Weather! (T, 17, Purple)

Our theme this week was "Weather" and we focused on the letter T, number 17 and color purple.

We read this week: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
                               Little Cloud by Eric Carle
                               Duck by Randy Cecil
                               The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons
                               Bear's Busy Year by Marcia Leonard

I got this huge box and decided to bring it into school to make a puppet hut. The kids colored and decorated it and then I put it in the library center so they could play with the puppets. They were so excited about it!

Our question of the week was "What is your favorite kind of weather?"

For our theme of the week, we paid extra attention to the weather depicted in each of our stories this week. Even though we do the weather report every morning, I asked the kids, "what is weather?" because I wanted to see what they really thought.

Using ice, a plate, a glass jar and some very hot water, we made our own rain! We talked about the water cycle and how water is in the air all around us. Then we did this very cool experiment together as a class. As the hot water rises in the jar, it condenses on the bittom of the plate that is very cold and "rains" back down. The kids were fascinated.

Using some paint, straws and our breath, we made wind art!

We talked about the color purple, and we sang "We love purple"

"We love purple, we love purple,
yes we do, yes we do.
Purple grapes and eggplant too,
Purple plums and grape juice
Just for me and just for you,
we love purple."
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 purple. Here is what we found.

Using only purple crayons, the kids made pictures that I then cut into "puzzles". I put them in baggies and put them out for a few days so the kids could put their friend's puzzles together.

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 17.

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.

With my math boxes (check them out on this post- at the bottom), we counted out 17 items. Then I had the kids divide it into two groups. Using this worksheet that I made, we started doing and talking about addition.  They liked being able to make up their own groups to add.

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

The students wrote in their journals for the letter T. It's really cool to see the children thinking about what they want to put in their journal. They love these books and always want to go through them when they're finished writing for the day.

We turned a T into a Turtle! This book is great.

With some sugar cookie dough, the class made their own turtle cookies. (Once they baked, they flattened out, but they sure looked like turtles before they went in the oven!)

We acted out a poem called "Tired Turtles" from this phonics book. They love theses kinds of activities.
"Turtle is too, too tired today. (yawn)
But Turtle didn't run, and Turtle didn't play. (shake head no)
Turtle is too, too tired to talk (slump over tired)
Just because he took his turtle walk." (walk very slowly in place)

They made a book about a tiger getting ready for a tea party!

For our alphabet wall we made turtles!

Here are the words we came up with this week!

We had a special guest come to visit us this week too: Lincoln!

 Check out the pumpkins! We have what I'm calling little "bud pods"! I remain amazed watching this plant grow. It all started here, back in October.

Up next week: "Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss" (and me =]) and a focus on the letter Uu, number 18 and color orange.