The Week of the Young Child (C&D, 25, Purple, Square)

The theme for the third week of April was "The Week of the Young Child". Since we finished our Letter of the Week study, we are now reviewing our letters! We started off our review with letters C & D and continued our number study with the number 25! We have gone through our shapes and colors once, so from now until graduation, we will talk about two each week and do some small review activities. We worked this week on squares and purple.

This week we read: Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
                                        My Garden by Kevin Henkes
                                        The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
                                        Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
                                        Press Here by Herve Tullet

Our question of the week was "Why do you like to come to school?"

To review the color purple we talked about things in real life, at morning meeting, that are purple. The kids also colored pictures of purple things. I found these pages on pinterest, and I love the concept! My general rule of thumb is that if the children can explain to me their reasoning for coloring an object, then I am all for it!

To review the square shape the children practiced recognizing the shape and colored squares. I created this little picture full of the shape. They needed to color the squares purple and then the rest of the balloons other colors!

For the number of the week:25 we started off by counting to and backward from twenty-five. 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 twenty-five. 

When I started in my class, I found a page like this from education.com, so I made my own for the number 25. The children have to practice writing the number and then color in that number of squares. It's a great way to introduce graphing and helps them to work on their one-to-one correspondence.                    

For our theme "The Week of the Young Child",  we visited our Art Show!

We sang "If You're Happy and You Know It."

The children used purple ribbon to paint a picture!

We painted with spring cookie cutters.

In their journals, the children wrote about what they might want to be when they grow up.

While reviewing the letter C and D, we are really focusing on practicing writing, having good control over letter formation, and having a solid knowledge of the letter sounds.

My children that are moving on to kindergarten next year, are working on sight words and this worksheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler are amazing! They challenge the children to think of the word in a new way and get creative. This week they worked on the word "do".

I created envelope games for each letter of the alphabet that we played the first way through the alphabet. My children that are staying with me another year played these again to work on their letter sounds.

We reviewed writing and finding the letters that we are talking about, C and D. The pages for my younger group came from Letters for Little Learners, and I found these more advanced worksheets for my older children from education.com.

The book Alphabet and Counting that we used used  to turn our letters into fun animals, also has cute little tongue twisters for each letter. I printed them large and illustrated them, then I laminated them with contact paper. Using wet erase markers, we take turns finding the letters hidden!

On their own, they searched for the letters as well!

The letter of the week books have pages that you can make a book into. I picked from both to get my "favorites". Each week, we'll work on these pages, and each child will end up with an alphabet book at the end of the year. 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!

There is a 15-20 minute span of time while the children are waking up from our rest time and afternoon snack. During this time, we talk about what they will be doing in the afternoon with their afternoon teacher, and what we did in the morning. We also spend some time learning about animals through videos. This week we watched about the cat, camel one, camel two, chipmunk, cow, chameleon, deer, dog, and dragonfly.

I made an "I have, who has" game filled with C and D things. I love this game because once it starts, the children completely direct it. I love seeing them help each other and play with each other.

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

The Five Senses! (Cc, Triangle)

The theme for week five of the school year was "The 5 Senses". We continued our Letter of the Week study, with the letter C. This week we also focused on the triangle shape.

This week we finished up our first month of weather! Every day at morning meeting we graph what the weather is. At the end of the month I put it together and we compare this year's weather to last years. At the end of the year, I turn them into a book!

This week we read: Corduroy by Don Freeman
                                       The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
                                       Curious George Goes Camping by Margret and HA Rey
                                       Little Cloud by Eric Carle
                                       He Came With the Couch by David Slonim

Our question of the week was "What are you not so good at?"

The shape of the week: triangle was fun to talk about. At our morning meetings, we would talk about the shape and things in real life that are a triangle. We also practiced drawing triangles in the air. The children worked on their fine motor skills by tracing triangles, and reviewing our square shape from two weeks ago. I found these worksheets on Kidzone.

The children also worked on their triangle recognition. I got this page from The Original Summer Bridge Activities, for PreK-K.

For our song this week we sang "Triangles".  I found it at Preschool Express.

Triangles, triangles, Triangles I see.

Count the points and count the sides,

Count them 1, 2, 3.

Triangles, triangles, Just for you and me.

Count the points and count the sides,

Count them 1, 2, 3.

(C) 2001 - 2011 Jean Warren www.preschoolexpress.com 

For our theme "The Five Senses", we focused on an activity for one sense each day.

For touch we made texture collages. I put glue all over a piece of black construction paper, and put out different materials, like crinkled paper, feathers, sponges, foil, etc. The children get to explore the different feeling of the materials and create their very own masterpiece!

For smell we painted with fruit teas! This was messy, but definitely a lot of fun! We examined the tea bags when they were dry, and sniffed them. (I bought the fruit tea sample box from Celestial Seasonings.) Once we had decided which one we all like the best, most liked the peach the best, we put them in bowls of warm water for a few minutes. Then the children used them to paint with! It was really fun to do, although I was a bit disappointed that when papers dried, they turned gray! That was an interesting outcome for sure. *Next time I do a project like this, I will definitely invest in some watercolor paper. The regular printer paper very quickly became too wet.*

For sound we took a walk on our schools nature trail. we stopped and sat at different places as we walked and listened for different sounds. When we came inside I made a quick map to show the class what things we heard in each place.

For sight the kids made binoculars out of toilet paper rolls. I stapled them together and the kids painted them. When they were dry we tied some yarn to them so that the children could wear them around their necks. Later in the day they took them outside and looked at things through them,

For taste we tasted lemons and limes! I was surprised how many of my kids loved it! I dod get some pretty great sour faces though. When we were done tasting, we painted with lemons and limes and made prints. I love how these turned out. The whole time the kids were doing it I was craving a Sprite. =]

The letter of the week: C activities that we worked on this were were Cool! 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 fill the cans with all the "C" objects.

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!

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

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 C into an caterpillar. 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.

We continued to work on our Alphabet Wall. In the classroom I taped up two trees. As we work through the alphabet, the children will make projects to go on the wall. It's a very fun way for the class to see the alphabet in a new way. This week, we made clouds! We talked about some of the different kinds of clouds there are, and then the kids painted on blue construction paper.

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 "C" things one each side. The children say "Caterpillar, Caterpillar, 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 c. Here is what we thought of!

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Going Green! (C, D, E, 25 and Hexagons)

Our theme this week was "Going Green" and we focused on the number 25, and reviewed the letters C, D and E, and hexagons.

We read this week: Duck and Goose by Tad Hills
                              The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle Von Olfers
                              Living Sunlight by Molly Bang
                              The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
                              My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Our question of the week was "How can you 'Go Green'" It was such a strange saying to my kids that some of these answers are hilarious!

For our theme of the week, we made Earth Sun-catchers using wax paper and crayon. They almost glow when the sun shines through them!

We also made recycle themed collages and talked about why recycling is better for the planet then just throwing something away.

I already know that my kids love the newer movie version of the Lorax, so I wanted to show them the original. (Be warned! There is some not nice name calling... chalk it up to being from the 70's I guess...)

We also wrote in our journals this week about ways that we could help the planet. We brainstormed a list, and then the kids picked what they were going to do.

We planted seeds!

Our song of the week was "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" from here. This song was big hit with my class last year, so I'm hoping my kids this year like it just as much!

"Reduce Reuse Recycle

Are words that we all know

We have to save our planet

So we can live and grow

We might be only children

We have to try, you’ll see

We will save our planet

It starts with you and me!"

We talked about the shape hexagon 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.

We also used our math boxes to help us count to 25. This is a great way to really get kids to learn that each number stands for something.

For our letter activities, we reviewed writing and finding the letters that we are talking about, C, D and E. These pages came from Letters for Little Learners.

We Celebrated "C" with a cake full of c pictured candles. Cut and paste projects are so fun because my kids can do them now completely on their own and they are so proud of themselves! This project came from Letter of the Week- Book 1.

From Sounds Like Fun, we did the "Elephant Exercise" It was really fun to bend and stretch and swing our trunk, all while listening for the sounds that the letter E makes.

The letter of the week books have pages that you can make a book into. I picked from both to get my "favorites". Each week, we'll work on these pages, and each child will end up with an alphabet book at the end of the year. 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 "C" page came from Book 1, the "D" page came from Book 2, and the "E" page came from Book 1.

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 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!

Speaking of sight words, from Confessions of a HomeSchooler, I got these great sight word pages. We continued this week with the word "do".