In Full Gear!

Hey everyone -
Monarch Kids Preschool is officially in full gear! We started the first week of January and have been having a blast! The first week's theme was "Welcome Week" with lots of get-to-know-you type activities. Last week the theme was "Evergreens". At the beginning of the week the kids each decorated a shoe box with all the letters of the alphabet. Then each week, we'll either make or collect something to put in our boxes that start with each letter of the alphabet. So the week during "Evergreens" theme, we collected a pine cone to put in their box (for the letter "P"). I really loved this craft. Plus going on a nature hike to find them was a blast too! Not only did we find pine cones, but also ladybugs, a rabbit, rabbit poop, lots of snow and ice patches, and much more. The kids and I had so much fun on our first official Monarch Kids Preschool nature hike :) Many more are sure to follow!

This week's theme is "Martin Luther King Jr." and "Winter". Today we talked about the inventor of the stop light, which was an African American. So many of our activities were centered around the stop light - the kids loved it! A traffic light snack (graham cracker, spread peanut butter, then red, yellow, and green m&ms in the order of a stop light), stop light songs, and of course the game "Red Light, Green Light"! We also read the book "We're Different, We're the Same" - a Sesame Street book. Its all about how each of us have different noses, eyes, hair, bodies, skin, feelings but that all of these things operate the same. The kids really enjoyed the book (especially because they loved looking for Elmo on each page).

All this to say that its been a blast and we're looking forward to many more fun, adventurous weeks to come!

Take care -
Kendall Stark
Monarch Kids Preschool Teacher