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!

Types of Art (U, V, W and 1-5)

Our theme this week was "Types of Art" and we focused on reviewing the numbers 1-5, and the letters U, V and W.

(To be honest... I'm not really sure what I was going for here. My kids wanted to know if our theme was "Hair") =/

We read this week:  Duck and Goose by Tad Hills
                                Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss
                                The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
                                Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
                                The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

Our question of the week was "What is your favorite kind of art?" We went over the different kinds of art projects that we have done before they gave their answers.

For our theme of the week, we started to prepare for graduation! This makes me both happy and sad at the same time. But, time keeps marching and so do we! We started to work on their class shirts for graduation. It's a very simple design but they turn out so cute last year, that I knew I wanted to do them again! We used simple white t-shirts and different colors of fabric paint. I have each child do their hand-print in a different color (we had some repeats this year, but on their side of the shirt they were the only ones with that color.) This is a bit time consuming, so we did it over the course of 4 days.
(The fabric paint doesn't last very long on the hand, it's really only good for one handprint. For each shirt I had to repaint their hand) They were really good sports about it.)

After the paint dried, I wrote their first names on their handprints in Sharpie. Some of my kids from last year still wear their shirts and they held up nicely!

Then we talked about some of the different kinds of pictures that you could make; landscapes, portraits, still life and self portraits. Then they drew and colored self portraits.

And they also painted self portraits.

We made collages that I'll talk about more in the "our numbers" section below. =]

For their journals this week, we went back to the beginning page where I had them write "My name is...." and draw a picture of them selves. (Wow, we did a lot of self portraiture this week!) Now their journals have a nice introductory page!

Our song of the week was "I'm a Little Graduate". Time to start practicing for Graduation! (Only three weeks away!) We sang this song last year, and to be honest, I'm not sure where I found it. We sang it to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot".

"I'm a little graduate, Aren't you proud of me?

I know my numbers and ABC's.

I made lots of friends and had fun too,

Now, I'm off to the big kid school!"

For our numbers, we made those collages that I talked about! I gave each child the numerals 1-5 and pre-cut pictures that correspond. I handed them each their little packet and asked them to color their pictures first, then to glue them on their construction paper. We talked about how with a collage, you can really put them on the paper however you want. I showed them mine, where I grouped the numbers together. Some kids talked about lining them all up, some grouped them like me, and some just made a fun jumbled collage! This was fun project because they got to make it their own and they practiced their counting. Believe me! They sure knew if I forgot to give them one of their picture! =]

From Alphabet, Colors, Numbers and Shapes, I found this great worksheet for practicing counting and one-to-one correspondence.

And I also had a handmade worksheet like that too.

For our letter activities, we reviewed writing and finding the letters that we are talking about; U, V and W. These pages came from Letters for Little Learners.

The letter of the week books have pages that you can make into a book. I picked from both to get my "favorites". Each week, we work on some of these pages, and each child at the end will have an alphabet book. 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 "U" page came from Book 2, the "V" page came from Book 1, and the "N" page came from Book 2.

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 that are 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.

Colors! (L, M, N and 28)

Our theme this week was "Colors" and we focused on the number 28, and reviewed the letters L, M and N.

We read this week: The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
                              Roy G. Biv Is Mad At Me Because I Love Pink by Nancy Guettier
                              The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Dewalt
                              LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
                              Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney

Our question of the week was "What color is your house?"

For our theme of the week, we made our own Rainbow fish!

Coloring outside on the sidewalk with chalk was super fun!

We wrote in journals about our favorite colors.

We played "I have, who has?" with colors. I love this game, because it teaches my kids that they have to pay attention to the question being asked. Then they have to make sure that they are answering the question.

Using a the letter clues in the picture's key, we colored a picture of a clown. This came from the Ultimate Skill Builder.

Using some cups, water and food dye, we also experimented with color mixing. I found this idea on Pinterest here, it was so cool to see how excited the kids were about experimenting. We talked about primary and secondary colors, which they haven't had a lot of exposure to.

(al of our pretty colors mixed together. Yuck.

Our song of the week was "Great Big Rainbow". 

(C) Jean Warren www.preschoolexpress.com

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.

The class also worked on their writing of the number and the word for 28.

For our letter activities, we reviewed writing and finding the letters that we are talking about; L, M, and N. These pages came from Letters for Little Learners.

The letter of the week books have pages that you can make into a book. I picked from both to get my "favorites". Each week, we work on some of these pages, and each child at the end will have an alphabet book. 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 "L" page came from Book 1, the "M" page came from Book 1, and the "N" page came from Book 2.

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 that are 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.

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