The Beach!

 We continued our summer fun this week with the theme, "The Beach!"

During summer camp, we always have Yoga day where the school does a child centered yoga workout. The video we've been using is great because most of the poses are named after animals, like a snake.... hissssss!

We also have splash day, where all the kids put on their bathing suits and we play outside in water tables and have a fun squiggly sprinkler to run through.

We also have some older children that have joined our class for the summer. While my kids are having their rest in the middle of the day, these children have extra play time out of the room and they also work on some practice sheets that I got from the Summer Bridge Books for K-1 and 1-2. They are great worksheets to keep the older kids practicing their skills over the summer! I love the Pk-K book and I use it through out the year for their letter worksheets.

We read this week: Pig Kahuna Pirates by Jennifer Sattler
                               On a Pirate Ship by Anna Milbourne
                               A Day at the Beach by Mircea Vasiliu
                               On the Seashore by Anna Milbourne
                               Penguin on Vacation by Salina Yoon

Our question of the week was "What beach do you go to?" This one was interesting!

For our theme of the week, I made a little "sensory bin" I see how much the kids like the sensory tables in the younger rooms, and I really wanted something for my kids to play in occasionally too. I found this large rolling storage bin that I can put on the science center table for the kids to play with! To fit with our theme, i put some sand with sifters, measuring cups and spoons. I found colored sand in the art closet and sprinkled some in there too. They absolutely love it!

The kids drew and colored a scene on a beach, and then they got to glue some sand on it too.

From this website I found the idea for a beachy version of "Mother May I?" called "What Time is it Mr. Lifeguard?" The lifeguard turns around and the kids ask 'what time is it?" The lifeguard picks a time i.e 3pm and the children then take that many steps i.e 3 steps. So fun!

Measuring things around the room is a really fun math activity. This week we used pirate dubloons to measure things! I made this worksheet and the children each found two things in the classroom to measure! Then I threw them in the sensory bin!

We made a class book about things that we like to do at the beach! I love making class books like this, the kids love them and so do our parents! It's so great when I see parents reading through the book with their children either at pick up or at drop off times.

We tossed a beach ball around and got those gross motor muscles and hand eye coordination working! I got this really cute beach Ball from Pottery Barn Kids a few years ago. It's a little thicker than most beach balls I've seen, so I know it will last a loooooong time! =]

The kids wrote in their journals about different things that they see when they are at the beach. We are so lucky with where we are because the Jersey Shore is only about an hour away.. which is one of my favorite places in the world! I grew up down at the beach and I love that my kids get to visit there as well!

While my class writes in their journal each week, the older kids (Kindergarten and 1st grade) work on these reading response sheets about the book that we read that day.

From the book Alphabet, Colors, Numbers and Shapes the kids worked on their color word knowledge to correctly color in the fish.

And our movie for the week was.... The Little Mermaid!

Our song of the week was "Pretty Shells" to the tune of Jingle Bells.

(C) 2001 - 2011 Jean Warren www.preschoolexpress.com

The games that we played this week at morning meeting were so fun!

We played "Alphabet Catch" with a beanbag. We toss the beanbag around the circle and the kids have to say the next letter in the alphabet. We started tossing it to the person next to use, once the kids get more comfortable with the game we'll stand in a circle and toss the beanbag across to friends.

"Zoom" is a fun and quick game to play with a class of any age. First you need to pick a direction that the zoom is going to go around the circle. The person starting says zoom and turns their head the the person next, and it goes around the circle. Once the class gets comfortable with this game, I will record how long it takes us!

"Pop!" is a really fun game, and definitely a favorite. We stand in a circle and each child says one number as we go around. But each round there is a pop number. Instead of saying that number, you POP! the person that would be next, out. We work very hard on having good sportsmanship, and the kids have fun even if they're out because they know they get to play again in the next round!

We played "I have, who has?" which I originally saw being played in a Montessori class. It's so cool to see the children take over the game and help their friends follow along. I currently have three versions that we play, but I am planning on making one with numbers and maybe a grab-bag of random things. That might be fun! This week we played Colors and the Alphabet.

We played "Crocodile by the Lake". I found the idea for this game last year and adapted it to be my own. I turned a box into a crocodile with bulletin and construction paper, then filled it with little cards that have a letter, number or shape on them. The children have to reach into the crocodile's mouth (while he's sleeping of course), pull out a card and name what's there. Also hidden in the belly of the crocodile though are SNAP cards (the crocodile wakes up and SNAPS his mouth shut!). Once we pull three SNAP cards, the game is over!

That's all for now! Leave me a comment please if you visit! =]