May Pre-K

May 1st was my last turn to teach our Pre-K. The assigned theme was "summer" so after our story, writing, and math, we had a picnic and played lawn games.


Playing in our friend's backyard as I pick him up from his last class day of Pre-K!


Pre-K Graduation. They acted out a story and sang a couple of song.


One song said "we're off to kindergarten" and he performed that part happily. Then it went on to "we won't be here in preschool anymore" and he got super sad. I'm told he cried at that part during both days of rehearsal as well. A friend was taking video and sent it to me. Here he is in 4 of the frames, after the last one he ran to me. He's so sweet.


Despite my best effort I teared up a little at seeing him so sad. Here we are, 2 sad goofs at a Pre-K graduation.


He recovered pretty quickly and here he is back in it again.


After we got home I coaxed him into posing for one last photo.

Emergency!

We had 2 awesome pre-k field trips in January! The Police Station and the Fire Station.

(Most the Police Station photos were taken by another mom.)

In a juvenile cell, and an adult cell :/


Shooting range. I'm pretty sure my cutie didn't know what she meant when another mom said to do finger guns.


The vehicles.




My 3rd tour of this Fire Station. It's different every time, but always fun.

Alpaca Farm

Our pre-k field trip to the Breezy Hill Alpaca Farm (Oct). This field trip was one of our best. Upon arrival we found turkeys and peacocks wandering nearby. I didn't let toddler get any closer, and admit I was a little nervous when he reached out as I took this. The farm owner showed us around and told us a little about what they do and about alpacas.


He took us first to the goats, which were a lot of fun to pet.


Then to the alpacas,


which were a lot of fun to feed.




And finally to the chickens and bunnies.


Then we washed up and enjoyed a picnic before heading home.

Preschool Graduation

Before Graduation

Our preschooler asked if he could help make ice cream sometime and it was perfect timing because the graduation ice creams needed to be made. He picked cookies & cream and mint chocolate chip. His brothers wanted to help too.



Class pictures.




Graduation Day

Our program consisted of songs, nursery rhymes, and commencement.  You don't really have to watch everything.

Baa Baa Black Sheep (0:47)


Mary Had a Little Lamb (1:12)


The Lion and the Unicorn (1:01)


Simple Simon (0:25)


Old McDonald Had A Farm (2:13)


I Wiggle My Torso (1:19)


Commencement (1:42)


After the program we had mini cupcakes and ice cream. Then they made rockets.


And we went outside to launch them!


And have a picnic.


And launch them again!


My little graduate/lamb!


2 of the other moms shared a picture of our graduation online, and I've taken them so I can share them too:

My friend shared this to show how her own child didn't love performing, haha; it's actually super adorable of my little guy :)


And here's another fun picture of them all.

I Wiggle My Torso

I'm planning the preschool graduation and want to include the action song I Wiggle My Torso as one of the songs they perform.  Their participation with that song throughout the school year has been rather remarkable and I love doing it with them. But having the music playing (I just sing) and all the parents watching (I do it with them) would drastically change the situation.

I thought maybe I could offer a visual. We had a wonderful day for pictures (=cloudy) and I thought I'd better take them if I wanted the option. This preschooler loves this song and we had so much fun taking pictures of all the actions.

I nod my head, I stomp my feet


I bend with my hips, I walk on my heels


I roll my shoulders, I clap my hands


I flap my arms, I bend my knees


Those 4 pairs are the 4 verses. We also took pictures of the actions that repeat, but I won't actually use them because the visuals would move too fast to be useful.

But here's the other actions:

Of course there's: I wiggle my torso


And finally: Jump up, turn 'round, and fall on the floor



Here they are, ready to go.  We used them Thursday and it actually went pretty well.  We have one more rehearsal before graduation!