Keep Calm and Teach On

Saturday, December 6, 2014

We Are Thankful!

The theme for the last week of November was "We Are Thankful". Since it is a short week, we focused on Thanksgiving and Turkey themed activities. We finished out the month with our ABAB patterned turkeys!

This week we read: A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting
Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland
Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson

We have gotten to the end of another month, which means comparing weathers!

Our question of the week was "What are you thankful for?"

For our theme "We Are Thankful", we did a lot of fun activities. We made Turkey headbands to wear at our school's Thanksgiving feast. Speaking of feast... yum!!

We sang "Turkey Dinner" to the tune of Frere Jaques.

Turkey Dinner, Turkey Dinner

Gather Round, Gather Round

Who will get the drumstick?

Yummy Yummy drumstick

All sit down, all sit down.

Cornbread, muffins,

Chestnuts, stuffing,

Pudding pie ten feet high.

We were all much thinner, before we sat for dinner!

Me, oh, my me, oh, my.

The kids colored and put together a turkey "puzzle". I couldn't decide if I wanted letters to help them, or numbers, so I did both!

I gave the children a turkey maze and a pumpkin maze, that they had a lot of fun with.

We looked at pictures to find out which ones were different.

The kids wrote in their journal about what they are thankful for.

We sang "Let's Be Thankful" to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Counting from 1-30 is much more fun while making a Turkey dot-to-dot!

We talked about the Cornucopia, and the the class colored and cut vegetables and fruits to make a Cornucopia collage.

We also had our first "real" snow of the season!!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

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

Turkeys, Pilgrims and Native Americans! (Jj, 7, Star)

The theme for the third week of November was "Turkeys, Pilgrims and Native Americans". We continued our Letter of the Week study, with the letter J. This week we also focused on the star shape, and we kept going on our number study with the number 7!

We celebrated a birthday!

This week we read: Red Fox and His Canoe by Nathaniel Benchley
The Very First Thanksgiving Day by Rhonda Gowler Greene
1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Pilgrims by B.G. Hennessy
Thanksgiving Cats by Jean Marzollo
The Thirsty Moose by David Orme

Our question of the week was "What would you bring on the Mayflower with you?" My favorite part of this question was a conversation that it sparked between a child and parent at pickup. P: What was a the Mayflower? C: A boat. P: Do you know who was on the Mayflower? C: Yea, some old people.

The shape of the week: star was fun to talk about. We practiced drawing stars in the air, and talked about where we see stars. The children worked on their fine motor skills and shape recognition by coloring shapes. I made this sheet myself based on recognition sheets that we have already done.

For our song this week we sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

For the number of the week: 7 we started off by counting to and backward from seven. 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 seven.

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 7. The children had to practice writing the number and then color in that number of squares. What a great way to really introduce graphing and what a great way for them to work on their one-to-one correspondence.

For our theme "Turkeys, Pilgrims, Native Americans", we talked about the way Native Americans lived before the pilgrims. We looked at some materials from the Lenapes (which is our local tribe).

We sang the song "Indians and Pilgrims" to the tune of Row your Boat.

Beat, beat, beat the drum,

Beat it loud and clear.

To tell brave Indians everywhere

That hunting time is near.

Cut, cut, cut the logs,

Make them long and short.

To help the pilgrims build a house,

A warm and friendly fort.

We talked about how corn was a staple crop and used it in an art project, which conveniently doubled as cool Thanksgiving decorations! =]

We made handprint Mayflowers! I love hearing my kids' giggles as i paint their hands, and they're always fascinated by the amount of things that we turn their handprints into.

Speaking of which, we turned their handprints into turkeys for a keepsake Thanksgiving placemat. So cute!!

We made strawberry juice while channeling the Lenape Indians. I cut the tops off of strawberries and put them into plastic baggies. The kids did all the work mashing them, to which we added hot water. I let the strawberries sit in the hot water and we observed the juices coming out of the berries. It was really cool to watch. For a little sweetness I added some honey. I was really happy that almost everyone tried it... and liked it!

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

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 put the "J" patches on the jacket. All the other letters? Not on this fashion statement!

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 we colored and cut out pictures of jet planes. I attached them to toilet paper rolls so they popped a little!

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.

Using 7 Jellybeans, the kids sorted and colored the pictures. This helped them work on their color matching and one-to-one correspondence.

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.

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!

From one of the Letter of the Week books, we made little flip books about a Jet flying around. I love these because we can work on whole group activities and following sequential directions. They are also simple enough that when finished they can look through it and tell the story to themselves.

The children turned a capital letter J into a jaguar. 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.

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

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

Friday, December 5, 2014

The Harvest! (Ii, 6, Heart)

The theme for the 11th week of school and second week of November was "The Harvest". We continued our Letter of the Week study, with the letter I. This week we also focused on the heart shape, and we kept going on our number study with the number 6!

This week we read: Possum's Harvest Moon by Anne Hunter
  Pumpkin To wn! by Katie McKy
  From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer
Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper
  The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons

Our question of the week was "What is one word to describe you?" This is always definitely a fun and interesting question to ask.

The shape of the week: heart was fun to talk about. We also practiced drawing hearts in the air, and made a heart by putting our two hands together. The children worked on their fine motor skills and shape recognition by coloring shapes. I made this sheet myself based on recognition sheets that we have already done.

For our song this week we sang "I'm a Little Heart Fish" from Preschool Express.

"I'm a little heart fish in the sea,

I have a heart tail that helps guide me.

when I'm feeling friendly I start to blow,

Tiny heart bubbles...up they go!"

For the number of the week: 6 we started off by counting to and backward from six. 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 six.

In some papers in my room I found a random number page like this from education.com, so I made my own for the number 6. The children had to practice writing the number and then color in that number of squares. What a great way to really introduce graphing and what a great way for them to work on their one-to-one correspondence.

For our theme "The Harvest", we had a lot of fun talking more about the changes happening outside from a different perspective.When we talked about Falling for Fall, we talked about the changes we can see around us. Talking about harvest time, we got to talk more about what those changes mean.

For our class bunnies, Patches and Daisy, we harvested them a feast from outside of leaves, sticks and dandelion leaves from our playground, and parsley and tomatoes from our school garden.

We sorted these little cards that I made of the lifecycle of a pumpkin, all the way from planting the seed to getting the large orange pumpkin. In small groups the kids put the cards in order, and they were really proud of themselves! =]

We made Pumpkin Moon Sand for our sensory table! I found the recipe on Pinterest here, and the kids love it. It smells sooo good! Mine did not come out nearly as smooth as it looks in the picture, and I'm not sure why, but my kids still are having a lot of fun with it!

I have small cookie cutters for my side business... Shameless plug time, I make delicious dog treats. Check us out! Jakks in a Box! and I brought my Autumn themed cutters so that we could paint with them. There is something about cookie cutter painting that I just love!

The letter of the week: I activities that we worked on this were were Interesting! We Sang "All the Leaves are Falling Down" that I found at Preschool Express. We sang it to the tune of "London Bridge"

All the leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down. (Imitate leaves falling down)

All the leaves are falling down, it is Fall.

Take the rake and rake them up, rake them up, rake them up. (Imitate raking up leaves)

Take the rake and rake them up, it is Fall.

Make a pile and jump right in, jump right in, jump right in. (Children jump forward)

Make a pile and jump right in, it is Fall.

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 put the "I" insects in the bug box. All the other letters? I think they have to find a different home!

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 we used our ink pads and crayons to make fingerprint insects.

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

I found this worksheet with a Sesame Street theme and I love it! The children have to say what the pictures are and decide if its a long i or a short i sound.

We watched a video first about a young boy making his first Igloo. I also found this video, whitch was much more in depth. This started such a great conversation about igloo building, and my class is really hoping that this coming winter brings a LOT of snow. After this, we also made igloos with blocks of snow (aka, white squares on blue paper).

The children turned a capital letter I into a insect. 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.

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

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