Last Official Blog Post

Sadly, this will be my last post on this blog for the Fairfield Preschool. I ended up having to make the decision in July to leave my position as the Inclusive Preschool Teacher for the town. 

I have loved sharing my life with the Fairfield Community over the last 6 years and I have made many friends along the way. You will still find me around town, especially on Tuesday nights at the library playing Mah Jong in the loft. 

I will also continue to blog, but more generally about early childhood education and special education for parents, teachers, and decision makers. That new blog, "All Together Now, " can be found at this address: 

http://bethcpeloquin.blogspot.com

Thank you, Fairfield, for being such a fantastic place to work and learn with your kids. 

Cheers to All,
Beth

Chickens Live

The Chickens should be hatching on Tuesday, May 21. Check back here to view them as they emerge from their eggs. The hatching usually begins early in the morning on Hatch Day and continues for about 36 hours. Click the link below to view the Ustrem Live Webcam.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fairfield-preschool

UPDATE: It appears the free streaming through UStream needs to be refreshed every thee hours.  I'll stop in early tomorrow morning and start the camera again. 

NEW UPDATE: I'll be keeping up with the live stream on the brooder box until I leave the library tonight at around 8:30. Then, I'll start broadcasting again in the morning. 

Blasting off to Kindergarten

As the year winds down, we are heading to the stars as we learn about "What's up?" We began this week by reading I Want to Be An Astronaut by Byron Barton. I realized that book is now a bit out of date since it talks about traveling in the space shuttle. It does help the kids begin to grasp the concept of what it means to go into space in lower earth orbit. 

Our big cardboard box has morphed into a space shuttle (or rocket) and the kids have flight suits and headsets to wear as they go on missions into orbit. 

We made "telescopes" from paper towel tubes. The black paper taped to the end has one of the constellation's shape in pinholes. When you point it into the light, it looks like a night sky view. 

Since it is so nice out, we took advantage and made some star-scape art by splattering white and yellow paint onto black paper. Some of them looked like the night sky, some looked like galaxies or nebulae. We are going to learn about the eight planets (sorry Pluto, you are but a dwarf planet now), and the constellations in the next few weeks.
 
We have already learned about gravity. My favorite experiment to do with the kids is to count to three and have them all jump up at the same time. The direction I give them is that when they jump up, they should try to stay up in the air. We try a few times, and then we discuss how gravity will always pull us down to the earth (or to the closest flat object that is on the earth). We also tried dropping objects of different sizes to see which would hit the ground first. It didn't matter what the difference was in the sizes of the objects, they always hit the ground at the same time. The kids thought that we might get a different result if we tried it from one of the high parts of the playground structure. We spent the better time of outdoor play on Tuesday verifying that gravity pulls down all objects to the earth at the same rate, regardless of their difference in size or weight. The only exception to this rule is when something is so light that the air resistance keeps it from falling straight down (like how a feather or plastic bag float down to the ground). 


Bennett Dawson, our resident rocket builder in Farifield, will be in next week to build individual rockets with each of the kids. We'll have a "Launch Day" on Tuesday, May 21st, as long as the weather cooperates. Each child will get to launch their rocket. Last year we had a great crowd of middle schoolers and parents to share in the joy of blasting off. Anyone is welcome to join us. 

    

I don't Know Where I'm Gonna Go When the Volcano Blows

We have been talking about dinosaurs and volcanoes in the classroom. Beth visited Hawaii and brought back some real photos and video from her trip, which included a day trip up on Kilauea, one of Hawaii's to active volcanoes. 

In the classroom, we made a model volcano together and used the explosive mixture of baking soda and vinegar to make it erupt.

We started with a medium glass vase to function as the magma chamber and crater of the volcano. We used play dough to build the structure of the mountain around the crater. Then, we covered the outside in modeling clay, which will hold up to repeated lava eruptions better than play dough on its own. 

Once the volcano was finished, we put a bunch of plastic dinosaurs at the base. This is reminiscent of the one of the theories that an asteroid hit the earth and caused the dinosaurs extinction. Part of that theory is that the asteroid blast set off a number of volcanic eruptions that helped in the dinosaurs' demise.

Once we had our dinosaurs in place, we put baking soda in the crater (and into the glass vase). Next, we put food coloring and vinegar in a plastic cup. Each child was allowed to decide what color lava they wanted to make when it was their turn to pour in the vinegar. By the end, we were mixing colors to see what would come out. 

Then we poured the vinegar in and here is the exciting result. 

We will have the volcano erupting as long as it is still holding the kids' interest in the science area all next week.

Simple Machines: Pulleys

 One morning, one of the boys noticed that there were a couple of round things hanging from the crossbar on the sensory table. 
"What are those things?" he asked.
"Those are called pulleys," I said. "They are one of the things that make work easier for us. Do you want to see how they work?"
"Yeah," he said.

Soon we were joined by a few other inquiring preschoolers. We go some yarn to thread through the pulleys and we put it around one of the big, long hollow blocks. I showed them how to use it to make the block go up. The kids decided to add some of the sorting animals inside the block.

"It's just like an elevator," one student said. I told them this was a similar system to the one that elevators use to go up and down.

Let it Snow

On Tuesday, we were complaining that it was raining and we could not go outside. We really wanted it to be snowing so that we could go sledding on the hill out in back of the school.

Some kids made pictures of what they would like to do if there was snow. I suggested we write a letter to Tom Messner, the local weather man on WPTZ, to ask him to make it snow.

At closing meeting, the kids all contributed to writing the following letter:

I took pictures of the drawings the kids made and sent Tom Messner an email with all of the pictures attached. 

What did we learn? It works. Today we had enough snow to go sledding and make a snowman. We had a blast!

We still haven't heard back from Tom Messner, but we have our fingers crossed that he'll respond.

Feed the Birds

This year in preschool we have been playing special attention to trees. The very first week of school, we chose a tree near the playground that we will document all year by taking a picture of it everyday we are able to get outside. 

We have incorporated many other activities into our tree study. We went apple picking and then made several cooking projects with the apples. We have read books that include The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons, and Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.

Our latest project is to take care of the birds that live in trees and winter over in Vermont. We have installed two feeders on our preschool window so we can see the birds come to eat. We will be keeping track of the birds who come to eat there. We check the level of the birdseed each day. If they need to be filled, the kids who have the snack helper job help fill it. 

This week, everyone will make a bird feeder that we can hang on the tree we are documenting on the playground. They are simple pine cone feeders spread with peanut butter and bird seed. 

Here are some photos of the process:

First, Spread on the peanut butter with a spreading stick.

Next, roll your sticky pine cone in the bin of bird seed.

Place on the tray until other kids finish making their feeders.

Outside, kids hand the feeders to Beth to place in the tree.

Here is the first group of kids to hang their feeders.

Apples, Apples!

So, I am finally catching up on my blogging. After we all had conferences the week before Thanksgiving, I made a promise to myself to at least post a few times a month.

This goes back to late September, but I wanted to share what the students did with apples. We had our field trip to Allenholm Farm on Grand Isle. We tried to pick a more local place, but no one in Franklin County had apples for picking during the week. The early September frost killed a lot of the crop. Allenholm, however, was somewhat insulated form the frost problem because they are close to Lake Champlain. The Lake tends to keep the air warmer. As a result, they had many apples. They did have a number of apples with scabs on them. We had to pick carefully to get scab-less apples. 

The folks at Allenholm gave us a large bag of apples to bring back to the classroom. The first thing we did with these was put them out at open house and had everyone guess (estimate) how many apples were in the bag. I had to work math into this huge bag of apples. The guesses ranged from 2 to over 100. When we counted them as a group at Morning Meeting, it turned out there were 88.

We then invited Sarah Kittell in to show us how to make apple pie. The kids divvied up jobs. We took turns peeling apples, shaping our pie crusts, and mixing the ingredients in the bowl. Everyone was able to fill their own individual pie and put the strips of dough on the top. We baked them in the oven after preschool and the kids were able to take them home the next day to share with people in their family.

The next day, we used an apple slicer to cut up more apples and made applesauce. I got a recipe from online and we cooked the apples, cinnamon, brown sugar and lemon juice in a crock pot throughout the preschool day. The room smelled very yummy. The next morning, the kids mixed the mushy apples in to the sauce and we all got to gobble it up at snack.

We did the math again and found out that:

 88 apples - pie apples - applesauce apples = 42 apples

We also reenacted the apple sorting process we learned about at Allenholm. I spray painted several tennis balls red and left a bunch of them green. We used a piece of gutter and a mailing tube to "sort" the apples into different boxes. The kids really enjoyed playing apple farmers in the block area.

Song Practice for Winter Concert

Here are the words and a link to the YouTube video of "Seven Days of the Week" by They Might Be Giants. You can use this to practice the song with your kids at home.

Seven Days of the Week, I Never Go to Work

 Oh no, no I never go to work
 Oh no, no I never go to work
 Oh no, no I never go to work
 Oh no, no I never go to work

On Monday, I never go to work
On Tuesday, I stay at home
On Wednesday, I never feel inclined
Work is the last thing on my mind
On Thurday, it's a HOLIDAY!
And Friday I detest
And it's much too late on a Saturday
And Sunday is the day of rest

Oh yes, yes practice trumpet everyday
Oh yes, yes practice trumpet everyday 
Oh yes, yes practice trumpet everyday  
Oh yes, yes practice trumpet everyday 

On Monday (trumpet fingers)
On Tuesday (trumpet fingers)
On Wednesday (trumpet fingers)
On Thursday (trumpet fingers)
And Friday (trumpet fingers)
And I practice all night on Saturday
So on Sunday I play best

 Oh no, no I never go to work
 Oh no, no I never go to work
 Oh no, no I never go to work
 Oh no, no I never go to work

On Monday, I never go to work
On Tuesday, I stay at home
On Wednesday, I never feel inclined
Work is the last thing on my mind
On Thurday, it's a HOLIDAY!
And Friday I detest
And it's much too late on a Saturday
And Sunday is the day of rest...it's the day of REST!

Butterfly is Free

We  were lucky enough to get a few Monarch Butterfly caterpillars before they were all gone in early September. We have watched them grow. Three of them made it to the Chrysalis stage. 

One, unfortunately, formed its chrysalis on the inside of my plastic container before I transferred the caterpillars into the classroom habitat. I moved it in with the container top and taped it up so it could still develop. When that butterfly emerged over a weekend, it got stuck on the tape and didn't make it. 

The other butterfly that emerged that same weekend was happy and healthy when we got to school on Tuesday. We spent two days observing and drawing pictures of it. Then, we let it go at the end of Wednesday. Here is a video of the it leaving the habitat.

 The kids are saying, "Hasta luego," which means, "See you later," and, "Adios," which means, "Goodbye," in Spanish. Since Monarch Butterflies typically migrate down to Mexico, we used a little Spanish to send it off on it's journey.

We still have one chrysalis left. This is the caterpillar that kept sneaking out of the habitat. It made its chrysalis on the outside screen. I had to cut that part of the screen off and put in inside the habitat. We are not sure that butterfly is still developing. It hasn't changed into the darker colors that we saw with the other two. We're going to give it until the end of the week to see what happens.

Welcome 2012-2013 Preschoolers

I want to welcome everyone to a new preschool year in Fairfield. By now, everyone should have received a mailing from me with an introduction letter and a preschool program handbook for the year. 

I will be spending the time before we start preschool on September 4th getting the new classroom organized, visiting new preschool students at home, and having open house on Thursday, August 30th at 9:00 am. 

We have moved to the classroom at the end of the hall across from Amy Day's kindergarten room. This space is larger and allows us to accommodate more students. We have 17 preschool students enrolled for this year.

Preschool hours will be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:15 to 12:00. We will follow the Fairfield School calendar. A copy of the preschool version of that calendar is in your handbook.

I look forward to working with you and your child this year.

 

Second Annual Launch Day

I think this video says it all. A HUGE thanks to Bennett Dawson for sharing his rocketry skills and his enthusiasm for preschool space exploration.

More on the Birds

When I left the school at 4:30 today, we were up to 14 chicks. I moved 10 over to the brooder and the other 4 still need some more drying out time. 


It appears that the iPad as a webcam is not as wonderful as it seemed. The live stream ends up timing out eventually. Thus, there is no live stream tonight, but I will get it up and running again when I am back in the classroom in the morning. 

Chicken Update

As of 10:41 this morning, we have 13 hatched chicks.  I have moved 7 chicks over to the brooder box, where they can eat some chicken feed and drink some water. 

I changed the live camera over to the iPad. UStream has a great app that is allowing me to use the iPad camera. Wish I had thought of that 2 nights ago. I left the microphone on, hoping that maybe the peeping will come through the live video. 

I also added a second Live Stream for the brooder box so you can see the fluffy chickens mulling around. From what I can tell, they like to get a lot of sleep...just like baby humans!

The Chickens are Coming! The Chickens are Coming!

Tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday, we should see our chickens emerging from their shells. You can click on play on the webcam to the right of this blog entry. I apologize for the ads, but it is a free way to stream our chickies live.

They have been incubating for 20 days. Tuesday is day 21...Hatch Day! There may be an early bird or two tonight. The majority should hatch tomorrow. There also may be a few late bloomers that hatch on Wednesday.

We have been checking the embryos' development by "candling" the eggs. We shine a light through the egg in a dark place (the preschool bathroom). The egg will show a dark spot where the developing chick is. When we last candled, we thought we could see a good 15 chicks that were developing. There were a few that did not look like they were fertilized at all. And then there were about another 15 that were too dark to be able to tell what was going on in the egg.

I am quite sure a few will hatch. As I am typing this next to the incubator, I keep hearing peeps from inside the eggs.  YAY!!! That's a good sign.

Here is the Fairfield Preschoolers' version of the Donald Crews book Ten Black Dots.

Monthly Podcast

Here is our latest podcast from the preschool. 

Tips on How to be a Good Friend.

Making Popcorn

Before we left for Holiday break, we spent our last day in pajamas, watched a movie of Maurice Sendak Stories and Songs, and made popcorn for the movie.

Picking away at the kernels on the cob.

Joanna Jerose, our school's outdoor classroom coordinator, was able to score up some real popcorn on the cob for us. On Thursday, the day before we popped the corn, we spent a lot of time at the science table picking the kernels out of the cobs. 

A full row out

We noticed the kernels were very small. We noticed it was a lot of work to pick them out one by one. It worked to strengthen the fine motor muscles in our fingers.

This is 100 kernels.

As we picked kernels, we did some counting. We made a pile of 100. We couldn't believe how little the pile looked compared to all of the kernels we picked. So, we counted out 50 more. It still looked little. We did some quick estimating and decided that we definitely picked more than a thousand kernels--and maybe even 2000. 

On Friday, Movie Day, we made the popcorn in a popcorn popper. The kids delighted in the spectacle. Many of them reported that they don't ever see popcorn popping. (I blame microwave ovens.)

I talked to them about how inside each kernel, there is a teeny bit of water. When the kernels heat up in the oil, the water inside ends up reaching its boiling point. They knew when water boils it gets bubbly. I told them when the bubbling starts happening inside the kernel, that's what makes the kernel explode into popcorn. As they watched the kernels burst, I also drew their attention to the steam coming out of the top of the popper. That was the other result of the boiling water inside the kernels. Steam is hot water being lifted into the air because it turned its gas form. 

We also learned The Popcorn Chant (by Peter and Ellen Allard). The words are:

"You put the oil in the pot and you let it get hot.

You put the popcorn in and you start to grin.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle,  

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, POP!"

Podcasting

Follow the link below and you can hear how our preschool students would prepare a turkey to eat for Thanksgiving. This is our first attempt at developing a monthly podcast to share our learning in preschool this year. 

I will continue to explore the ins and outs of Podbean, the podcast hosting and sharing website that I learned about when I wen to the Vita Learn statewide technology conference in early November. 

It looks like I will be able to embed a podcast player to this blog. That will allow you to link to all of the new podcasts right from here. I just haven't quite figured it out.

If you are familiar with RSS feeds, you can sign up for the preschool monthly podcast at the ffvtpreschool Podbean page.

Have fun listening to these creative ways to prepare Turkey.

How To Prepare A Thanksgiving Turkey by the Fairfield Preschool Students

Holiday Concert songs

Here are two links to You Tube videos of the two songs we will be performing for the holiday concert. You can watch them with your child andnpractice the words over the Thanksgiving.

What I Am

One Was Johnny