Week 3: Christmas

Decorated cones

Instead of gingerbread houses, we decorated cones.  We also had station where everyone could wrap presents, and reopen them.  Both activities were so fun.  The Christmas activities were super fun, and I'm sad that it's over so soon.

Week 2: Christmas

Everyone lining up before we go into singing time.

This week we did a lot with ornaments.  We made Christmas ornaments.  One day we decorated the ornaments with glitter sticks, and the kids were really fascinated using glitter again.  The next day we actually mixed the ornaments and each child picked a color to mix in.  They were really cute, and I put the initials of the kids in the ornaments.  We also had some fun learning centers, especially the center with green play dough.

Week 1: Christmas

Today we decorated Christmas trees with glitter and pom poms.  This is the first time the kids played with glitter, and they loved it.   The pom poms alone would have been boring I think.  We read stories on Christmas and even got to play outside.  On Tuesday was decorated Gingerbread men and then ate them up.  I sent some samples home to share with their moms.  Christmas is so much fun!  It's too bad there are only 3 weeks this month.  I might sneak some activities into January.

Week 4 - Thanksgiving

We made popcorn, talked about Thanksgiving, and made little turkeys from cups.  The kids love the Ice Cream play dough center as well, and they were really good about following all of our rules to take care of the play dough and share.

Week 3: Fall, Thanksgiving, Animals

The kids played with cloud dough and we made popcorn as a class.  With the warm weather, we've been spending more time inside with the toys and each other.  I loved the cloud dough, and that will be a repeat for December for sure.

Week 2: Fall, Thanksgiving, Animals

I really loved the activities this week.  They were so "fallish" and very appropriate for the season.  The leaf painting and collage both turned out so beautiful.  On Tuesday we made "nature soup" and looked to see what objects floated and what objects sank.  (Only the rocks sank.)  The kids loved collecting things and putting them in the water table.  Then we did a painting craft with watercolors and drawing leaves.  The trees looked very lovely and artsy.

On Thursday we collected the prettiest leaves we could find to make a leaf collage. I thought the leaf collage was so beautiful with real leaves.  We also introduced a new learning center with blocks and pictures of different structures to build.

Week 1: Fall, Thanksgiving, and Animals

This week we talked a little bit about animals, animal sounds, and read an animal book.  We made animal puppets on both days.  One was a tiger, and the other one was a frog.  I like to do our painting craft at the beginning of the month.  For our learning centers, the kids the imaginative play with play dough.  We repeated the build-a-pumpkin learning center, and then I introduced an ice cream play dough center.  I explained the rules about no eating the play dough, sharing, being careful to not drop play dough on the floor, and asking for help when they needed it.  They did marvelously with this group learning center, pretending to play with ice cream.

Next week we're going to explore nature and the fall leaves.

Week 4 - Halloween, Fantasy, and Fall

There weren't any pictures from last week because I wasn't there, but this week we did science experiments with the kids.  We did a pumpkin explosion with a fake pumpkin, and then disolved pumpkins in different liquids.  The kids all took turns mixing the different liquids.  We also had a play dough pumpkin learning center where the kids could build their own pumpkins with stems, and make faces with beans and jewels.  The older kids loved it especially.

Week 2: Halloween, Fantasy, and Fall

This week we did some painting crafts related to animals, a pig snout and a tiger.  We learned a new song called the "Elephant Song," but we used little ghosts and called it the "Ghost Song" instead.  We also did some face painting one day,   I've really enjoyed focusing on crafts one week like this week, and then next week we'll do some science experiments.  Last week we did more sensory activities.

Week 1: Halloween, Fall, and Fantasy

This week was our Halloween party for the month.  We just had some special treats while the kids played outside with their other siblings.  It was fun.  On Tuesday, we discovered the fall season with discovery nature bags, trying to guess what part of the "fall" was in the bag.  We found leaves, sticks, rocks, and pine needles.  The we played in the dark with glow sticks, making different shapes.

On Thursday we got a special message about some hidden magic wands that we found outside in the shed. Then we made some sensory bottle shakers with some fall themed objects, and then just some beans and pasta.  Everyone's costumes all week were wonderful!

Week 5: Transportation Favorites

We had themed snacks this week.

The flying planes.

This week we spent some time focusing on the favorites we had done over the past month, and reviewed some things about airplanes and trains.  Outside we did activities with moving objects, like flying toy planes, or swimming through the backyard water.  We also had a day with the car ramp and used a water table as a car track.  At the end of lunch and stories, I had one more surprise and gave everyone a transportation themed snack to end the month.

It's been a month now, and everyone has been doing so well with the routine.  They all seem to expect an activity, craft, or surprise at some point in the morning. They are all learning better and better each week how to line up against the wall for learning centers, or find their squares for singing/weather time.  The kids are darling, and are all becoming better friends, holding hands, and leading each other to play.

Week 4: Transportation

I love to do crafts with the kids that they can take home and hold, but this week it was so fun to do some serious sensory activities.  Both activities were a huge hit!  The kids love playing at the water tables, and even though they get wet, no one seems to mind too much.  The first day I gave kids frozen "ice boats" that I had prepared that they were supposed to melt in the water table.  Inside the frozen boats was a car to play with once they melted all of the ice.  The other water table was a good race car track.

The next day we had a "boat washing station."  I gave everyone a foam boat with washable marker all over it that they were supposed to wash off their boats.  The only part leftover would be their name in permanent marker.  I also gave them some cars to wash in the soap, and some spoons.  The kids were enthralled for 25 minutes or so.  I will definitely repeat this activity.

Boat and car washing stations.

Frozen boats, with cars to uncover inside.  We decorated sails to attach.

Week 3: Transportation

We focused on airplanes this week.  I showed them a model toy plane and explained to them the different types of airplanes and flying devices, like a Jumbo Jet and glider.  Many of the kids have been on airplanes before.  We also did an airplane craft each day.  We also played with paper airplanes outside, which was a big hit with the boys.

Week 2: Transportation

Our car ramp, used as one of our learning centers.

One activity we did was build a track on a ramp.

This week we spent time with trains and train tracks.  We love trains in our house.  Each day we had a chance to decorate a train track to take home.  Each child had a special decorating kit with markers, crayons, and stickers.  Hopefully the kids have tracks at home so they can add these to their collection, especially those little boys.  They just adored the trains and tracks.  We played with sidewalk chalk one day, and then spent time building a group train track down a ramp the other day.  What a fun week!

Week 1: Transportation

One day we used sponges to make stoplights.  The other day we used sponges to make cars.  We also played a game called "Red light, green light" after we spent some time looking at traffic signs.  It was an excellent start for the first week.  Everyone did really well who was starting preschool for the first time, and I noticed that each group has its own personality.  I think the Thursday group enjoys active group activities more, and the Tuesday group likes craft activities around the table more. We'll see how that changes.  The books were really good this week.  I could tell because the kids kept asking for more.

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Week 4: Colors

This is our last week of colors.  Transportation begins next week. On Tuesday, we did a sensory activity with vinegar and baking soda . The kids mixed frozen vinegar and baking soda to make fizzing bubbles.  They really played with their wisks, bowls, and spoons for a while.  The cubes were dyed pink with some colorful beads in the ice cubes for the kids to discover.

On Wednesday, we did a group science experiment with Jello powder.  We looked at the powder, tried, to decide its color as a group, and then I added water to reveal that it was orange.  Everyone got turns stirring the bowl.  Then everyone got a turn to decide with color of dye to mix into the bowl and got to mix it.

On both days, we did a special "Treasure Hunt" in the back yard with a special map to lead the way.  We had to find "mail" with the colors of the rainbow, which led us to our bags with gold at the end.

Then we did learning centers, weather, and singing time as usual.  We are excited to start the Fall Semester next week.

The group experiment of mixing colors

Finding our treasures at the end of the rainbow.

Week 3: Colors

We did cookie decorating this week.  Each kid got to pick their favorite color to dye their frosting, and I provided some different colored sprinkles.  They were very engaged, and everyone got to take home a little box of cookies to share.  I could tell that everyone is better at following directions than they were the last time we did this while they decorated their cookies because everyone at least decorated a cookie before eating it.  They enjoyed the creation process a little more.

We played "Hide and Seek" outside and they loved it so much!  I need to do some more outside games for them because they hid all over the yard.  Behind trees, basketball hoops, and around the house.  I swear they could play that all day. We also did the Learning Centers and those have been great for everyone to practice sharing and working on a more focused activity together.

Week 2: Colors Theme

We played "I Spy" with colors of felt.  We painted cans to be drums in their favorite colors.  One day we did "bead discovery" in ice cubes at the water table.  The other day we did "Learning Centers" after playing outside.  The weather was especially lovely on Wednesday, so everyone really enjoyed playing at the water table and with the toys.  Look to the "Recent Activities: Colors" tab for more pictures.

Week 1: Colors Theme

We did a lot of new things this week.  We talked about colors using Fruit Loops and Fruity Pebbles.  We read books about rainbows, (and two fun books).  We matched colors and shapes with a game outside.  We also began our "Learning Centers" this week.  We'll use the same 4 centers all month, but alternate each Tuesday and Thursday so they get used to playing with them.  Every week I'm amazed at how much more comfortable the kids become with each other, and play well.  Look to the "Colors Theme" tab to see all the pictures.

Week Six: Ocean, Beach and Water (Pirate Day and Water Day)

The treasure we discovered and the bottle we put the treasure in.

Today was as special day.  We spent the whole day outside.  We started with drawing chalk outside where the kids could draw on everything but the house.  We went on a little treasure hunt outside so we could be like pirates.  We made bottles of treasure to take home.  Then we played with the water from a sprinkler.  Then we made it through singing time since everyone was starving for lunch.  During lunch we read stories, and everyone played a little more.  It was fun to have a day mostly outside to give the kids variety.  They all seemed to have a better chance to play together and interact with some of the outside activities.  For more pictures, look to "Ocean Theme" to look at the week.

Week Five: Ocean, Beach, Water

This week we played in the murky jello ocean to find some fish and sea bubbles (candy fish and marshmallows.)  Everyone seemed to really enjoy just playing with their oceans.  We played outside and inside during our break.  Then we came inside and painted our seashells.  It was as wonderful day!

Week Four: Ocean, Beach, and Water

This week's sensory activity was melting ocean ice cubes packed with treasures, ("jewels", rocks, beads, and glitter.)  We have done similar things before, but the kids really love playing with the water like that.  We did some watercolors on real watercolor paper, and then put salt on their drawings to make an "ocean" texture.  I had drawn some fish on the pictures beforehand and they showed up on some pictures well, and not as well on others.  We also played with waterballoons, which go fast, but are super fun.  The weather was really wonderful for outside play, and quite wet on Wednesday.  Look to "Ocean Theme" for pictures.

Week Three: Ocean, Beach, Water.

We had a sensory activity in the morning with creating their own beaches.  The kids had some "beach" pudding (using water instead of milk for allergies).  They played with the ocean and beach sand.  We talked about how animals (like animal crackers) live on long and fish live in the water.  The marshmallows were supposed to be like waves, or sea foam.

For the craft we learned a lot about whales, and I showed them a couple of video clips of the 4 whales we drew for the whale mobile: killer/orca whale, beluga whale, blue whale, and humpback whale.  The children were fascinated with the big whales moving and it was fun.  Look to "Ocean Theme" for more pictures.

Week Two: Ocean, Beach and Water

Look to recent activities for pictures from this week of the kiddos.  They were very engrossed in making their own "oceans" and adding baking soda to the vinegar water to make it fizz.  I can tell as the kids have been in preschool for a few weeks now, they are getting to know each other better and are more comfortable with their surroundings.  They now know where to get into the toys and what they like to play with outside.

June and July's Theme: Ocean, Beach, and Water

For the next 6 weeks, we're doing a theme of the Ocean, Beach, and Water.  The full details for this theme's activities is listed under "Curriculum/Themes" tab listed at the top of the website.  We will do sensory activities, crafts, and some outdoor activities.  We started out with digging for "treasure" in oatmeal, making shark plates, and drawing fish outside with sidewalk chalk.  We also have been trying to fit in 2 stories about fish or beach through the day. In between the activities, we have playing time, singing time, and lunch.  There are also pictures from last week under the "Ocean Theme" tab.  The current theme will have "Recent Activities" in the title.

Recent Activities

To see what we're doing in class, take a look at the "Recent Activities" tab for a glimpse into the preschool.  I have a few pictures showing what we do. The current theme will have "Recent Activities" in the title.  The old themes will become pages of their own.

Summer Preschool Programs 2014

My name is Libby Dibb and this summer I am running a summer preschool program in my home for kids 18 months-4 years old, starting June 10th, 2014.  In the fall and winter I will also be running a preschool September 2014-May 2015. Currently, I have 4 slots left for my summer classes.

Summer classes are Tuesday and Wednesday.  I am specifically offering single days for those interested in having their children involved in some preschool, but don't want to commit to 3-4 days a week.  This would be ideal for a mom who wants a morning out, and wants a positive experience for their child away from home.

Here is some basic information, but there is more detailed information provided in other sections of the website.

Payments

1 day a week: $78 a month, $30 one time semester deposit/supplies fee

2 days a week: $155 a month, $50 one time semester deposit/supplies fee

Summer Preschool Program

June 10^th-August 27^th, 2014

Tuesday 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Wednesday 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Fall Preschool Program

Enrollment for Fall/Winter classes is also available now.  Your spot will be secured with a deposit.  There will be a Tuesday/Thursday class and a Wednesday class that run September 2014-May 2015.

Sample Preschool Schedule

9:00 a.m. - 9:30 - Kids arrive, free play time with set up toy stations, clean up toys
9:30 a.m. - 10:10 - "Circle Time:" Weather chart and date, Singing Game, Favorite Things Game, Sharing Time Activity, Choose Helpers
10:10 a.m. - 10:35 - Learn a new song, Story Time, Finger-plays, 
10:35 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. - Group Activity (Creative Art drawing, play dough creations, planting seeds, etc), Story shared related to theme
11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. - Outside play, or structured indoor play if weather is bad
11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Lunch time and parents arrive

The Dibb Home, located very close to Southpoint mall

The back yard is cool and shady in the mornings.

We do crafts and eat lunch at this table.