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!

Community Helpers/Fire Prevention Week (E, 2, Oval)

Our theme this week was "Fire Prevention Week/Community Helpers" and we focused on the letter Ee, the number 2 and the shape oval.

We read this week: Career Day by Anne Rockewell
                               Bendemolina an American "silly story"
                               Detective Dinosaur by James Skofield
                               Curious George and the Firefighters by Margret and H.A. Reys
                               Duck for President by Doreen Cronin

Our question of the week was "What do you think Mom does at work?" The kids really love answering these questions.

For our theme of the week, we talked about the different people that help our community be successful, really focusing on fire safety and prevention.

We played community helper bingo. I made the game board and found pictures of various jobs (teacher, paramedic, police, crossing guard, store cashier, judge, chef, etc). The kids had to color the pictures, cut them out and then glue them onto the board. It's a great activity for fine motor and then we get to play a game!

I found on Pinterest last year the idea for turning a hand print into "5 Little Firefighters".

We talked about stopping, dropping and rolling... and practiced. That was a lot of fun. =]

The fire truck and firefighters from a local station came to visit us. The kids loved it. They got to talk to the firefighters, see them with their gear on and go in the truck! They came through the school afterward to see all the classrooms and I'd never seen my class so shy! It was hilarious.

The next day we wrote about saying thank you when people do something special for us, so we wrote thank you notes to the firefighters.

We had a Grandparent's breakfast and our visiting Grandparents helped us use dot paint to decorate 911. We talked about the number, when to use it and especially when not to.

We talked a lot this week about the shape ovals. We sang this song that I found here.

"This is and Oval, this is an Oval,

How can you tell? How can you tell?

It is long on one end,

And short on the other, 

It's an oval, it's an oval."

The kids practiced recognizing ovals.

And drawing ovals and squares with this worksheet or a cute egg-headed man.

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

The kids also used a key to color a picture. This time we tried is as our first whole group activity of the year. They did a great job and really worked on following directions, listening, being patient and trying to focus on what they were doing.

I made these worksheets that reinforces the one to one concept. They kids practice writing the number and have to color a square for each picture that they see.

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter E,  and the sheet that helps work on letter recognition, both are from books that are mentioned in the "All About Me" post. The students also wrote in their journals for the letter E.

We turned E's into Elephants.

For our alphabet wall we made Eagles. After we made them we watched some of this video so the kids could see Eagles in action.

And with the E addition, our wall now looks like...

Our list for words beginning with E's was very impressive. Here it is!

Up next week: The letter Ff, the number 3, octagon and "Falling for Fall".