Painting to Music

 Our theme this week was "Painting to Music" and we focused on getting ready for graduation! This is one of my favorite themes, because it's so fun for the kids to listen to and react the the different genres of music.

We also spent time this week getting prepared for our graduation ceremony on Friday afternoon!

We read this week: The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
                               Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss
                               Oh, The Thinks You Can Think by Dr. Seuss
                               The Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing
                               The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
                               The Night Before Summer Vacation by Natasha Wing

Our question of the week was "What was your favorite thing that we did in school?"

And we wrote in journals about this question too.

For our themes of the week,  we painted to 4 different kinds of music; Classical, Country, Rock and Blues. Each day the kids listened to the music for about a minute and then we talked about the way it made them feel. Then we talked about how those feelings should be be reflected in our paintings.

For classical music we listened to a playlist of Tchaikovsky's The Seasons, and we painted with purple, green and orange. Most of the kids said that the music made them feel sleepy.

For Country music we listened to a playlist of Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban. We painted with yellow, orange and brown. The kids really liked the country music!

For Rock music we listened to a playlist of The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. We painted with purple, orange and yellow. The kids just wanted to dance!! So, we had a little dance party after everyone finished their paintings.

For Blues music we listened to a playlist of Mississippi John Hurt and B.B. King. We used green, purple and blue paint. They told me that this wasn't really their favorite =/, but I enjoyed it!

For our practice activities, we matched shapes with worksheets from Summerbridge Pre-K-K. I love these books because they have such great worksheets for keeping the learning going at home over the summer as well as worksheets that I use throughout the year.

Dot-to-dots are such a fun way to practice counting! We did this really cool one of a cat from The Complete Book of Numbers and Counting.

Also from that book the kids followed a number maze from 1-20.

Practicing colors with raindrops is so fun! They kids have to use their letter knowledge and color words to complete the worksheet. This came from Alphabet, Colors, Numbers and Shapes.

We played beginning consonant sound Bingo!

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.

My new favorite thing is adding glitter to playdough. So pretty!

We Are Thankful!

Our theme for the week of Thanksgiving, our theme was "We Are Thankful".

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

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

For our theme of the week, we talked about all the things in our lives that we are thankful for. The kids wrote in their journal with what they answered the question of the week.

We made "Thankful Turkeys".

Our school has a feast the day before Thanksgiving. We colored turkeys and made hats to wear.

[There's me, modeling our hats. ;)]

The kids did a pumpkin maze and practiced the concept of alike and different. They also helped a turkey find his way through a maze and did a turkey dot to dot. 

We did a cut and past project to make a cornucopia. The kids sure did have a hard time saying that word!

We sang "Let's Be Thankful" to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle" which I found here.

"Let’s be thankful for this day,

For our friends and for our play.

Let’s be thankful; let’s be glad,

For the food and things we have.

Let’s give thanks for you and me,

For our home and family."

We did not talk about a letter, number or shape this week.We played the counting games "1,2,3" and "Pop!" The kids love those responsive classroom games.

Here's an update from our "planted" pumpkins! We planted them the week of Halloween, and we got a sprout!!

The pumpkins were staring to get soft, so I planted them under soil. I'm hoping that the soil on top will help them decompose without attracting bugs and smelling. Anyone out there have any tips about that?

Up next week: The letter Kk, number 8 and color blue. Our theme will be "Hanukkah: The Celebration of Lights".