Soccer Shots: Day 1

Today was Isabel’s first day of Soccer Shots. I was very disappointed when we arrived and realized that the majority of her class is made up of 3-year olds! I had hoped it would be all or mostly 4/5 year-olds. Out of about 20 kids in class, only 3 of them are 4/5 year-olds and that includes Isabel! We’ll see how it goes… the class was a bit hectic/chaotic with the 3 year-olds running around chasing their balls all over the room and not listening to the instructors. Focus was taken off the group as a whole to get the other kids back into the group. Despite that however Isabel listened very well, to both instructors, and did exactly what they told the class to do. She even scored 3 goals and got a t-shirt!

Practicing how to stop the ball with their foot… remember NO HANDS!

Practicing dribbling and controlling the ball.

More practice…she went out of bounds a bit but got right back in again. Way to go!

Taking a break, before they break up into 2 groups.

Isabel was on the red team…

…and their off. Dribbling down to the other net to score a goal. Then they had to run back to where they started and get a new ball to dribble back to the goal. Isabel did this 3 times before class ended.

The look of determination on her face… she got it in the net!

3 for 3 shots… this last one was just before class was over. Great job Isabel!

School News: Full Day And Letter O

Today was Kindergarten Move-Up Day, Groundhog Day, and they worked on the letter “O” as well! Talk about a full day today for our little preschooler (a preview of next year as a kindergardener)!

During Kindergarten Move-Up Day, the class got to visit the kindergarten room, the library, and meet the music teacher!

Isabel with her friends from school visiting one of the kindergarten classrooms!

In the kindergarten room, they visited with the teacher, got to explore the room, and heard the story about, “Mrs. Wishy Washy“.

Listening to the music teacher play his guitar and later they sang “Father Abraham“.
Isabel LOVED this part of the tour, it’s all she talked about!

In the library they got to see all the books and heard the story of the “The Very Hungry Caterpillar“.

Back in the their classroom, they hear another story about Groundhog day and then worked on a groundhog day project.

Now you see see “Phil“…

… now you don’t!

Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring this year!… Oh how I hope it’s true!

The letter “O” is for Olive, Octopus, On/Off.

The special helper today was Rebecca. For show and tell Rebecca brought 2 Strawberry Shortcake dolls. One was purple and smelled like plum and one was red and smelled like strawberry. For snack Rebecca shared with the class animal crackers and milk. Isabel really liked dipping her crackers in her milk!

Tumbling Tykes: Day 1

Today was Isabel’s first day of tumbling/gymnastics and she had fun! There are 5 children (2 of which are in her class at school!) in her class and her teacher’s name is Ms. Mo. The line leader today was Presley.

Today was a bit more of an introduction but they did get up and move and tumble! To begin the class Ms. Mo had each child say “here” in Spanish, which is “aquí”. Then Ms. Mo handed out her magic “I can do” dust, to be used during class when they think they can’t do something. Ms. Mo then had the class stand up, they checked their hearts, and then they did stretching exercise to get their hearts warmed up!

Touching our toes…need to remember to keep our legs straight!

Stretching up on our tippy-toes.

Stretching to the side.

And a nice good stretch for our back…
notice Isabel, she’s stretching the wrong way. Silly girl!
Then it was time to get out and tumble and move!

Running and jumping over Ms. Mo’s stick.

Isabel doing the monkey roll! She did a perfect job and kept her bottom off the mat!
(BTW – the kids along the side, sitting down are NOT part of the class)

High jump… I was a bit worried about this one…
I didn’t think she would do it but she did it!!!

Nice landing, Isabel!

Put your toes to the mat, slap your hands on the wedge, bend your knees,
tuck your chin and roll!

A bit of help from Ms. Mo.

She took a tumble but that’s what the class is about! Great job!

The last moving exercise for the day was the slalom run and log jump. They ran the course while the cones were on “fire”!

After the slalom, Ms. Mo had them return to the circles and she rewarded them, with colored marshmallows, for listening very well and for forming great lines! The marker color smell was grape!

Then she told them a body-action story about a boy named, Elliott.

Elliott was outside playing when his mother called him into the house to take a nap. Elliott didn’t want to take a nap because he wasn’t tired but he knew that he had to obey his mother. Elliott’s bedroom was at the very tippy top of the house and he had to run up many flights of stairs to get there. Elliott got to his room and jumped into bed when he heard a knock and his mother said, “Elliott are you taking your nap?” Elliott said “Yes.” but he really wasn’t sleepy. So Elliott crawled under his bed and jumped into a big ocean. Elliott swam and swam around and finally decided to swim to the very bottom of the ocean. So he swam and swam, kicking and swimming all the way to the bottom. When he got to the bottom of the ocean, he saw a BIG squiggly squirmy octopus and he didn’t like that. So Elliott swam away and he swam and he swam. Until a BIG scary shark started to chase Elliott. So Elliott swam really hard and really fast to get away from the shark and then he heard a knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. “Elliott are you taking your nap?” Elliott’s mother said. Elliott swam to the top and jumped out of the ocean and jumped into bed, he pulled the covers up over his head, and he said, “Yes.” and he laid down and fell asleep.

School News: The Mitten

This morning was rather cold despite the fact that clouds were hanging around. Luckily I didn’t need to scrap the car windows. When we arrived at the classroom, we were almost the first ones there but Olivia was!

When I went back to pick Isabel up after class, Mrs. W let me come into the classroom instead of standing outside in the cold. The class was just finishing up their snacks and were heading into free-play time. What mayhem!!!!!! I helped pick up trash, push in chairs, got the kids to put things away for circle time, and prayed with the class at the end. Several of the kids seemed glad I was there and were asking me all sorts of questions.

Today, the class read the story “The Mitten” by Jan Brett.

The story is about a Ukrainian boy, who wants his grandmother Baba to knit snow-white mittens for him. However she warns her grandson that a white mitten will be hard to find if he loses it in the snow. Of course he promptly does just that! What happens next is surprising, as a mole takes refuge in the lost mitten, than a rabbit, then a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, and a fox. If your thinking the mitten might be a wee bit stretched out at this point, just wait. A big bear sniffs at the mitten and with all the animals packed in tight, the bear doesn’t care. He crawls in anyway! When a tiny mouse squeezes in, her whiskers tickle the bear’s nose, which causes him to sneeze, “Aaaaaa-aaaaaa-ca-chew!” All the animals fly out of their crocheted cave. As the mitten sails through the air, the boy spots it, reclaims it, and takes it home to show his smiling Baba.

Isabel said that she enjoyed the story of The Mitten. After reading the story, the class worked on a art project making their own “mittens” from the story!

They watercolored the front portion of the mitten and then sewed along the edge.

The animals for Isabel’s mitten. I told her that if she wanted to, she could color them.

The class also worked in their alphabet journal’s today. The letter for this week is “O”. Isabel said that while they were doing their journals, she was the first one to finish at her table. She seemed rather proud of herself, I just hope they look like O’s. The Bible story today was about Adam and Eve, again. Isabel said that they have already read that story. I told her that even though they may have heard it before, maybe today’s story was a bit different then before. When I asked further about it, she said she couldn’t remember what it was about. Today, they played outside in the “plain” playground because the other playground was being occupied. Isabel says, that they ran around and chased each other. She also said that she got a stick and was playing in the mud where the gopher holes were. Mrs. W, later told me that Isabel has sticking her hands in the mud and they scrubbed and scrubbed to get all the dirt off her hands before snack time. Just like my child, to be the one to play in the only dirt/mud available in a grassy field!

The special helper today was Anika. They ran out of time in class, because the clock broke, so Anika will share her show and tell on Wednesday with the class. For snack, Anika brought to share, string cheese, Toy Story 3 fruit snacks, and juice.

Birthday Original For Jimmy

I have decided that shopping for a boy (for his birthday) is a lot harder then shopping for a girl! When shopping for a boy, you have two choices, action figures or cars. THAT IS IT!!! When shopping for a girl, your choices are endless! SERIOUSLY!!!

With that said, I am not a parent that follows the “crowd” or the “trend” in toys. I am NOT into buying my daughter princess garbage (Or telling her that she is one! She is NOT!) or Barbie/BRATS/Zombie High junk either. Furthermore, I am NOT into buying boys action figures and cars (I must admit I have bought them as gifts though)! That is ridiculous!

So when Isabel and I were walking the aisles of our local Wal*Mart, we came across some amazing toys… the Backyard Safari collection. These toys are awesome! We purchased the Backyard Safari Binocs (for viewing birds and such in trees), Backyard Safari Spy Glass (for looking at tiny bugs BIG), Backyard Safari Critter Shack (for housing lizards, frogs, and other creepy crawlies), and the Backyard Safari Scoop Net (for keeping our hands safely away from hurting our bug friends)… which leads to my post… our friend Jimmy is turning 5 this weekend and instead of buying a pre-made card, I decided that Isabel and I would make an original! Besides our gift went with the “theme” on the card…bugs! I did the layout and word design. Isabel did the artwork and sticker placement (with a little help from me). Enjoy!

The outside of what Isabel calls…”bug party”.

Inside of our “bug party” card. I love the bug on the cake!
Happy Birthday, Jimmy!

Soccer Shots And Tumbling Tykes

Our month just got a whole lot busier! The school is offering what they are calling enrichment classes for her age group only, Soccer Shots and Tumbling Tykes, outside of the normal school day. Each class will be held weekly during the month of February. We decided to get Isabel signed up for both; to get her more involved with kids her age and to see what she would actually like to do for a “sport”. So be prepared… I’ll be adding more photos throughout the month ahead!  Her first “class” is on the 1st! Enjoy!

Soccer Shots will be an introduction class to soccer. Isabel will learn basic soccer, be encouraged in team play and build her character. This class will be held on Thursday afternoons during February.

Tumbling Tykes will be an introduction class to gymnastics and tumbling. Isabel will learn about healthy choices, balance and coordination. This class will be held on Tuesday afternoons during February. I’m looking forward to seeing her in both classes and how she participates in each. She’s very excited about the soccer class, but we’ll see which one she really likes…I’ll keep you posted!