Q, G, & S

Pre-K is still working on their alphabet books. For the month of January they added the letters Q, G, and S.

For Q the children's page for their books was a Quail with a Quilt. The craft picture was also a quilt--Q is hard. I had cut out some fabric into squares. I drew a large square on the paper and had them glue 4 pieces of fabric to make a quilt.

Our G page was a Goose in a garden. I have no idea why, but this goose has got to be the saddest goose ever. I thought it might be nice to incorporate our senses unit into the craft picture. So since we had talked about sight, we made glasses. I had cut some circles, then cut out the insides. The children glued to circles down and glued googly eyes inside. The added the center and sides with a marker. I thought they were pretty cute if I do say so myself.

The letter S gave us a Seahorse in the sea. Since S was on beach day we made a starfish, or a sea star depending on your preference. I had put the work sea star on the picture because it had two S's in it. To make the sea star, I had cut out the shape. The children painted some glue on the sea star and sprinkled it with glitter.

Is the Big Day Soon?

I know this site is devoted to the preschooler, but we all know before there is a preschooler there is an infant. A reader has asked to post some tips for parents soon headed to the delivery room for that new little person in the family.

How to Prepare for Delivery Day

After waiting for nine long months, expecting parents are ecstatic for delivery day to arrive. However, as the excitement levels rise with anticipation, so do their anxiety levels.

Preparing for delivery day in advance is essential to making sure that the day goes smoothly and does not have any unnecessary stressors.

Aside from attending regular doctor appointments, attending a childbirth class is one of the most important steps in preparing for the big day. A childbirth class will teach the expecting parents about what to expect during pregnancy and during the delivery process. In addition, the class will likely teach breathing techniques and different birthing positions.

Reading books is an important aspect of preparing for delivery day. Expecting parents should read books about the entire process in order to understand what is normal and what to expect. This will provide peace of mind and the feeling of more in control of the situation.

In addition, preparing a birthing plan prior to delivery day can also be very helpful. The birth plan should include information such as where the expecting parents would like the birth to occur, who can attend the birth and any plans regarding medication.

Parents should also think about whether or not they would like to participate in cord blood banking. Banking cord blood allows the blood from the umbilical cord to be stored for future use. It is typically used to treat blood and immune system diseases of the child or a sibling.

Lastly, the parents-to-be should make sure that they have a bag packed and ready to go for when the delivery day arrives. There are many items that should be in the delivery day bag. These items include, copies of your birth plan, a list of people to call after the baby arrives, a baby book, camera, personal items such as toothbrushes, nursing bras, an outfit for the baby to wear home, clothing for the parents and a blanket for the baby. The expecting parents should also be sure to remember items that do not fit in a bag, such as a car seat for the new baby.

Giving birth can be both exciting and stressful but a little preparation will help avoid a great deal of stress in the long run.

"This article was written by Katie Moore. Katie is an active writer within the blogging community who discusses maternity, motherhood, prenatal health, child birth and other topics within this niche.

If you have any questions or would like to connect with Katie please contact her via twitter @moorekm26."

Continuing Winter

Even though the weather here has been mild for winter--I'm not complaining by the way--we are still continuing our winter discussions in the three-year-old class.

Our first fun winter craft was one of my favorites--the Ivory Snow Snowman. My favorite reason to make this? They smell soooo good. The children also find the texture after the snowman dries different and fun.

After our snowmen dried, the got all "dressed up" to go home--and boy did some of them get dressed.

This week we were discussing our wildlife--the winter birds and hibernating animals. First on Tuesday we made Cheerio bird feeders to put outside for our fine feathered friends. (I don't have pictures--Tuesday was a whirlwind.)

Today we made a bear and cave for him to hibernate in. For the cave I had the children watercolor the back of a paper plate brown, black, or mixed. This will be the cave.

Then I gave them a bear I cut out of construction paper. The children covered the bear with glue, we laid him in some yarn, then added a stick to the back so he can go in and out of his cave.

To make the actual cave I folded the paper plate in half and put two staples on each side near the fold. I then put a slit in the fold and slipped in the stick the bear was on. Then the bear cold go in and out of his "cave."

I had to share this snack we had on Thursday. I know I may be late to the party, so sorry if you already saw these. They were Trix treats in a cone. It looks like you make the Trix treats like you would Rice Krispie treats, then put them on a cone. They looked really cute.

Our shape books are coming together. We did the triangle and rectangle. The first two days we cut the shapes out and glued them on their paper with their song. The second day we made a kite out of triangles for the rectangle and a top hat with rectangles.

I think I have you all caught up with the 3's--until next week.

Adding 6, 7, and 8

During the month of January we have been adding some new numbers to our book in Pre-K. We have gotten all the way to number 8--numbers 9 and 10 left.















We'll start with six. For six we put 6 buttons on a snowman. Our last step was to add the beads to our number line.

For number seven we gave 7 fish to a penguin. I have lots of fish stickers at school so the children just added 7 fish stickers, colored the paper and wrote their numbers. Then we added another row of beads.

Finally, for number eight we put 8 spots on a butterfly and put eight more beads on the number line.

I am very proud of how well the children have been doing with their number books. I also think the pages are very cute, if I do say so myself.

Are you interested in obtaining the number pages? Click here.