A NEW year!

Although the snow hasn't been flying, it's still cold AND it's supposedly still winter. We've been talking about winter, winter animals and winter activities.

We've been talking about penguins, polar bears, snow bunnies, and other animals that like the cold weather. We've compared winter clothes to summer clothes and classified animals. We've even guessed and then discovered what keeps animals warm in the winter. We've talked about snow, and while there was snow on the ground we've melted some to see what is actually IN the snow. We discovered that besides water, there's a LOT of dirt.

Soon we'll be working on Valentine's Day projects, but until then, keep warm!

Visit to the Fire Station

Stop, Drop and Roll (and cover
your face with your hands)

October is fire safety month.  Many of our preschool activities have centered around fire safety, fire stations, firemen and fire trucks.  To end the month we took a field trip to the South Jordan Fire Station.  It was a fun and exciting trip.

The fireman taught all the children what to do if your clothes are on fire:  STOP, DROP and ROLL.  But remember, cover your face with your hands first.  When the fireman asked for volunteers to demonstrate the how to stop, drop and roll, Chace (who insisted he was 5 years old!) quickly volunteered.  He was the perfect example of cover your face and roll around. 

After we learned about fire safety and stop drop and roll the fireman showed us all the places in the fire station like their bedrooms (some made their beds and some didn't), their kitchen and living area.  Hailey noticed the huge flat screen tv.  That made all of them laugh.

Learning about Fire Safety

Listening to Fireman Sean

Does this make me look five?

The highlight of the visit was the fire truck!  We got to walk through the cab, turn on the red lights and try on the fire suits.  Then, the fireman showed us what they look like in a fire.  Coats, pants, boots and air mask. He didn't look like a man anymore, but more like a Darth Vadar Monster.  It was very good for everyone to see that he was really their fireman friend inside all of that stuff instead of the scary looking thing on the outside.  Everyone gave him a high five, although reluctantly.  And poor Emmy wouldn't go near him.

There's No Such Thing as a Witch....Or is There?

 On this beautiful Friday morning, Shauna, Lyle, Caylee, Hailey and Angela loaded into the van to visit Gardner Village.  We had to prove to the girls that the witches are getting ready for Halloween.  We didn't have to look far before we found a witch and then two and more!

You wouldn't believe all the things witches can do!  They play baseball, put our fires, play the piano, dance, fly, ride bike, dance and many other things.  Here's a picture accounting of the things we saw and heard. 

There were witches who knew how to play baseball

And witches flying through the air on bikes and broomsticks

One witch asked us to sit and talk for a while

Do witches really eat hot dogs?  This one does.

Witches taking flying lessons and not doing very well

Fire-woman witch

Playing a great song on the piano!

Rowing across the lake.  With dynamite???

 

Funny story.  All of the girls wanted to see what was inside a funny little outhouse next to a building.
They go walking down the path to open the door when Lyle says to them,
"Are you sure you want to open that door?
Something might be in there."
Every girl stopped in their tracks, and Hailey turns to Lyle and says,
"YOU open the door, Lyle!"

So, Lyle opens up the door!!
But, there was only wires and electrical things in there.
It wasn't scary at all!

Pumpkin Painting

After going to the pumpkin patch there are so many things to do with our pumpkins.  The first thing is to paint them!  Painting on a new medium is way too much fun to stop at just a face, so we all painted every inch of the pumpkins.

It started out as pumpkins of many colors but quickly turned to black pumpkins.  Aren't they beautiful??!!

Pumpkin Patch!!!

I think going to the pumpkin patch is one of my favorite things to do!  And, luckily we live so close to several! This is our second year going to the pumpkin patch.  We're going to definitely make it an annual outing!  Besides pumpkins the farm had goats on the loose this year.  The farm boys were trying to heard 3 very stubborn goats from one place to another.  Needless to say, the goats did NOT want to go.  We tried not to laugh as the goats ran past us and dashed away from the boys trying to herd them.  I think that little show was as much fun as picking our pumpkins. 

The other little tidbit of information that is becoming strikingly clear....if you have more than 2 children in any given picture, you can pretty much guarantee none of them will look at Shauna and say cheese.  So, I've tried to pick the best (and I took a LOT I can't place here), but in the end, there was more to look at that was more interesting than the lady holding the phone camera.

Batteries Not Included

I recently viewed a television commercial advertising the latest toy from Fisher Price or Play Skool or one of the other early years toy companies.  Now don't get me wrong I LOVE children's toy makers!  They are genius, at times, in their development of good toys.  So, this is not so much an illustration of how companies make bad toys for children's learning (we'll leave that to Disney movies and another discussion), but more how we need not feel guilty if our children do not have the latest and greatest toys.

Now, back to the commercial, which was depicting a mother and her crawling infant playing with a large, battery operated toy that had lights, bells, whistles, balls rolling and popping up, and all the fun colors you can imagine.  All throughout the 15 or so seconds, the scene would go black and flash the words....How does....your baby....learn?  Which is quite possibly one of the top 5 questions a parent, teacher, caregiver, doctor, and nurse should be asking themselves about children.  The toy WAS cool and had a lot of fun things going on all at once, but what struck me as the real answer to the question is:  By playing with mom (or dad, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, caregiver, etc).  It didn't really matter what toy is sitting in front of the child, unless that toy is completely unsafe for him/her.  What matters is the discovery of the object, and that the baby/child is WITH someone when they discover it. 

So, baby Gabby and I were playing on the floor yesterday, when this commercial flashed back into my head.  And,  I realized I didn't need a lot of things with batteries and bells and whistles, rather I just needed to sit down with her and a clear plastic container (which used to hold all the colorful toys) and play a simple game of peek-a-boo for her to completely content, as well as learn concepts such as density, opaque, smooth and rough, object permanence, movement through space and a lot more.  You'll see she's having so much fun, my camera could hardly catch those fast hands!