Our Moms! (I, J, K, hearts and 27)

Our theme this week was "My Mom" and we focused on the number 27, and reviewed the letters I, J and K, and hearts.

We read this week: Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney
                              Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too? by Eric Carle
                              I Love My Mommy by David Bedford
                              The Night Before Mother's Day by Natasha Wing
                              Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

Our question of the week was "Why do you love Mom?"

For our theme of the week, we drew picture of our moms to hang up in our hallway.

We made gifts for our moms. I found these little 3-packs of clay pots at the Dollar Tree. First we decorated them with dot paint, but the clay just soaked it right up! It looked like there was no paint! So I problem solved and sealed the pots with Mod Podge, then we tried again.. so much brighter! We put these beautifully decorated pots together with an envelope of flower seeds and a tied it up with a short little poem I wrote. Voila!

We also wrote in our journals about why we love our Moms.

We hosted a little breakfast tea for our moms too!

To make our classroom a bit more spring like, I cut up the Truffula trees and sent them home. Then we used water color paint on paper plates to make big flowers. Yay!

Our song of the week was "Mommy, Mommy, I Love you". It's such an adaptable song that it can be totally different each day.

(C) Jean Warren www.preschoolexpress.com

We talked about the shape heart and practiced recognizing them. I created this page based on ones that we had done in the past.

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

The class also worked on their writing of the number and the word for 27.

For our letter activities, we reviewed writing and finding the letters that we are talking about; I, J, and K. These pages came from Letters for Little Learners.

Made a Jelly Bean Journal full of the things that start with J. This project came from Letter of the Week: Book 2

The letter of the week books have pages that you can make into a book. I picked from both to get my "favorites". Each week, we work on some of these pages, and each child at the end will have an alphabet book. I like to do these pages, because not only do they get more practice writing the letter, but they also have to finish the sentence on the page, which is really cool. It gets them thinking!

This week the "I" page came from Book 1, the "J" page came from Book 2, and the "H" page came from Book 2.

We also worked more on recognizing our review letters in the tongue twisters from Alphabet and Counting. We used this book to turn our letters into fun animals, but on the pages is also a little tongue twister. I printed it large and made a picture, then laminated them with contact paper. Using wet erase markers, we take turns finding the letters that are hidden!

We kept working on our sight words! Every morning we go over around 10 of them. Once we've mastered them, they will go on our sight word wall! So exciting! We're working our way through the 220 Dolch sight word list.

Here is what we have mastered so far! 

Speaking of sight words, from Confessions of a HomeSchooler, I got these great sight word pages. We continued this week with the word "in".

Another Happy Birthday in our class! YUM!

And some donuts for teacher appreciation! Thank you!

Be My Valentine (R, 15, Pink)

Our theme for the week of Valentine's Day was, of course, "Be My Valentine" and we focused on the letter R, number 15 and color pink.

*Two more snow days!!! Ahh! Good thing I'm flexible! =] Some of these activities we actually did the next week on Monday.*

We read this week: Happy Valentine's day, Curious George by HA Rey
                              Love Monster by Rachel Bright
                              Always by Alison McGhee
                              The Night Before Valentine's Day by Natasha Wing
                              Love, Splat by Rob Scotton

Our question of the week was "Who would you like to give a valentine to?"

For our theme of the week, we spent a lot of time getting ready for Valentine's Day. We started by making out Valentine's Mailboxes. I like to use these bags from Michael's (they come individually or in a pack of 13) because of the number of kids in my class, and I know we always have some little goodie bags. (like from me =]) Plus they have handles which make them super easy to take home!

Here are the little Valentine bags that I made for my kids. Between Walmart, Michael's and the Dollar Tree, I always find great little toys and trinkets to put in class goodie bags.

The kids also made Valentine's to give to their parents. I found the idea here. I pre-cut the plates and the poems for the middle and the kids got to decorate them however they wanted.

We had our Valentine exchange and party! =]

We talked about the color pink, and we sang "I'm a Little Piggy"

"I'm a little piggy, with a round nose.
I am all pink from my head to my toes.
Here's my piggy tail, as you can see.
It's pink and curly as can be."
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 pink. Here is what we found.

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 15.

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 "tested" their knowledge of the number 15 by asking them to draw 15 bows on the tail of a kite. They had to make sure they were counting while they drew, and checked their work.

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

The kids practiced recognizing the letter R and r.

The students wrote in their journals for the letter R.

We turned a R into a Rabbit! This book is great.

I cut all different color and size rectangles and the children made robots with them!

The kids also made a book about all the things that a robot would bring on his rocket.

We acted out a poem from the book Phonemic Awareness.

"Come on racoon, run in place. (run slowly in place)

Are you ready for the race? (run in place at a moderate pace)

Racoon, run and ramble along. (Run quickly in place) 

Run, run, run, the race is long! (Run more slowly in place. Pant as if tired.)

Run, run, run! Pick up the pace! (Run quickly in place)

Now Rejoice! You won the race!" (Smile with arms up in victory)

For our alphabet wall we made rain! They painted the rain drops, and then I attached them to the clouds that we made in the beginning of the alphabet.

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: "Music" and a focus on the letter Ss, number 16 and color black.

Merry Christmas! (M, 10, Green)

Our theme for the third week of December was "Merry Christmas" and we focused on the letter Mm, the number 10 and the color green.

  

We read this week: How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky
                               Duck and Goose, It's Time for Christmas by Tad Hills
                               The Christmas Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood
                               Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson
                               Fletcher and the Snowflake Christmas by Julia Rawlinson

Our question of the week was "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I like to think that I know my kids very well, but some of these answers were a surprise to me, and Moms and Dads!

For our theme of the week, we had fun getting ready for the holiday!

I drew "gingerbread houses" onto paper bags that the kids colored however they wanted. These are what I put their ornaments from last week in to give to their parents. They were a big hit!

Using just beads, green pipe cleaners and some string we made really cute and artsy tree ornaments. I hung them on our class tree to make it a little more festive. I found the idea here.

We also had our school Christmas party! Santa came too!

We talked about the color green, and we sang "G-R-E-E-N" to the tune of "Old MacDonald."

"There’s a color we all know,

G-R-E-E-N.

It’s the color that means “Go!”

G-R-E-E-N.

Oh, grass is green and lettuce is green,

Leaves and spinach and peas are green.

There’s a color we all know,

G-R-E-E-N."

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

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 10.

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 gave each student 10 M&M's to count and then color on their paper. The best part? They got to eat them!

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter Mm 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 M.

We turned a M into a Mouse! This book is great.

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

When learning about the phases of the moon, whats a better way to practice than with Oreos!

I found this video about Mallomars and another that really shows how the marshmallow cookies are made. Then we all ate one!

I cut up small pieces of red, peach and white construction paper so we could made Santa Mosaics. I introduced the kids to mosaic art, and showed them some examples. Then we talked about how to make a picture of Santa. I love how each one is unique!

For our alphabet wall we used dot paint to decorate mangoes.

Here are the words we came up with this week!

We had a birthday this week! It's all about Batman.

Up next week: "Kwanzaa and Happy New Year!"