Preschool is a Party

I am often amazed by how seemingly small encounters shape my life in big ways.  In such moments, I feel the hand of God gently nudging me towards paths of happiness.  And so it has been with preschool.

Just a couple of weeks after we moved to Salt Lake, I met a mother at Liberty Park whose children also attend Emerson Elementary.  Even though we were strangers, she told me of a co-op preschool that she organizes and extended a loose invitation to participate.  At the time, I was fairly hesitant.  After all, I didn't know her and she didn't know me.  Little did I realize how this random encounter would positively impact our lives.

Teaching preschool has been great.  Annika loves getting to play with her friends twice a week, and I like getting to know some other parents, not to mention the occasional morning all to myself.  Annika is gaining literacy skills, and I love having a good excuse to pull out all of the fun crafts that otherwise hibernate in the bin of good intentions.  Win-win for everyone.

Here are some photos to document our preschool fun.  We've structured our school to focus on a letter of the week.  "B" is for Bake.

"D" is for Duck...

...and Deviled Eggs.

"F" is for Freight Train...

 

Fort...


Frog...




Fire...


...and Faux Doh.  (Because really, who needs a reason to play with lotion and cornstarch?)

"H" is for Halloween.  Here are our preschoolers all dressed up as they pass around the Mystery Math container, trying to guess what is inside.  The guesses usually include a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Elsa.


For our Halloween party we ate healthy pumpkins...


...largely in an effort to offset the effects of frosting sugar cookies.


We also painted pumpkins with apples...

made spaghetti spiders...

...and practiced Trick-or-Treating.

Happy Halloween!

Moving onto "J" Week, we counted jelly beans...

...and searched for jems covered in shaving cream.

Messy!

And a few more activities, not necessarily associated with any letter.  Since we include a little bit of Spanish in our preschool, one day we made tortillas.


Another day we made tostadas.


Autumn seemed to linger this year, so we went outside often.  Here we are playing red light, green light.


Painting in the backyard.

And taking our band for a spin around the block.


I may be thirty-eight, but it's the absolute perfect age to go back to preschool.