CandyLand! (L, 9, Red)

So sorry for the delay in these posts, December always seems to get away from me. I hope everyone is having a joyful holiday season!

Our theme for the second week of December was "Candyland" and we focused on the letter Ll, the number 9 and the color red.

  

We read this week: Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
                               The Berenstain Bears: Too Much Junk Food by Stan and Jan Berenstain
                               The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
                               L,M,N,O Peas by Keith Baker

Our question of the week was "What is your favorite thing about school?" Everyone pretty much had an answer right away... it was great!

For our theme of the week, we did some "sweet" activities.
We counted and compared candy canes. I had one regular size candy cane and the kids had to estimate how many mini candy canes would equal the height of the regular one.

We wrote a recipe for hot chocolate, made it and then drank it. Delicious!

It does not really go along with our theme of the week, but to get ready for the holidays we decorated snowflakes with puffy paint for a classroom mural. I pre-cut the snowflakes out of poster board and painted a simple background of snow and evergreens. The kids colored their snowflake however they wanted and then added the puffy paint. We had some left from another project, so i used store bought paint, but I did find a recipe that someday soon I would like to try.

Our director purchased different kinds of ornaments for each classroom from Oriental Trading, we got these cute snowman snowflake ornaments. The kids and I put these together, and then I had each of them give me a blue hand print that I glues onto the backs of the snowflakes. These will be the kids' gifts to give to their parents. Next week we're doing a really cool project for the wrapping!

We talked  about the color red, and we sang "We Love Red."

"We love red, we love red,

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."

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 red. The tricky thing is that they have to bring different things, no duplicates allowed! Here is what we found for the color red.

We made red collages with red paint, feathers, tissue paper and glitter. (No picture, sorry!)

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 9. (This actually went home for practice. We had a snowy day that day.)

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. (This actually went home for practice. We had a snowy day that day.)

We colored a picture using a "color by number key" that I got from this book.

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter Ll from this book. (This actually went home for practice. We had a snowy day that day.)

We also did this worksheet that helps work on letter recognition that I got from this book.

The students also wrote in their journals for the letter L.

We turned a L into an Lion! This book is great.

We made a short book all about "Lizard's Lollipops" that I got from this Mailbox book.

We leaped every time I called out a word that started with an "L". This was a fun one to combine listening for letter sounds and physical activity all in one.

For our alphabet wall we made leaves with tissue paper.

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: "Merry Christmas," the letter Mm, number 10 and color green.

Hanukkah: A Celebration of Lights! (K, 8, Blue)

Our theme this week was "Hanukkah: Celebration of Lights" and we focused on the letter Kk, the number 8 and the color blue.

The beginning of December means that we compared November weather from this year and last.

 

We read this week: The Hanukkah Mice by Steven Kroll
                                Latkes and AppleSauce by Fran Manushkin
                                How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukkah? by Jane Yolen
                                Hanukkah! by Roni Schotter
                            
Our question of the week was "What is your favorite color?" We finished talking about our shapes and have started colors, so I thought it would be nice to get the conversation started about colors.

For our theme of the week, we talked all about the tradition of Hanukkah. I brought in my childhood menorah to show the kids and for us to put "candles" in for each night.

We played dreidel.

 The kids used Hanukkah cookie cutters and painted with blue, yellow and black paint.

I have Hebrew alphabet blocks that I brought in and let the kids explore with. They like looking at them and building towers with them.

Using different materials like feathers and pastas, the kids made collage menorahs. I drew with glue the shape of the menorah and the kids used the art materials on the glue. I love the way this project turns out.

We talked a lot this week about the color blue, and we sang "We Love Blue."

"We love blue, we love blue,

Yes we do, yes we do.

We love the ocean and sky so blue,

We love blue ribbons and blue jeans too.

We love blueberries, so good for you,

Yes, we love blue."

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 blue. The tricky thing is that they have to bring different things, no duplicates allowed! Here is what we found for the color blue.

I gave the kids dots of blue, white and black paint to make shades of blue.

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 8.

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.

We colored a picture using a "color by number key" that I got from this book.

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

We also did this worksheet that helps work on letter recognition that I got from this book.

The students also wrote in their journals for the letter K.

We turned a K into an Kangaroo! This book is great.

With playing cards we tried to find the kings. Each turn children flip over a card and have to name what letter or number it was. If they turned over a king, they get to wear the crown!

We hopped like kangaroos during a dance party.


The class watched this video to watch how the kangaroos hop around. I found this cool one that like a real life "Kratt Brothers" which the kids love from PBS.

For our alphabet wall we made kites.

Here are the words we came up with this week!

My class starts to turn 5 with this birthday! Yum!

Up next week: "Candy Land", Ll, 9 and red.

Farm Animals! (I, 6, Heart)

Sorry I'm a little behind on posts, life has a tendency of getting in the way every once and a while. =]

Our theme for the first week of November was "Farm Animals" and we focused on the letter Ii, the number 6 the heart shape.

We read this week: Humphrey's Farm Adventure by Igloo Books
                               Duck for President by Doreen Cronin
                               Little Oink by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
                               The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
                               Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming

Our question of the week was "What would you grow on your farm?"

For our theme of the week, we danced the chicken dance, sang "Old MacDonald" and pretended to be different farm animals with a game of charades.

I painted a picture of a farm scene with no animals and hung it up on the wall. The kids were all very intrigued as to what we would be doing with it. Well, we turned their hand prints into farm animals. I love this craft. They get to choose what animal they want to make, we paint their hand and with some eyes, ears and a mouth we have a farm animal! The kids and the parents love when this mural is hanging on the wall. =]

We talked a lot this week about the shape heart. To the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot" we sang,

I found it here! 

I drew hearts, triangles and circles and asked the kids to color each shape it's own color. They did a great job with it!

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 6.

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. (I forgot to take a picture =[)

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter Ii from this book,  and the sheet that helps work on letter recognition that I got from this book,  The students also wrote in their journals for the letter I.

We turned an I into an Insect! This book is great.

I found this worksheet that has words with different vowel sounds. The kids have to color the pictures that have the short i sound in them to make the fish. I did this in small groups and gave each child a choice between a word that did or didn't have the short i, then the group would color the short i word that was picked.

We watched a short video that I found of a young boy learning how to make an igloo. The kids really love this one. Then I gave them a blue piece of paper, white squares that I cut out ahead of time and a glues stick. We talked about how the boy built the igloo, how he layered it from the bottom, how it has a door, a curved roof, and then set them free to create their own.

We played a category game and sat in a circle naming different ice cream flavors. Next time I do a category game I'll write down all of the things we come up with so that they can see it.

We practice cutting with "The Insects are In" The kids had to color the insects, cut them out and put them "in" the right container.

For our alphabet wall we made fingerprint insects.

And with the I addition, our wall now looks like...

Here are the words we came up with this week!

We had a special visitor come this week. A local girl scout made display boxes for our school nature trail and came to talk to my class about the different things that we could put in them. She gave us deer bones, tree cookies and we even got to meet a baby box turtle! She talked to us about worms, foxes, chipmunks and different kinds of trees.

Another teacher and I went out to the nature trail the next day and put some of the things she donated in the displays. (We also added some things that we found in the woods :])

Up next week: The letter Jj, the number 7, star and "The Harvest".