Transportation! (F, G, H, 26 and Octagons)

Our theme this week was "Transportation" and we focused on the number 26, and reviewed the letters F, G and H, and octagons.

A new month means looking back at our weather trends. Here's April, this year and last year.

In April I challenged the kids to keep our calendar numbers in an ABAB pattern. They did fantastic! For May, we're going to try an AABAAB pattern. I think they're up for it!

We read this week: 1,2,3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle
                              He Came with the Couch by David Slonim
                              I Love Planes by Philemon Sturges
                              The Wheels on the School Bus by Mary Alice Moore
                              Polar Opposites by Eric Brooks

Our question of the week was "Where do you want to go on Vacation?" My class DEFINITELY has some strong opinions about the best places to vacation, let me tell you!

For our theme of the week, we made name trains. I cut long pieces of white paper for the background, a picture of a train engine and colorful squares with each letter of their name. The kids had a lot of fun creating the scene for their trains and loved explaining to me what the train was carrying and where it was going.

We pretended to be a train and "Chug Chugged" down the nature trail.

I found this worksheet that gives a key for coloring a picture of a train based on the shapes in the picture. I had the class do this all together and they did AMAZING! This is definitely one that I'm going to keep for their portfolios!

We wrote in our journals about where we would like to take a train to. I love journals! Almost all of my class has moved on from tracing to copying. So exciting!

We played "Red Light Green Light", which is always a lot of fun! Then we made traffic lights with construction paper, glue and tissue paper!

This next project I found here, and thought it was such a great idea that I just had to try. Using a white shower curtain that I got from the dollar store, I drew a really big town "map". Together as a class we colored it and then played with some cars on it. I did this project last year and my kids this year liked it just as much. It's always fun to get to work on the same project at the same time as all your friends.

Our song of the week was "The Wheels on the Bus". It's such an adaptable song that it can be totally different each day.

We talked about the shape octagon 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.

Using a "gumball machine" we practiced, in small groups, counting to the number 26.

The class also worked on their writing of the number and the word for 26.

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

Made a book of all the possible things that Goat might get at his "G" themed birthday party. This project came from Letters for Little Learners.

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 "F" page came from Book 1, the "G" page came from Book 1, 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! 

If you are a reader of this blog, you'll know how excited I get when things that we plant grow (i.e the THOUSAND updates I gave about our pumpkin plant, which started here!) I planted them outside... I hope they make it! 

Last week we planted African Daisy seeds, and they already started sprouting! I love nature. =]

We had a birthday this week... YUM!

Music! (S, 16, Black)

Our theme last week was "Music" and we focused on the letter S, number 16 and color black.

We read this week: Splat Sings Flat by Rob Scotton
                               Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
                               The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
                               Sitting Ducks by Michael Bedard
                               Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson

Our question of the week was "What can you make music with?" I was expecting this to be a little more of a challenging question, but it seems that my class has a good knowledge of instruments!

For our theme of the week, we danced a lot. Every afternoon we had a little dance party by the computer, which is always a lot of fun.

Using the different instruments that we have the in our classroom (tambourines, maracas and a couple drums) we made patterns. We started with our hands, clapping and hitting the floor to different patterns and rhythms, then we added the instruments. The kids liked trying to follow and name my patterns, but they really had fun making up their own, like an A,A,B,C,C,C,C,C,C,C pattern that someone made up. =]

We talked about the color black, and we sang "We know the Color Black"

"We know the color black,
We know the color black,
Tires, Crows and Licorice too!
We know the color black."
I got it from here!
After we learned the words, we named other things that were black and sang those too.

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 black. Here is what we found.

Diluting black acrylic paint to more of a watercolor consistency, we made nighttime pictures. The kids colored a picture at the bottom of the page, then used white crayon to make stars. Last they brushed on the black to make the stars appear. They were so excited to see the "magic" happen!

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 16.

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.

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

They practiced recognizing the letter S.

The students wrote in their journals for the letter S.

We turned a S into a Snake! This book is great.

We played with our letter S envelope game. putting the petals on the sunflower. To see the entire
alphabet of envelopes, check out this post from a few weeks ago.

The children colored, cut and put together their own books about sunshine. When looking at them I could almost feel that warm sun!

We acted out a poem about a sunflower growing from a mailbox book. we started out as little seeds, and then grew big and tall. They wanted to do it again and again!

"A sunflower starts as a tiny seed. (crouch down small like a seed)

soil, sun and water are what it needs. (pretend to pat soil around feet)

A sunflower sprouts from something small- (kneel with arms out)

To something strong and straight and tall!" (stand tall, arms straight out)

I made sock cards for us to play memory with. That game has always been a hit in my class. They love any version of it, especially one with some crazy socks.

For our alphabet wall we made snails!

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: "Weather" and a focus on the letter Tt, number 17 and color purple.

CandyLand! (L, 9, Red)

So sorry for the delay in these posts, December always seems to get away from me. I hope everyone is having a joyful holiday season!

Our theme for the second week of December was "Candyland" and we focused on the letter Ll, the number 9 and the color red.

  

We read this week: Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
                               The Berenstain Bears: Too Much Junk Food by Stan and Jan Berenstain
                               The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
                               L,M,N,O Peas by Keith Baker

Our question of the week was "What is your favorite thing about school?" Everyone pretty much had an answer right away... it was great!

For our theme of the week, we did some "sweet" activities.
We counted and compared candy canes. I had one regular size candy cane and the kids had to estimate how many mini candy canes would equal the height of the regular one.

We wrote a recipe for hot chocolate, made it and then drank it. Delicious!

It does not really go along with our theme of the week, but to get ready for the holidays we decorated snowflakes with puffy paint for a classroom mural. I pre-cut the snowflakes out of poster board and painted a simple background of snow and evergreens. The kids colored their snowflake however they wanted and then added the puffy paint. We had some left from another project, so i used store bought paint, but I did find a recipe that someday soon I would like to try.

Our director purchased different kinds of ornaments for each classroom from Oriental Trading, we got these cute snowman snowflake ornaments. The kids and I put these together, and then I had each of them give me a blue hand print that I glues onto the backs of the snowflakes. These will be the kids' gifts to give to their parents. Next week we're doing a really cool project for the wrapping!

We talked  about the color red, and we sang "We Love Red."

"We love red, we love red,

That's what we said, that's what we said.

Apples and cherries, oh me, oh my,

Tomatoes to bake on a pizza pie.

Red is the color and that is why,

We love red."

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

We made red collages with red paint, feathers, tissue paper and glitter. (No picture, sorry!)

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 9. (This actually went home for practice. We had a snowy day that day.)

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. (This actually went home for practice. We had a snowy day that day.)

We colored a picture using a "color by number key" that I got from this book.

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter Ll from this book. (This actually went home for practice. We had a snowy day that day.)

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 L.

We turned a L into an Lion! This book is great.

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

We leaped every time I called out a word that started with an "L". This was a fun one to combine listening for letter sounds and physical activity all in one.

For our alphabet wall we made leaves with tissue paper.

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: "Merry Christmas," the letter Mm, number 10 and color green.