Groundhogs & Shadows (Rr, 15, Purple)

The theme for the first week of February was "Groundhogs and Shadows". We continued our Letter of the Week study with the letter R. This week we continued talking about colors with the color purple, and we kept going on our number study with the number 15!

This week we read: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
                                        When I Feel Angry by Cornelia Maude Spelman
                                        Ish by Peter H. Reynolds
                                        Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
                                        Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty

Our question of the week was "How much longer will winter be?" Some of these are great!

The color of the week: purple was a lot of fun to explore.  We talked about things that are the color purple and went on a hunt around our classroom to find things that are purple.

We sang "We Love Purple" to the tune of Three Blind Mice.

""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!

For the number of the week:15 we started off by counting to and backward from fifteen. 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 fifteen. 

When I started in my class, I found a page like this from education.com, so I made my own for the number 15. The children have to practice writing the number and then color in that number of squares. It's a great way to introduce graphing and helps them to work on their one-to-one correspondence.

From The Complete Book of Numbers and Counting, the kids practiced counting to fifteen when they drew 15 bows on the tail of the kite.

I found this idea I think on Pinterest for the children to search for numbers. I created the worksheet, and each child had a different color combination. These are a great worksheet to stick in their portfolios too!

For our theme "Groundhogs & Shadows", we talked about Groundhog day and what it symbolizes. The class made collages with groundhogs, suns and clouds, and an adorable poem about ground hog day.

We sang "Here's a Little Groundhog" to the tune I'm a little teapot found here.

"Here's a little ground hog furry and brown,

He's coming up to look around.

If he sees his shadow down he'll go,

Then six more weeks of winter, Oh No!"

My director actually found the inspiration for this show project, I'll have to be sure to find out where it came from. The kids colored their groundhog, and painted black on a rough outline that I made on a piece of construction paper. When they were dry, I stapled the groundhogs on so that when they "stand up", their shadow appears!

The letter of the week: R activities that we worked on this week were rad! 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 place the "R" items onto the the rabbit. All the other letters? Keep on hopping!

From a Mailbox Letter of the Week book, the kids made a booklet about "Robot's Rocket". I like doing these kinds of books because they can go back and look at the pictures to help tell the story, and they are also able to do the project mostly on their own. When they are finished coloring the pages, they come and get their scissors. When they are finished cutting, they bring their pages to me, put away their scissors and clean up their area of paper scraps. I love it!

The book Sounds Like fun, Phonemic Awareness has great phonics activities for the alphabet. For the letter R, the children have to cut out and glue the words that "Begins like Raccoon". Together we talked about the beginning sounds of the words, and then they work on their fine motor cutting skills.

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 made raindrops. On a construction paper shaped raindrop, the kids finger painted, which is always fun!

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!

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.

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.

The children turned a capital letter R into a rabbit. 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.

I cut up rectangles of various sizes and colors, and the class turned them into robots!

I found these short videos about "r" animals that we watched through the week. There was one about Rhinos, raccoons, rats, rabbits, and of course I had to show my kids the video of the raccoon stealing cat food. They went nuts for it! The kids really enjoy when randomly throughout the day we take a break to watch an animal video.

I made a cube of cardboard and glued pictures of "R" things one each side. The children say "Rocket ship, rocket ship, 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 for the letter A, 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 R. Here is what we thought of!

 Leave a comment below and let me know that you stopped by!

At the Zoo!

 I was away this week and I am so thankful for everyone who took care of my class for me!!

 My class continued their summer fun this week with the theme, "At the Zoo!"

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 dog.... woof woof!

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: Splat the Cat and the Cool School Trip by Rob Scotton
                               Put Me in the Zoo by Robert Lopshire
                               The Perfect Tail by Mie Araki
                               Curious George Feeds the Animals by Margret & HA Rey
                               A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead

Our question of the week was "What is your favorite animal to see at the zoo?"
Unfortunately this got erased before a picture could be taken. =[

For our theme of the week,  we made a class book about animals at the zoo! First we brainstormed a list of different animals that are at the zoo and the children chose what they wanted to make their page about! I love when we make 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.

The kids wrote in their journals about something that they see at the zoo.

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.

On Pinterest I found this great zoo flap book that the children created!

I made this zoo game with a large piece of construction paper. Add some small zoo animal figurines, a dice and some excited kids and we get a super fun time!

Using shapes cut out from different colors of construction paper, the children created their own zoo animal. I adapted this from this monster activity that I found on Pinterest. I love that it is a project that really is all about the process, and the kids were so happy with their finished products!

I made pages of a few different habitats and three animals that live in each one. As small groups, the children worked together to correctly put the animals in their homes. The kids felt like the Kratt Brothers while they were doing this. Our class LOVES their show!

And our movie for the week was Horton Hears a Who!

Our song of the week was "We're Going to the Zoo" to the tune of farmer in the dell.

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

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

We played "Number Ball" with a beanbag. We toss the beanbag around the circle and the kids have to say the next number. We stand in a circle and toss the beanbag across to friends and try to beat our record!

"The Weather Changed" is a fun game. The kids decide on movements for 5 different weathers before we start. I start as the Weather Person and go through the different weather, while we change the movements. Then the kids get a turn as the weather person!

We played "Body Drumming". Using only our bodies, we do different motions to make sound and rhythm. I model first and either make a pattern for the children to follow or I have them follow a sequence of 3 or 4 motions. Then I will pick a few children to be the leaders. I love this activity because it's something a little different, you can't get "out" and it's fun to see them trying to focus on when the motion is going to change.

"Just Like Me" is a great game when a child is feeling a little bit sad or just to get the class feeling like a group! I start by modeling with a few statements, i.e, I like vanilla ice cream. If a child also like vanilla ice cream, they stand up and yell, "just like me!" After I model a few statements like that, I will pick a few children to be the leader. It's so cool to see them thinking about what they want to say!

We played "1,2,3" which we have played before and is definitely a fan favorite! We stand in a circle and each child says 1,2 or 3 consecutive numbers starting with 1 up to 9. So for example: "1,2,3" "4" "5,6" "7,8,9" and the next child who would have to say 10 sits down and is out of the round. Then it starts back at one. My class really loves this one, and usually if we play it in the morning, I will hear them in centers or at their lunch tables playing their own facilitated versions of the game.

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