magnetic shape blocks (we noticed that one of the blocks is shaped like a cave, just like in our Bear hunt song!). We've also been creating a home scene out of different shapes.

Rain Cloud

2011-09-23T12:16:00.000-05:00

This morning we went to the library. We listened to three books about buses. So exciting! Today we finished creating our rainy day weather symbol. We took turns cutting out a gray cloud. We added blue glitter to our blue paper to make it sparkly. Then we cut raindrop shapes to add to our cloud. I sure hope we'll be using this symbol A LOT in the near future during our weather segment of circle time. Have a wonderful weekend!

Shades of Gray

2011-09-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

Today we worked on creating gray paper to use as a gray rain cloud for weather time. We used our hands to mix black and white paint and rub it all over the paper. We'll be working on rain drops soon, too! I've been reading the book Mouse Paint each day. We've been talking about colors a lot! In the book the mice get in paint and they dance around on different colors and combine them to make new colors (red and blue make purple). Yesterday and today we looked through colored lenses at a mouse puppet. When the lenses overlapped we could see a third color! So exciting! Our puppets, Lucy and Ricky, have been talking about paying attention in school this week. We've been observing what paying attention looks like.

As a special bonus today, on our learning walk we saw a flock of green parrots!

Sunny Day Symbol!

2011-09-20T14:08:00.000-05:00

Today we all worked together to create our sunny day symbol! We took turns cutting out a big circle and then a bunch of small triangles. We glued it all together to create a sun.

Awesome Shirts

2011-09-16T12:34:00.000-05:00

This morning we continued our work with our "me" project. We created awesome shirts by gluing objects on to them. We also went on a learning walk and continued working on our senses of sight and hearing. We've been enjoying the book "Mouse Paint", counting the mice, counting the jars of paint, naming the colors...so much fun! We even pretend to be mice dancing in the different colors! Be sure to ask your kiddos about "The Bear Hunt". It's been our song all week and it's been SO MUCH FUN! Ask them what their favorite part of the song is. Have a great weekend!!!

Hair and Hokey Pokey

2011-09-14T12:24:00.000-05:00

Today we added hair to our "me" projects. We used yarn the same color as our own hair. In the afternoon we continued learning about the wood piece shapes by practicing the Wood Piece Hokey Pokey.

"Me" and Wood Stick Pokey

2011-09-12T15:11:00.000-05:00

This morning we met a new friend named "Ricky". (He's a puppet.) He's a new student in our class. We took turns introducing ourselves to him and telling him about school. Everyone did a good job being a good friend! During table work we began working on our "me" pictures. We drew our faces on a big circle to start the project off today. We'll continue working on them all week. We enjoy center time this morning in the reading center reading books and having a surprise picnic on the floor in the home center. This afternoon we began learning about the other wood pieces. Last week we learned about the "big lines". This week we'll learn about "little lines", "big curves", and "little curves".

Our Classroom Tree!

2011-09-09T12:29:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we all did a great job of cutting leaf shapes out of the green paper we had painted on Wednesday. We put them on our classroom tree! It looks like the trees outside! This morning some of us created trees by tracing our arm and hand and painting green leaves with our fingers. This afternoon we continued our work with "big lines". Have a wonderful weekend!

Creating Green Leaves and our Big Yellow Bus

2011-09-07T12:28:00.001-05:00

This morning we talked about what trees looked like outside. We noticed that they have green leaves. We all asked for paper and green paint and painted paper green. We'll be cutting leaf shapes out of them this week and putting them on our classroom tree! To clean our table, we had a lot of fun wiping the paint with shaving cream. The shaving cream turned green! We wiped it all up with towels when we were done. During afternoon centers our finger puppets had rest time. :-) You never know what you'll see in our classroom! We also finished our Big Yellow Bus...look for it in the hallway soon! We worked with big lines again during Handwriting Without Tears. Be sure to ask your kiddos about "tap tap"!

Trees and Toads!

2011-09-06T15:11:00.000-05:00

We created our classroom tree today by twisting brown paper and stapling it to the bulletin board. Be sure to keep an eye on it as the seasons change! We also have a fire-bellied toad in our room for the next two weeks. He is so interesting to look at! This afternoon we started our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. We are getting to know all about "big lines". (See hwtears.com for more info about this program.)

Our Big Yellow Bus!

2011-09-02T14:11:00.000-05:00

On our learning walk today we talked about our eyes and what we could see with them. We saw many, many things! Talk to your kiddos about what they see, too. We cut wheels for our big yellow bus! We glued them on the bus in the wheel wells. We also began cutting out our faces so we could ride on the bus!

Have a great 3-day weekend, everyone! See you Tuesday!

Yellow, Gluing, Little Buses

2011-08-30T14:34:00.000-05:00

We found even more yellow today on our walk. Some friends were wearing yellow, the yellow flowers are really blooming right now, and we found a yellow cable covering. We also saw 3 green parrots...not yellow, but really awesome! Some of us worked on our gluing skills and our fine motor pincer skills this morning and some of us went to Pre-K! This afternoon we started working on making little big yellow buses using paint brushes and/or our hands and yellow paint.

Windows and Mr. Potato Head

2011-08-29T12:34:00.000-05:00

We added windows to our big yellow bus today! Everyone took turns asking for glue and gray paper and chose where on the bus they wanted their window to be. We all sang for each other as we did our individual work, "We are gluing, we are gluing...". During center time today, one of our activities was Mr. Potato Head. Doesn't he look fabulous? Great fine motor work!

Back to School Night

2011-08-27T05:39:00.000-05:00

Back to School Night is Monday, 6:30 - 8:00.
- Starting in the cafeteria for a PTA meeting.
- Then going to individual classrooms.

This is an event intended for parents only. If there's no way you can attend without your child/children, please understand that the room will not be set up for play and I cannot be in a supervisory capacity.

If you'd like to come, I'll be talking about our basic curriculum goals, our schedule and our ideology. If your child is in our four-year-old program I strongly encourage you to attend Ms. Mitchell's presentation in the classroom next door as she is your child's inclusion teacher. Many of you have already been to this event in my room in previous years or are already very familiar with Zilker's PPCD program, so it won't hurt my feelings a bit if you don't attend to my presentation. :-) Also, please know I won't be able to talk about any particulars of your child's program unless we happen to be the only ones in the room at the time.

If you cannot come, I'm happy to schedule a meeting with you individually during my planning period.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Tearing is fun!

2011-08-26T12:57:00.001-05:00

We discovered even more yellow today! We found it on a wall mural, in some gardens, and even on a friend's shirt! We love yellow! During centers today we continued working on our big yellow school bus. We used our hands to tear strips of yellow paper into smaller pieces. Then we glued the pieces on to our bus. It's looking awesome!

Big Yellow School Bus

2011-08-25T12:45:00.001-05:00

We continued our search for yellow all over the Zilker campus today...gosh, there's a lot of it! It's so exciting! Check out what we found today! We also started working on our big yellow school bus. Everyone asked for smocks, then requested yellow paint. We used our hands to make the bus yellow.

Yellow is Everywhere!

2011-08-24T12:37:00.000-05:00

We started our day today painting circles with yellow watercolor. We talked a lot about the shape and the color. Look for our work to appear in the hallway soon! When we went for a walk this morning we noticed even more yellow. We are VERY observant! During centers we all requested supplies and glued a bunch of yellow objects on to a piece of paper. Look for these in the hallway, too!

First Day of School!

2011-08-22T14:28:00.000-05:00

We've had a wonderful first day of school! We all drew pictures with crayons this morning, participated in circle time (we even talked to and iPad and it talked back to us!), went on a learning walk all around campus, listened to a book about yellow, played with yellow play dough, played in the home center/workshop, read in the reading center, said "see you tomorrow" to some of our friends, ate lunch in the cafeteria, played at the playground, had a quiet rest time, and played in centers again. Such a fun day! With so much conversation! And we found yellow in lots of places!

School is Starting!

2011-08-18T06:20:00.000-05:00

Hope you all had a wonderful summer! Ms. Miller and I certainly did!!

August 19, from 11:30 - 1:00, please feel free to stop by to say, "Hi", and leave any school materials you have ready.

August 22, 7:45 AM, school starts!!! This year our students in our three-year-old program attend school from 7:45 - 10:45 (please be prompt with your pickup as we need to be moving to another location at that time...Thanks in advance!), and our students in our four-year-old program attend school from 7:45 - 2:00.

A few things about clothing:
Remember, "messy" is our middle name! Learning in our room is very hands on and we're quite messy (paint and such), so please save your child's finer duds for non-school time. Also, we work really hard on everyone's independence. It's not a reasonable expectation of children who are 3 and 4 to be able to tie their own shoes, but...if they have shoes with Velcro, they can do it ALL BY THEMSELVES...which they LOVE! Same goes for pants. If your child cannot do their own button/zipper, elastic is best because they can do that part of the potty routine independently, and independence and confidence is what we all want for our kiddos. Note: those jeans with buttons/zippers that also have elastic are fine as the children can pull them up and down without undoing that part.

Thanks! We're very excited to see you all!!!!

Last Post of the Year!

2011-05-27T17:29:00.001-05:00

Parents,
Thank you so much for all of your support this year! I've so enjoyed teaching your children and reflecting on our days through this blog. I wish you all a fabulous summer!!!
Kali Parsons

P.S. We fitted our pirate hats today and they're wonderful! Aargh!!!

Ahoy Mateys, All Aboard!

2011-05-24T18:48:00.001-05:00

We had a great time taking booty into our pirate ship today! Check out what we found and worked with! The small toys center was filled will all kinds of pirate items and we all had fun building with "ice bergs" and avoiding running in to them. We had fun with color naming and matching, too! We also used a big bag today to learn about fast and slow. Everyone filled it with Duplos and shook it slow, slow, slow, fast, fast, faster, faster...and watched the blocks jump all over the place. So much fun!!!!

Pirate Treasure Chests and More!

2011-05-23T15:41:00.000-05:00

We began working on our pirate treasure chests today. We used our hands to paint shoe boxes. Keep an eye on them because we'll be adding sparkles, gems, and more! We had a lot of fun in our other centers today, too!!!

An Afternoon in PPCD

2011-05-20T22:43:00.000-05:00

My mom spent the afternoon with us on Thursday and she took some fabulous photos for our blog of what we do! Thanks, mom (AKA Jane Steig Parsons, Prints Charming Photography)!!! There are usually more of us...unfortunately some of our friends were absent this day.

It's so much fun drawing, running and playing on the basketball court.

Walking in line is something we're getting so good at!

We visited the garden.

We had a great time working on our pirate hats with skulls and cross spoons. High fives for everyone!

We like to practice sign language. Here we are working on the sign for "stop".

Great job paying attention and listening!

It's fun to show our friends the signs we know. This one means "play".

At the end of every day we choose between two hats, a big one and a little one, and we say, "Ye-haw!"

See the little hat by my foot?

Skulls and Cross Spoons

2011-05-19T21:13:00.000-05:00

Today we all cut circles out to make skulls for our pirate hats. We drew faces on them with crayons, too. After we glued the face on our hat we added two spoons as bones. Our skulls and cross spoons rock!

Shaving Cream!

2011-05-18T18:36:00.000-05:00

We finished painting the last of our pirate hats black today. Our art center table was SO covered with black paint that we needed to clean it off. I had some eager volunteers come to the table, request shaving cream, rub it all over the table, then wipe it off with towels. Our art center table looks great! Tomorrow we'll get it all gooey again. :-)

Pirate Hats

2011-05-16T16:56:00.000-05:00

Today we worked on making pirate hats. We used our hands to paint black all over them, front and back. We'll be adding skulls and crossbones soon. We also painted a long tube which will be the mast on our awesome pirate ship!

Be sure to check out the hallway bulletin board!

Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhh!!

2011-05-11T16:59:00.000-05:00

We had so much fun in our pirate ship today! We had it adjacent to the home center and there was a whole lot of eating aboard. It was a very high energy, conversation rich time! We also took turns creating sharks for our ocean scene. Some are already done and hung in the hallway. Be sure to check them out...don't get too close, they have really sharp teeth!

Pirate Ship

2011-05-09T14:39:00.000-05:00

Ahoy, Mateys...there's a pirate ship on the horizon!

All it takes is a bit of black paint and the willingness to get your hands dirty, and any old fire truck can be turned into a pirate ship. We'll keep working on this till it's done.

We also cut waves across the top of our ocean scene. Look for it to be appearing in the hallway...and soon it'll be teeming with sea life!

Seaweed!

2011-05-04T17:29:00.000-05:00

Today we added seaweed to our ocean scene. Everyone worked as part of a team (Yay teamwork!) to twist a long sheet of green paper and then glue it on the ocean scene. We also spent a lot of time in the home center...babies are such a hit these days!!!

Sand and Seashells

2011-05-03T19:21:00.001-05:00

We had sticky, gritty fun today! Everyone used their hands to rub glue all over the bottom of our big, blue ocean paper. We washed and dried our hands and then we sprinkled sand all over the glue. We added a few seashells, too!

The Ocean is Blue

2011-05-02T18:36:00.000-05:00

We started a new unit today! For the remainder of the school year we'll be learning all about the color blue, water, and the ocean. Today we started working with the color blue and used our hands to paint water with dark blue, light blue, and white paint. As a finishing touch we sprinkled glitter all over it. We had great, messy fun!!!

Our Farmtastic Bulletin Board

2011-04-28T17:54:00.000-05:00

Had to post...it's amazing!

Summer Tree and Bugs!

2011-04-28T14:33:00.000-05:00

Today we cut our summer leaves and chose spots for them on our classroom tree. Be sure to check it out...we'll be adding more leaves tomorrow, too! We also dug in the green rice and found all sorts of insects hiding. We used shovels, cups, and a rake to scoop the rice. We worked on color grouping as well.

Summer Leaves

2011-04-26T14:32:00.000-05:00

Our classroom tree is about to turn into a summer tree! Today we started painting leaves to put on our tree. We'll paint more tomorrow and then spend some time cutting them out. Be sure to keep an eye on our classroom tree!

We had a great time in our home center today, too. We made yummy sandwiches and took wonderful care of babies.

Butterflies and our Home Center

2011-04-25T16:46:00.000-05:00

Today we painted butterflies using paint brushes. We folded them in half so they looked the same on both halves...awesome symmetry! Keep an eye on our bulletin board! We also checked out our Home Center that has gotten a face lift compliments of the PTA. We have new food, dishes, and pots and pans! Thank you PTA!!!!

More Ovals and our Beautiful Butterfly!

2011-04-24T20:24:00.000-05:00

On Thursday we continued learning about the oval shape. We painted them and decorated them with creation station items. It was awesome fine motor fun! Our butterfly emerged from its chrysalis and after its wings dried, Ms. Howe released it. It was so beautiful!!

More Ovals and our Awesome Tractor!

2011-04-20T14:09:00.001-05:00

Today we completed our tractor by gluing the green rectangles together, cutting big black circles for wheels, and rectangles for the seat and pipe. Look for it in the hallway in the morning!

We also created more beautiful ovals using our colors of the month, pink and purple. We love painting with our hands!

Ovals and Feelin' Green

2011-04-19T14:49:00.000-05:00

A HUGE thank you to Ms. Howe for having taken over the blog for the last 3 weeks. Great job!!!!

Today we finished painting our tractor green. This week we'll add wheels and more, keep checking our bulletin board.

We also decorated ovals, our shape of the month. Check 'em out!

Fat pink pigs!

2011-04-14T14:54:00.001-05:00

Today was so much fun! We finished our pink paper plate piggies by gluing on ears, feet, noses, eyes, and a red yarn mouth. Then we painted black dots on the eyes and noses. They're such great little additions to our bulletin board! Head on over and check them out!

Baby Chicks!!!

2011-04-13T15:42:00.000-05:00

Hey all! Today was great fun! We hung up our finished chicks on the bulletin board and they are SUPER sweet! We crumpled yellow paper into balls and glued feet, beaks, and feather on them. Keep your eyes open for our pink pigs that are soon to follow!

In other news our caterpillar has turned into a chrysalis! Most of you have seen it already, but if you haven't be sure to stop by and check out his beautiful green and gold colors! Hopefully we're only a few days away from a beautiful Monarch butterfly!

Our bulletin board is getting even cuter, and check out our HUGE caterpillar!

2011-04-06T14:55:00.001-05:00

Oh man, is our bulletin board adorable or what?! Baby chicks are next, so stay tuned!

Our caterpillar is eating a LOT of Milkweed! Twenty four hours later and he has nearly doubled in size! We're so excited to see him turn into a chrysalis! Stay tuned friends!

The cutest sheep you'll ever meet!

2011-04-05T14:26:00.001-05:00

Wow, we were busy today! We went outside and discovered a few caterpillars on a Milkweed plant! We took them inside and put them in our butterfly pavilion. We're so excited to watch them form chrysalis and turn into butterflies!

We also completed the work on our sheep! Hooray! They're the cutest little things I've ever seen! Once we finished our work a big group of friends got together to play with the farm and the animals! Love it!

We finished our barn! Adorable sheep soon to follow!

2011-04-04T14:22:00.001-05:00

Today was awesome! We finished our big red barn and it should be up on the bulletin board tomorrow! Stop by and check it out!

Last week we glued cotton balls onto our sheep bodies, and today we started cutting out our sheep's faces and ears! A few have been put together, but we've got to catch up the rest of our friends before we hang them up! Look for them soon!

Also, our dalmatians and Clifford faces are ready for pickup in our cubbies! Take them home and enjoy!

More farm fun!

2011-03-30T14:32:00.000-05:00

Today we continued working on our big red barn! The roof is almost finished! We tore gray paper for it yesterday, and today we squeezed glue onto the pieces and tapped them into place! Lots of working with our hands today!

We also had a lot of fun outside with Mr. Garland's Kindergarten class! We met new friends and ran around in the sunshine! We love those not too hot days!

We also had our class pictures taken! I (Ms. Howe) got a sneak peak at some of the shots, and they were adorable! Yay!

You make me feel so young...

2011-03-29T14:31:00.002-05:00

...You make me feel like Spring has sprung!!!

Can't you feel that Spring is here? We can! Today we made new branches for for our class tree! They have many small green leaves that we made by crumpling paper with our fingers. Then we glued them onto big and little branches and attached them to our tree! So beautiful!

Then our friends tore gray paper for our big red barn's roof! It's going to be up on the bulletin board in no time, so keep your eyes open for the big reveal!

We also played with letters and shapes in the Small Toys center! We had loads of conversations about our creative designs! Love it!

Our Big Red Barn, Cowboys, and Cowgirls

2011-03-25T13:57:00.000-05:00

Today we began painting our Big Red Barn. We used rollers to paint. We used our hands to paint. We also pretended we were cowboys and cowgirls when we played with the farm in the big toys center.

Farm and Rectangles

2011-03-21T14:04:00.001-05:00

We started learning about the farm today. We played with a farm and a bunch of animals. We heard the book, "Old MacDonald had a Farm". We also decorated more rectangles. The rectangles we decorated today were smaller than the ones we did a couple of weeks ago.

Dalmatians and Rectangles

2011-03-11T19:30:00.000-06:00

Today we learned about the rectangle shape. It has two long sides and two short sides. We decorated rectangles in our creation station. We also completed work on our dalmatians...check 'em out in the hallway.

Have a wonderful spring break everyone!

I see spots!

2011-03-08T19:46:00.001-06:00

We had a very busy day today! We began working on our dalmatians...every fire fighter's favorite dog, of course. We'll continue to add more details to them this week. We also worked with our fire trucks, put out fires, played in our HUGE fire truck, built structures, and moved things with magnets.

Be sure to ask your kiddos about our new friend who joined our class today!!! Welcome!!!!

Fire Fighting

2011-03-07T17:11:00.000-06:00

Today we created a fabulous "Thank You" poster for Fire Fighter Scott. We're going to ask him to stop by soon so we can give it to him and show him our awesome fire truck. We also worked in the big toys center with fire fighting tools and read about community helpers in the reading center.

A New Friend!

2011-03-03T14:09:00.001-06:00

Today we met a new friend! Ask your kiddos all about her. We had so much fun celebrating her birthday!

We also cut out lights and gauges and glued them on our fire truck. Check it out next time you're in the classroom!

Fun with Fire Trucks, Fire Fighters, and Fire Hats

2011-03-01T13:55:00.000-06:00

Today we took turns cutting out a yellow background for the fire truck emblem. We glued it on the front of the fire truck. We also worked on our colors by matching different color fire fighter hats.

Ladders

2011-02-28T20:43:00.001-06:00

We created ladders today by cutting short and VERY long rectangles. We glued the shorter ones on the longer ones to create ladders for our fire truck. Look for them on our fire truck tomorrow!!

We love our Big Red Firetruck!!!

2011-02-26T15:40:00.000-06:00

Our Big Red Firetruck is done being painted! It has windows and a big door on the back. We can go in. We can go out. We can pop our heads up the top windows and look around. We can say "Boo!" to our friends when they pass by a window. We are awesome fire fighters!

Keep an eye on our Big Red Firetruck...new features coming soon!!!

Our Red Fire Truck

2011-02-24T13:54:00.001-06:00

Our HUGE red fire truck is coming along great! Today we tore pieces of red paper and glued them on the boxes. We also used paint rollers to add more red paint. It's looking super cool!

Fire Fighter Scott

2011-02-22T14:01:00.000-06:00

Today in the big toys center we pretended to put out fires in our dollhouse. We had fire trucks, fire fighters, a hose, people to rescue and FIRE!

We also had a wonderful visitor today, Fire Fighter Scott. He told us all about fire fighters and even let us try on his uniform. Thanks Fire Fighter Scott!!!!

Red Firetruck!

2011-02-17T14:06:00.000-06:00

Today we began working on our BIG RED FIRETRUCK! We used our hands to paint the surface of one of our boxes today. We had awesome, messy fun!

Reminder: No school on Friday and Monday. We'll see you on Tuesday.

Love is in the air....

2011-02-09T14:09:00.001-06:00

We've spent the last few days creating hearts! Big hearts! Little hearts! Bumpy hearts! We've got 'em all! We are really learning about the heart shape. Check out our heart creations on our door and in the hallway. We also fed our leopard gecko six crickets today. So exciting! We'll feed him again on Friday.

Ice!

2011-02-03T14:10:00.000-06:00

Our water turned to ice overnight! We brought it in and felt it and observed it melting. So awesome! We also had fun in the home center today!

Brrrrrrr!

2011-02-02T14:08:00.000-06:00

It's so cold outside! Today we talked about what happens to water when it freezes. We took turns pouring water into a container and then we used tongs to place small toys in the water. We put the container outside and will check it tomorrow to see what happens. Stay tuned!!!

Torn Paper and a Really Big Heart

2011-02-01T14:50:00.001-06:00

Today we took turns tearing red paper and gluing it on a Really Big Heart. Our fingers are getting really strong! We also met a new friend today. We're so excited he's joined us!!!

February will be full of red, hearts, fire trucks and fire fighters. This will probably be the messiest month of the year so far, so dress your children in stainable clothing, please.

Sparkly Stars and Doggies

2011-01-31T13:34:00.000-06:00

Today we added glitter to our stars. We used our fingers to squeeze the glue bottle and to pick up the glitter and sprinkle it on the glue. Two of our friends added fur to their doggies in their art class.

Snowflakes

2011-01-25T14:11:00.000-06:00

Today we added snowflakes and a trunk to our winter trees. We used a snowflake-shaped sponge dipped in white paint to tap, tap, tap at the top of the paper to make snowflakes. We used our fingers dipped in brown paint to smear a trunk a the bottom of our trees.

And, check out what happened in the small toys center today! You just never know what those dolls will do!

Our Winter Trees

2011-01-24T14:11:00.001-06:00

We added soft, white snow to our winter trees today. First we put glue on the trees, then we picked up the "snow" and tap, tap, tapped it on the glue. We got our fingers very sticky!

It's getting wintery!

2011-01-19T15:08:00.000-06:00

When we got to school this morning, all of the fall leaves had fallen off of the classroom tree! So exciting, winter is here! Today we created winter trees (the kind that stay green) by using sponges to tap, tap, tap green paint inside a tree-shaped stencil. We'll be adding snow to them tomorrow. Check out our hallway bulletin board! Our snowflakes are up...look for more additions soon!

Little Pink, Green, and Orange Riding Hood

2011-01-13T14:03:00.000-06:00

We went on an adventure today. We all wore scarves on our heads and went on a learning walk all around Zilker. We pretended we were Little Pink, Green, and Orange Riding Hoods. We finally found the wolf under Ms. Wilde's deck! Wow!

The Biggest Snowball Ever!

2011-01-12T14:31:00.000-06:00

Today we read one of my favorite PPCD books, "The Biggest Snowball Ever". It's about a big snowball with a bunch of kids in it. We used white play dough, that we created yesterday, and some little Lakeshore people to recreate the story. SO MUCH FUN! Our play dough is awesome...it has white glitter in it to make it sparkly and it smells super minty!

Our Winter Tree

2011-01-06T14:14:00.000-06:00

We've been adding "snow" to our big green triangle to make it a winter tree. We talked about the color white and the feeling of "soft" when we were adding the snow. Please check it out in the hallway. It's just the first thing in our Winter Scene.

Welcome back to school!!

2011-01-04T14:47:00.000-06:00

We had a great first day back! Today we cut out a really big triangle. Tomorrow we're going to add "snow" tomorrow and create a winter tree. We also had a great time in the Home Center pretending it was everyone's birthday.

Happy Holidays!!

2010-12-16T15:21:00.000-06:00

Wishing you all wonderful, fun, happy, and safe holiday fun!!! We all look forward to seeing you in January. Here are a few pictures of some fun we had today and something beautiful we created.

Happy Birthday and Reindeer Hats

2010-12-15T14:31:00.000-06:00

Today we celebrated a friend's birthday! Happy Birthday!!!! We also finished our reindeer headbands. This week we painted the band brown, traced and cut out our hands to make antlers, and glued a pink oval on a brown oval to create ears. Now we just need red noses!!