Hibernation! (N, 11, Brown)

Our theme for last week was "Hibernation" and we focused on the letter Nn, the number 11 and the color brown. I have to say after all the short weeks and holidays, it feels SO GOOD to get back into the swing of our routine. =]

  
We read this week: Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson
                               Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
                               Curious George's Dream by Margret and H.A. Reys
                               Corduroy by Don Freeman
                               Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson

Our question of the week was "How long would you like to hibernate?" It fit perfectly with our theme this week, and some of the answers were so funny!

For our theme of the week, we talked about hibernation and sleep!

We met a bear! I am not a supporter of hunting, but it was interesting to see how the kids remembered what we had talked about in relation to the bear (claws, fur, nose).

We pretended to be grizzly bears. We talked about what they do throughout the year, foraging, hunting, playing and hibernating. I called out the seasons of the year and the children changed heir activities. They had so much fin looking for a "cave" to hibernate in when I called out WINTER!

With white and black paint and a little glitter, we painted polar bears! I love how each child did it a little different. So fun!

We talked about the color brown, and we sang "3 Brown Bears" to the tune of "3 Blind Mice"

"Three brown bears, three brown bears.

See all their beds, see all their chairs.

The Mommy cooks in a big brown pot.

The Daddy's porridge is much too hot.

The Baby bear always cries a lot.

Three brown bears."

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

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 11.

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.

We drew 11 balls for an elephant named Elmo to juggle.

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

We did this worksheet that helps work on letter recognition that I got from this book.

The students wrote in their journals for the letter N.

We turned a N into a Nightcrawler! This book is great.

We made a short book all about "In The Nest" that I got from this Mailbox book.

Painting with noodles was super fun!

Using pictures of different food, we discussed as a group and sorted them into healthy/not healthy groups. It was a great way to start talking about nutrition.

Practicing writing the alphabet Aa-Nn was a good way to review the letters that we have already talked about.

Using old magazines, we made number collages. This is a challenging activity because of it's steps. Looking on the pages for numbers, cutting them out and then gluing them.

For our alphabet wall we used q-tips to paint nests. I love the "stripey" effect that the q-tip gets.

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: "Let it Snow!" and focusing on the letter Oo, white and 12.

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!

Kwanzaa and Happy New Year!

Our theme for the fourth week of December was "Kwanzaa and Happy New Year". Because our school had a half day for Christmas Eve and was closed for Christmas, we did not talk about a letter, number or shape.

  

We read this week: How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
                               How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas by Jane Yolen
                               Corduroy by Don Freeman
                               A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Phillip C. Stead

Our question of the week was "If you were an elf, what would your name be?" I love when the questions make the kids think and be creative. We have some very unique names!

Our song of the week was "If You're Happy and You Know It!" Always fun and always a favorite.

For our theme of the week, we had a lot of fun talking about the different holidays!

I created a Christmas bingo board that the kids had to color, cut out the pictures and glue onto their boards.

We played "Santa, Santa, Reindeer". They thought it was so funny that I changed the name from duck, duck, goose, but they indulged me. =]

I found a picture of a Kinara and we painted with Kwanzaa colors.

I created a memory game with symbolic Kwanzaa pictures, i.e candle, kinara, fruit, corn, Africa, etc. My class jumps at the chance to play organized games like these.

I found a worksheet online and decided to make one based on it. I drew symbolic parts of kwanzaa with specific coloring instructions. As I gave the directions for what to color, we talked about why that item is important to celebrating Kwanzaa. A worksheet that is very close to what I did is found here.

I wanted to challenge my kids, so I made an alphabet code. We started it together and then whoever wanted to worked on their own. A worksheet that is very close to what I did is found here.

We painted and played with home made noisemakers. I used toilet paper rolls, some macaroni and some beads, and a stapler. Voila, instant New Years fun!

I made construction paper confetti, and with it we made fireworks on dark colored construction paper.

We mixed and baked a confetti cake with some confetti frosting. Something sweet to bring in the new year!

Now I couldn't have an entire week go by without any number or letter activities, so I squeezed a few in there!

On this website, you can create your own handwriting worksheets, so I have one for each child in the class. They trace their names (first and last) three times, and then have a line to write it on their own. I do this a few times a year and stick them in their portfolios for an example of their improving writing skills.

We colored a butterfly labeled with #6-10. I love these so much. It really forces the kids to slow down and think about what they are coloring. I use this book for all my number pages like this.

Up next week: "Winter Numberland"

Morning Meeting/Circle Time

Morning Meeting is great way to come together, talk about the day and get ready for what's ahead. I think the way we do our group really works for our class, so I thought I would share it with you!

This is the "bookpit" where we meet!

We start our meeting with Show and Share. Each child has one day that they can bring in something special to share with the class. They then take three questions from their classmates about their item.

Next we talk about the Schedule of the day. We talk about the different activities that we are going to do, where we are going to have our play time (outside or in the gym) and flow of the day.

After we talk about the schedule, we go into our daily jobs. I go through who has each job that day.

We sing our attendance song:  

                           Teacher- "Name of child," are you here?

                           Class- Yes dear teacher, he/she is here or No dear teacher, they're not here.

When the child's name is called, they come up to me to get their name tag. When we're finished, the Attendance Helper walks around the circle and collects all the cards while counting. Then we discuss how many friends came to school that day.

The Calender Helper then has to name the number date of the previous day, and decide what today is. I got this pocket calender and the numbers from LakeShore Learning. Each month has different pictures and two colors, so you can make patters on the calender. (We're going to start that in January.) The calender helper then has to name the day of the week for today, tomorrow and yesterday.

Then the Weather Helper gets their turn. They look out the window and talk about what they see, then we decide by those clues what the weather is. They make the arrow point to the weather and then color a block on the graph. (I saved all of the weather charts from last year, so when we get to the end of a month, we compare the different weathers.)

Time for the Pledge! The Flag Helper comes to the front of the circle to hold up the flag while we say the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Substitute takes over if any friends are absent or if they need some help with their job. the Line Leader leads us if we leave the classroom to play in the gym or outside.

Another plus to having a job, is that in the afternoon, they pick a song for us to sing during our mini-afternoon circle time!

After our jobs are complete, we sing our song of the week, then read our story for the day. We then talk about our letter, number and color/shape of the week, and then we start our work or playtime.

How does your circle time go? Leave a comment!

Songs of the Week

Hi there! I've been wanting to tell you about how we sing in our classroom, and now's the time!

You may have noticed that we have a "song of the week". This is usually a song that goes along with the color or shape of the week, but sometimes is just a fun silly song. What do we do with these after the week is done? Well, we put them in our song cup!

(The green is what we pull from each day, the purple is where they go until we start over.)

Every afternoon, when everyone is woken up from a rest and has a full belly from afternoon snack, we have a little mini meeting back in our book pit. We re-group, talk about our afternoon work, and just have a minute to talk. Right before we break and get to work, each child that had a morning meeting job, gets to pick a song out of the song cup. (I have also used our song cup if we are waiting for a special guest to arrive, or if we are waiting for an event to start. It keeps everyone from getting to antsy.)

In the beginning of the year, I had just songs like "Twinkle Twinkle", "The Alphabet", "5 Little Monkeys", etc. Then as we learn the songs each week, they get added to our possible song choices. The kids get so excited when they have a job in the morning, becuase they know they get to pick on of our afternoon songs too!

(All the songs that we had so far. =])

I find that my class really loves to sing and they have so much fun with it. Preschoolers are so musical, they love to dance and sing, why not try this out in your classroom? I've also seen this done with the songs written on slips of paper and put in a shoebox. Either way works, just get out there are sing!