Little Green Peas by Keith Baker
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Roy G. Biv is Mad at Me Because I Love Pink by Nancy Guettier
I put water and cranberries in our sensory table this week. I kept it very simple and only added some small empty playdough containers to collect and scoop the cranberries. We talked about why they float and cracked one open to see the air chambers. My kids really enjoyed these two videos I found that taught us more about the cranberries. Cranberry Video One, Cranberry Video Two.
Our question of the week was "What is your favorite color?"
The color of the week: red was fun to talk about. We talked about things that are the color red and went on a hunt around our classroom to find things that are red.
We sang "We Love Red" to the tune of three blind mice.
We love red, We love red.
That’s what we said, that’s what we said.
Apples and Cherries, oh me, oh my.
That’s what we said, that’s what we said.
Apples and Cherries, oh me, oh my.
Tomatoes to bake on a pizza pie.
Red is the color and that is why,
We love red!
For the number of the week: 8 we started off by counting to and backward from eight. They love doing this every day and when we get to the end of counting backward, they all scream blast off!! ;) The kids also practiced writing the number and word for eight.
When I started in my room I found some papers in my room I found a random number page like this from education.com, so I made my own for the number 8. The children have to practice writing the number and then color in that number of squares. What a great way to really introduce graphing and what a great way for them to work on their one-to-one correspondence.
From The Complete Book of Numbers and Counting, I found this picture to color using a key of the number 8.
From The Complete Book of Numbers and Counting, I found this picture to color using a key of the number 8.
For our theme "Candyland", we did an experiment of different candy in water (Mike & Ikes, M&Ms and Candy Corn). We made guesses of what would happen and got to see really cool things!
The jellybeans lost all their color, and the candy corn completely dissolved. The M&Ms were the coolest. The candy coating dissolved off... and some of the Ms floated!
We measured with candy canes! The kids had to find things that were smaller and larger than their candy cane around the classroom. Then they drew pictures of it!
They wrote in their journal about their favorite kind of candy. I really, Really, REALLY love the journals. The kids are always so excited to write in them and look back at what they've already done.
The jellybeans lost all their color, and the candy corn completely dissolved. The M&Ms were the coolest. The candy coating dissolved off... and some of the Ms floated!
We measured with candy canes! The kids had to find things that were smaller and larger than their candy cane around the classroom. Then they drew pictures of it!
They wrote in their journal about their favorite kind of candy. I really, Really, REALLY love the journals. The kids are always so excited to write in them and look back at what they've already done.
The letter of the week: K activities that we worked on this were were killer! I created envelope games for each letter of the alphabet. I adapted them from activities from Mailbox Letter of the Week projects, both book one and two. The children had to give the "K" items to the kangaroo. All the other letters? She doesn't want them!
The children turned a capital letter K into a kangaroo. I got the idea from the book Alphabet and Counting from Twin Sister Productions. They give tips for how to make it a glue and paste projects, but I like to give them crayons and the challenge to add the parts of the animal to the letter. It opens up room for more conversation about the shape of the letter AND the features of the animal.
We also watched these short videos about Kangaroos, and one of my kids told me that when they grow up they want to be a kangaroo... interesting choice!
The book Sounds Like fun, Phonemic Awareness has great phonics activities for the alphabet. For the letter k, the children have to cut out and glue the words that "Begins like Koala". Together we talked about the beginning sounds of the words, and then they work on their fine motor cutting skills.
We played a card game with a paper crown that was super fun. (I used a few decks with only the number cards and the kings.) Each person picks a card and has to name the number on the card or if they kinds king card, they get to wear the crown until the next person finds a king. It's so simple but so fun!
The children turned a capital letter K into a kangaroo. I got the idea from the book Alphabet and Counting from Twin Sister Productions. They give tips for how to make it a glue and paste projects, but I like to give them crayons and the challenge to add the parts of the animal to the letter. It opens up room for more conversation about the shape of the letter AND the features of the animal.
We also watched these short videos about Kangaroos, and one of my kids told me that when they grow up they want to be a kangaroo... interesting choice!
We played a card game with a paper crown that was super fun. (I used a few decks with only the number cards and the kings.) Each person picks a card and has to name the number on the card or if they kinds king card, they get to wear the crown until the next person finds a king. It's so simple but so fun!
We practice and work on our handwriting for each letter as well. The Original Summer Bridge Activities, for PreK-K has great handwriting practice sheets. The kids trace and write the letters and then have a little phonics practice at the bottom.
We sang "K-A-N-G-A" to the tune of Bingo. This song came from one of the Letter of the Week books.
"There is a kangaroo I know, and Kanga is her name-o!" sung the same way as Bingo, with claps replacing letters.
As we work through the alphabet, the children make projects to go on our "alphabet wall". It's a very fun way for the class to see the alphabet in a new way. This week we glued tissue paper squares to construction paper and made kites!
Each child has a journal that they write in every week. When we focus on a letter, they write for that letter. On shorter weeks and during our review later in the year, they write to the theme. This is such a great way to get children excited about writing and reading. I start the children out by tracing, and once they are comfortable and controlling the crayon well, they move onto copying.
From the book Alphabet, Colors, Numbers and Shapes, the kids practice letter recognition AND direction following. Some weeks certain letters have to be colored specifically and sometimes it's up to them. I love these!
I made a cube of cardboard and glued pictures of "K" things one each side. The children say "Kangaroo, Kangaroo, what do I see.... I see a ____ looking at me!" They roll the cube and fill in the blank. This idea came from a Mailbox activity book, and let me tell you, it was a hit!! They loved it!
During the week we made a list of words that begin with the letter K. Here is what we thought of!
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