So much to be thankful for...

The past few weeks we have been learning about family, friends, and being thankful in our preschool classroom. On that note, I would like to say that I am very thankful for each day that I am able to spend singing about turkeys, sharing stories, and learning with the preschoolers. I love my job!

I was very forgetful about taking pictures during some of our activities to post on the blog. I will try to recap some of our favorite learning experiences both pictured and not pictured.

We read several books together about friendship. We also talked about how we can be good friends to each other and what being a friend looks like. I had originally planned to have each child pick a friend's name  from our classroom and then create a picture of him or her. I have done this in the past and the children enjoyed it. However, when it comes time to send the artwork home I always struggle with who gets to take the picture home...the person who made it...or the person who is depicted in the picture. I decided to avoid that by having the children make self portraits using a wide variety of collage materials. The focus was still on friendship but the children practiced looking at themselves and their own characteristics and tried to make their pictures as real as possible. I loved this learning experience and I think the children did too. Some of them were so involved in their artwork they stayed at this center with Miss Danielle for nearly 40 minutes! We did not want to interrupt their creativity. It was awesome!

Some of our other family activities included playing with potato heads, cutting pictures from magazines, making a class book with pictures of our families, and making family puppets. Our puppets are pictures of our family members glued to Popsicle sticks. We will be using them for the next few weeks to practice storytelling. I will be snapping more pictures of process and posting them soon.

We also practiced drawing pictures of our family. The children answered questions about their family while they were working and we created a little "Guess Who" trivia. I love capturing some of the silly things they say!

After spending time learning about family we began Thanksgiving activities. Here are two of the songs we have been enjoying together:

I have a turkey big and fat,
He spreads his wings and he walks like that. (Waddle)
He pecks at the corn all day long (Peck at the ground)
and when he talks, he talks like this:
GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE! (Shout it out)


We Eat Turkey
We eat turkey, We eat turkey,
YUM, YUM, YUM
YUM, YUM, YUM
Always on Thanksgiving, Always on Thanksgiving
YUM, YUM,YUM
YUM, YUM, YUM.
Here is a video of the song

We read several books about the first Thanksgiving and learned about the Pilgrims and Native Americans. We had a Mayflower ship in our dramatic play area and we also made hats which are not pictured. In our kitchen center the children spent time pretending to prepare Thanksgiving dinner as well as wash the dishes after the big feast.

The children enjoyed making books about things that they are thankful for.

Other activities included a shape lesson that involved making a turkey. Experimenting with turkey basters, making friendship necklaces, and manipulating feathers. We weaved place-mats for Thanksgiving which was a great fine motor activity. We used craft foam because it was sturdy and easier for the children to manipulate.

One day we made turkey toast together. I added food coloring to a cup of milk. The children used new paintbrushes to paint on a piece of bread using the colored milk. Then we popped the bread in the toaster. When it was finished we used a hand-shaped cookie cutter to transform the toast into a turkey.

Last but not least, we took some inspiration from this Thanksgiving picture that we had hanging as decoration. We used some fake fall leaves that we had to make turkey creations. We used potatoes for the body and head, Popsicle sticks for feathers, and the children added the leaves on for feathers in creative ways. I love the way their creations turned out. They were proud!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

The Story-Telling Garden

This story-telling garden was built to provide an outdoor learning space to the children at Whitney Point Preschool and Daycare. It has been filled with 10-15 laminated books for children and adults to read together. It also provides a space for writing with chalk and writing with magnets. It is my hope that this garden will help to create a love for reading within the children at our center and will teach children that reading is enchanting. They can read books in the loft of the house, in a rocking chair, or even on the tractor.

This garden was also built to capture the memory of a very special preschooler, Allison Oney. The garden took on a farm and tractor theme because of her love for animals, the outdoors, and her tractor. I hope this is a place where her memory can be honored at our school. I am so thankful to have met Allie and to have shared a year of learning with her.

This is the only "before" picture that I remembered to take! But this is what our playhouse looked like before it got a makeover.


First, the tractor was delivered! We spread mulch around it to make it safe for play.

Then, my husband built the garden box and my Mom began planting. The children will be able to water these flowers and tend to them.

The Brownies Girl Scout troop helped us my making these beautiful garden stones. They were so creative and I love this hand-made touch that was added to the garden. 

The house received a coat of paint, my husband built a loft area for reading, and we added a chalkboard, a magentic board, and an I SPY ABC game. The beautiful photography used in the house was donated by a local photographer, Barbara Kim.

 This is the view of the whole story-telling garden. The tractor, the house, and the garden are all a part of it.

There are many, many people to thank who made this project possible. Whitney Point Preschool and Daycare, Kim Downs, the Board of Directors, my husband, Zach Whittaker, my parents, Wendy and Bob Madden, The Whittaker Family, County Line Lumber,The Amish Barn Company, Greene's Do-It Center, Staples, Lowes, the Smith Family, Beardsley Sawmill,  Ashley Howe and Family, Professor Christine Webb, Melissa Conklin, Barb Kim, Kida Family, Hand Family, Feathers Family, Kristi Rundell, Emily Jordan, Kim Somers, and the Brownie troop. 

A special thanks to Melissa Oney for allowing us to create this memorial for Allison. We will cherish her always and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for sharing her with us at Whitney Point Preschool. 

Thank you to all of my friends and family near and far who supported this project. 

Made with love <3