Hanukkah: Celebration of Lights! (Mm, 10, Blue)

The theme for the  week of December was "Hanukkah: Celebration of Lights". We continued our Letter of the Week study with the letter M. We continued talking about colors with the color blue, and we kept going with our number study and the number 10!

and we celebrated a birthday!!

This week we read: Hanukkah! by Roni Schotter
                                 The Hanukkah Mice by Steven Kroll
                                 Latkes and AppleSauce by Fran Manushkin We read this over two days.
                                 How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukkah? by Jane Yolen

Our question of the week was "What do you like about school?" Very heartwarming.

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

We sang "We Love Blue" to the tune of three blind mice.

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.

The kids got to explore the color blue while painting by creating different shades of blue. I put droplets of blue, white and black paint on each of their papers, and they used their paintbrush to mix and swirl and discover!

For the number of the week: 10 we started off by counting to and backward from ten. 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 ten. 

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 10. The children have to practice writing the number and then color in that number of squares. What a great way to introduce graphing and helps them to work on their one-to-one correspondence.

To practice counting to 10 even more, I let the kids count out 10 M&M's. I made a sheet for them to record the colors that they got. The best part of this project, getting to eat the M&Ms when they were done! We did something very similar for the letter j/number 7 with jellybeans!

For our theme "Hanukkah", the kids got to explore two different Menorahs. They asked questions about them and had a lot of fun with them. For days after Hanukkah was over, I kept getting asked where the Menorahs went! We also played dreidel and had a blast.

The children also made their own Menorah collages. I put out all sorts of materials, and invited the children to use whatever they wanted. I "drew" and outline in glue of a menorah and let them do their thing. They turned out so cool, and each so different from the rest!

We sang the song "Twinkle Twinkle Hanukkah Lights" that I found here!

Twinkle twinkle Hanukkah Lights, shining brightly for eight nights.

See the dreidels spinning 'round, eat some latkes crisp and brown.

Twinkle, Twinkle Hanukkah Lights, shining brightly for eight nights!

The kids used Hanukkah themed cookie cutters to paint with in blue and yellow. I love occasionally using cookie cutters to paint with because it shakes it up a bit from always using a paintbrush.

I found hebrew alphabet blocks a few years ago at Pottery Barn Kids that I love. I brought them in for the week and set them out on a carpet for the children to build with and explore.

Last week we popped popcorn into the sensory table. I kept the popcorn and added plastic ice cube dreidels that I found at Michael's. Every other day I put them in the freezer, so that the children could play with them when they were cold and frozen, and also when they were warm and liquid inside.

A little off theme...
Last week we started working on the kid's Christmas gifts to their parents. This week we finished up by painting them! I put out different colors of paint and let the children make their trees however they wanted! When they were dry I strung the tree and star pieces together, put them into the bag wrappings that the children also made last week, and we sent them home!

I begged another teacher in the school to cut out snowflakes for me. Every attempt that I made I ended up with Spiderwebs... I'm great for Halloween, not so much for winter I guess. Each child had one that was slightly different and unique. We colored the paper snowflakes and then added some extra puffy paint color to them. When they were dry (like a week later...) I hung them up on a winter mural in our classroom. Note to self: when you give a child a squeeze bottle of puffy paint.... they will inevitably squeeze a giant amount in one spot that will never quite dry... ;)

The letter of the week: M activities that we worked on this week were magnificent! 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 "M" marshmallows in the cup of cocoa. All the other letters? I think they might have fallen on the floor!

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 the kids used dot paint to make mangos for a tree.

Since we made mangos for the abc wall, I brought in a mango for us to try. I was thrilled that everyone at least tried a little piece, and most of them liked it and wanted seconds!

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

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.

The children turned a capital letter M into a mouse. 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.

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 made a cube of cardboard and glued pictures of "M" things one each side. The children say "Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse, 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 M. Here is what we thought of!

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

Winter Numberland!

Our theme for the last week of December was "Winter Numberland". Because our school had a half day for New Years Eve and was closed for New Years Day, we did not talk about a letter, number or shape. *We also had a snow day because of storm Hercules, so we did not get to do all of our planned activities.* Yikes! It was such a short week, only 2 1/2 days!

  

We read this week: Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 by Bill Martin Jr.
                               1, 2, 3 To the Zoo by Eric Carle
                               How Do Dinosaurs Count to 10 by Jane Yolen
                               1-2-3 Peas by Keith Baker

We also got to compare December weather from 2012 and 2013. I love doing this, and so do the kids. It's really cool how they are starting to look more at the weather patterns rather than just the actual paper or colors.

Our question of the week was "What is your wish for the new year?" This kids had fun thinking about their answers during morning meeting. What they answered then, they wrote in their journals too.

Our song of the week was "The Months of the Year" I remember singing this when I was little too. To the tune of "10 Little Indians"

"January, February, March and April,

May, June, July, August and September,

October, November and December,

These are the months of the year!"

For our theme of the week, we did a lot with numbers!
We started off the week by painting with number stencils. The kids had fun painting on their numbers and then asking what they had created.

This was a challenging activity, but we worked through it! We used the letter clues in the number words to figure out what number it was. I was so proud of my kids on this one, even though it was super tough, they stuck through and were really happy with themselves when they finished.

We sang the song "5 Little Ducks" by Raffi. When we do this we make little duck puppets and then act out the song while we sing. It's so fun to quack!

To celebrate New Years Eve, we played Bingo with a board that I created.

*I just had to share this project. Another class in the school did it and I think it's so cute!*
The teacher cut out the outline of an elephant for the kids to color, and then used noise makers for the trunk. What a cute project for New Years!

We also practiced counting backward from 10. To help with this I used my math "junk boxes". I got this idea from here. Basically I went to the dollar store and bought some small containers, then I filled them with small items: beads, legos, fun erasers, pieces of ribbon, etc. We pull these out whenever we want to quick count something or practice our addition and subtraction beginning skills. UPDATE: I changed the actual containers and they're so much more compact! See them here.

Singing "10 Little Monkeys" is also a fun way to practice counting back from 10.

We made Fruit Loop necklaces with some cereal and yarn. I taped off one end of the yarn so it would be easier for my kids to string the cereal.

To get the blood pumping, we practiced counting with hops! My kids had so much fun doing that they wanted me to call out 100 so they could hop 100 times! I was a little tired by that point so we only went as high as 30.

*Here is an update on our pumpkins! We planted them the week of Halloween*
I've been watering them , and I'm a little sad to say that the plants that sprouted out of the first pumpkin all died. =[. On the other hand, the second pumpkins sprouts seem to be doing marvelously. I just hope they can stick it out! Any tips?

Up next week, we're back in the swing of things: "Hibernation", the letter Nn, number 11 and brown!

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!"