My Seussical Life for 2004 April 21

I started a little preschool with two moms that have kids Atticus' age. We take turns organizing activities for our three-year-olds and hosting a class on Wednesday mornings for two hours. Today was my first day. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!! Samuel went to play with one of the moms (who lives next door), so it was just me with Atticus, Matthew and Julia.

I made a large tree out of that butcher paper like stuff, and tacked on little blossoms with songs on the back. The kids loved that. Then we talked about Kansas--the state bird (western meadowlark), tree (cottonwood), flower (sunflower) and such. I gave each child a coloring page of the United States with Kansas colored in so they could see our state placed in relation to the others. Then we talked about the letter "I," listed a few words that start with "I," and traced a capitalized "I" and lower-case "i" cut out of sandpaper (thanks for the idea, Frances).

Our number for the day was "1," so we talked about counting only one thing, and then I pulled out the potato stamps I'd carved out of "I," "i," and "1." The kids stamped their letter and number, and then looked really interested in painting, so we dug out the paint brushes and painted, talking about mixing primary colors to get secondary colors, etc. Our last activity was making a yummy bird food concoction. I had each ingredient in a separate bowl, so the kids counted "1" bowl of p-nut butter, "1" bowl of bird seed, "1" bowl of cornmeal . . .

This class was so fun. The kids were so interested in learning that I felt totally rewarded.