NEWS
Antelope Island
I love hiking with the kids! It feels great to be outside, enjoying nature together! Happy Earth Day!
Happy Valentine's Day!
These kids warm my heart! We celebrated Valentine’s Day with a trip to an assisted living center, Beehive Homes. We visited with the residents and handed out Valentine’s cards they made. Then we sang “Skidamarink”, “I Love You, You Love Me”, and “You Are My Sunshine”. They were wonderful!
SeaQuest Aquarium
Our preschoolers had a great field trip! As their website says: Immerse yourself in a world of discovery as SeaQuest takes you on an adventure through rainforests, deserts and the depths of the seas. With exciting exhibits and activities for families and children of all ages, you’ll be able to get wet with the stingrays, feed the toucans, encounter the caimans, marvel at the sharks, take selfies with the snakes and more.
Field Trip
I loved getting to see so many of you on our first field trip! At Black Island Farms, we had fun on the farm playing in the courtyard after a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch. We have been working hard and learning a lot in class and it feels great to get outside and learn something different for a change!
Beginings
We are off to a great start! We have great classes with wonderful students! We’ve been learning a lot these first two weeks! The focus has been on rules and practicing how we do each center and our schedule so things go smoothly all year long. This past week we have also learned letter Bb with fun lessons about a bugs, bears, beaches, and more! I’m excited for another fantastic year!
Service Project for Back to School Night
I love to look for ways to help our students serve. Back to School Night provides a wonderful opportunity to come together as a school to help children in need. Bountiful Food Pantry send Pantry Packs home with kids in our county who would be in danger of going to bed hungry on the weekend. We will focus on collecting microwavable meals (ones that children can make themselves like Easy Mac). You are invited to bring one or more to Back to School Night (they'll be assembled into the full Pantry Packs at an upcoming community service night). They also are asking for child friendly notes/cards with an uplifting message or game. What a great opportunity to help our students think of another child and reach out to them in love! Please help them write a message and decorate a card to bring to Back to School Night. This is a great time to help them practice writing their name, though only include the first name and no other personal information. I'll have supplies there if you'd like to make more that night, but since it will be a busy night, I recommend making a card or two ahead of time.
For more information on the Pantry Packs program, check out their website:
https://www.bountifulfoodpantry.org/services/item/30-pantry-packs
School Art Project
I believe a beautiful space can make you feel better and improve learning! I believe in the space reflecting all of my students, not just myself. I work toward these goals in two main ways each year. First, we have a wall devoted to student work. Second, at back-to-school night we create a school art piece that will have a permanent home in the preschool. There is something special about a piece of art that is made from each person creating a small something beautiful to have it come together in synergy. This year, each student (and parents are encouraged to participate too, as you are also an important part of our school!) will paint rocks and/or bottle caps that will come together to form a little rock path of art and awesomeness! I'll have the supplies ready at back to school night, but you are welcome to bring rocks to add to the path.
STEAM Camp
STEAM Camp was a great success! Our camp was filled with art and science and engineering and challenges and math and technology and snacks and friends and fun! We played with lots of science like refraction, chromatography, evaporation, density, chemical reactions and more! The students were excellent and I loved seeing them work together to explore and solve problems!
Pioneer Camp
The kids were so cute and fun at our Pioneer Camp! We celebrated our Pioneer heritage with a STEM challenge, making yarn dolls, science-ing it up with homemade ice cream, square dance, instruments, games, and more!
There are a few spots left in our upcoming STEAM Camp!
Service Camp
One of my favorite days of the year, Service Camp was a great success! I loved spending time with these sweet kids doing service! We painted cards for hospitalized kids, beaded cd spinners to sneak onto trees, colored bookmarks to leave in books at the library, made bath bombs as gifts, read and talked about service, and more!
I discovered two great resources for service-lovin' people. Here is a link to a great Kindness Bingo: https://www.themanylittlejoys.com/random-acts-of-kindness-bingo/
And here is a link to Cards for Hospitalized Kids, who send out cards to brighten the day of a child in the hospital. There are guidelines to making the cards and everything you need to know to participate on the site: http://www.cardsforhospitalizedkids.com/
Preparing for Preschool
Preschool is such an exciting step for you and your child! Here are a few things you can do to prepare for a successful start:
- Talk about it! Let them voice any concerns but keep the tone positive and excited when possible.
- Get them involved in the process of preparing and give them choices when possible. Let them choose what to wear the first day, pick out a small backpack or sack they can use to bring papers homes in (and help them put a picture of your family inside), etc.
- Practice. Play preschool with them. Going to storytime at the library is a great way to practice listening skills. If they aren't used to other kids their age, arrange some playdates to help develop important social skills. Practice independent skills like going to the bathroom and putting on their backpack.
- If your child is not used to being away from you, start leaving them with a friend or family member for short periods of time. This can help to ease an seperation anxiety on the 1st day of school.
- Saying goodbye on the first day is best if kept short. You can even practice a special goodbye handshake or hug ahead of time.
- Here's a fun list of books about getting ready for the first day of preschool: http://elemenopkids.com/getting-ready-for-the-first-day-of-preschool-books/
- Take them to our Meet the Teacher Night! See the calendar for exact dates and times for your class.
Bravo, Acting Camp!
I'm so proud of our actors! We put on a short play based on the picture book "Leonardo, The Terrible Monster" by one of our favorite authors, Mo Willems. The students help decided who the characters should be and what role they had. Every day we worked on the play and I was so impressed with how quickly they memorized their lines and the blocking! We split up rehearsing with acting games, art to create scenery, puppets, and more! We focused on developing our tools as actors: voice, body, focus, cooperation, and imagination. The students grew in those areas and put on an amazing little play! Bravo!
Last Day of School!
I can't believe it! School is at a close already! The kids have grown so much over the school year, and I'm so proud of them! I'll miss them but the kids who are moving on to Kindergarten will love it and I'm happy that I'll get to teach several of my little friends again next year.
We did a field day for our last day to celebrate all our hard work and learning. We played outside, made music, enjoyed parachute games, signed each others preschool shirts, cleaned the classroom a little, practiced our graduation ceremony, used sidewalk chalk and bubbles! It was a great way to end a great year!
Field Trip to the Dinosaur Park
It was perfect weather for our adventure among the dinosaurs! We enjoyed searching for the dinosaurs in our field guides and "writing" about them. We had a fun rumpus around the dinosaur playground. I loved seeing the kids playing outside, looking at and digging for fossils, nervously watching the dinosaurs that moved, exploring the indoor and outdoor museum, and more. A special thanks to our hosts Ogden's George and S. Eccles Dinosaur Park and especially ourPark Educator who lead the kids in a fun educational activity!
Field Trip to Hill Aerospace Museum
The Hill Aerospace Museum graciously hosted a free field trip for our preschoolers. We had a short class making paper "helicopters" and flying them off the balcony. Then we explored the museum's aviation treasures! It was the perfect way to close out Jj week!
When I Grow Up...
For Gg week, I asked the kids: What do you want to be when you grow up? See if you can guess which answer your child gave!
2 Day Class
- A poke doctor, so I can help people be brave with their pokes!
- A horse rider
- A mom and my mom is going to be a grandma
- Four, five, and six
- A dad
- Real big, right here (holding hands up high)
- A famous soccer player
- An ice cream boy
- A teenage mutant ninja turtle
- Spiderman
- A mom
- A cowgirl
Morning Class
- A unicorn
- Everything in the world: a police officer, builder, space rocketer, tow truck guy...
- A train museum person
- A semi truck driver
- A father and builder
- Maybe my mom. Well, maybe a little different.
- A ballerina
- A dolphin trainer on Tuesdays
- A maker that I can make food with
- A doctor, just like my mommy!
- A mom
- A police officer
- A dentist that gives toys out at the end
Afternoon Class
- An engineer for trains
- Like my brother, Wyatt
- A jet driver
- Cinderella
- A princess
- A horse
- A gorilla dad
- A dad
- A chef
- Gorilla baby
- A police officer
- Aurora
Dd Week Disguises
Our detectives donned disguises to see if we could dupe our parents. See if you can deduce who your darling is!
Enrollment Now Open
Enrollment is now open for the 2018-2019 school year. You can fill out the enrollment form and pay the enrollment fee all on this website: Enroll Now
Next year, most things will be quite similar. The things that will be different is we'll do a few different field trips, and the lessons will be varied though the content is similar. Homework will be similar but different. For example, we'll still have Scholastic Magazines but they will be different issues and I'll still ask you to play with the kids at home about what we're learning in class but the specifics will be varied. Next year, I am going to move my billing to all automated and online to relieve some paperwork and booking duties. I will send more information when I have decided on the exact program I'll be using.
I would love to have another intern next year, but until I know for sure, the 2-day class will be capped at 10 and the three-day classes at 12. If I have an intern those numbers may go up by two.
I made it a goal to always be growing my business and to that end, I am no longer offering a $10 referral discount. I, of course, love referrals but I no longer feel like they are prudent from a business viewpoint.
If you will not need me next year, my fondest wishes! I do offer summer camps for various ages and would love to get to work with my former students again! I will update the dates for this upcoming summer in March.
Holiday Party
We had a great time at our holiday party, reading Christmas books, doing art, and playing games. We even had a special visit from "Kid Santa and his Merry Elf" who asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas, passed out stuffed animals, and helped the kids build and fix toys in Santa's Workshop center. The kids were so cute with Show and Tell and great listeners to each other. I enjoyed their adorable singing to their parents at the end of class!
