Bugs At Preschool

Well, this last week was my third go-round as teacher for Celeste's cooperative preschool. I hate to say this (especially as a current Primary president), but teaching young kids really wears me out sometimes! The other five weeks of the preschool rotation are fine; however, every time my week is coming up, I find myself breaking out in a sweat and stressing for days about how to keep four to six little kids educated/entertained for two and a half hours.

Of course, when preschool comes & goes, life turns out just fine. This last week was easier than usual, too, since the second day of the week was a FIELD TRIP! Hooray...only one lesson plan to develop! Our theme for the week was "Bugs", which was fun for me to brainstorm, because talking about bugs with little kids is fun & can give them the willies. We watched a little of my Planet Earth videos (including segments on locusts & glowworms; yum), read a couple of bug fact books from the library, and design our own "bug" pillowcases, thanks to some fabric paint and some insect stamps (we did something like this at Lorelai's birthday party in August).

After that we ate my special "spider" treats that I made for the occasion:

Okay, I got this idea from the curriculum paperwork I was given. Unfortunately, I am not so great at making kids' treats look particularly cutesy. The "spiders" look a little avant-garde and more than a little legless. Oh well, the kids enjoyed them (although they liked the Gummi Worms more).

Aren't they all so cute? The biggest tragedy this week is that two of our six kids went missing; there are a lot of colds going around. Of course, only having six kids meant I wasn't quite so freaked out when supervising the pillowcase painting, so that was a silver lining for me.

On Thursday, a few of us took the kids to Tucson's International Wildlife Museum. For you BYU alumni, it feels quite a bit like the Bean Life Science Museum, in that it's a museum with lots and lots of stuffed/taxidermied animals in various dramatic poses, accompanied by a heaping dose of nature & preservation. The twist with the Wildlife Museum is that it's run by the Safari Club Foundation, a very pro-hunting organization. You walk around & look at all the heads and wonder how many of these animals were gunned down on some safari?

Oh well, I enjoy me some lifelike dioramas, so this museum is a-okay by me! In keeping with the "bug" theme, the museum's first room is dedicated to insects. It has many wall cases of rare butterflies, and it even has several live specimens, including a tarantula & several hissing cockroaches. Eew.

Anyway, the kids all enjoyed themselves, then afterwards had a snack in the dining area...

...and then took a few joyrides in strollers before it was time to head off. As preschool weeks go, it wasn't half bad.