I hope all my kiddos new and old and teacher friends returning to school have a great year. Stay inspired! Teachers, keep those kids engaged and kiddos... love your time in school.
Tanya :)
Friday, August 23, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Are your kids bored? Here are 10 entertaining and messy ideas!
1. Lay a long piece of paper down in the yard. Put a couple of dished of paint and let your child walk paint all the way down the paper.
2. Make some moondough using 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil. It is a blast and it smells yummy!
3. Let them paint with shaving cream! Add some tempera paint for color.
4. IF you have a slide in your yard, put paper on the slide and get a koosh ball or other ball and a couple of plates of paint. Stick the ball in different paints and rolls them down the slide! Super silly fun.
5. Make a bird feeder out of a toilet paper tube, peanut butter and roll it on a plate of bird seed. Then put a hole in it and hang from a tree.
6. PLANT something! Let them take care of a plant, a veggie or whatever. Give them something to water daily.
7. If you don't have a sandbox, which I personally don't even like, but sand in a large, under the bed bin! Take it out side. Put water in it or keep it dry, let them decide. You don't need fancy toys, just a spoon an old cup and maybe a bowl.
8. Make some chocolate Clay! Messy and Delish! 1 can of chocolate frosting, 1 small jar of peanut butter and enough powdered sugar to take out the sticky factor, usually 3-4 cups. PLAY then EAT!
9. Build a sprinkler / bike wash out of pvc pipes. Have the kids design something, run to the Home Depot and get the pvc, plumbers putty and put it together. Hook it up to the hose and you have a nifty sprinkler or "bike wash" for all the kids to keep cool.
10. Make a family pizza together and stay in to watch a movie. Everyone gets to do something: crust, cheese, toppings, timer, cut, etc. Add a salad and enjoy the A/C
HOPE YOU ARE HAVING FUN, Whatever you do with your children.
Tanya
2. Make some moondough using 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil. It is a blast and it smells yummy!
3. Let them paint with shaving cream! Add some tempera paint for color.
4. IF you have a slide in your yard, put paper on the slide and get a koosh ball or other ball and a couple of plates of paint. Stick the ball in different paints and rolls them down the slide! Super silly fun.
5. Make a bird feeder out of a toilet paper tube, peanut butter and roll it on a plate of bird seed. Then put a hole in it and hang from a tree.
6. PLANT something! Let them take care of a plant, a veggie or whatever. Give them something to water daily.
7. If you don't have a sandbox, which I personally don't even like, but sand in a large, under the bed bin! Take it out side. Put water in it or keep it dry, let them decide. You don't need fancy toys, just a spoon an old cup and maybe a bowl.
8. Make some chocolate Clay! Messy and Delish! 1 can of chocolate frosting, 1 small jar of peanut butter and enough powdered sugar to take out the sticky factor, usually 3-4 cups. PLAY then EAT!
9. Build a sprinkler / bike wash out of pvc pipes. Have the kids design something, run to the Home Depot and get the pvc, plumbers putty and put it together. Hook it up to the hose and you have a nifty sprinkler or "bike wash" for all the kids to keep cool.
10. Make a family pizza together and stay in to watch a movie. Everyone gets to do something: crust, cheese, toppings, timer, cut, etc. Add a salad and enjoy the A/C
HOPE YOU ARE HAVING FUN, Whatever you do with your children.
Tanya
Sunday, June 9, 2013
And that's a wrap!
Wow, the year flew and now it is that time when we say goodbye! I loved all my time with you and your children. I will make this brief and let photos speak loudly for me. I adore my scrap book. It was the best going away gift EVER! I will continue this blog, but as a new journey. It is called growing together... Even I must continue to grow. Hug those kids for me and do lots of amazing things this summer. Send me a photo of the sunflower they grow or of a cool science project they try. Much love to all of you! Many well wishes for next year!
xo,
Tanya
xo,
Tanya
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| Our Ant Farm... It was released on Tuesday. |
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| At the Zoo |
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| End of the year Dance party |
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| I don't want you to be sad V! |
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| How Mrs. Boyle sews |
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| Dandelion princess |
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| They love their cars |
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| they love their bugs |
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| Don't be sad.. it is summer time! |
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| the 3 I have had for 2 years... |
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| All my monkeys! |
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
So much to do, so little time to do it....
The beginning of May has come and gone. I hope you all had a FABULOUS Mother's day. We loved making those cards for you. As a mom myself, I love hanging on to some really special words that my children have written or had others write for them. It is so special and sweet to pull out every so often.
We have begun our unit on Peter and the Wolf. This is a wonderful story because it is accompanied by classical music. Each character has a key piece of music made by a specific instrument. This has boiled over into Music where they are looking at different instruments and hearing how they sound. You can look on youtube to hear it or to see a 14 min. clip of the story with the music. They really enjoy it. The unit also brings us 3 letters closer to the end of the alphabet.. We are learning Uu, Vv, and Ww. I hope you are playing games and reading lots of books that will encourage the retention and growth of all of the letters we have learned thus far. That is really the way they love to learn.
We are preparing for our very own chapel presentation. Each child has a small speaking part. You have received the practice sheet a couple of times. Please just go over their line(s) once a day. We are doing all the songs etc together. You are more than welcome to join us on May 29 at 8:30 for our presentation.
Our theme this week revolves around our upcoming field trip to LP Zoo. We are talking about farm animals vs. zoo animals and why we even have animals for viewing. It has been pretty interesting thus far. They are truly excited to get out of school and head downtown to see the animals. I am pretty excited too. If you are a chaperone, please just stay at school upon dropoff. We will leave at 8:45 am. Remember, this is a FULLY DISPOSABLE lunch. We will be tossing all contents as there is no place to store them but our bags. Please NO cans and do not over pack food. We hate throwing food out because they didn't eat it.
Finally, I wanted to say thank you all for the adorable gifts last week. It was so kind and generous of you to remember me and Ms. Munoz. We would not do this job if we didn't love your children!!
Enjoy the sunshine and have lots of fun with your child, we do.
TB
ps... I lied. THIS is the final note. Don't forget to reply to the end of the year celebration for June 5th by next week. Thanks in advance if you did already.
We have begun our unit on Peter and the Wolf. This is a wonderful story because it is accompanied by classical music. Each character has a key piece of music made by a specific instrument. This has boiled over into Music where they are looking at different instruments and hearing how they sound. You can look on youtube to hear it or to see a 14 min. clip of the story with the music. They really enjoy it. The unit also brings us 3 letters closer to the end of the alphabet.. We are learning Uu, Vv, and Ww. I hope you are playing games and reading lots of books that will encourage the retention and growth of all of the letters we have learned thus far. That is really the way they love to learn.
We are preparing for our very own chapel presentation. Each child has a small speaking part. You have received the practice sheet a couple of times. Please just go over their line(s) once a day. We are doing all the songs etc together. You are more than welcome to join us on May 29 at 8:30 for our presentation.
Our theme this week revolves around our upcoming field trip to LP Zoo. We are talking about farm animals vs. zoo animals and why we even have animals for viewing. It has been pretty interesting thus far. They are truly excited to get out of school and head downtown to see the animals. I am pretty excited too. If you are a chaperone, please just stay at school upon dropoff. We will leave at 8:45 am. Remember, this is a FULLY DISPOSABLE lunch. We will be tossing all contents as there is no place to store them but our bags. Please NO cans and do not over pack food. We hate throwing food out because they didn't eat it.
Finally, I wanted to say thank you all for the adorable gifts last week. It was so kind and generous of you to remember me and Ms. Munoz. We would not do this job if we didn't love your children!!
Enjoy the sunshine and have lots of fun with your child, we do.
TB
ps... I lied. THIS is the final note. Don't forget to reply to the end of the year celebration for June 5th by next week. Thanks in advance if you did already.
Monday, April 22, 2013
We survived the great waters... how about you?
Our unit on rain could not have been timed any better! The children learned all about the water cycle and the basics of storms. They were lucky and you were unlucky enough to have had the pleasure of seeing big storms first hand. It was quite the experience. I hope they have been sharing with you.
We recently moved on to the plant cycle. We learned about seeds and then onto the parts of a flower. We are growing seeds now. We hope to see some growth later this week. In another week or 2 they will bring them home. This is something great to do at home. It gives them responsibility for something they want to see do well. Get them a cup or pot, some wild flower or grass seeds and a spray bottle. Watch them learn through real life activities.
We started with The Tug of War last week. This is a story taking placing in the rainforests of Africa. Needless to say they are all excited about that. We looked at the parts of the world where rainforests exist and why they are there and not say, here, in Chicago. We are learning the animals and other life that lives primarily there. It's been pretty awesome. In this unit we introduced Rr, Ss, Tt. We are nearly done with the alphabet.
Our recent Artist was a revisit from Van Gogh. This time, we used impasto paints. We put flour in paint to thicken it up and used a couple of different tools and stiff brushes. Our inspiration was "Sunflowers". They talked to each other about how it was a little harder to just PAINT using this thicker paint.
JG and his mom made OOBLEK. We talked about liquids vs. solids. Each child was able to explore the oozey gooey substance with different materials. We also had science with TS and it was a hit. He and his mom made chocolate clay. It was pliable like playdough and then they could eat it. We sent home a recipe, but here are the basic ingredients for a large batch: 1 can frosting (any flavor), 1 small jar of creamy peanut butter and approximately 4 cups of powdered sugar. The sugar keeps it from being sticky.
I sent home a field trip slip. Please have that with the payment back on or before May 6. Finally, Open Houses have been very well received. If your plan is to return to prek next year, be sure to turn in your registration. Space is limited to 24 and we already have 16 registered!
Until next time....
TBoyle
We recently moved on to the plant cycle. We learned about seeds and then onto the parts of a flower. We are growing seeds now. We hope to see some growth later this week. In another week or 2 they will bring them home. This is something great to do at home. It gives them responsibility for something they want to see do well. Get them a cup or pot, some wild flower or grass seeds and a spray bottle. Watch them learn through real life activities.
We started with The Tug of War last week. This is a story taking placing in the rainforests of Africa. Needless to say they are all excited about that. We looked at the parts of the world where rainforests exist and why they are there and not say, here, in Chicago. We are learning the animals and other life that lives primarily there. It's been pretty awesome. In this unit we introduced Rr, Ss, Tt. We are nearly done with the alphabet.
Our recent Artist was a revisit from Van Gogh. This time, we used impasto paints. We put flour in paint to thicken it up and used a couple of different tools and stiff brushes. Our inspiration was "Sunflowers". They talked to each other about how it was a little harder to just PAINT using this thicker paint.
JG and his mom made OOBLEK. We talked about liquids vs. solids. Each child was able to explore the oozey gooey substance with different materials. We also had science with TS and it was a hit. He and his mom made chocolate clay. It was pliable like playdough and then they could eat it. We sent home a recipe, but here are the basic ingredients for a large batch: 1 can frosting (any flavor), 1 small jar of creamy peanut butter and approximately 4 cups of powdered sugar. The sugar keeps it from being sticky.
I sent home a field trip slip. Please have that with the payment back on or before May 6. Finally, Open Houses have been very well received. If your plan is to return to prek next year, be sure to turn in your registration. Space is limited to 24 and we already have 16 registered!
Until next time....
TBoyle
Sunday, April 7, 2013
International Week in Prekindergarten
INTERNATIONAL WEEK! Thanks to all who came and helped to share information: IE, DF, TS, EV. We learned about Mexico, Puerto Rico, Norway, Ireland, Poland, Italy, Phillipines and Korea.
It's SPRING!!!
Well, I hope you are all nice and rested. We are in the home stretch of the 2012/2013 school year. We Still have one quarter to go, so keep your children excited each morning and I will keep them engaged all day.
This week is very short. We have conferences all day from 12:30-8 on Thursday and I have hours on Friday morning from 8:30-11:30 am. Please sign up to see me. I am eager to show you your child's progress.
We will be working on RST very soon. Please keep encouraging them at home as they try to sound out or identify letters and numbers. They are very excited about this new knowledge. Asking them to read a story to you while you encourage left to right tracking is a great bit of "homework" you can do with them. Remember, homework does NOT have to be worksheets and workbooks. Make learning exciting and part of their real life. Have them stack cans or count boxes or open mail and "read it " to you.
We will be singing in church at St. Paul at the end of April. Please keep watch of news on that. We will have a field trip to Lincoln Park Zoo in May, so I will be looking for chaperones on that trip too. Remember with field trips, no siblings may join us. Finally Prek will present chapel at the end of May as well. That went very well last year and I am looking forward to the children sharing Jesus with the rest of the school.
That's all for now. I look forward to these last few weeks together. I can't believe how much your children have grown and how much they will continue to grow and learn this last quarter.
Blessings,
Tanya Boyle
This week is very short. We have conferences all day from 12:30-8 on Thursday and I have hours on Friday morning from 8:30-11:30 am. Please sign up to see me. I am eager to show you your child's progress.
We will be working on RST very soon. Please keep encouraging them at home as they try to sound out or identify letters and numbers. They are very excited about this new knowledge. Asking them to read a story to you while you encourage left to right tracking is a great bit of "homework" you can do with them. Remember, homework does NOT have to be worksheets and workbooks. Make learning exciting and part of their real life. Have them stack cans or count boxes or open mail and "read it " to you.
We will be singing in church at St. Paul at the end of April. Please keep watch of news on that. We will have a field trip to Lincoln Park Zoo in May, so I will be looking for chaperones on that trip too. Remember with field trips, no siblings may join us. Finally Prek will present chapel at the end of May as well. That went very well last year and I am looking forward to the children sharing Jesus with the rest of the school.
That's all for now. I look forward to these last few weeks together. I can't believe how much your children have grown and how much they will continue to grow and learn this last quarter.
Blessings,
Tanya Boyle
Monday, March 18, 2013
Newest Photos and A Soup Opera Link
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| Community Night 2013 |
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| Green Eggs and Ham |
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| Truffula Forests |
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| A Soup Opera Cast |
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| Science with NZ and her Dad |
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| Making chocolate milk and mayonnaise from scratch |
March started with green eggs and soup and will end with chocolate eggs and peeps
I always forget how busy March is. I LOVE the month of March. So much has been going on.
We started March with Community Night which I spoke of last post. It was awesome to be part of the program where we were able to mingle with the big kids and see their projects.
Seuss Week took place the 1st week of March. Of coarse the snow came and we lost a day, but we did a lot of learning revolving Theodore Geisel's work. Oh who is that? Ask your child. Hopefully not too much time has passed. We ate pretend green eggs and ham, but sent home a recipe for real green eggs and ham. A couple of students sent me photos of them eating at home! Way to try new things. We graphed our favorite books, we made hats, we talked about the significance of the Lorax and how we can really think about that movie in the real world. The children painted their own Truffula forests. We talked about not only rhyming all week, but tongue twisters. Fox in Sox and Oh Say Can you Say are great for twisting up your tongues. We also found ipad apps that read Dr. Seuss stories and had some games on them. All of our centers revolved around Dr. S and his books all week.
Our 4 year olds presented "A Soup Opera". It was amazing. I will post the link with the next post of photos. I am very proud of them. Again, it goes to prove that if little ones are engaged and interested, they really can do so much more than many people think!!
We started to really talk a lot about Jesus and his Disciples followed by Jesus' Miracles. The children learned how the disciples were Jesus' special friends that helped him spread the word. They also learned that miracles are not magic and not something you and I can do. They were in awe of the short clips that I showed to help explain these. You can look on youtube for examples if you want to explore these with your child further. This week we will talk about Palm Sunday, followed up by our singing appearance in church at St. Paul on Sunday and next week we will celebrate Easter. We will have a small celebration on Wednesday before school lets out. Small treat bags or goodies are fine to share.
This week is International Week. We will be visited by people from Norway, Poland, Ireland, Korea and Puerto Rico and Mexico. The children did great today when they learned about Norway from TS's grandma and GREAT grandma. They brought in goodies to eat and books and little trinkets to view. It was great. We are looking forward to the rest of the week. Our centers and work will revolve around maps, globes, flags etc.
Finally, the children have been doing amazingly well in all aspects of letter and number practice. We are up to letter Qq as of today. We are using many different ways of practicing learning to ID and also to sound out these letters and numbers. Some awesome ideas are to roll dice, play with dominoes, buy foam dice and write letters on them. They should always say the number or letter and then write. I am trying to tell them that it is great to write it, but they also need to know it's name. They really love it. Please encourage this at home.
I will post photos tonight. There are so many I just have to sit down and choose! My next post will be after Easter, so enjoy your break with your child. Praise God!
TBoyle
We started March with Community Night which I spoke of last post. It was awesome to be part of the program where we were able to mingle with the big kids and see their projects.
Seuss Week took place the 1st week of March. Of coarse the snow came and we lost a day, but we did a lot of learning revolving Theodore Geisel's work. Oh who is that? Ask your child. Hopefully not too much time has passed. We ate pretend green eggs and ham, but sent home a recipe for real green eggs and ham. A couple of students sent me photos of them eating at home! Way to try new things. We graphed our favorite books, we made hats, we talked about the significance of the Lorax and how we can really think about that movie in the real world. The children painted their own Truffula forests. We talked about not only rhyming all week, but tongue twisters. Fox in Sox and Oh Say Can you Say are great for twisting up your tongues. We also found ipad apps that read Dr. Seuss stories and had some games on them. All of our centers revolved around Dr. S and his books all week.
Our 4 year olds presented "A Soup Opera". It was amazing. I will post the link with the next post of photos. I am very proud of them. Again, it goes to prove that if little ones are engaged and interested, they really can do so much more than many people think!!
We started to really talk a lot about Jesus and his Disciples followed by Jesus' Miracles. The children learned how the disciples were Jesus' special friends that helped him spread the word. They also learned that miracles are not magic and not something you and I can do. They were in awe of the short clips that I showed to help explain these. You can look on youtube for examples if you want to explore these with your child further. This week we will talk about Palm Sunday, followed up by our singing appearance in church at St. Paul on Sunday and next week we will celebrate Easter. We will have a small celebration on Wednesday before school lets out. Small treat bags or goodies are fine to share.
This week is International Week. We will be visited by people from Norway, Poland, Ireland, Korea and Puerto Rico and Mexico. The children did great today when they learned about Norway from TS's grandma and GREAT grandma. They brought in goodies to eat and books and little trinkets to view. It was great. We are looking forward to the rest of the week. Our centers and work will revolve around maps, globes, flags etc.
Finally, the children have been doing amazingly well in all aspects of letter and number practice. We are up to letter Qq as of today. We are using many different ways of practicing learning to ID and also to sound out these letters and numbers. Some awesome ideas are to roll dice, play with dominoes, buy foam dice and write letters on them. They should always say the number or letter and then write. I am trying to tell them that it is great to write it, but they also need to know it's name. They really love it. Please encourage this at home.
I will post photos tonight. There are so many I just have to sit down and choose! My next post will be after Easter, so enjoy your break with your child. Praise God!
TBoyle
Monday, March 4, 2013
New Photos
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| Thanks to all for remembering my birthday!! |
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| We learned about Mondrian. The children chose their supplies and created their own work. |
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| Science with NN. He did the Glitter Globe experiment. |
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| Silly scissors, paper and glue... go be children. |
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| We spent a week on healthy eating and dental care. |
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| DZ made Elephant toothpaste. It was super exciting and stinky. |
I will post community night and Dr. Seuss excitement this weekend. A Soup Opera was rescheduled, so look for a video in the next week.
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