"Traffic Cop"

Traffic Go, Traffic Stop!

All must heed the Traffic Cop!

When I'm grown, I shall be

Just as fine a cop as he!

This last week at preschool we've been studying community helpers. Monday was the mail man, Wednesday was the garbage/recycle man, and Friday was the police man! (I know I am being politically incorrect about this...I should be saying the "postal worker" etc instead of "man" but I'm old fashioned I guess.) :) Anyway, we made these hats on Friday and they turned out so dang cute I had to share! I thought the kids looked adorable in them!

I cannot wait until I am done with school and I have more time to dedicate to preschool and making it so fun. My AMAZING sister, Stephanie (she is just ONE of my AMAZING sisters), does her own preschool at her house and she has so many cute ideas. I keep wanting to do more and more of the stuff she does but I am so busy with school. Someday I am going to have my own preschool in my home and it'll be magnificent. But for now, I'm still going strong at Miss Terri's preschool which is pretty neat in an of itself! :)

Anyway, we got a new student in our class on Monday, his name is Jackson. He is really cute. He is just a little guy and is sweet as can be but he keeps yelling everything he says. It is pretty funny and the other kids in the class like him but keep asking me why he always yells. :) It's funny. I kept telling him he didn't have to yell everything and he'd go into a normal voice and say, "Oh, okay," but then the next thing he'd say he'd be yelling again. :)

Anyway, I am loving preschool and am so excited to have a new boy in our class. The other boys are excited too because we are short on boys. Jacob kept asking Jackson if he wanted to play with him. Everything Jacob did he would ask Jackson if he wanted to do it too. And Jackson, being a great sport, joined along! Jacob was loving it!

"Moans and Groans and Skeleton Bones"

Up the streets we'll trick-or-treat!
And dance beneath the moonlight!
We'll beware if there's a scare...
BOO! What a fright!

I had to at least put up this post before I could change the blog background to Thanksgiving! Maybe I'll be able to cover the rest of Halloween too...we'll see. Our preschool Halloween party was so much fun! The kids all looked so great and had a great time! I must give a big thanks to the parents who volunteered to help with the party. Melissa, Sydney, and Brooke you guys are awesome! Also a big thanks to Brooklyn and Bella's sisters, you were a big help too! Anyway, let's get to some pictures!

Here is the exquisitely beautiful Queen Amadala formerly known as Patience!

Next, we have the gorgeous snow princess herself, Brooklyn!

Then we have our hero, SUPERMAN! Also adorning his Clark Kent glasses! Austin!

Next is our tiny little lady bug, Ashley!

Then for our smiley and silly zebra, Jacob!

Now we have little miss Kate, riding a unicorn!

And don't forget our favorite girl from TV, we have Kai Ping as Dora the Explorer! (I had to include 2 pictures on this one because you all have to see the cute backpack!

For the cutest witch I've EVER seen...Megan! (Again, I just had to post 2!)
And last but certainly not least, we have our very own flapper girl, Isabella!

Here are good friends, Austin, Patience, and Ashley.

The moms and sisters who volunteered were truly amazing! Here's Bella's mom and sisters at station 1 doing bingo and musical chairs!

At station 2 here's Megan's mom. She helped the kids decorate cookies and then read them Halloween stories! She even did a great job at attempting "Shake Dem Halloween Bones!" :)

Our 3rd station was done by Brooklyn's cute mom and sister, but unfortunately the only picture I got of that station had the kids mobbed so close around them that you couldn't see them, so I didn't post it! At that station they played 2 different bean bag toss games, one into a jack-o-lantern and another into a ghost! The kids had a blast!

After our party we took the kids out front for our Halloween program. The parents all came and watched as the kids performed their best! It turned out actually a lot better than I had thought. I worried that the wind and the weather would make it hard to hear the kids but everyone seemed pleased and the kids sang great! My wonderful husband, Mike, took these pictures for me!

I love this picture because they all look so ready to sing. I love the look on Austin, our tough Superman's face! He's just right ready!

This one is our song called, "False Face." So they've all got their cute witch masks up!

This next one is the beginning of my favorite song! Thanks to my awesome sister Stephanie who let me use some of her best Halloween preschool songs! This is "Moans and Groans and Skeleton Bones." In the beginning I tell the kids to fold their arms and look up and away like they're the bravest kids in the world! The beginning sounds and music are a little spooky, so I told them that their parents and brothers and sisters would probably be scared but that we were going to be brave. So here are THE BRAVEST KIDS IN THE WORLD!

Kate was a little excited for the song to start so she's already got her hands on her knees for the next part. But even Jacob, our non-singing zebra folded his arms and was "brave!" I am impressed! :) I love the look on Brooklyn, our snow princess's face as she smirks and squints up to the sky! The bravery that Megan, our littlest witch, is trying to show is adorable! Patience (Queen Amadala) and Bella (our flapper girl) have got the attitude going on! Those cuties make me laugh!

This last picture is of them screaming "BOO!" at the end of our song "6 Little Ghosts." The song is adorable and the kids especially liked being able to scream "boo" as loud as they could! :)

I especially love this picture because of the looks on their faces! It's the best. I like how you can see the beginning of Dora the Explorer aka Kai Ping's dimples on her face as she tries not to laugh! Kate, on her unicorn, would scream her little guts out! I love this one of Ashley thought because it really shows how into these songs she gets. For those of you who don't know Ashley, she is one of the quietest girls I've ever known (the only other one I can think of is her little sister Alyssa who is one of my nursery kids). She hardly speaks a word unless you address her specifically, and even then it's a little difficult. But when we get up to sing, boy does that girl know the words! She belts out every word and sings every note! I put her right in the center because she helps the other kids to remember the words and to sing loud! :) I love it!

As you might be able to see, I was dressed as a bumble bee. I had yellow stripes across my front with antennas and a stinger (which are both white because Walmart had no black pipe cleaners)! However, I am not including any upclose pictures of myself because I forgot to wear makeup that day. Seriously, you may ask, "How on earth can she forget to wear makeup to the biggest day of preschool so far..." but I did! (Probably because it WAS the most important day of preschool so far and I was so stressed! I didn't even notice I'd forgotten until I saw the pictures Mike had taken at the program!) I also forgot something else... At the party Bella's cute mom said, "Ooh we have the cutest pair of black and yellow bee wings at our house, you should borrow them." I then replied, "WINGS! I knew I forgot something!" That is how big of a basket case I was that week! Ahh! Atleast it was a lot of fun, and now it's over! :) Phew, my 1st American preschool program (in which I am not a preschooler) is now behind me! I am totally on my way to becoming a pro at this! ;)

"Shake dem Halloween Bones"

Shake, shake, shake dem bones now,
Shake, shake, shake dem bones now,
Shake, shake, shake dem bones...
At the Hip Hop Halloween Ball!

Even I have been bored with my blog lately so I decided to post some of my favorite activities we've done at preschool. I do realize that some of you may say, "This is even MORE boring" but oh well...my life IS preschool (and school) so...this is the best I can do!

First of all I thought I'd show you all my favorite preschool Halloween books...or at least ones I have something to say about.




The top one is We're Off to Find the Witch's House. This book is so cute and the kids love it. I highly recommend it for your kids. :) It has really cute illustration. It has sort of a sing-songy rhythm to it. We thought about even making it into one of our Halloween songs because it's really cute. Sortof like "We're goin on a bear hunt" or something. It's extra cute.

The one on the left is The Teeny Tiny Ghost. So cute!

The middle one is Bears in the Night. It's not necessarily a "Halloween book" but it is my favorite kids' book of all time! So cute and fun. It's great with teaching--up, down, around, through, in, out, etc. It was also my favorite to read to the kids in China. They LOVED it and even with their little English (very little), they somehow memorized it and LOVED it! We would use it in "drama time" and act it out. It was such a blast. After reading it a few times in preschool this year we acted it out too. The kids were just screaming and laughing with excitement and loved it! I LOVE this book! Awesome for even really little kids, and great for learning to read!

The book on the right is Shake dem Halloween Bones. Wow...this book was different! I bought it in a set of 2 out of the Scholastic book order. The other book that came with it was Skeleton Hiccups and that book was...just lame. But this book was...WOW. The kids picked it for me to read and I opened it up (never having looked through it before) and began to read. Little did I know that the book would end up reading like a rap. Seriously. It has all the cute classic characters in it like Jack (and the beanstock), Cinderella, Tom Thumb, Snow White, etc. It was just so different though! :) I decided to go with it and read it like a rap once I got the rhythm. The kids all had these looks on their faces like "What one EARTH?!" I read it to Spencer later (warning him before hand that it was the weirdest book I'd ever read). He loved it, and always talks about it. He thought it was crazy too though! He's so funny! Anyway, the italicized words at the beginning of the post are from this book. :)

This next picture is of one of the projects that we did at the beginning of the year during our "Pet Theme." It's pretty ugly...but the kids loved it! My sister, Stephanie gave me the idea because she does this with her preschool and they love it too!

We just took socks (each kid brought their own, any size, any color), and stuffed them with batting. Then we cut off the end and added a string mouth, pom-pom nose, and googly eyes. Then I just cut triangles out of paper and folded them and we glued them on for the ears. The kids ADORED their new "pets." Next year I think I'll give them the option of pointed ears or hang down ears (like dog ears). Then it'd be more like a dog or a cat or something. Nonetheless Chief absolutely loved the sock "pet" I brought home for him! ;)

We did this next one at the beginning of Autumn when we were talking about the leaves falling from the trees.

Miss Leslie was the one who had this idea, she teaches the morning 4-5 year old class (I teach the afternoon). Leslie just bought small fall colored puzzles at the dollar store (these pieces looked like they would've come from like a Monet type puzzle and were the PERFECT colors). I was so surprised with how cute this turned out! If you click on the image you should be able to view it full-sized!

This last one the kids just LOVED. Leslie gave me the cute scarecrow outline, but the pumpkin idea I got from www.kidssoup.com thank you to my sister Stephanie.




We painted the scarecrows and then glued on these cute patches of fabric. We then glued the scarecrows on a popsicle stick and stuck the stick into the mini pumpkins. The kids were SO excited about having their very own pumpkins that they could take home and keep. I told them that they could keep the scarecrow part forever and use it as a decorations every year if their parents wanted them to. I also told them that after a while the kids would have to throw out their pumpkin because it would get rotten. That part may not have stuck with some of them because they informed me that they were going to name their pumpkin and keep it forever. I kept trying to explain that it would even start to stink but one little girl insisted that would be okay and that her mom would let her keep it anyway. :) We'll see how that conversation goes between her and her mom. :)

Well that's all I have for now. I am sure there'll be more to come later! :)

"Here We Are Together"

Here we are together, together, together
Oh here we are together on our preschool day!
There's Jacob and Austin and Isabella and Patience,
Oh here we are together on our preschool day!

I thought I'd give you all an update on how preschool is going since I haven't really written anything about it since the school year started. The first week was pretty rough. Unfortunately I got hecka sick right around Labor Day (which was one day before BYU started and two days before preschool started) so that was a bad way to start my week. It seemed like just your average head cold but quickly moved into my chest and I still have a horrible hacking cough that I just cannot get rid of! That made teaching really tough because I am the one who's supposed to be talking the whole time. Needless to say at the end of each preschool day I am pretty dang beat!

I started out with only four kids in my class (as listed above). I thought that'd make things easier--less to deal with--but it actually made things worse. It seems as though with so few kids in the class there was a lot less interaction and I was just scrambling to keep the kids in control and keep them interested. I was struggling a lot that first week and was really not enjoying it much at all.

Week two things got a bit better. My cute neighbor girl Ashley started coming (she was enrolled before but was out of town) and honestly just that one extra little kid made all the difference. I mean maybe I was getting more used to it also, but whatever it was, week 2 was MUCH better. I am actually really enjoying it. The kids are ADORABLE! At first I was really struggling especially with one little girl, Patience. She could not sit still and it wasn't just that she was bored or badly behaved, she just honestly COULD NOT do it. That was really difficult and I found my self getting so frustrated I wanted to scream at the poor child. But as time has progressed things have gotten a lot better. I absolutely adore her now. She is sooo sweet and is always looking out for me. I know it's only been a week since I had been wanting to scream, but a lot has changed. She is actually doing a lot better but I have learned to cope with it better too. I have to change my teaching technique with these kids a lot. They aren't too fond of singing which has always been my fall back with nursery or with my kids in China so that is really hard on me. So that has had to change and I've cut back A LOT on songs, but at the same time I think they are enjoying songs a little more too!

Starting next week our numbers are going to jump up to seven and I am so excited! We are getting two new little girls. One, Kate, is in my ward. I don't really know her but her mom, Ginger is in my recipe group. Ginger is awesome. Her husband is one of Mike's counselors in the Elder's Quorum presidency and I've heard great things about Kate. Her former primary teacher says she is just the sweetest and I am really excited to have her in my class.

The other little girl who will be joining our class is named Kai Ping. Yes, you guessed it, she's Chinese! I am so excited to have her in the class (for obvious reasons), she is just adorable! I am very impartial to little Chinese kids, they just steal my heart. I am sure she'll be one of the same. She and her mom came to watch one of my classes and see how she does with it and she was great! She is so smart and knows all the answers. Her mom said she also loves to sing which is something I could definitely use in my class. She was adopted from China when she was 2. Apparently she has spent most of her childhood in hospitals. I don't know the details but her mom told me that she knew she needed to get her in preschool when Kai Ping came to her one day and said, "I don't go to school, I go to the doctor."

Anyway, I am really excited to have these two new little girls in our class and I am really enjoying teaching! I hope I continue to enjoy it! :)

I'll tell you just one short story about preschool. The other day during big play time (when all the kids either go outside or play with the big toys inside all together) it was raining and the kids were playing with the cars inside on this big rug with roads and towns, etc. The kids were really into it and were paying absolutely no attention to me and all the sudden I just felt SO sick. It hit so suddenly and I KNEW I need to RUN as fast as I could to the bathroom. A few days ago I had forgotten to get the water for snack time and had told the kids I was just going to run into the kitchen (the next room) and get water. I told them to be good. I was gone for all of 30 seconds and when I came back it was COMPLETE chaos. So as there were playing so well together and I knew if I didn't run to the restroom immediately I'd be in trouble, I thought I'd be better off to sneak out and thought they'd never notice. I quickly ran and locked the door to the outside so no one could come in or out and then escaped to the restroom. I had been in there only about 30 seconds when I heard Patience coming out the door shouting, "MISS HEATHER??! MISS HEATHER??!" I yelled to her and told her I was in the bathroom and she came to the door and told me she was afraid I had left them. (She is SO sweet and is ALWAYS looking out for me.) She told me she didn't want me to leave. I promised her I wouldn't leave them and that I'd be back in just a minute. She went back into the room and shortly after that I heard little footsteps coming to the bathroom again and a little rustling outside the door but no one said anything. I said, "Patience is that you?" Then a little (very upset) voice replied, "No, it's just me." I said, "Jacob?" He gave a little whimper and replied, "Yes." I asked what was wrong and he whimpered a little more and said, "Nothing." I told him I'd be right out. When I opened the door his tear streaked face just looked at me. I gave him a hug and asked what was wrong and he replied, "I just wanted you to come back!" Aww. So sweet.

I truly adore these kids.

"ABC's"

A-B-C-D-E-F-G
H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P
Q-R-S, T-U-V,
W-X, Y and Z
Now I know my ABC's
Next time won't you sing with me?

Today was our first of two open houses for the preschool. It's pretty much for anyone who wants to just come and check out the preschool and see if they'd be interested in signing up, and also for those who are already signed up so they can come and meet the teacher and get their new school bag, etc. If anyone reading this is looking for a preschool for their little one age 3 or 4, feel free to come check us out next Monday from 10-12. You can visit our website for details at www.whispercreekpreschool.com.

The open house was fun and it actually went a lot more smoothly than I had expected it to. When the first mom and kid came in it was just really awkward and I thought there was no way that she'd sign her kid up, but by the time she left he was all signed up and ready for school! We only had I think 5 kids and families come in today. We had Dalton, Keyan, Cash, Hailey, and I don't remember the name of the last one...

Keyan and Cash were really shy. Keyan was absolutely adorable and clung to his Dad like crazy. He seems like the sweetest kid! Cash's mom expressed a concern about him doing well in preschool because he is so shy. When I heard that I took it as a challenge and while she spoke with Miss Terri (my boss), I went straight to Cash and his older brother Conner and started up a game of Memory with them. I had Cash talking to me in no time. Not a whole lot, but talking nonetheless, and having a lot of fun too. He was laughing and having a great time. I really hope she signs him up and not only signs him up but puts him in the afternoon class (my class). I would really love to help bring him out of his shell.

Hailey was a cutie too and was shy as well, but not as much as the boys. Unfortunately she's only 3 so isn't old enough to be in my class. When she is old enough (if I'm still there) she'll probably be in Miss Leslie's class because they're neighbors. Speaking of Miss Leslie, I met her for the first time today. She was so cute and I think we'll get along great! I am really excited to be working with her and learning more from her and Miss Terri about teaching.

Lastly, Dalton. (First of all I must say I love that name! I have thought of a lot of girl names that if we had a baby I'd like to name her however no boy names have stuck with me until today I just love Dalton! Those of you reading this had better not steal that name from me although it may be quite a while until we are able to use it for ourselves.) He was the first one there and was so adorably cute! He loved looking at the fish and wanted to stay by him most of the time! :) He was so sharp and observant! He's only 3 so he'll be in Miss Terri's class (bummer!) but maybe if I'm still around next year I'll get him! :) Anyway, we finally got him pulled away from the fish and he cooked me an egg in the oven (at our little play kitchen) and game me some lemonade to drink. Then we played blocks. While we were playing blocks I asked him what we were making. He told me we were building a temple. :) I wasn't sure if I had heard him right and said, "We're building a what?" He replied, "It's a temple. And when we're done, we're going to go inside. Then I can marry you!" Ooh melt my heart! He was SOOO adorable!

"Working Girl"

by Dolly Parton

She's a mother and wife
and she's proud to be
A working girl I am officially employed...or at least I will be starting September 3. I am going to be a preschool teacher at this preschool here in town. It's even closer to home than my last job so it's perfect. It's an in home preschool run by this really nice woman in her late 40's. She has been doing it for many years now and I've heard rave reviews about the preschool. My friend Rachele said that she had talked to Terri (the woman who runs the preschool out of her home) about getting her son Lincoln into the preschool but she ended up not being able to afford it. That is when the woman said that she could work there and enroll him for free. It ended up not working for Rachele but my friend Nicole kept talking about how her son Jacob goes there and how she loves it. So I asked for Terri's number and called and left a message telling her I had heard that there was an opening and if there still was one I'd be very interested. I was pretty proud of myself for taking that initiative. Rachele had turned down the position about a month ago so I was afraid that it'd be filled already but it wasn't! So starting September 3rd I'll be working Monday, Wednesday and Friday teaching the older preschool class which works out perfectly because I'll be going to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays! My friend Nicole's adorable son Jacob is going to be in my class too so I am totally excited about it. I am nervous, but I can't wait. I really miss working with kids since China. I miss my China kids SO much!