Wow, it's been a while!
Sorry for the delay everyone. With meetings happening on Fridays, I've been struggling to update the blog on a weekly basis.
This past week we started out Gingerbread Man unit. We have been reading lots of different versions of the "Gingerbread Man" and talking about how each book is the same or different from the others we've read. The kids really like picking up on the differences!
We even made our own "gingerbread man" stories which went home this week. The childred chose a person, animal, monster, etc. that their gingerbread man would run away from and then drew an accompanying picture. Their ideas were hysterical and their pictures were phenomenal!
Here's some examples of who the gingerbread man was running away from...
a monster
an alien
a fox
a pig
a cow
a robot
someone even said ... "me!" which I thought was quite clever!
We also played a gingerbread man themed dice game which the students have been playing for a couple of weeks. It's great to see them starting to yell out the number on the dice without even having to count the dots (that's what we want to see!). Students had to roll the dice, count the dots, then place the correct number of chips onto the corresponding number of gingerbread men. It's a game the kids really enjoy!
We made a little surprise for our families this week during our art project time. The kids are very excited to give you a present this coming week!
We also constructed paper gingerbread houses this week. Kids had a blast gluing on sequins, buttons, pom poms, and painting white snow. It got us thinking about making our real gingerbread houses next week!
Next week we will read a wonderful book by Jan Brett called "The Gingerbread Baby". I have lots of characters printed from the book, so we will have fun acting out the book as we read!
Miss Molly's last day will be Tuesday, December 17th.
December 20th will be my last day with the kiddos and as you come back from vacation, Miss Kate and Miss Mary will be ready to lead our class!
Thanks for reading!
Aleshia Reid
Friday, December 13, 2013
Friday, November 8, 2013
Week of Nov. 3 - Nov. 6
Hi Preschool Family and Friends,
It's been a while! I apologize for the delay in getting something posted here!
Over the past couple of weeks we have been talking about Halloween, Pumpkins, and completing assessments for the fall.
Recent activities include, Pumpkin Seed Counting Books (morning students counted up to five with pumpkin seeds and afternoon students counted up to ten!), self portraits (which I will keep a copy of and send the original home soon), knuckle painting pumpkin patches (afternoon students used their knuckles and orange, brown, and green paint to create their very own pumpkin patch on paper - on display in the classroom!)
Our most recent week at school was spent talking about blocks and shapes. We've been talking about the shapes, circle, square, triangle, and rectangle. We've been counting their sides, using their names in many activities, and even chanting a shape poem at circle.
I'm Suzy Circle! I'm happy as can be.
I go round and round. Can you draw me?
I'm Tommy Triangle. Look at me!
Count my sides ... 1,2,3!
Rickety Rectangle is my name.
My four sides are not the same.
2 are short and 2 are long.
Count my sides, come right along... 1, 2, 3, 4!
Sammy Square is my name.
My four sides are all the same.
Turn me around, I don't care.
I'm always the same, I'm sammy square!
During group time we looked at pictures of block structures and tried to recreate them ourselves. We also sorted blocks according to their shapes. We worked on learning our first names by peicing together name puzzles, then practicing writing our names with paper and pencil.
Get ready to hear some rhymes at home! This week we will focus on one rhyming book and we will do many activities surrounding the book and rhyming! Did you know that rhyming is a very important skill for preschoolers to learn because it will help them to become better readers in Kindergarten and First Grade! I'm excited to lay the foundation in a fun and engaging way. Stay tuned!
Enjoy a random group of pictures from the last couple of weeks below!
Mrs. Reid
Som
e
It's been a while! I apologize for the delay in getting something posted here!
Over the past couple of weeks we have been talking about Halloween, Pumpkins, and completing assessments for the fall.
Recent activities include, Pumpkin Seed Counting Books (morning students counted up to five with pumpkin seeds and afternoon students counted up to ten!), self portraits (which I will keep a copy of and send the original home soon), knuckle painting pumpkin patches (afternoon students used their knuckles and orange, brown, and green paint to create their very own pumpkin patch on paper - on display in the classroom!)
Our most recent week at school was spent talking about blocks and shapes. We've been talking about the shapes, circle, square, triangle, and rectangle. We've been counting their sides, using their names in many activities, and even chanting a shape poem at circle.
I'm Suzy Circle! I'm happy as can be.
I go round and round. Can you draw me?
I'm Tommy Triangle. Look at me!
Count my sides ... 1,2,3!
Rickety Rectangle is my name.
My four sides are not the same.
2 are short and 2 are long.
Count my sides, come right along... 1, 2, 3, 4!
Sammy Square is my name.
My four sides are all the same.
Turn me around, I don't care.
I'm always the same, I'm sammy square!
During group time we looked at pictures of block structures and tried to recreate them ourselves. We also sorted blocks according to their shapes. We worked on learning our first names by peicing together name puzzles, then practicing writing our names with paper and pencil.
Get ready to hear some rhymes at home! This week we will focus on one rhyming book and we will do many activities surrounding the book and rhyming! Did you know that rhyming is a very important skill for preschoolers to learn because it will help them to become better readers in Kindergarten and First Grade! I'm excited to lay the foundation in a fun and engaging way. Stay tuned!
Enjoy a random group of pictures from the last couple of weeks below!
Mrs. Reid
Som
e Friday, October 18, 2013
Week of October 14-18
\\Hello Everyone!
This week was a very busy week in our classroom! We are still learning about Fall and this week we talked about pumpkins!
During circle time the children enjoyed learning our new poem about pumpkins:
Five Little Pumpkins
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said,"Oh my it's getting late!"
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run, let's run!"
The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?"
Then Wooooooooooooo went the wind.
And OUT went the lights.
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.
When we learned this poem we used our fingers to show the ordinal numbers 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.
Our book this week was Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert
Here is a link to the book with some activies you may want to do with your child at home.
http://www.harcourtbooks.com/leafman/
After reading this beautifully illustrated book about a whimsical leaf man who travels wherever the wind blows, we went outside and collected leaves, acorns and other fall items so that the children could create their very own leaf men and women!
Another fun activity during grouptime this week was painting and decorating paperbag pumpkins.The children can't stop looking at their pumpkins and they add a spooky cheeriness to the classroom!
For our art project this week the children made SPOOKY SPIDERS with googly eyes. We talked about how real spiders have eight legs. Each child was asked to count out eight legs for their spiders. The spiders came out really cute and they now adorn our classroom wall!
Our writing center had many visitors this week! Joey's parents donated Halloween paper and Halloween pens and the children really LOVED them.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Fall and Apples - Sept. 30 - Oct. 3
Hey Everyone!
We had a marvelous time this week learning about Fall and apples.
For circle this week, we sang a new song about an apple farmer. It goes like this:
Was a farmer, had a tree
with apples big and red
A-P-P-L-E, A-P-P-L-E, A-P-P-L-E
apples big and red
We stuck the letters for this song in our pocket chart so we could point to them as we sing.
In Group
Time we worked on an apple tree counting game, which helped us quanitify up to five. Each apple tree had a number 1-5 on it and we counted out the corresponding number of apples and placed them on a tree.
We also worked on the first letter of our name by using playdough with letter mats. Preschoolers learned how to roll the dough into little snakes and place them on a letter mat. We used the first letter of our name first, then chose other letters that we were interested in.
We played another counting game which was actually a math story. It went like this:
The squirrel gathered 7 acorns.
He dropped 3.
How many acorns did he have left?
We changed the number 3 to represent many different amounts that the squirrel could drop. We had little acorn pictures which we could move about inside a pocket chart to make for easy counting! I kept telling preschoolers that this is the type of game kindergarteners play! They were quite proud to be playing such an advanced game. For some students this helped with counting, and for others, it helped them to be able to look at a group of objects and rattle off how many in the group there was without even counting. It fit all levels and each child got just what they needed from the lesson.
Brown pain, brown paint and more brown paint was used during Group Time to paint our hallway tree trunks. These tree trunks will stay for the year and change with the seasons. Right now there is one family tree for the AM class and one family tree for the PM class. They are currently displaying fall colored leaves. I wonder what we do with our trees in the winter? Stay tuned!
We tried a new approach to choice time. I am usually a "all areas are open" kind of gal, however I noticed that so many preschoolers are choosing the same choice spot over and over again. I want to develop our skills in all areas and open some new doors. So, this is what we tried. We only opened four centers in the room for the week. They were, Block Area, Art Center, Writing Center, and Math Manipulatives. I was so pleasantly surprised by the amount of constructive play that took place! Usually the Block Area is overrun with the boys in the classroom, but this week, many girls were busily building in block area and soaking up some of the wonderful skills learned in that area of the room. I think we will continue with this new system and see what else develops as a result. Next week, we will choose different centers to have open for the week.
Preschool screening will take place on October 15th, 16th, and 17th at Sunderland Elementary School.
Preschool screening is a time when students are taken out of the classroom to be assessed in the following areas: Large Motor, Fine Motor, Counting, Color Recognition, Other Academic Areas, and Speech. The goal of preschool screening is to find any preschooler needing additional support and to better guide our instruction of each student. I will be out of the classroom on those days as I run a portion of the screening.
Miss Kate is currently working in another area of the building. She will be returning to our classroom, however we are unsure when that will be. In the meantime, parent to teacher communication is always welcomed should your preschooler have any questions or concerns about Kate being out. I know sometimes having a substitute can be difficult on little ones, so please let me know if that seems to be the case in your home. Also, the week of preschool screenings may be particularly difficult as both myself and Kate will be out of the room and their will be two substitutes present. Thanks in advance for your help and understanding as we roll with the punches!
I'm looking forward to continuing our Fall unit next week.
Thanks,
Mrs. Reid
We had a marvelous time this week learning about Fall and apples.
For circle this week, we sang a new song about an apple farmer. It goes like this:
Was a farmer, had a tree
with apples big and red
A-P-P-L-E, A-P-P-L-E, A-P-P-L-E
apples big and red
We stuck the letters for this song in our pocket chart so we could point to them as we sing.
In Group
We also worked on the first letter of our name by using playdough with letter mats. Preschoolers learned how to roll the dough into little snakes and place them on a letter mat. We used the first letter of our name first, then chose other letters that we were interested in.
We played another counting game which was actually a math story. It went like this:
The squirrel gathered 7 acorns.
He dropped 3.
How many acorns did he have left?
We changed the number 3 to represent many different amounts that the squirrel could drop. We had little acorn pictures which we could move about inside a pocket chart to make for easy counting! I kept telling preschoolers that this is the type of game kindergarteners play! They were quite proud to be playing such an advanced game. For some students this helped with counting, and for others, it helped them to be able to look at a group of objects and rattle off how many in the group there was without even counting. It fit all levels and each child got just what they needed from the lesson.
Brown pain, brown paint and more brown paint was used during Group Time to paint our hallway tree trunks. These tree trunks will stay for the year and change with the seasons. Right now there is one family tree for the AM class and one family tree for the PM class. They are currently displaying fall colored leaves. I wonder what we do with our trees in the winter? Stay tuned!
We tried a new approach to choice time. I am usually a "all areas are open" kind of gal, however I noticed that so many preschoolers are choosing the same choice spot over and over again. I want to develop our skills in all areas and open some new doors. So, this is what we tried. We only opened four centers in the room for the week. They were, Block Area, Art Center, Writing Center, and Math Manipulatives. I was so pleasantly surprised by the amount of constructive play that took place! Usually the Block Area is overrun with the boys in the classroom, but this week, many girls were busily building in block area and soaking up some of the wonderful skills learned in that area of the room. I think we will continue with this new system and see what else develops as a result. Next week, we will choose different centers to have open for the week.
Preschool screening will take place on October 15th, 16th, and 17th at Sunderland Elementary School.
Preschool screening is a time when students are taken out of the classroom to be assessed in the following areas: Large Motor, Fine Motor, Counting, Color Recognition, Other Academic Areas, and Speech. The goal of preschool screening is to find any preschooler needing additional support and to better guide our instruction of each student. I will be out of the classroom on those days as I run a portion of the screening.
Miss Kate is currently working in another area of the building. She will be returning to our classroom, however we are unsure when that will be. In the meantime, parent to teacher communication is always welcomed should your preschooler have any questions or concerns about Kate being out. I know sometimes having a substitute can be difficult on little ones, so please let me know if that seems to be the case in your home. Also, the week of preschool screenings may be particularly difficult as both myself and Kate will be out of the room and their will be two substitutes present. Thanks in advance for your help and understanding as we roll with the punches!
I'm looking forward to continuing our Fall unit next week.
Thanks,
Mrs. Reid
Friday, September 27, 2013
Preschoolers are Authors! Sept. 23rd - 30th
This week we sang a mixture of "Hello Neighbor" and "The More We Get Together" during circle. We practiced some bean bag greeting games. Some of the things we incorporated into our bean bag toss were our favorite food, greetings like "good afternoon _________", and our names. We are still getting to know one another so name games help to clear up any name confusion!
I read a book this week called "The Things I Can Do" by Jeff Mack. It's an amazing book about a little boy who is writing a book all about the things he can do. There are some funny illustrations (like the boy wearing underwear on his head) which cracked the kids up! We spent some time talking about authors, books, and how preschoolers ARE authors too! Here is the sequence:
Monday we introduced making books. Preschoolers used the stapler (ever so carefully) to staple three (or more) sheets of full sized white paper together. We talked about how their creation looked like the books we read in our classroom.
Tuesday we talked about the different topics of books. There are books about trains, dinosaurs, monsters, princesses, unicorns, plants, and many, many more. After we discussed this, we set out to think about what our own books would be about. Here are some of the topics kids chose to write about:
Princesses, family, friends, dinosaurs, a field of corn, dinosaur bones, unicorns, roses, candy, trucks, trains, and battles
What an array! So...we made our front covers and "wrote" our titles.
On Wednesday, we remembered what our book was about (preschoolers did so much better at remembering than I thought they would!). Then, we worked on the inside of our books. I taught a mini lesson on drawing people. We talked about how people have a head, body, legs, arms, hands and feet. Then we talked about adding details to our drawings like earrings, a scarf, clothing, etc. After we completed our books, each student was asked to read their book to a teacher.
On Thursday, we read our books for a second time.
Here is the 4-1-1 on bookmaking in preschool. We want preschoolers to see themselves as writers, readers, and illustrators. It builds their confidence, and let's face it...throughout school students are asked to write a lot, and I want them to have confidence and to learn that writing is a creative outlet. I will continue to encourage children to write books about events in their lives, something they seem particularly interested in, something funny that happened in class (like when Mrs. Reid says the wrong words to the circle song). An important aspect of the book making process is just when the kids think they are done...I ask them "Please, read me your book." This one simple sentence can go a LONG way with preschoolers. I never ask kids to tell me about their book or read their words for them. Remember, I want them to think of themselves as writers and readers. I also keep in mind that not all books are stories. Some books are lists, some books are facts about a certain topic, and then yes, some books ARE stories. Watching the children read their books was inspiring, so if you need some sunshine in your life, ask your preschooler to read their book to you! (They are going home next week)
Next week, we will be learning more about Fall.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the weekend!
Mrs. Reid
Monday, September 23, 2013
Finishing Up Introductions; Sept. 16-20
This week we finished introducing all the learning centers of our classroom.
We have Block Area, Puzzle Area, Book Area, Block Center, Dress-Up Center, Easel Center, Art Center, Writing Center (and to be announced later...the Science Center).
Students have learned how to play in centers, put things away in each center, and use the tools of each center carefully and safely. I'm so proud of how much our students have learned already!
We sang:
The More We Get Together:
"The more we get together, together, together
the more we get together the happier we'll be
'cause your friends and my friends
and my friends are your friends
the more we get together
the happier we'll be"
We even learned the American Sign Language signs to go along with the song. Ask your preschooler to sing and sign it to you!
We also learned a bean bag, greeting game for circle this week. It went like this:
"1,2, how do you do?
3,4, great, I'm sure!"
After we say the words, we choose a friend, say their name out loud, and pass them the bean bag. This was a great game to help our morning kiddos with their counting and also taught students about politely saying a friends name before hurling the bean bag their way! I like this game because it helps us learn the names of our new friends too!
We completed a fun art project on Thursday, but I don't want to ruin the surprise for Open House. Our plan is to have some new work for you to take a look at on display during Open House. Open House is on Thursday, September 27th from 6pm - 7pm.
Looking ahead, here are some important dates to keep in mind:
Thursday, September 27th - Open House from 6pm - 7pm
Monday, October 7th - Picture Day
Monday, October 14th - Columbus Day - NO SCHOOL
I am looking forward to the coming week. We will be discussing authors, what they do, and how preschoolers can be authors too! Your preschooler is a writer (even if they write scribbles, letter like symbols, or actual letters) and I hope to inspire them to write their own books throughout the year. We will begin our introduction to book making in the next week.
Excitedly,
Mrs. Reid
We have Block Area, Puzzle Area, Book Area, Block Center, Dress-Up Center, Easel Center, Art Center, Writing Center (and to be announced later...the Science Center).
Students have learned how to play in centers, put things away in each center, and use the tools of each center carefully and safely. I'm so proud of how much our students have learned already!
We sang:
The More We Get Together:
"The more we get together, together, together
the more we get together the happier we'll be
'cause your friends and my friends
and my friends are your friends
the more we get together
the happier we'll be"
We even learned the American Sign Language signs to go along with the song. Ask your preschooler to sing and sign it to you!
We also learned a bean bag, greeting game for circle this week. It went like this:
"1,2, how do you do?
3,4, great, I'm sure!"
After we say the words, we choose a friend, say their name out loud, and pass them the bean bag. This was a great game to help our morning kiddos with their counting and also taught students about politely saying a friends name before hurling the bean bag their way! I like this game because it helps us learn the names of our new friends too!
We completed a fun art project on Thursday, but I don't want to ruin the surprise for Open House. Our plan is to have some new work for you to take a look at on display during Open House. Open House is on Thursday, September 27th from 6pm - 7pm.
Looking ahead, here are some important dates to keep in mind:
Thursday, September 27th - Open House from 6pm - 7pm
Monday, October 7th - Picture Day
Monday, October 14th - Columbus Day - NO SCHOOL
I am looking forward to the coming week. We will be discussing authors, what they do, and how preschoolers can be authors too! Your preschooler is a writer (even if they write scribbles, letter like symbols, or actual letters) and I hope to inspire them to write their own books throughout the year. We will begin our introduction to book making in the next week.
Excitedly,
Mrs. Reid
Friday, September 13, 2013
First Weeks of School - Sept. 3 - Sept. 12
Welcome to our BlogSpot for the 2013-2014 school year!
I am pleased to announce that the first two weeks of school went great (despite the humidity and slipper floors)! I was so impressed at how efficient and comforting parents were during drop-off. Toward the end of the week I started to see some "third week" behavior as I like to call it. The first week of school was so exciting for your preschooler that you may have thought drop off went better than expected. However, I sometimes see some separation issues begin to develop around week three. Your preschooler knows the routine and expectations and sometimes, this is when they become anxious about leaving mom, dad, or grandparents behind to start the day. I will refer you again to the drop-off tips I sent home over the summer. If you need another copy, I'm happy to round one up for you. Keep reassuring, loving, and separating in the same way you all did during the first week. In a couple of weeks, you will notice that your child is excited, once again to attend school. Keep up the great work, parents!
As for our first couple of weeks... Preschoolers have been busy learning lots of things about our classroom, routines, and procedures. During circle time we have learned songs like:
Hello Neighbor:
Hello Neighbor, what do you say?
We're going to have a wonderful day!
Clap your hands, and boogie on down
stretch up high, and turn around!
_______is Here Today:
________ is here today
________ is here today Turn around and then sit down
________ is here today!
Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee:
Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee
Won't you say your name for me?
Preschoolers also worked on learning how to be safe in Block Area, how to put things away in Dress-Up, how to wash hands before snack time, how to use the tools in Art Center and to put them in the right place when finished, and how to play with puzzles in the Puzzle Area. To help strengthen our little fingers and hands, we worked with playdough during table top choice time at check in and during choice time.
Our kiddos also learned how to safely transport and use scissors, something we will be reviewing many times in the coming months. We made beautiful mosaics by cutting long strips of paper into tiny squares and using liquid glue to glue them onto a black sheet of paper. We introduced math manipulatives during choice time like, counting bears, unifix cubes, and pattern blocks. We introduced drawing with markers and glue sticks as well.
Students learned about water colors on Thursday. We had to learn how to tickle the water with our paint brush, then tickle one color of paint, then tickle the water again and start all over! It's hard work learning something new! We worked to fill up our whole paper with watercolor paint to uncover a secret message. I will hang these up in the classroom soon! As you can see, we've been extremely busy learning about our classroom and all of the fun tools we have to help us learn.
We might not have much "work" to put on display yet, but learning about the room, tools, and how to learn and play together in preschool are all really important skills. When we take the time to deliberately teach these things in the beginning of the year, the rest of our school year progresses with wonderful learning and exploration!
In the coming week, we will aim to learn about our Writing Center and Painting Easel. We will also be introducing a new check in activity for preschoolers to do as soon as they enter the classroom. More to come on that! I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know our new students and working with our returning students as well. I feel energetic and excited for our upcoming lessons!
Important dates to remember:
Wednesday, September 18th from 6:30pm - 8pm: PTO MEETING (Door Prize!)
Thursday, September 26th from 6pm - 7pm: OPEN HOUSE
Monday, October 7th: PICTURE DAY
Enjoy your weekend. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday!
Mrs. Reid
I am pleased to announce that the first two weeks of school went great (despite the humidity and slipper floors)! I was so impressed at how efficient and comforting parents were during drop-off. Toward the end of the week I started to see some "third week" behavior as I like to call it. The first week of school was so exciting for your preschooler that you may have thought drop off went better than expected. However, I sometimes see some separation issues begin to develop around week three. Your preschooler knows the routine and expectations and sometimes, this is when they become anxious about leaving mom, dad, or grandparents behind to start the day. I will refer you again to the drop-off tips I sent home over the summer. If you need another copy, I'm happy to round one up for you. Keep reassuring, loving, and separating in the same way you all did during the first week. In a couple of weeks, you will notice that your child is excited, once again to attend school. Keep up the great work, parents!
As for our first couple of weeks... Preschoolers have been busy learning lots of things about our classroom, routines, and procedures. During circle time we have learned songs like:
Hello Neighbor:
Hello Neighbor, what do you say?
We're going to have a wonderful day!
Clap your hands, and boogie on down
stretch up high, and turn around!
_______is Here Today:
________ is here today
________ is here today Turn around and then sit down
________ is here today!
Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee:
Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee
Won't you say your name for me?
Preschoolers also worked on learning how to be safe in Block Area, how to put things away in Dress-Up, how to wash hands before snack time, how to use the tools in Art Center and to put them in the right place when finished, and how to play with puzzles in the Puzzle Area. To help strengthen our little fingers and hands, we worked with playdough during table top choice time at check in and during choice time.
Our kiddos also learned how to safely transport and use scissors, something we will be reviewing many times in the coming months. We made beautiful mosaics by cutting long strips of paper into tiny squares and using liquid glue to glue them onto a black sheet of paper. We introduced math manipulatives during choice time like, counting bears, unifix cubes, and pattern blocks. We introduced drawing with markers and glue sticks as well.
Students learned about water colors on Thursday. We had to learn how to tickle the water with our paint brush, then tickle one color of paint, then tickle the water again and start all over! It's hard work learning something new! We worked to fill up our whole paper with watercolor paint to uncover a secret message. I will hang these up in the classroom soon! As you can see, we've been extremely busy learning about our classroom and all of the fun tools we have to help us learn.
We might not have much "work" to put on display yet, but learning about the room, tools, and how to learn and play together in preschool are all really important skills. When we take the time to deliberately teach these things in the beginning of the year, the rest of our school year progresses with wonderful learning and exploration!
In the coming week, we will aim to learn about our Writing Center and Painting Easel. We will also be introducing a new check in activity for preschoolers to do as soon as they enter the classroom. More to come on that! I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know our new students and working with our returning students as well. I feel energetic and excited for our upcoming lessons!
Important dates to remember:
Wednesday, September 18th from 6:30pm - 8pm: PTO MEETING (Door Prize!)
Thursday, September 26th from 6pm - 7pm: OPEN HOUSE
Monday, October 7th: PICTURE DAY
Enjoy your weekend. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday!
Mrs. Reid
Thursday, May 30, 2013
May 20th - 24th
What a terrific week! We had so much fun learning a new counting game.
It goes like this...
I throw the ball
you throw the ball
how many times before it falls?
then you proceed to throw a ball back and forth while counting. You stop on the number when the ball is dropped.
Also, we did some fun work with our names this week. A.M students covered the letters of their names with little bits of tissue paper and the afternoon students learned a little about alphabetical order! I know... can you believe we are talking about alphabetical order in preschool?!?! Well really we just thought about the alphabet and organized our names according to it! Not so hard and tons of fun looking at our own names! Preschoolers love that. Not to mention, not only are most preschoolers able to recognize their own names but names of friends as well!
We made a book all about salty pretzels too! It was a great review of counting up to 5 and the kids were thrilled that they could read the book themselves.
Lastly, we worked on constructing our very own Alphabet Big Book! Throughout the next couple of weeks, we will be squeezing in a letter here and there. We started with A and B this week. Here's how it works... we all sit together and I give each students a magazine picture. They identify the picture and we work together to decide if the picture belongs on the letter page. For example apples belonged on the "A" page but fish had to wait for the "F" page. We move quickly and keep it fun!
It goes like this...
I throw the ball
you throw the ball
how many times before it falls?
then you proceed to throw a ball back and forth while counting. You stop on the number when the ball is dropped.
Also, we did some fun work with our names this week. A.M students covered the letters of their names with little bits of tissue paper and the afternoon students learned a little about alphabetical order! I know... can you believe we are talking about alphabetical order in preschool?!?! Well really we just thought about the alphabet and organized our names according to it! Not so hard and tons of fun looking at our own names! Preschoolers love that. Not to mention, not only are most preschoolers able to recognize their own names but names of friends as well!
We made a book all about salty pretzels too! It was a great review of counting up to 5 and the kids were thrilled that they could read the book themselves.
Lastly, we worked on constructing our very own Alphabet Big Book! Throughout the next couple of weeks, we will be squeezing in a letter here and there. We started with A and B this week. Here's how it works... we all sit together and I give each students a magazine picture. They identify the picture and we work together to decide if the picture belongs on the letter page. For example apples belonged on the "A" page but fish had to wait for the "F" page. We move quickly and keep it fun!
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Important Dates and Reminders
As the year winds down I find myself filling up the preschool calendar! Here is a list of important dates ahead:
Thursday, May 30th - Group Class Photo at school
Thursday, June 6th - Tie Dye Activity (please bring a white t-shirt)
Thursday, June 13th - 12:30pm - 1:30pm - AFTERNOON class Send Off Celebration
Tuesday, June 18th - Last Day for AFTERNOON CLASS (regular day of school)
Wednesday, June 19th - Last Day of School 1/2 day with MORNING CLASS ONLY
Let me know if you have any questions about any of these dates.
Thanks,
Aleshia Reid
Thursday, May 30th - Group Class Photo at school
Thursday, June 6th - Tie Dye Activity (please bring a white t-shirt)
Thursday, June 13th - 12:30pm - 1:30pm - AFTERNOON class Send Off Celebration
Tuesday, June 18th - Last Day for AFTERNOON CLASS (regular day of school)
Wednesday, June 19th - Last Day of School 1/2 day with MORNING CLASS ONLY
Let me know if you have any questions about any of these dates.
Thanks,
Aleshia Reid
Monday, May 13, 2013
May 6 - 10
Our Sunderland Community Unit kicked off with some house building with precut shapes. We talked a little about how some people live in apartments, others in condos, and some in houses. We each built our own representation of the space we live in using precut squares, triangles, circles, and rectangles. It was a great shape and color review.
We also talked a bit about the police station in Sunderland. Police officers look for fingerprints at crime scenes, so we thought it would be fun to make our own fingerprint book. It was a great, hand on, counting experience!
Teachers created a life-sized game of Sunderland. It was a bit like candy land but instead of Peppermint Forest there were locations in our game like Sunderland Town Hall, Sunderland Library, The Post Office, Sunderland Elementary School, Frontier Pizza, and Sunderland Police and Fire Station.
Lastly, we talked about the Sunderland Post Office and took a pretend trip to mail a letter. We learned how letters are set up, drew a picture to go with our letter, placed it in an envelope, and even put a stamp on it! So much fun!
We drew another round of self-portraits this week. It was interesting to see the differences from their portraits done in January! Everyone has grown so much!
I’m looking forward to another fun week as we finish up our Sunderland Community Unit.
Mrs. Reid
Monday, May 6, 2013
April 29 - May 3
This week our focus was bugs and underground.
We collected bug outside and drew a representative picture of them. We collected mostly worms and ants, but it was fun to watch them squirm around. The questions we asked ourselves while collecting were: Where did you find the bug? Was it wet or dry? Was it underneath something?
We also took a close look at soil. We learned that soil is made up of dead plants, dead bugs, and small, medium, and large rocks.
Lastly, we worked on our colors by coloring a bug book. Each bug had a different color and the kids enjoyed learning the names of these new bugs.
For our art project on Thursday we made our own underground critters. They were complete with pain, googly eyes, feathers, and sparkles! Quite creative!
We will still continue to talk about bugs over the next week or so, but we are moving on into our Sunderland Community mini unit. We will talk about all the places and things that surround our school.
We learned a new game at Circle Time this week. It was the I have ______, Who has _________? game. Each student was given a card and has to say out loud "I have (the red triangle), Who has the (blue diamond). We go around the circle until all shapes have been named. It was a great review for shapes and colors.
If you visit our classroom, you will notice that we have hung up our Hyacinth paintings and our Seed growth pictures. Check them out! Children did a great job of drawing the changes that their pea plants underwent over the last few weeks.
We will be sending home plants this week. Your child should come home with a flower plant and a pea plant to plant in your yard or to keep going indoors.
We collected bug outside and drew a representative picture of them. We collected mostly worms and ants, but it was fun to watch them squirm around. The questions we asked ourselves while collecting were: Where did you find the bug? Was it wet or dry? Was it underneath something?
We also took a close look at soil. We learned that soil is made up of dead plants, dead bugs, and small, medium, and large rocks.
Lastly, we worked on our colors by coloring a bug book. Each bug had a different color and the kids enjoyed learning the names of these new bugs.
For our art project on Thursday we made our own underground critters. They were complete with pain, googly eyes, feathers, and sparkles! Quite creative!
We will still continue to talk about bugs over the next week or so, but we are moving on into our Sunderland Community mini unit. We will talk about all the places and things that surround our school.
We learned a new game at Circle Time this week. It was the I have ______, Who has _________? game. Each student was given a card and has to say out loud "I have (the red triangle), Who has the (blue diamond). We go around the circle until all shapes have been named. It was a great review for shapes and colors.
If you visit our classroom, you will notice that we have hung up our Hyacinth paintings and our Seed growth pictures. Check them out! Children did a great job of drawing the changes that their pea plants underwent over the last few weeks.
We will be sending home plants this week. Your child should come home with a flower plant and a pea plant to plant in your yard or to keep going indoors.
Monday, April 29, 2013
April 22 - 26; Welcome Back Week!
This week, we eased back into our normal school day routine.
We finished up our seed counting books and created a new book about shapes!
The shape book was a great reveiw for our afternoon group and help some of our morning group learn some new colors and shapes.
We completed our second plant observation this week. Our pea plants are growing, growing, growing. We talked about how they have changed over time and now have two drawings to track the changes.
Our upcomming unit is bugs and underground so we've been reading some fun stories that have bugs as the characters. During group time, the bug math manipulatives were a huge hit. We counted them, sorted them, matched them, and created patterns with them.
Check in activities included some bug puzzles, rubber worm sorting, and legos. Next week we will dive into our underground and bug unit a little deeper, literally!
We finished up our seed counting books and created a new book about shapes!
The shape book was a great reveiw for our afternoon group and help some of our morning group learn some new colors and shapes.
We completed our second plant observation this week. Our pea plants are growing, growing, growing. We talked about how they have changed over time and now have two drawings to track the changes.
Our upcomming unit is bugs and underground so we've been reading some fun stories that have bugs as the characters. During group time, the bug math manipulatives were a huge hit. We counted them, sorted them, matched them, and created patterns with them.
Check in activities included some bug puzzles, rubber worm sorting, and legos. Next week we will dive into our underground and bug unit a little deeper, literally!
Friday, April 12, 2013
April 8 - 12
Sorry I missed posting about last week!
This week, we continued talking about spring, plants, and seeds.
We reviewed the life cycle of a plant and children cut out their own life cycle pictures to glue in order on a colorful sheet of paper. The key words we learned were:
Seed
Seedling
Flower
Fruit
seeding
We practiced our counting by counting pumpkin seeds. This helped us with our number recognition as each number was printed on the page. We will put our books together this week, so you can look forward to reading them at home with your little one.
Preschool scientists recorded their very first observation this week. They observed their bean plant and drew a representative picture to accompany their actual plant. We will continue this weekly for a few weeks to chart the growth and change in our plants.
On Thursday, the morning class made flower prints for Art's Night. I cut some of the (many) toilet paper rolls we received as donations into various patterns. Cutting one side allowed us to use them like stamps.
Five Little Speckled Frogs has been our most recent song. You can look it up on YouTube if you're inclined to learn the beat. I'm sure if you ask however, you preschooler could sing the whole thing for you!
Five little speckled frogs
sat on a great big log
eating the most delicious bugs
Yum, Yum
One frog jumped in the pool
where it was nice and cool
Now there are four speckled frogs
Croak, Croak
...and so on!
Thank you to the many parents who were so helpful during Art's Night. I appreciated the timely drop off and pick up of your preschoolers, along with your enthusiasm and participation. It was a great show and the kids
did a spectacular job! They really stole the show!
Next week we will start our underground and bug unit! Creepy, crawling, crazy, goodness awaits us!
Mrs. Reid
This week, we continued talking about spring, plants, and seeds.
We reviewed the life cycle of a plant and children cut out their own life cycle pictures to glue in order on a colorful sheet of paper. The key words we learned were:
Seed
Seedling
Flower
Fruit
seeding
We practiced our counting by counting pumpkin seeds. This helped us with our number recognition as each number was printed on the page. We will put our books together this week, so you can look forward to reading them at home with your little one.
Preschool scientists recorded their very first observation this week. They observed their bean plant and drew a representative picture to accompany their actual plant. We will continue this weekly for a few weeks to chart the growth and change in our plants.
On Thursday, the morning class made flower prints for Art's Night. I cut some of the (many) toilet paper rolls we received as donations into various patterns. Cutting one side allowed us to use them like stamps.
Five Little Speckled Frogs has been our most recent song. You can look it up on YouTube if you're inclined to learn the beat. I'm sure if you ask however, you preschooler could sing the whole thing for you!
Five little speckled frogs
sat on a great big log
eating the most delicious bugs
Yum, Yum
One frog jumped in the pool
where it was nice and cool
Now there are four speckled frogs
Croak, Croak
...and so on!
Thank you to the many parents who were so helpful during Art's Night. I appreciated the timely drop off and pick up of your preschoolers, along with your enthusiasm and participation. It was a great show and the kids
did a spectacular job! They really stole the show!
Next week we will start our underground and bug unit! Creepy, crawling, crazy, goodness awaits us!
Mrs. Reid
Monday, April 1, 2013
March 25 - 28
Time is flying! I can't believe this is the last week of March!
Reminder: April 11th is Arts Night
This week, we continued our spring theme and began to talk more in depth about seeds and plants. We graphed how we thought watermelon grow. We then looked at some pictures of watermelons growing (on a vine of course) and watched a science discovery video about how watermelons grow.
We even learned the song “Down by the Bay”
Down by the bay
Where the watermelon grow
Back to my home, I dare not go
For if I do, my mother will say
Have you ever seen _____________________
Down by the bay!
You can fill in the blank with some cute rhymes like: A fly wearing a tie, A llama wearing pajamas, A bear combing his hair, or a whale with a polka dot tail!
We also had a blast sorting seeds! We had some cucumber seeds, yellow bean seeds, green bean seeds, and squash seeds to sort. Each student sorted their seeds (most by color) then glued them onto a sorting paper.
Planting was the real treat this week. We planted some pea plants and some flowers. We talked about what plants need to grow (sunlight, water, warmth, and soil).
The A.M students wrapped up our latest bird discussion with a painting activity. We learned how birds are ma ny different colors but that most of the birds in our area are white, black, brown and variations of those colors. We then set off to paint a wooden bird these colors.
No birds in our window bird house yet. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
The P.M students painted flower pots on Thursday as our art project. They love to paint things that have another purpose. We will plant in them soon and watch our plants grow.
I want to thank the many parents and grandparents who donated to our seed and plant unit. It feels so nice to have so many supportive adults willing to enhance our preschool program! All of the soil, seeds, pots, and wooden birds were wonderful products of generous families. Thanks again!
Onward to next week, a continuum of our spring unit. Hopefully we'll get some SPRING weather too!
Mrs. Reid
Monday, March 25, 2013
Arts Night - April 11th
Arts Night – April 11th
Arts Night
will take place on Thursday, April 11th.
Arts Night is a school wide event that happens in the evening at 6pm. It will showcase Grade K – 6 artwork
and will include a school wide musical performance. This year, The Afternoon Preschool
class will be singing on stage with the Kindergarten class. Because this is an
after school event, your preschool aged son or daughter has the option of
participating. Students participating are often encouraged to arrive at 5:30pm.
Both Mrs.
Reid and Miss Kate will be present before the show to help your son or daughter
into place and help to guide them onto the stage while you enjoy the show as
part of the audience. After the musical performance, students will return to
their classrooms where you will need to pick them up and sign them out. This is
important so that we know each child has left our classroom with the
appropriate adult. I appreciate your help in refraining from taking your child
directly from the gymnasium.
The A.M
students will not be participating in the musical performance.
Last but not
least, Mr. Hines (our music teacher and leader of this wonderful night) has
requested that children participating in the performance try their best to wear
bright, spring time colors.
Please let
me know if you have any questions or concerns.
The
afternoon class has been practicing their Spanish song during music class and I
hope you are able to come enjoy their work!
Thank you,
Mrs. Reid
March 18th - 22nd Short Week!
Hi everyone! This week felt like a fast one! We began our Spring unit this week (casually
We started our week off with a fun little science experiment. The Preschool Scientist are wondering... WHAT makes a peep dissolve? We graphed our predictions onto some chart paper and this is what we think...
Water: Sage, Eloise
Juice: Jack, Sean K.
Vinegar: Charlotte, Faline
Soda: Sean H., Michael, Omar
Laundry Detergent: Tessa, Aurora, McClellan, Benjamin, Caleb, Sam
I thought that overnight we would have our answer, but I guess peeps are more indestructible than I thought! We have left them all week, and there's only a slight sign of ONE peep beginning to dissolve The scientist will check back in on Monday when (hopefully) we'll have our answer! Not exactly "spring" oriented, but it's preschool after all and we need to have some fun!
We continued to work on our letter identification, number identification, and handwriting this week. The P.M class is really gearing up for Kindergarten. They have been taking responsibility for their own number packets by getting them from their baskets at the beginning of group time and putting them away in their baskets after we're done. Impressive!
I brought in a birds nest I found in my garage along with a three sided bird house (brought to you by the fine craftsmanship of Mr. Reid!). We began talking about birds. My hope is to mount this three sided bird house onto the window so we can get an up-close view of the bird(s) inside! We have started discussing what we already know about birds and what we would like to find out by watching.
We made some tulips as part of our art project on Thursday. We will hang our beautiful tulips along with some rain drops out in the hallway on our seasons bulletin board.
Looking forward to some spring time weather.
Mrs. Reid
We started our week off with a fun little science experiment. The Preschool Scientist are wondering... WHAT makes a peep dissolve? We graphed our predictions onto some chart paper and this is what we think...
Water: Sage, Eloise
Juice: Jack, Sean K.
Vinegar: Charlotte, Faline
Soda: Sean H., Michael, Omar
Laundry Detergent: Tessa, Aurora, McClellan, Benjamin, Caleb, Sam
I thought that overnight we would have our answer, but I guess peeps are more indestructible than I thought! We have left them all week, and there's only a slight sign of ONE peep beginning to dissolve The scientist will check back in on Monday when (hopefully) we'll have our answer! Not exactly "spring" oriented, but it's preschool after all and we need to have some fun!
We continued to work on our letter identification, number identification, and handwriting this week. The P.M class is really gearing up for Kindergarten. They have been taking responsibility for their own number packets by getting them from their baskets at the beginning of group time and putting them away in their baskets after we're done. Impressive!
I brought in a birds nest I found in my garage along with a three sided bird house (brought to you by the fine craftsmanship of Mr. Reid!). We began talking about birds. My hope is to mount this three sided bird house onto the window so we can get an up-close view of the bird(s) inside! We have started discussing what we already know about birds and what we would like to find out by watching.
We made some tulips as part of our art project on Thursday. We will hang our beautiful tulips along with some rain drops out in the hallway on our seasons bulletin board.
Looking forward to some spring time weather.
Mrs. Reid
Monday, March 18, 2013
March 11th - 15th - Eric Carle
We continued to talk about Eric Carle's books this week. We moved on from out favorite "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and read his other books, "The Mixed Up Chameleon", "Mister Sea Horse", and "10 Rubber Duckies". We graphed our favorite book at the end of our Eric Carle author study and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" took the cake!
After hearing "The Mixed Up Chameleon" we watched a video in the library about camouflage. Kids saw many different animals that use camouflage to blend in to their environment. Once back in our classroom, children took their own Mixed Up Chameleon (an overhead, clear peice of paper with a chameleon print) around the room to change it's color and make it blend in. They took their scientist job very seriously as the graphed how many times their chameleon turned red, blue, green, orange, or yellow. We talked about which color they turned the most and which color they turned the least.
We continued to discover what camouflage meant when we did yet another science experiment. We tried to make a colored bingo chip blend into water by adding colored water to our chip with an eye dropper. I think teachers down the hall could here "My chip is camouflage!!!!". Great fun!
After reading "10 Rubber Duckies" the scientist tried their hands at some duck counting. Using stamps, preschoolers learned number recognition by counting their ducks and stamping them with the corresponding number stamp.
We also worked on letter recognition, formation of letters, number recognition, and number formation this week with our Handwriting Without Tears program. A.M students worked on letters, while the P.M students (who already know almost all of their letters) worked on numbers.
On Thursday, we read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?". Although it is not an Eric Carle book, he did illustrate it! After hearing the book read aloud, I asked the students to place blobs of paint onto a white piece of paper. We folded the paper in half to turn our small blobs of paint into one giant blob, the I asked students the million dollar question - "Preschoolers, Preschoolers, What Do You See?" Teachers then recorded their answers onto their art work. We hung them on the wall for visitors to see.
I sent out an email as our upcomming unit of study will be seeds and plants. Here are some things I am looking for if you happen to have them at home and are willing to donate:
- Toilet paper rolls
- Paper towell rolls
- small terracotta plants
-potting soil
Looking forward to a fun week in preschool talking about spring (although the impending snow storm makes me second guess this - BUT Wednesday is the first day of spring, so onward!)
Mrs. Reid
After hearing "The Mixed Up Chameleon" we watched a video in the library about camouflage. Kids saw many different animals that use camouflage to blend in to their environment. Once back in our classroom, children took their own Mixed Up Chameleon (an overhead, clear peice of paper with a chameleon print) around the room to change it's color and make it blend in. They took their scientist job very seriously as the graphed how many times their chameleon turned red, blue, green, orange, or yellow. We talked about which color they turned the most and which color they turned the least.
We continued to discover what camouflage meant when we did yet another science experiment. We tried to make a colored bingo chip blend into water by adding colored water to our chip with an eye dropper. I think teachers down the hall could here "My chip is camouflage!!!!". Great fun!
After reading "10 Rubber Duckies" the scientist tried their hands at some duck counting. Using stamps, preschoolers learned number recognition by counting their ducks and stamping them with the corresponding number stamp.
We also worked on letter recognition, formation of letters, number recognition, and number formation this week with our Handwriting Without Tears program. A.M students worked on letters, while the P.M students (who already know almost all of their letters) worked on numbers.
On Thursday, we read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?". Although it is not an Eric Carle book, he did illustrate it! After hearing the book read aloud, I asked the students to place blobs of paint onto a white piece of paper. We folded the paper in half to turn our small blobs of paint into one giant blob, the I asked students the million dollar question - "Preschoolers, Preschoolers, What Do You See?" Teachers then recorded their answers onto their art work. We hung them on the wall for visitors to see.
I sent out an email as our upcomming unit of study will be seeds and plants. Here are some things I am looking for if you happen to have them at home and are willing to donate:
- Toilet paper rolls
- Paper towell rolls
- small terracotta plants
-potting soil
Looking forward to a fun week in preschool talking about spring (although the impending snow storm makes me second guess this - BUT Wednesday is the first day of spring, so onward!)
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Notice - Optional Parent Teacher Conferences
Hi Preschool Families,
This post is a follow-up to a notice that went home in Communication Folders this week. Sunderland Elementary School is holding optional parent/ teacher conferences on Thursday, April 4th from 12:00 noon to 3:15pm and Friday, April 5th from 12:00 noon to 3:15pm.You do not need to fee obligated to sign up for a conference, especially if you do not have concerns about your preschoolers progress. On the other hand, I'm happy to meet with any parent during these conference times if wanted. You may email me to set up a conference or request one in person during drop off or pick up.
Thank you,
Aleshia Reid
This post is a follow-up to a notice that went home in Communication Folders this week. Sunderland Elementary School is holding optional parent/ teacher conferences on Thursday, April 4th from 12:00 noon to 3:15pm and Friday, April 5th from 12:00 noon to 3:15pm.You do not need to fee obligated to sign up for a conference, especially if you do not have concerns about your preschoolers progress. On the other hand, I'm happy to meet with any parent during these conference times if wanted. You may email me to set up a conference or request one in person during drop off or pick up.
Thank you,
Aleshia Reid
Thursday, March 7, 2013
March 4 - 8; Eric Carle's Hungry Caterpillar
It felt so nice to have one strong focus point this week. We studied Eric Carle's book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". There were new things we learned each time we read the book. We worked on sequencing the items the hungry caterpillar ate and discussed the life stages of a caterpillar. First the egg, then the caterpillar, then he gets fat, makes a cocoon, and then at the end, turns into a beautiful butterfly.
Some Eric Carle inspired activities we did this week were:
Each child filled in with "writing" what their hungry caterpillar might eat. Then drew a picture to accompany. We will have this book for you next week (except if we have a snowday friday!). We'll keep it near the fish, so you can find your child's page and check it out.
We did some caterpillar math. Some students used round counters while other used circle stickers to count. There were numbers in front of our caterpillars then corresponding circle outlines. Kids practiced counting the circles then took a look at the number. I'm hoping the afternoon class learned some number recognition in the process and for the morning class, they just solidified their counting skills.
We practiced writing our names on our very own constuction paper hungry caterpillar cut out. For the morning class, many of them are just beginning to independently write their names (some letters might need a creative eye to be seen!) and some of them are still practicing with hand over hand help (a teacher places their hand over the childs hand to help them form muscle memory of how the letters of their name are formed). We will hang them up on the wall for parents to see.
Using pictures of the foods the caterpillar ate, we worked in groups to sequence the book. For example, the caterpillar ate one apple first, then two pears, then three plums, four strawberries, five oranges, then a whole bunch of sweets, and finally a leaf to settle his stomach.
We also used our finger prints to make a hungry caterpillar. We then found pictures of food to glue next to our caterpillar to show what he might eat.
Next week, we will continue to look at some Eric Carle books and sequence a variety of stories.
Mrs. Reid
Some Eric Carle inspired activities we did this week were:
We did some caterpillar math. Some students used round counters while other used circle stickers to count. There were numbers in front of our caterpillars then corresponding circle outlines. Kids practiced counting the circles then took a look at the number. I'm hoping the afternoon class learned some number recognition in the process and for the morning class, they just solidified their counting skills.
Mrs. Reid
Monday, March 4, 2013
Feb. 25 - 28 Dr. Seuss Week!
We celebrated Dr. Seuss this week! One thing I love about Dr. Seuss is his creativity and imagination. His books and ideas lend themselves to many fun preschool activities. Some things we did this week were:
Making our wonderful Cat in the Hat hats. This was a great opportunity for children to practice painting a red and white patterm, just like the Cat!
We also measured truffula trees! There were some that were tall and some that were small. We used rubix cubes to count how many cubes high each of the trees were, then we practiced ordering them from largest to smallest.
The morning class worked on color matching after we red the book "Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss. They are getting quite good at matching, so we played a memory game using colored fish!
At snack time, we graphed colored goldfish for snack. I was so impressed with preschoolers as they sorted, graphed, and counted their goldfish before eating them!
Afternoon students worked on rhyming words by producing words that rhyme with "cat". Teachers recorded ideas onto a hat cut out and the kids colored them however they liked. Rhyming is an important early literacy skill and it's great to see the kids getting excited about it.
On Thursday, we made Dr. Seuss's Oobleck! We mixed water with cornstarch which makes an oobleck that feels like a solid when squished then feels like a liquid when left to rest.
Next week, we will be beginning a new author study about Eric Carle with particular focus on "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".
Mrs. Reid
We also measured truffula trees! There were some that were tall and some that were small. We used rubix cubes to count how many cubes high each of the trees were, then we practiced ordering them from largest to smallest.
The morning class worked on color matching after we red the book "Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss. They are getting quite good at matching, so we played a memory game using colored fish!
At snack time, we graphed colored goldfish for snack. I was so impressed with preschoolers as they sorted, graphed, and counted their goldfish before eating them!
Afternoon students worked on rhyming words by producing words that rhyme with "cat". Teachers recorded ideas onto a hat cut out and the kids colored them however they liked. Rhyming is an important early literacy skill and it's great to see the kids getting excited about it.
On Thursday, we made Dr. Seuss's Oobleck! We mixed water with cornstarch which makes an oobleck that feels like a solid when squished then feels like a liquid when left to rest.
Next week, we will be beginning a new author study about Eric Carle with particular focus on "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".
Mrs. Reid
Monday, February 25, 2013
February 11 -14
Love was in the air during our Valentine's week of school!
We continued our math theme a bit and read many counting books this week. "Ten Rubber Duckies" was a huge hit! Ask your child about the "move over" part. That was their favorite! They love to help Mrs. Reid read.
We decorated our Valentine's Day bags on Monday and Tuesday. We made a cute little dog out of hearts and circles. We also played a game with shape dice. Each child rolled a dice with shapes on it, then picked the corresponding shape out of our pile. We went around in a circle and identified the shapes and colors as we rolled and picked. When everyone had rolled the dice four or five times, we built something with our shapes and glued it onto a peice of paper. Some kids made houses, rocket ships, and part of monsters. Super fun!
We also worked on patterns a little this week. After discussing that a pattern is something that repeats and practicing, we glued red and pink hearts on a strip of paper to make our own patterns. Some patterns were simple AB patterns while others were AABB patterns and even AAB patterns emerged! Smart preschoolers.
We worked on writing some poetry this week. Basically each student thought of two rhyming words and I helped them put it into a (very short) poem and then they drew a picture. This got them thinking about how poems are different from stories and I was pleased to see how many children can produce a rhyme.
The morning class worked on their pencil grip this week. It's an important skill to learn in preschool and one that is not always easy to learn.
Mrs. Reid
We continued our math theme a bit and read many counting books this week. "Ten Rubber Duckies" was a huge hit! Ask your child about the "move over" part. That was their favorite! They love to help Mrs. Reid read.
We decorated our Valentine's Day bags on Monday and Tuesday. We made a cute little dog out of hearts and circles. We also played a game with shape dice. Each child rolled a dice with shapes on it, then picked the corresponding shape out of our pile. We went around in a circle and identified the shapes and colors as we rolled and picked. When everyone had rolled the dice four or five times, we built something with our shapes and glued it onto a peice of paper. Some kids made houses, rocket ships, and part of monsters. Super fun!
We also worked on patterns a little this week. After discussing that a pattern is something that repeats and practicing, we glued red and pink hearts on a strip of paper to make our own patterns. Some patterns were simple AB patterns while others were AABB patterns and even AAB patterns emerged! Smart preschoolers.
We worked on writing some poetry this week. Basically each student thought of two rhyming words and I helped them put it into a (very short) poem and then they drew a picture. This got them thinking about how poems are different from stories and I was pleased to see how many children can produce a rhyme.
The morning class worked on their pencil grip this week. It's an important skill to learn in preschool and one that is not always easy to learn.
Mrs. Reid
Monday, February 11, 2013
February 4 - 8
This week our theme was magical math. We worked on measuring, sorting by size, identifying small, medium, and large, and charted our growth.
We are certainly not ready for regular rulers, so we made our own! To go with our Valentine's Day theme next week, we used rows of hearts to measure various items. Children used rows of hearts to measure how many hearts long an item was. Morning kids worked on counting and afternoon kids drew a picture of each thing they measured then wrote the number of hearts long it was next to it. The product was basically a paper with scribbles and a few random numbers, but hey, it really got the kids thinking about what it means to measure something.
We introduced the new center in our room. It is the Math and Science Center. Because we've been talking so much about measuring, I have placed some measuring tools in a basket there along with a small and large pom pom sort. This center will change throughout the rest of the year to incorporate science and math themes.
We've been singing some counting games during the day as well. A simple one goes like this:
One, two, three, four, five
One, two, three, four, five
One, two, three, four, five
I can count to five!
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten
I can count to ten!
We also learned to sing:
1,2 buckle my shoe
3, 4 shut the door
5, 6 pick up sticks
7, 8 lay them straight
9, 10 a big fat hen!
The P.M class really enjoyed our Reward Day which was a camp out in our classroom! We voted for the next reward day which will be a costume party! It will take us a month or two to fill up our jar, but I'll keep you posted on the progress. Enjoy the pictures!
We are certainly not ready for regular rulers, so we made our own! To go with our Valentine's Day theme next week, we used rows of hearts to measure various items. Children used rows of hearts to measure how many hearts long an item was. Morning kids worked on counting and afternoon kids drew a picture of each thing they measured then wrote the number of hearts long it was next to it. The product was basically a paper with scribbles and a few random numbers, but hey, it really got the kids thinking about what it means to measure something.
We've been singing some counting games during the day as well. A simple one goes like this:
One, two, three, four, five
One, two, three, four, five
One, two, three, four, five
I can count to five!
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten
I can count to ten!
We also learned to sing:
1,2 buckle my shoe
3, 4 shut the door
5, 6 pick up sticks
7, 8 lay them straight
9, 10 a big fat hen!
The P.M class really enjoyed our Reward Day which was a camp out in our classroom! We voted for the next reward day which will be a costume party! It will take us a month or two to fill up our jar, but I'll keep you posted on the progress. Enjoy the pictures!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)