My Mom! (I, J, & K, 28, White, Octagon)

The theme for the first week of May was "My Mom!". Since we finished our Letter of the Week study, we are now reviewing our letters! This week we reviewed letters I, J & K and continued our number study with the number 28! We have gone through our shapes and colors once, so from now until graduation, we will talk about two each week and do some small review activities. We worked this week on octagons and white.

This week we read: Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
                                        Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
                                        Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney
                                        I Love My Mommy by David Bedford
                                        I Love My Mom by Anna Walker
                                        The Night Before Mother's Day by Natasha Wing

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

To review the color white we talked about things in real life, at morning meeting, that are white. The kids also colored pictures of white things. I found these pages on pinterest, and I love the concept! My general rule of thumb is that if the children can explain to me their reasoning for coloring an object, then I am all for it!

To review the octagon shape the children practiced recognizing the shape and colored octagons. I created this little picture full of the shape. They needed to color the octagon signs red and then the rest of the picture!

For the number of the week:28 we started off by counting to and backward from twenty-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 twenty-eight. 

When I started in my class, I found a page like this from education.com, so I made my own for the number 28. 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.                    

For our theme "My Mom",  we drew pictures of our moms!

We sang "Mommy, Mommy, I Love you". 

(C) Jean Warren www.preschoolexpress.com.

In their journals, the children wrote about why they love their moms.

The children also worked really hard to make this really cool gift for their moms. I air popped some popcorn, and the children each took turns to drizzle colored chocolate on them... Yum!! Then, the children made a tissue paper flower to tie it all together. They were so excited to give them to their moms for Mother's Day! We of course had to try some to make sure it was good! =]

While reviewing the letters I, J and K, we are really focusing on practicing writing, having good control over letter formation, and having a solid knowledge of the letter sounds.

My children that are moving on to kindergarten next year, are working on sight words and this worksheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler are amazing! They challenge the children to think of the word in a new way and get creative. This week they worked on the word "in".

I created envelope games for each letter of the alphabet that we played the first way through the alphabet. My children that are staying with me another year played these again to work on their letter sounds.

We reviewed writing and finding the letters that we are talking about, I, J and K. The pages for my younger group came from Letters for Little Learners, and I found these more advanced worksheets for my older children from education.com.

The book Alphabet and Counting that we used used  to turn our letters into fun animals, also has cute little tongue twisters for each letter. I printed them large and illustrated them, then I laminated them with contact paper. Using wet erase markers, we take turns finding the letters hidden!

On their own, they searched for the letters as well!

The letter of the week books have pages that you can make a book into. I picked from both to get my "favorites". Each week, we'll work on these pages, and each child will end up with an alphabet book at the end of the year. 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!

There is a 15-20 minute span of time while the children are waking up from our rest time and afternoon snack. During this time, we talk about what they will be doing in the afternoon with their afternoon teacher, and what we did in the morning. We also spend some time learning about animals through videos. This week we watched one, two, three, four and five about jaguars. We also watched about iguanas, kangaroos, jellyfish and koalas.

I made an "I have, who has" game filled with I, J and K things. I love this game because once it starts, the children completely direct it. I love seeing them help each other and play with each other.

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

Turkeys, Pilgrims and Native Americans! (Jj, 7, Star)

The theme for the third week of November was "Turkeys, Pilgrims and Native Americans". We continued our Letter of the Week study, with the letter J. This week we also focused on the star shape, and we kept going on our number study with the number 7!

We celebrated a birthday!

This week we read: Red Fox and His Canoe by Nathaniel Benchley
                                        The Very First Thanksgiving Day by Rhonda Gowler Greene
                                        1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Pilgrims by B.G. Hennessy
                                        Thanksgiving Cats by Jean Marzollo
                                        The Thirsty Moose by David Orme

Our question of the week was "What would you bring on the Mayflower with you?" My favorite part of this question was a conversation that it sparked between a child and parent at pickup. P: What was a the Mayflower? C: A boat. P: Do you know who was on the Mayflower? C: Yea, some old people.

The shape of the week: star was fun to talk about.  We practiced drawing stars in the air, and talked about where we see stars. The children worked on their fine motor skills and shape recognition by coloring shapes. I made this sheet myself based on recognition sheets that we have already done.

For our song this week we sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

For the number of the week: 7 we started off by counting to and backward from seven. 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 seven. 

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 7. The children had 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.

For our theme "Turkeys, Pilgrims, Native Americans", we talked about the way Native Americans lived before the pilgrims. We looked at some materials from the Lenapes (which is our local tribe).

We sang the song "Indians and Pilgrims" to the tune of Row your Boat.

Beat, beat, beat the drum, 

Beat it loud and clear.

To tell brave Indians everywhere

That hunting time is near.

Cut, cut, cut the logs,

Make them long and short.

To help the pilgrims build a house,

A warm and friendly fort.

(C) Copyright 1997-2014 by Preschool Education

We talked about how corn was a staple crop and used it in an art project, which conveniently doubled as cool Thanksgiving decorations! =]

We made handprint Mayflowers! I love hearing my kids' giggles as i paint their hands, and they're always fascinated by the amount of things that we turn their handprints into.

Speaking of which, we turned their handprints into turkeys for a keepsake Thanksgiving placemat. So cute!!

We made strawberry juice while channeling the Lenape Indians. I cut the tops off of strawberries and put them into plastic baggies. The kids did all the work mashing them, to which we added hot water. I let the strawberries sit in the hot water and we observed the juices coming out of the berries. It was really cool to watch. For a little sweetness I added some honey. I was really happy that almost everyone tried it... and liked it!

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

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 put the "J" patches on the jacket. All the other letters? Not on this fashion statement!

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 colored and cut out pictures of jet planes. I attached them to toilet paper rolls so they popped a little!

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.

Using 7 Jellybeans, the kids sorted and colored the pictures. This helped them work on their color matching and one-to-one correspondence.

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!

From one of the Letter of the Week books, we made little flip books about a Jet flying around. I love these because we can work on whole group activities and following sequential directions. They are also simple enough that when finished they can look through it and tell the story to themselves.

The children turned a capital letter J into a jaguar. 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 made a cube of cardboard and glued pictures of "J" things one each side. The children say "Jaguar, Jaguar, 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 J. Here is what we thought of!

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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!