P is for too many words

As Margaret Wise Brown would say, the most important thing about preschool is that it's educational, with lots of numbers, letters, and playing. But the most important thing about preschool is that it's playing.

At least for today that is, since I am having trouble getting these little ones to sit still. hmmm...could it be because P is also for Preston, who is a new little boy joining our little school, or should I say a big boy joining our little school...for Preston is a head taller than my Alex. So, boys and girls, that's 1 , 2, 3 little children I am teaching today. 3 is a lot more than 2, let alone 1! All the counting and opposite words are getting to my vocabulary.

Preston likes doing the How do you Feel Today and Weather exercises as much as Alex. All three of them choose happy, and are chattering away as they draw their faces. I am quite ecstatic that Amy is also drawing her own circle and working hard at getting the face right. I discover that children love to talk about the weather, and after Alex and Preston run to the window, they discuss it in great detail and at great length (like some other adults I know). They finally come to an agreement that today is cloudy. I don't have to do anything as my little boss girl is showing Preston how you put the cloud on the easel, using our W magnet which stands for Weather. Amy and I just stand in the background and watch everything.

Show and Tell is all about orange and things that start with P. Alex takes the teacher chair first, totally comfortable now with this lime light moment. However, Preston is a little unsure and continues to sit. Amy and I go next with P is for piggy and P is for purse. Amy loves piggies, and she takes her moment to hug and nuzzle her bedtime friend. I have to tear her apart from the piggy love or we will be here all day. My orange item to show is a carrot. Preston asks for it, and decides it looks good and takes a nice chomp out of it. Alex is staring at him in horror, because eating anything that is raw and has not been cooked down to mush is not her idea of a treat. I try not to laugh as Preston the bunny rabbit, continues to chomp and chew. He is really enjoying this.

But the real enjoying starts when we do our exercise for the day. I just can't take my eyes off the huge grins that come over these kids' faces when they like something. If only we all could have that innocent smile again at discovering something new that we like. Before the song and dance, I read a book about scarecrows and crows. All three of them seem like they understand the concept because they are shaking their heads viciously when I repeatedly ask them if they get the how's and why's of what a scarecrow is...standing in the field all day and scaring birds from the corn fields. The scarecrow song that I find on the internet is a big hit, and goes like this -
"Scarecrow, scarecrow, turn around, touch the ground.
Scarecrow, scarecrow, stand up tall, blink your eyes, now raise your hands up to the sky.
Scarecrow, scarecrow, clap your hands, tap your knees, now touch your nose.
Scarecrow, scarecrow, swing your arms very slow, now very fast!
Scarecrow, scarecrow, scare those crows, caw, caw, caw!
Scarecrow, scarecrow, jump up and down, all around.
Scarecrow, scarecrow, not sit down without a sound."

They enjoy the exercise so much that I totally forget the letters and writing at Activity 1 at first and jump right into my planned scarecrow skit ( P is for puppet show). The show includes our wonderful Ikea puppet frame, my own scarecrow decoration, plus 3 construction paper crows, that Allen and I have spent a good hour of our TV time last night drawing and cutting. I end up doing the drawing and design and leave him with the cutting, because his drawing comes out like something out of the Sci Fi monster shows he watches.

He is crabby about it, and I know it's just because I draw a better crow than he does. So I end up teasing him all night about it. We are the ones acting like pre-schoolers now but at least we are laughing, right? I realize at about 11:00 p.m. , when we finally finish the darn things, that I should glue them to some kind of holder...a popsicle stick. We don't have any that I know of...so the hunt begins through my cupboards. Allen takes off, and I think he is escaping to bed, but really my hubby is instead, on his own hunt to the basement where he discovers two freezer-burned, lonely popsicles. P is for popsicles and they have probably been down there for eons, and I want to throw them out and just take the sticks, but Allen rips his open and plops the icicle-covered thing in his mouth, telling me it's funner to do it this way... so we both enjoy our midnight snack together, and end up with some hand-held puppets afterwards.

This puppet show is the funnest one yet, and the smiles on their faces now are even bigger than before. I can't help but join them, this game is really fun. To the tune of I'm a Little Teapot, I crawl under the table and through the puppet frame perform the following scarecrow rhyme and dance with my scarecrow decoration. While I sing it, the kids hold the crow puppets and act their parts, cawing and trying to get at the scarecrow who is bellowing right back at them.

We each take turns being the scarecrow, and I can't believe how much everyone is laughing. Sadly though, I have to end the show, or we will never get back on track.
"I'm a little scarecrow stuffed with hay,
standing watch in my field all day.
When I see a crow, I jump and shout!
Hey, Mr. Crow,you better fly South!"
Allen's fun is just beginning. The night before, right after our icicle snack at about midnight, I gave him his honey-do list of items. It has been a hectic day and I have not had a chance to tell him until now...And so, when he wakes up the next morning, he must go and find me a bale of straw, a couple different-sized pumpkins, and some pumpkin seeds. Luckily we live in the country, but he calls from his cell , as I am in the middle of our letter writing now, to tell me that the Amish have no pumpkins, and are not picking them until next week... so his trip must be extended since he has to go to a "big" town to get them.

While Allen continues his wild goose chase for some pumpkins, I am hoping to get a break and make some pumpkin bread for our snack today while they are writing, but it doesn't go that way. I realize how far Alex has come because I must spend some time with Preston showing him how to write lines up and down. At this point I can leave Alex by herself to write her letters, she is that good. This is one of those moments when I realize the learning is actually taking place in great leaps and bounds. I may be boasting here, but I think she is already beyond a pre-school level or will be soon with the way she is taking to the writing.

Allen arrives back way later than planned, and his jobs for today do not end there, as he must do all the background work for our next activity. I tell him to just remember his days in theater at college, because today we are doing a pumpkin hunt with scarecrow stuffing, and a staged introduction to the whole thing...which starts with one of C.J.'s childhood books, Who Took The Farmer's Hat? by Joan L. Nodset. This book has good descriptive words and talks a lot about the color brown. Before reading the book, I give them each a straw farmer hat. The story is about a farmer who loses his hat in the wind. He walks around his farm asking the animals if they have seen his hat. The hat is in each picture doing different things, as the animals mistake it for "a fat round brown bird", "a big round brown mousehole", "a flowerpot, "a brown boat", and lastly, "a nice round brown nest" that a bird has it's egg resting in. Needless to say, the farmer decides his hat is needed elsewhere and goes out to buy a new one.

So at this point I ask the boy and girls if they hear the wind blowing, and I make some pretty weak wind noises with my mouth shaped in an O. They immediately start imitating me, and it honestly sounds like some winds are coming now. While they are busy blowing, and sometimes spitting in their excitement, Allen comes in to join me. He acts like the wind is blowing him around, and I grab the hats as they blow right into his hands and out the door with him. I tell my students that the wind has just blown Allen outside the door with their hats! But they don't need to be told because they are all up on their feet and have been watching this whole charade with their mouths still shaped in O.

The farmers are jumping up at down to go out and get their hats. But first I coax (bribe?) them back to circle for some reading - a poem (P is for poem) and a couple books about pumpkins growing and pumpkin patches. The poem is called The Un-Scary Scarecrow by Jacqueline Horsfall . It is one that I have saved from my son's preschool days. "Swoop over my head, pluck straw from my back, build nests in my pocket..." It has a fun picture with it, and the kids can point out the birds as they listen closely to the descriptive words.

We work on workbook pages that help identify colors orange and brown, while waiting for Allen to give the sign that all is ready in the pumpkin patch outside.
The weather is cooperating, and it is breezy. The farmers are surprised by the scene, and I try to hold them back at first. Preston and Amy are holding hands and it is cute to watch. After finding their hats (which they wear very seriously, I couldn't get them to take them off inside), each farmer takes a turn searching for hidden pumpkins. They load them in the wagon and we discuss which ones are big and small. Afterwards, they stuff a scarecrow and use a pumpkin to draw a face. They play and play, and I let them go, wishing I was a kid again, as I watch them pull the wagons and jump in the straw. It is some time before we go in for snack...and it's a good one. P is for pizza, and we discuss their triangle shape. I serve it on my Mickey farm plate. While they eat, I read them the Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater rhyme (and discuss P is for Pumpkin)followed by The Bumpy Little Pumpkin by Margery Cuyler which discusses our opposite words big and little.
We do two crafts today. P is for painting so we paint our little pumpkins. We then make a scarecrow that has a lot of activites that go with it - dot-to-dot legs, a blank face to draw in a face, a brown hat to color, plus arms and legs to glue our straw to. It is is very quiet, and no one is making a sound, and I watch those little furrowed brows as they work hard at their crafts. Allen is still busy as he is now making peanut butter pumpkin bread for the end of class.
Activity time 2 is all about a lot of fun counting. After doing the number song, we count pumpkin seeds, and pepperoni. Melissa & Doug puzzles are my favorite, and this one is a wooden pizza with slices and toppings that all velcro together. I order pizzas from my little chefs by telling them "I want a pizza with five pepporoni "or "a slice with 2 pepperoni".
We end the day discussing long and short pencils (P is for pencil) and pencil workbook pages.

Trying to find pencils at different stages in their life cycle was challenging. What I am not saying here is how exhausted we all are. Preston has had it. This is all new to him, and he wants to play. Alex is discussing her toys with him, and I give up trying to get them to focus on their brains...so P is for Play! and I end our day here. Allen cuts the bread with pumpkin-shaped cookie cutters and we enjoy the treat, while the farmers go outside for some play and this ending shot. I kiss my hubby because without him and all his work, today would not have been P as in Perfect!.