Big & Little! (R, S, &T)

The theme for the last week of May was "Big and Little!". Since we finished our Letter of the Week study, we are now reviewing our letters! This week we reviewed letters R, S, & T!
I was on vacation this week, and my substitutes did an AMAZING job.... but I didn't take a whole bunch of pictures! =/

The end of the month brings us a completed calendar pattern, AB this month, and weather graphs to compare!

This week we read: Maple by Lori Nichols
                                        Big and Small by Elizabeth Bennett
                                        There's a Hippopotamus Under My Bed by Mike Thaler
                                        Little Puppy and the Big Green Monster by Mike Wohnoutka
                                   
Our question of the week was "What are you bigger than?"

Whoops!

For a number review the children practiced the numbers 1-5, counting and recognition.

For our theme "Big and Small",  we had a lot of fun comparing measurements and objects. We started off the week by measuring each child to see how much they have grown since their first day of the school year. Wowza, they got tall!

I gathered a few items from around the classroom and asked in small groups about what larger and smaller means. One day I asked them to tell me which was larger, and the next day I asked for the smaller object. I always ask them why they think their answer is correct, and I love to see their reasoning and thought process. To go along with this, I had them complete these  two worksheets that I found in Shapes and Measurements. When they were done coloring the smaller or larger picture, they each found something in the room that they were larger or smaller than, and drew a picture of it on the back of the paper.

While reviewing the letters R, S, and T, 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 "run".

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, R, S, and T. 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, with a worksheet I made saying "Rita and Stacey went to the train station. They tried raspberries and snozberries."

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 rabbits, raccoons one and raccoons two, rats one and rats two, reindeer one and reindeer two and rhinoceros. Seahorse, seal, sea lion, sheep, shark, skunk one and skunk two, sloth, snail, snake one and snake two, spider, squid, squirrel and stingray. Also  tiger one and tiger two, tortoise one and tortoise two and turtle. Whew!

I made an "I have, who has" game filled with R, S, and T 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 Beach!

 We continued our summer fun this week with the theme, "The Beach!"

During summer camp, we always have Yoga day where the school does a child centered yoga workout. The video we've been using is great because most of the poses are named after animals, like a snake.... hissssss!

We also have splash day, where all the kids put on their bathing suits and we play outside in water tables and have a fun squiggly sprinkler to run through.

We also have some older children that have joined our class for the summer. While my kids are having their rest in the middle of the day, these children have extra play time out of the room and they also work on some practice sheets that I got from the Summer Bridge Books for K-1 and 1-2. They are great worksheets to keep the older kids practicing their skills over the summer! I love the Pk-K book and I use it through out the year for their letter worksheets.

We read this week: Pig Kahuna Pirates by Jennifer Sattler
                               On a Pirate Ship by Anna Milbourne
                               A Day at the Beach by Mircea Vasiliu
                               On the Seashore by Anna Milbourne
                               Penguin on Vacation by Salina Yoon

Our question of the week was "What beach do you go to?" This one was interesting!

For our theme of the week, I made a little "sensory bin" I see how much the kids like the sensory tables in the younger rooms, and I really wanted something for my kids to play in occasionally too. I found this large rolling storage bin that I can put on the science center table for the kids to play with! To fit with our theme, i put some sand with sifters, measuring cups and spoons. I found colored sand in the art closet and sprinkled some in there too. They absolutely love it!

The kids drew and colored a scene on a beach, and then they got to glue some sand on it too.

From this website I found the idea for a beachy version of "Mother May I?" called "What Time is it Mr. Lifeguard?" The lifeguard turns around and the kids ask 'what time is it?" The lifeguard picks a time i.e 3pm and the children then take that many steps i.e 3 steps. So fun!

Measuring things around the room is a really fun math activity. This week we used pirate dubloons to measure things! I made this worksheet and the children each found two things in the classroom to measure! Then I threw them in the sensory bin!

We made a class book about things that we like to do at the beach! I love making class books like this, the kids love them and so do our parents! It's so great when I see parents reading through the book with their children either at pick up or at drop off times.

We tossed a beach ball around and got those gross motor muscles and hand eye coordination working! I got this really cute beach Ball from Pottery Barn Kids a few years ago. It's a little thicker than most beach balls I've seen, so I know it will last a loooooong time! =]

The kids wrote in their journals about different things that they see when they are at the beach. We are so lucky with where we are because the Jersey Shore is only about an hour away.. which is one of my favorite places in the world! I grew up down at the beach and I love that my kids get to visit there as well!

While my class writes in their journal each week, the older kids (Kindergarten and 1st grade) work on these reading response sheets about the book that we read that day.

From the book Alphabet, Colors, Numbers and Shapes the kids worked on their color word knowledge to correctly color in the fish.

And our movie for the week was.... The Little Mermaid!

Our song of the week was "Pretty Shells" to the tune of Jingle Bells.

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

The games that we played this week at morning meeting were so fun!

We played "Alphabet Catch" with a beanbag. We toss the beanbag around the circle and the kids have to say the next letter in the alphabet. We started tossing it to the person next to use, once the kids get more comfortable with the game we'll stand in a circle and toss the beanbag across to friends.

"Zoom" is a fun and quick game to play with a class of any age. First you need to pick a direction that the zoom is going to go around the circle. The person starting says zoom and turns their head the the person next, and it goes around the circle. Once the class gets comfortable with this game, I will record how long it takes us!

"Pop!" is a really fun game, and definitely a favorite. We stand in a circle and each child says one number as we go around. But each round there is a pop number. Instead of saying that number, you POP! the person that would be next, out. We work very hard on having good sportsmanship, and the kids have fun even if they're out because they know they get to play again in the next round!

We played "I have, who has?" which I originally saw being played in a Montessori class. It's so cool to see the children take over the game and help their friends follow along. I currently have three versions that we play, but I am planning on making one with numbers and maybe a grab-bag of random things. That might be fun! This week we played Colors and the Alphabet.

We played "Crocodile by the Lake". I found the idea for this game last year and adapted it to be my own. I turned a box into a crocodile with bulletin and construction paper, then filled it with little cards that have a letter, number or shape on them. The children have to reach into the crocodile's mouth (while he's sleeping of course), pull out a card and name what's there. Also hidden in the belly of the crocodile though are SNAP cards (the crocodile wakes up and SNAPS his mouth shut!). Once we pull three SNAP cards, the game is over!

That's all for now! Leave me a comment please if you visit! =]