Post Office

Our community helper theme ended with the Post Office. Each child got their own colorful postcard to decorate the front of. They dictated to me what message they would like to say and who they wanted to send the postcard to. We had some really interesting things to say to our friends and family members! Each child got their own stamp to put in the corner of the postcard (one cent stamps of course :) ) While they may not have been able to actually send this postcard in the mail it was great practice.


They also each got a colorful envelope to address, add a stamp and put a letter inside.


The "letter" was a page full of stamps made with a stamp and ink pad.

The easel was a busy center with many a mail carrier hats being painted blue.


The dramatic play center had lots of letters to mail, stamps to sort, post cards to look at, and envelopes to drop into a cardboard post office box.

We sure had a busy time with community helpers but it was so much fun to explore and experience new occupations each day.

Restaurant

On our restaurant day, we had the play kitchen set up for the children to cook in as well as a little table dressed with menu's and placemats. There were little pads of paper so the children could take each other's orders.



Each child made his or her own Paper Pizza. They began with a large beige circle that they painted red for the pizza sauce. Next they topped it with their choice of green peppers, pepperoni circles and red tomatoes that I had already die cut. The cheese was 2 inch strips of yellow ribbon, but you could easily substitute yarn.

All the pizza's were so adorable! The Mon/Wed/Fri class practiced their cutting skills by cutting out their own toppings with scissors.

Teacher Michelle taught both classes a great song by Charlotte Diamond called I Am a Pizza. The kids loved it! The Mon/Wed/Fri class sing this one regularly at the last circle time.

"I Am a Pizza" by Charlotte Diamond


A student from my Tues/Thurs class came to school that day bearing gifts as well. Her parents manage Boston Pizza in town, so the children were gifted with mini chocolate pizzas and Kids Eat Free coupons. The class ended with her handing out the treats to her classmates. I so appreciate how great our parents have been getting involved.

Hospital

Hello everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your child's time at home with you for the Reading Week break. I thought it was the perfect time to get caught up on my blog updating.

Now I know I'm heading back to the Community Helpers theme, but I got some great pictures of our activities and wanted to share them.

We had one of the parents, Lisa, who is a community nurse come in and talk to the kids about nurses during our Hospital day. She did a fabulous presentation to them demonstrating how nurses give needles, why we need them, and why we shouldn't be scared. She also had an adorable little helper too!

They first listened to Cinderella's heartbeat.

And then Cinderella got a needle in her arm. We learned that sometimes nurses give us needles even when we aren't sick, because they help us not get sick later. This was during the H1N1 vaccinations so the children were able to link their own experiences to Lisa's demonstrations. Cinderella was so brave she didn't even cry!

The hospital dramatic play center was very popular with all the children after they got to see some of the tools that nurses use.

...of course they had to try them out for themselves.


Some even answered phones and took down appointments.

The water table was full of medicine cups, empty pill bottles and syringes to further their play.

The craft table was full of familiar medical supplies. Who knew we could make such beautiful art with it? This is a Q-Tip Painting made by dipping cotton swabs in paint and making different designs on the paper.

The children also made Doctor Bag Collages by gluing cotton swabs, tongue depressors, cotton balls and band-aids onto this doctor bag template. It was nice for the children to learn what these items are and how they can help us.

This community occupation was a HUGE hit as you can tell.

Grocery Store

Teacher Michelle brought in an amazing Grocery Store for the M/W/F Class. The kids loved buying groceries and putting them in the grocery carts! Teacher Michelle's husband Aaron is a manager at Save-On-Foods so he came in a did a little presentation to the kids. He brought all kinds of cool merchandise for the kids to play with like shopping bags and gift cards that the kids used like credit cards.


At the art table, Teacher Michelle had the kids cut groceries and coupons out of grocery store flyers and glue them onto shopping bags. At another table she set up her own little store and the kids got to come "buy" candy from her. She had lots of different candies set up and the children each got to choose 5 candies, pay for them and put them in their shopping bags. So cool, I bet the kids loved that!


The T/Th got to enjoy playing in the Grocery Store the next day as well since we left it set up in the dramatic play center. I know my kids REALLY loved grocery shopping! Both classes also had plastic food to wash in the water table and different grocery pictures to paint at the art easel. Such a fun day.

Fireman

We talked about fire safety in both classes for more than just the one class, but it was pretty cool in the T/Th Class when we had a real fireman come in and talk to us. Fireman Mark was so great. He wanted to show us all his gear and demonstrated on a special little helper.
He told us how his boots and pants are hooked together so he can put them on really quickly.

Then he pulls the pants up.

There are overalls with the pants and some velcro to help them stay up.

Next he puts on the jacket.

The jacket has a nice high collar to protect his neck and face.

Then the helmet goes on. Our special helper said it was really heavy by now!

He looked too cute all dressed up in the fireman gear!

Fireman Mark wanted us to all see what he looked like when HE had all his gear on so kids wouldn't be afraid of a Fireman if they were ever in a fire.

He started by putting on a protectant hood that covered his hair and neck.

He also showed us the tank of oxygen he uses to breathe. He wears it on his back like a backpack and the black thing in his hand hooks on to his mask to give him air.

Before he put on the helmet and mask he told us all that he was still the same nice Fireman Mark and the mask didn't change that. It's not a scary thing, but something that protects his face and lungs.

Some kids did get a little uneasy when he put on the mask but we kept reassuring everyone that he is nice and helps people. It was really good for the children to see that and Fireman Mark was great with them.

He even let them try and lift his big oxygen tank to see how heavy it was.
It's obviously VERY heavy and he has to carry it around on his back!


He also showed us what a smoke detector is and even what it sounds like. It's very, very loud so that we can hear it even when we are sleeping.

Thank you Fireman Mark! We loved your presentation and hope you will come back again!

Fire Safety

Even though we had one day specifically dedicated to firemen, we talked about fire safety all week long. We borrowed a firetruck from another preschool and had it set up for two weeks. The kids played, and played, and played in it...they just couldn't get enough.

We also listened to a Sesame Street song called "Stop, Drop and Roll" sung by Oscar the Grouch. We learned that if our clothes ever caught on fire we had to stop, drop and roll to put it out. The kids had fun listening to the song and rolling all over the floor :)

Both classes also enjoyed fire safety crafts. We made Smoke Detectors by cutting out the image of a smoke detector and glueing it onto a paper plate. The kids colored it and also glued on a little poem about a smoke detector. We learned how very loud they are by listening to a real smoke detector.

We also learned that charcoal is wood that has been burned and that we can draw with it. We experimented by making Charcoal Drawings. Teacher Michelle and I used white cardstock and taped a border around the edge with painters tape. The children drew with the charcoal and smudged it however they liked. It was a very fun and messy art tool to use.

When the drawings were completed they were sprayed with a few light layers of hairspray to secure the charcoal in place and stop them from smudging anymore. Then we peeled off the tape to reveal nice crisp white borders. They are so dramatic and beautiful!

We had lots of cool books in the book corner about fire safety and firemen as well hoses and firemen gloves in the water table with foam flames floating. We had a really great time learning about fire safety.

Remembrance Day

For Remembrance Day, the kids made beautiful white crosses with poppies on them.

The M/W/F class practiced their scissor skills and cut out both the cross and the red poppy and then glued the poppy in the center.

The T/Th Class took small red hearts and glued 4 of them in the middle of a cross to make a poppy.

Thank you to all the soldiers who fought and died for our freedom.