Last Day of Preschool

 Joshua's last day of preschool was Thursday, May 10. The day before, we worked on getting together a small thank you gift for his teacher and the classroom aide (who he loved). I was SO impressed by his teacher this year and how much effort she put into the classroom. The children didn't have time to get into trouble because they were constantly working on various activities. We definitely felt like we got our money's worth this year! She also was above and beyond when I had Ryan's doctor appointment and she offered to keep Joshua as long as necessary on her own time - the teacher's don't get paid beyond the classroom time, yet I know how many long hours she spends on creating new fun things for the children to do.

That said, I'm terrible at knowing what to give as gifts. It's not really my love language, and yet I think it's important to say thank you and teach the kids to do so. So, I looked up some different ideas online and combined a few into my own. This is the final product:

I found this popcorn buckets (theater size) at Walmart, and the M&M's that are also movie theater size. I saw Mrs. Perez (the aide) drinking a regular Coke the day before at school and saying that this was her caffeine of choice. So I bought a six-pack of them and divided them among the two teachers and took two to our friends with their meal the night before. Then I wrote in their thank you cards the things that Joshua & I have appreciated about them this year. We created this for the outside of the gift, which read:

To a most POPular preschool teacher,

I was SODAlighted to spend the year with you.

THANK YOU for all you did to make this year M&M (meaningful & memorable).

I now feel better prepared to be MOVIEing on to kindergarten.

We added a picture of Joshua and the person we were giving the gift to, and he signed his name. The gift didn't cost a lot of money, but it was different than another bouquet of flowers. Both of them have children so even if they didn't like the treats (and Mrs. Perez said these were all her very favorite things in the whole world), I knew they would get put to good use.

 Mamaw came to our house to watch Caleb & Ryan so I could spend the day with Joshua in his classroom. All parents were invited to a "beach party" the last day, and Mrs. Zimmerman told me this is the first year she ever tried it. I thought it was nice to be together the last day. We were one of the very first ones to arrive at school that morning. The Bean helped me carry the gifts into the classroom and gave them to his teachers. He said his was heavy, but he wasn't about to drop it "Nope, not me, you can count on me to be a helper!" he said. It was SO cute. :)

 While we waited for the other children to arrive, the kids did their first activities of the day as normal (writing their name and completing a craft).

 

 With the beach theme, Mrs. Zimmerman had told the students they could wear their bathing suits. But it was COLD that day. Many of the days had been warm leading up to this point, but this day was extremely windy and chilly. Some of the students still wore their suits (one little girl even had her little cheeks hanging out, which I didn't think was extremely appropriate for school). Joshua wore his octopus with sunglasses shirt - good enough and not freezing!

I had to get one last picture of the kids in the classroom - I was getting teary that this is Joshua's last experience at preschool. He has gotten so big, and I'm not sure how much I'll get to see him in action when he goes to 'regular' school.

When the children had finished their crafts and were waiting for circle time, Mrs. Zimmmerman lays out various activities for the children to do that match her theme for the week. The items are constantly changing, so the kids are intrigued to play with them. I thought the one that Sarah was playing with below looked really neat - it's a fishing pole with a magnet that lifts the fish off the board, instead of just a normal puzzle, it makes it that much more challenging to put back in the right place.

Soon Mrs. Zimmerman called the children over to sit in their appropriate spots for circle time. They discuss the date and the weather, etc. Owen told Joshua 'GO! It's your day to sit in the sun!' and it was was. How cool to get to experience my little man being the center of attention for the day. Love! :)

 He didn't get to do everything he normally would have done as the sun sitter, BUT he was excited to show me what it meant and I was happy to see it.

Then the teacher broke us up into three groups, and we headed outside (did I mention it was cold?) to play our beach-themed games. The first game was to stick your bare feet in freezing cold water to pull seashells out of the tub with your toes. The first kiddos giggled at the idea, but soon enough they said how cold they were, so we put our socks and shoes back on. Love the idea, though, for a warmer day (and of course the teacher can't control the weather!).

With that station was a bean bag toss into a shark's mouth. I learned that Mrs. Perez' husband created the shark. He was an artist for a comic book company that ended up going out of business with the current economy and he now does freelance artist work, from what I understand. How neat! He's really good. Joshua enjoyed the bean bag toss, and we had to remind him how to throw them underhand.

 Then the whistle blew and it was our turn to move to the beach ball volleyball station. The kids had fun hitting it back and forth, but the wind took the ball all over the place! Then we put the ball in a large towel and tried to control it like a parachute. They LOVED that!

 When the whistle blew, our group went to the sidewalk chalk station. Again, Mr. Perez had made all these shapes that the ladies laminated so the kids could trace them on the sidewalk. They were all ocean creatures - fun!

 Here's Joshua tracing a crab and a starfish.

 Here's his starfish!

 The whistle blew and we moved to the next station - Joshua's absolute favorite activity of the day. There was a water table filled with small balloons filled with water and decorated like fish. The children would use fish nets to catch them and put them back in. Joshua LOVED to go fishing!

 Look at how full his net was!

 He enjoyed this game so much that I new we could re-create it at home. LOVE the new ideas!

 At that same station was rubber ducky racing. With squirt bottles, they tried to force the small rubber ducks down the lane.

After the fourth station, it was time to go inside and warm up. Joshua was line leader that day, only I didn't realize that was part of sitting in the sun. Mrs. Zimmerman announced to please stay with your group, and our group was one of the last to line up. So, when he went to the front of the line I scolded him to stay back. Then Mrs. Zimmerman told him to come to the front and hurry since it was time to go in. We giggled at him not knowing what to follow. I apologized to him and said I didn't realize he was supposed to go to the front and he said that was okay. He laughed to at his silly mommy. The children lined up and the boys went to the men's room to go potty and wash hands and the girls went to the ladies room to do the same. Us moms worked on hanging up coats.

Then the kids sat down for their last snack together. After they were finished, they were allowed to take their place mats home with their names on it. This was the first activity Joshua ever did at preschool - I remember him putting the letters on it in order that very first morning. I was teary again. He was excited, though, and I was glad.

After snack time, we moved with our same groups to indoor stations to complete activities. The first one was a game where you rolled dice and put marbles on that many sticker shapes. I didn't think to snap a picture. The second one was creating a bead bracelet, which Joshua did with ease and gave to me. :)

The third station was my favorite activity of the day. Mrs. Zimmerman had different trays of sea animals on a tray. The children went through each one and said their names and the letter they begin with. Then, they were to close their eyes as we would take two away. They had to remember which two were missing. After a few times of that, they got to be the ones to take them away while the rest of us guessed. It was FUN! I loved how Samuel's little sister played along with us.

 Here were the various items. I liked this game so much that we've played it at home using some of the animals we have. Caleb also enjoys it. :) :) :)

The last station for us was beach-themed memory. Samuel's little sister was amazing at this one as well. The boys had a run for their money! I could see the shapes from the outside of the cards, but these kids didn't cheat a bit. They enjoyed memory.

Soon enough it was time to go. They sat back in the circle, and their teacher asked them to wait until their name was called so she could give them a goodbye hug. Again, I was teary. Joshua was pumped!

 Mrs. Perez gave the Bean a hug on the way out the door.

 Then we got a picture of him and his friend Sarah before we left for the day.

In the car, I asked him how he was feeling about this being his last day of preschool ever, feeling nostalgic. His response? "Isn't it GREAT, Mom?!?! We get to be together ALL SUMMER!" Love his perspective! Goodbye, preschool! I'll be back with Caleb Luke in the fall while my oldest little man heads to the big kindergarten.