Welcome to the School Year! Building a Classroom Community

The theme for the first week of school was "Building a Classroom Community". I wanted to really get to know my class and let them get used to the room and to our daily routine, so we focused on becoming friends and some fun activities.

This week we read: Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anne Dewdney
                                        Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton
                                        Miss Nelson is Missing by Harry Allard
                                        A Book of Friends by Dave Ross

Our question of the week was "What was your favorite thing about the summer?"

For our song this week we sang "The Wheels on the Bus". It was fun to let the children pick what parts of the song to sing each time.

The activities that we did this week really helped us to become a tight classroom community! Everyday we went over class rules that the children helped make. We sat in a group and I asked the children what they thought some rules to keep us safe and happy in the classroom might be. I fit in my own too! We also took tours of the classroom so that the children get used to where the centers are.

We played "Just Like Me" to help get everyone comfortable with each other. 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, each child has a chance to be the leader. It's so cool to see them thinking about what they want to say!

The kids drew "first day of school" pictures. These are fantastic to throw in their portfolios! I have mostly blank piece of paper that on the bottom says, "I drew this on the first day of school!" and the children can draw anything that they want. It's an easy project for them to complete, and it also lets me see how the kids draw, and how they hold the crayons.

To help get the children playing with each other we used puzzles and treasure boxes to partner play with. They get to take turns choosing what they play with and work/play with new friends. To learn more about my treasure boxes and other ways they can be used, check out this post from last year!

We walked on our school's nature trail in the woods. All of the new children to the school LOVED it! Since our school is so connected to the outdoors and we are always looking at and talking about the seasonal changes that we see, I started us off by asking the children to look for different color flowers as we walked down. They were so excited when they saw purple, white, pink and yellow.

At morning meeting one morning we played body drumming, another game that helps the children become comfortable leading the group. I model 3 or 4 different motions, like patting the knees, clapping, snapping, and stomping while the group follows the change of the motions. Then any child that would like a turn (I do not force children to do something like this if they really don't want to) leading the group.

The children made paper plate snakes. Such an easy and fun activity. Either the teacher or the child draws a spiral on the plate, and then they color it however they choose. When they are finished coloring, they cut along the spiral that they drew, and voila! A snake!

I traced the children's hands and they colored them in. Again, a simple project to help the children get used to coming to the table to do projects and following directions.

We played "I Have, Who Has" with colors. We played a few times because the kids loved it. I have these games on hand that I made simply out of index cards. I have a shape and alphabet version as well.

The children made lions out of paper plates. They drew faces and the manes, and then growled for me!

We also played Simon Says.

We had a great first week of school, how was yours? Leave a comment below and let me know that you stopped by!

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.

We're Wild About Preschool!

The first week of school was a mixture of exciting and terrifying. I have had to mentally go back to last year to remember what it was like, and readjust myself.
Our school weekly theme was "Welcome Back! We're Wild About Preschool!" and I didn't start a letter this week so that myself and the new class had a chance to get used to the classroom, focus on making friends with each other and adjusting to the classroom and school.

This year I'm going to ask the class a Question of the Week and at the end of the year I want to make a book for the class.
This week's question: What was your favorite thing about summer?
Here are some of the answers that I got.

This week we read: Curious George's First Day of School by H.A. Rey
                                Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton
                                The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood
                                The Loud Book by Deborah Underwood
                                (Monday was Labor Day, so only 4 days this week)

We played responsive classroom games, The Weather Changed, Just Like Me, I have, Who has, and Body Drumming.  Great ideas from teachers here! I've used these games before and the kids really love them!

Other activities we did this week were to go on a Nature Walk on our school's trail,

Drew a picture on the children's first day of school (I tucked those away in their portfolios) and I got the idea here, 

I traced the kids' hands and had them color them and write the numbers 1-10,

 Paper Plate Lions, 

 Paper Plate Snakes, 

A School bus craft, 

and a paper towel roll giraffe.

The kids had a great week playing, working and getting to know their new friends! This year is going to be so fun!