Groundhogs and Shadows! (Q, 14, Gray)

Our theme last week was "Groundhogs and Shadows" and  we focused on the letter Q, number 14 and color gray.

**This winter is killing me! We had TWO snow days this week! We got a lot of our projects done, my kids were really good about me having them do more more activities than normal.. they had fun with it!**

We read this week: Where's My Hug? by Amy Hest
                               Bear Feels Sick by Karma Wilson
                               The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood
          *I also had planned to read*
                               Llama Llama Time to Share by Anna Dewdney
                               If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff

Our question of the week was "What would you NOT like 100 of?" Some of these were very interesting!

For our theme of the week, we did talk about Groundhog day and what it stand for. I asked them if they really thought that the groundhog could predict our weather, and my class was pretty split on the issue. It made quite a fun discussion!

I found this project on Pinterest, and my kids loved making this. They thought it was cool to make the flaps.

I also had the kids "hibernate" in the gym. We talk about the activities of a groundhog throughout the different seasons. Then I call out seasons and the kids act like groundhogs. When it comes time for winter they all quick find a place to burrow and sleep. It truly is just as fun for me to watch as for them to do it. =]

We talked about the color gray, and we sang "Three Gray Mice"

"Three gray mice, three gray mice,
oh how nice, oh how nice.
they ran around the house at night.
They found some cheese and had a bite.
The farmer's wife turned on the light.
as three gray mice, ran from sight!"
I got it from here!

When we focus on a color I love to do "color hunts" in our classroom. Each child takes a turn to walk

around the classroom and bring back something that they found that is gray. We ended up having a lot more than I thought we would. I started to get a little nervous that there was only a few things, but my class sure did search it out! Here is what we found for the color gray.

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 14.

I made these worksheets that reinforces the one to one concept. The kids practice writing the number and have to color a square for each picture that they see.

From one of my books I had the kids work on this page where they have to match the number of items to the numeral.

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter Qq from this book.

And we practiced recognizing the letters.

The students wrote in their journals for the letter Q.

I love to make quilts with a class. Each child gets a square to draw their picture. Then i hole punch and tie together with yarn to make a quilt! 

We made a book about the different quilts that a queen had.  This is from a MailBox Letter of the Week book.

We talked about what would be a loud snack (carrots, chips, pretzels) , and what would be a quiet snack (blueberries, cheese and chocolate). Then we made a quiet snack! Each child measured out 1/4 cup of mini marshmallows, 1/8 cup of raisins (I prefer golden raisins) and 1 Tbsp chocolate chips.

We turned a Q into a Quail! This book is great.

For our alphabet wall we made quails!

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: "Be My Valentine" and a focus on the letter Rr, number 15 and color pink.