Merry Christmas!

The theme for the third week of December was "Merry Christmas". It was a very short week for us, with a half day on Christmas eve and off on Christmas, so we had a lot of fun planned with our small winter break group!

This week we read: How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? by Jane Yolen
                                 How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
                                 The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
                                 Snowmen at Night by Carolyn Buehner

Our question of the week was "What would your elf name be?"

For our theme "Merry Christmas", we got ready to celebrate! It was the beginning of Winter Break for the public schools, which means we had a smaller group than usual. We did a lot of fun activities, played games and had an all around good time. We checked out these Christmas ISpy books.

We sang the song "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer"! and went back to our very loud rendition of "Jingle Bells".

Using pipe cleaners we made two different ornaments. To make a tree the kids picked out some beads and strung them onto a green pipe cleaner. Then we folded them back and forth to make an abstract tree shape.
To make a candy cane, the kids strung fruity cheerios on pretty striped pipe cleaners. Great for fine motor skills! Some kids made patterns, some only looked for certain colors, and some just had a blast with it!

We made hot chocolate! I wrote up a recipe on the whiteboard, and we went step by step... yum!

We wrote in journals about "I want for Christmas..." 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.

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!

The school hosted a Christmas Party where the kids got to see Santa! While waiting for their turn, they each made a popsicle stick tree ornament! So cute!

On Christmas Eve we were open for a half day, so we had SO MUCH FUN with the small group that came to hang out. We played with my treasure boxes, played an extra long time in centers and in the gym, and watched Christmas short movies. The Grinch, Merry Madagascar Christmas and The Elf on the Shelf movie.

Playing Santa, Santa, Reindeer was a great game to play to get the kids moving.

A little off theme...
The class had a little more practice with the letter M from one of the Mailbox Letter of the Week books. The kids colored an ice cream sundae and added M marshmallows on top!

The day after Christmas this year began Kwanzaa, so we started to talk about the holiday. The kids painted a picture of a Kinara, and we talked about the colors of Kwanzaa to paint.

I made this memory game last year and we played it. Memory is a great game because you can easily change the difficulty based on the players by adding or taking away some pairs.

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

Around the World

This week we went "Around the World" and it was so much fun!!

During summer camp, one day a week we do yoga as a school with a child-centered yoga DVD. The kids really love it. We also have a splash day where the kids bring their bathing suits and we put out water tables and a wiggly sprinkler. It really is so much fun.

I have some older children that have joined my 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.

This post is going to be written a little bit differently, as I'm going to organize the pictures and projects by each country that we visited. I found these "passport stamps" that I put in my class's journals for each day that we traveled, and the older kids filled in a passport page each day and wrote a fact about the country.

We sang the song each morning"I'm an airplane" and pretended that we were the airplanes flying to our destination.

"I'm an airplane, I'm an airplane
Flying up into the sky.
Flying higher, Flying higher
As I watch the clouds go by.
I'm an airplane, I'm an airplane
See me flying all around.
Flying lower, flying lower,
Till I land down on the ground."

I found it here.

When the song was over we "landed" in the country of the day and went to our foreign classroom in front of the our class whiteboard. I made a plane ticket for each flight that we took, a copy of the flag of the country and some facts that we talked about. Then we would open the discussion and the kids would tell me what they wanted to know about the country (and then I would look it up for them!)

Monday: Spain
When we got to Spain, we read the story Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. We talked a bit about facts that I found about the country from ScienceKids.

 

One of my student's parents visited Spain and was generous enough to share some pictures with us. She was our Ambassador! (The kids got really into it when I really got into the role of traveling. It was like our class had kind of an inside joke for the whole week!)

I put these two pictures in the art center, and for our project we made paper plate shakers and danced while listening to Flamenco music.

Tuesday: China
When we got to Spain, we read the story The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack. We talked a bit about facts that I found about the country from ScienceKids. Writing the words in Chinese was pretty cool, the kids thought it was so pretty and we talked about writing in that style instead of our alphabet. My Director was our Ambassador, as she traveled to China to teach and showed the class pictures of her adventures.

I put these pictures in the art center and we used water color paint to create paper fans.

Wednesday: Italy
When we got to Italy, we read the story Strega Nona by Tomie DePaola. We talked a bit about facts that I found about the country from ScienceKids.

 The lovely parent who shared pictures of Spain with us also had pictures of Italy which the kids loved to see. They asked a lot of questions about ruins and asked if there were any that they could see around where they live. The pictures also sparked a conversation about volcanoes and that people live near them.

 I put a picture of the flag and the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the art center.

 For our project we made stained glass windows! I showed the class pictures of stained glass on my iPad, and using construction, tissue and contact paper. They turned out so cool!

The younger class made little pizzas!! I'm definitely going to have to remember that for next year.

Thursday: France
When we got to Italy, we read the story Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. We talked a bit about facts that I found about the country from ScienceKids. I brought my iPad again that day and we looked at pictures of the Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa and the Louvre.

 In the art center I put a picture of the flag and the Eiffel Tower.

 We made collages about France using the colors of the flag in different materials and small pictures that I found online. I used the crown, the Arc de Triumph, the Eiffel Tower, a picture of France and a man on a bike. Some kids questioned me on the man on the bike, and we talked about the Tour de France race.

Friday: Poland
When we got to Poland, we had a special Ambassador waiting for us. One of my class parents, who has family in Poland and has visited there brought in pictures, stories and special treats!

 The movie theater in Poland was originally going to be playing Mulan, but due to world events, they changed their movie to Aladdin. (RIP Robin Williams)

 Wycinanki is the art of paper cutting in Poland. We made our own paper cuttings!

Morning Meeting Games
"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.

"Pop!" is a really fun game, and definitely a favorite. We stand in a circle and each child says one number as we go around. But each round there is a pop number. Instead of saying that number, you POP! the person that would be next, out. We work very hard on having good sportsmanship, and the kids have fun even if they're out because they know they get to play again in the next round!

We played "Alphabet Catch" with a beanbag. We toss the beanbag around the circle and the kids have to say the next letter in the alphabet. We started tossing it to the person next to use, once the kids get more comfortable with the game we'll stand in a circle and toss the beanbag across to friends.

We played "Crocodile by the Lake". I found the idea for this game last year and adapted it to be my own. I turned a box into a crocodile with bulletin and construction paper, then filled it with little cards that have a letter, number or shape on them. The children have to reach into the crocodile's mouth (while he's sleeping of course), pull out a card and name what's there. Also hidden in the belly of the crocodile though are SNAP cards (the crocodile wakes up and SNAPS his mouth shut!). Once we pull three SNAP cards, the game is over!

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

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! =]