A visit from the fire truck

Last week we had a very special treat--a visit from our neighborhood firefighters ... and their big truck! We met the firefighters from Station 8, and we learned about fire safety. Your children were supposed to come home and show you their stop-drop-and-roll and discuss a family meeting place in the event of a fire ... did they remember? ;~)

Capt. Jackson talks with the students about fire safety.

They were all ears; we've never seen them this still or this quiet!

One of the most important things this visit does for the children is that it allows them to see a firefighter in his "costume" as they called it. In real emergencies, some children are afraid of firefighters when they're dressed this way, and instead of running toward him as a helper they run away out of fear. We don't want that to happen to our babies! Our students learned why the firefighter wears a special costume, and they even got to hear him breathe through his mask with the oxygen turned on. They learned that if there's ever a fire in their home or school, even though the firefighter might look silly in his or her costume, they're there to help, and the children should run to them.

No one was scared here -- high 5's for everyone!

Finally, we actually got to go inside the fire truck! Some students were nervous and some were super excited, but everyone was really brave and took a peek. 

Do we love firefighters? YES WE DO! 

Apple observations

Last week we had a fun day examining apples! We used four varieties—red delicious, golden delicious, Granny Smith, and jonagold—and made observations about the color, shape, and size of each. Mrs. Connie and Mrs. LeeAnne cut into each apple, and we noted that they look the same on the inside ... right down to this cool little star that God put there--isn't He creative?!?

Finally came the best part ... TASTING the apples! 

K-3 says, "Big thumbs-up for apples!!

Playing catch-up

We've been so busy lately that I feel like there's so much I haven't shared! To catch the blog up, I'm just going to give you a hodgepodge of photos today!

Acting out the "Five Little Pumpkins" rhyme.

When we played with cloud dough earlier this week, we got pretty messy.

Our motto in K3: The dirtier we get, the more fun we've had!

The hair was a little much, so after this we threw out the cloud dough. :)

Waiting patiently to have our pictures taken on picture day!

Tearing pieces of paper is great for building fine motor skills.

Then we glued them onto paper to make a pumpkin collage.

Now that our students have been with us for a while, their personalities are really starting to emerge!

Glue is fun!

What a great job!

These two guys followed instructions like champions!

And finally, here are a couple of outside shots from the playground. Don't you just love all of the budding friendships?!?

Fun with letter E

Last week, our letter of the week was E; we did some cutting practice with paper elephants, and we used popsicle sticks to build our very own E's.

First, we colored our popsicle sticks with markers.

Getting to use markers in K3 is always a treat!

Our artists, hard at work.

Sometimes, choosing the perfect color is no easy task!

Once we were finished coloring our wooden sticks, we built our E's and Mrs. Connie hot-glued them together. We put the finishing touches on them by gluing on googly eyes. But want to hear how smart these kiddos are? One child asked us, "If e says 'ehh' (short e sound), why are we putting I's (eyes) on them?!?" Nothing gets past these guys!

The finished product.

But the best thing we did during letter E week was to check out the quail eggs that are hatching in first grade!! We went into the babies' room in groups of two or three at a time, and you would not have believed how calm and quiet they were. We were so proud of them!

We couldn't believe how tiny the baby quail were!

The white boxin the upper right corner of this picture is the egg incubator, and to its left you can see one of the empty eggs. We marveled that a perfect little chick was able to emerge from such a tiny egg!

Here you can see the empty egg even better.

So calm and careful!

Peeking in on the chicks.

The girls really wanted to pet the babies, but we weren't allowed to do that.

So sweet!

Letter E week was a really fun week!