Where Are You, Spring?

This past Friday, March 25, the boys & I had another morning of crafts since the weather has been downright frigid. We LOVED the day that it was in the upper 70s. We even had fun on the days that it hit over 50 degrees. But, the past week or so, it's barely made it above freezing. They're even calling for snow this week. We've had enough winter! I know that the calendar said we're officially in spring, so I'm hoping the weather starts being more agreeable.

The one craft we did was an idea I saw hanging on the wall of another preschool classroom at Calvary. I modified it slightly for home, but the idea was similar. The boys made hand prints from different colors of paint, and we turned them into flowers with lady bugs and green grass below. You'll see the finished product in the first picture. Then, I helped the boys wash their hands and paint with paint brushes, which they both seem to enjoy more than having the paint squished between their fingers. Caleb enjoys being a mess, but I don't think he likes being constantly reminded to be careful with his messy hands. :) :) :)

That morning, we had started with making "Thank You" crafts for Joshua's preschool teacher and aide. The room parent had given each child a sheet to fill out for each teacher/helper, and the directions simply said to put a picture of your child over the box in the corner and express thanks in any creative way you want to. She's collecting the papers this week and going to bind them into a book.

At first Joshua said that he already did this craft (since we had just put something similar together for his teachers for teacher appreciation week). But, eventually we sat down together and talked about ideas. One of his favorite games to play is thinking of words that start with a certain letter. So, I thought it might be nice to write "thank you for" and then fill in words that responded with what each person did. So, Mrs. Dearborn's said "T-E-A-C-H" and he wrote each one of the letters going down the page. Then he helped me come up with some of the words and ideas to say to each one. He also picked out the colors to write with on each line. You can kind of see the outcome on the pages below. For T, we wrote "Telling us stories and teaching us songs"; for E we wrote "Encouraging us to try new things like crafts and show & tell"; for A we wrote "Acting like a role model in speech and action"; for C we wrote "Caring about my feelings when I fell and lost my teeth; and for H we wrote "Helping us learn Bible verses." Some of the words he came up with and sometimes I came up with the corresponding word that starts with the correct letter, but he often had the ideas of what he liked about each teacher.

Then he decorated the page (after I glued on the picture of him). He drew a picture of himself smiling, and a picture of a flower. Then he put stickers (which he loves!) all over the page. He also signed it himself. I thought it turned out cute.

We liked Mrs. Dearborn's so much that we did the same thing for Mrs. Wolfe. This time, we came up with words that went with "A-I-D-E" which he wrote going down. Each morning Mrs. Wolfe asks him to start with his crafts, so for A we wrote "asking me to do crafts and helping me with them." For I he said "I like when she talks to me" (which I thought was SO cute!). For D he said "Dancing to the songs we sing" and for E we wrote "Everything you do to help me clean up, open things, zip, etc." which are things she does.

Then he said he wanted to draw the building, so I labeled his "house" Calvary Preschool. He put the stickers on and signed his name on it as well. He loved doing the crafts! Poor Caleb wanted to help, but instead, he colored in a coloring book next to us while Joshua & I worked on these pages.

It's crazy to think that there's only a month and a half left of preschool until it's finished for the year. Typically you think of school letting out when it's warm outside. Since it's still so cold, it doesn't feel close to the end. 

The kids enjoyed their craft time, and I enjoy doing new things with them (or old things done differently, maybe). :) :) :)