If you Give a Butterfly a Diploma...

Another school year, flown by. And now it's time to graduate!

 My apologies, but it seems I have no pictures to share! I will search my other camera, and put them up if I can fin any! Last year we a had a Lorax themed graduation that was pretty cool too!

I really wanted my class to be involved in the planning and decisions for this year. If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff was one of my favorite stories when I was young, and I thought "What a great template for the class to write their own graduation play in this style!" And so, a theme was born.

First we decided what songs to sing. I asked the children to vote on their favorite songs that they learned this year. Out of a few that were requested almost daily, they decided on "Twinkle Twinkle Hanukkah Lights" and "I'm a Little Penguin". For a prop to hold while singing, the children each made a dreidel and penguin.


We worked on, "We Are Here to Graduate", to the tune of London Bridge. This is what we sing as we walk into graduation.

"We are here to graduate, graduate, graduate.
We are here to graduate, on this special day."

Then we learned "I'm a Little Graduate", 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!"

Then we needed to talk about a performance to do. Since we were going with a If You Give a .... theme, what better thing to do than write our own!? Each day for a week, we "wrote" a story, each child giving what would happen next in a chain of events. I'll admit, some of them were pretty out there, but in the end, we focused in on a story centered around things in our own school.

To go with their part of the story, I drew simple illustrations of their part for them to color. At our ceremony, when it was their turn to speak, they held up their illustration too! Their parents LOVED it!! 

I turned the pages into a class book, so after graduation, I went back and wrote their spoken part on the page that they colored. It is something that I will treasure forever because I know how hard they all worked on their parts and I know that future classes of any age will love to see it.

I made little goodie bags with their names on them filled with some pieces of sidewalk chalk that I handed to each child when they got called for their diploma.  They were so happy!

It was such an amazing afternoon and I was so, so, SO proud of my kids and all the hard work that they did. This was the order that we followed for our graduation ceremony.

"We Are Here to Graduate"

School Owner and Director Speeches

My speech. =]

"Twinkle Twinkle Hanukkah Lights"

"I'm a Little Penguin"
"Telling: If You Give a Butterfly a Diploma"

Graduate: Diplomas!

"I'm a Little Graduate"

End!

Next week: Summer Camp!!

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

All About Me! (Aa, Square)

The theme for the 3rd week of the school year was "All About Me". We also started our Letter of the Week study, with the letter A. Throughout the year, we also have a focus each week of either a color or shape, as well as number. The numbers will start soon, and this week we focused on the square shape.

This week we read: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
                                        Always by Alison McGhee
                                        Curious George Feeds the Animals by Margret and HA Rey
                                        LMNO Peas by Keith Baker
                                        Animalia by Graeme Base

Our question of the week was "What animal would you like to be?"

The shape of the week: square was fun to talk about. At our morning meetings, we would talk about the shape and things in real life that are square. We also practiced drawing squares in the air. The children also worked on their fine motor skills by tracing squares. I found this worksheet on Kidzone.

For our song this week we sang "This is a Square". I've seen this song all over (and other shape variations) so I'm not exactly sure where to give the credit. =/

For our theme "All About Me", we made a book! I was given these pages when I started at my school a few years ago, but I believe they came originally from Education.com.

The letter of the week: A activities that we worked on this were were Absolutely fun! 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 find the apples with "A" words on them to put on the tree.

We began 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 apples! The children ripped small pieces of red paper and glued them on a round circle of white paper.

The children turned a capital letter A into an alligator. 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.

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

Playing memory with letter A pictures was a fun way to practice the letter.

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.

We made apple print art!! Those apples get slippery, let me tell you. I think we had more paint on our hands than on the paper! =] I cut each apple the opposite way so we could get both prints.

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!

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. This week we started the journals with the letter A. I start the children out by tracing, and once they are comfortable and controlling the crayon well, they move onto copying.

We tasted three different types of apples: Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Honeycrisp. They tried each kind of apple and then "voted" for the one that they liked the best. Great way for us to start talking about graphs. We talked afterward about the most popular, least and what other things the graph tells us (title, types of apples, names)

Our bunnies really enjoyed the extras!

I made a cube of cardboard and glued pictures of "A" things one each side. The children say "Astronaut, Astronaut, what do I see.... I see a ____ looking at me!" They roll the cube and fill in the blank. This 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 a. Here is what we thought of!

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

Math-letes!

For our last week of summer camp, the theme was "Math-letes!" During this theme we also talked a lot about the past year that we spent together, since most of my class is moving onto kindergarten in other schools.

They wrote in their journals for their last page of the year about what they would miss the most about school?

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.

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: 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle
                               1, 2, 3 Peas by Keith Baker
                               The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (It was our class favorite for the year!)
                               The Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing
                             
Our question of the week was "What do you like the most about our school?"

For our theme of the week,  the class made bingo marker patterns.

Using pattern blocks I made pictures of different animals and objects. I put out the blocks and my pictures and let the class explore them, making the pictures and their own.

I cut out shapes from paper and the class sorted them. If I can find where I found these materials, i will post it here!

Using Unifix cubes the class made pattern and color towers.

I made a memory game with index cards and stickers. The children had to practice their counting whenever they flipped over a card, to try to find the match.

We watched Meet the Robinson's for our last summer movie day.

Our song of the week was "The Numbers Marching In" to the tune of Saints.

Oh,when the numbers march right in,
Oh, when the numbers march right in.
We will count them one by one,
When the numbers march right in.
Oh, one-two-three and four-five-six,
And seven-eight and nine and ten.
When we finish all our numbers,
We will count them once again.

I found it here.

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.

We played "1,2,3" which we have played before and is definitely a fan favorite! We stand in a circle and each child says 1,2 or 3 consecutive numbers starting with 1 up to 9. So for example: "1,2,3" "4" "5,6" "7,8,9" and the next child who would have to say 10 sits down and is out of the round. Then it starts back at one. My class really loves this one, and usually if we play it in the morning, I will hear them in centers or at their lunch tables playing their own facilitated versions of the game.

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 "Number Ball" with a beanbag. We toss the beanbag around the circle and the kids have to say the next number. We stand in a circle and toss the beanbag across to friends and try to beat our record!

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

The Lorax: The Graduation Edition!

My class graduated last week, and it was such a special day that I would love to share with you!

This year my kids really developed a love for all things Lorax (by Dr. Seuss); books, movie, soundtrack, pictures... everything! So when we sat down as a class to figure out what we should do for graduation, they wanted to have a Lorax graduation! (I was A-OK with that!!)

First we decided what songs to sing. We decided that our "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" song would be perfect as well as two graduation songs that my class sang last year.

We worked on, "We Are Here to Graduate", to the tune of London Bridge. This is what we sing as we walk into graduation.

"We are here to graduate, graduate, graduate.
We are here to graduate, on this special day."

Then we learned "I'm a Little Graduate", 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!"

We practiced "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" that I found here. 

"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!"

Then we needed to talk about a performance to do. Since we were going with a Lorax theme, what better thing to do than tell the story of The Lorax? I shortened the story and assigned each child 2-3 sentences as a part to memorize. We worked on it every day for 3 weeks and I know all my awesome parents worked with their children at home.

To go with their part of the story, I bought tracing paper and traced some of the illustrations from the Book. I turned them into a coloring page that the children colored. At our ceremony, when it was their turn to speak, they held up their illustration too! Their parents LOVED it!! 

I decided to turn the pages into a class book, so after graduation, I went back and wrote their spoken part on the page that they colored. It is something that I will treasure forever because I know how hard they all worked on their parts and I know that future classes of any age will love to see it.

I made little goodie bags with their names on them filled with necklaces, graduation bubbles and assorted candy that I handed to each child when they got called for their diploma. As soon as the ceremony was over it was so cute to see them tearing through their bags. They were so happy!

It was such an amazing afternoon and I was so, so, SO proud of my kids and all the hard work that they did. This was the order that we followed for our graduation ceremony.

"We Are Here to Graduate"

School Owner and Director Speeches

My speech. =]

Our Retelling of The Lorax

"Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"

Graduate: Diplomas!

"I'm a Little Graduate"

End!

Next week: Summer Camp!!

Songs of the Week

Hi there! I've been wanting to tell you about how we sing in our classroom, and now's the time!

You may have noticed that we have a "song of the week". This is usually a song that goes along with the color or shape of the week, but sometimes is just a fun silly song. What do we do with these after the week is done? Well, we put them in our song cup!

(The green is what we pull from each day, the purple is where they go until we start over.)

Every afternoon, when everyone is woken up from a rest and has a full belly from afternoon snack, we have a little mini meeting back in our book pit. We re-group, talk about our afternoon work, and just have a minute to talk. Right before we break and get to work, each child that had a morning meeting job, gets to pick a song out of the song cup. (I have also used our song cup if we are waiting for a special guest to arrive, or if we are waiting for an event to start. It keeps everyone from getting to antsy.)

In the beginning of the year, I had just songs like "Twinkle Twinkle", "The Alphabet", "5 Little Monkeys", etc. Then as we learn the songs each week, they get added to our possible song choices. The kids get so excited when they have a job in the morning, becuase they know they get to pick on of our afternoon songs too!

(All the songs that we had so far. =])

I find that my class really loves to sing and they have so much fun with it. Preschoolers are so musical, they love to dance and sing, why not try this out in your classroom? I've also seen this done with the songs written on slips of paper and put in a shoebox. Either way works, just get out there are sing!

Our Feelings (C, Triangle)

Our theme this week was "Our Feelings" and we focused on the letter Cc and the shape triangle.

We read this week: Corduroy by Don Freeman
                               Curious George Goes Camping by Margret and H.A. Reys
                               The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
                               The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
                               The Pout Pout Fish in the Big Big Dark by Deborah Diesen

Our question of the week was "What is something that you're not so good at?" We talked about not being good at something is not always a bad thing, that with practice we can always get better. Some children raised their hands multiple times to tell me things. I love when we get a great discussion going like that.

In the beginning of the year I always like to have the students practice tracing and writing their names.  I found this great website that lets me put in the words that I want them to practice. I choose the largest text and it gives three lines of tracing and one where they have to write the letters on their own. I like to do this activity a few times a year and keep them in their portfolios to see the improvement in their writing over the course of the school year.

For our theme of the week, we talked a lot about our different feelings, why we feel them and how to deal with them.

We made "Happy Cards" I found the idea at this blog. The kids loved getting smiley faces painted on their hands. After they made their hand prints, I asked them to tell me "Things that make me smile"and I scribed what they said.

 We made water color relief sad faces. They used white crayons to draw sad faces on white paper. Then they used blue watercolor paint to make the faces "appear"! They loved the "magic" and it got us talking about why blue is a color associated with sadness.

We made our own class feelings book. In the same idea as those emotion posters, we practiced making happy, sad, mad and worried faces. Then I took their pictures for each child with each face, then turned it into a book! I got the idea from a blog online that I know can't find :(.

I cut out circles in different colors (blue, orange, red and green) and we talked about what happy, sad, mad and worried/scared faces look like. Then I asked them to make each circle into one of those faces. I let them decide which colors to make each face.

We talked a lot this week about the shape triangles. We sang the song:

"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!

-Found here, to the tune of 'twinkle twinkle' 

The kids practiced drawing triangles with this cool worksheet of triangles and squares, which I found here. We also worked on recognizing triangles among of other shapes.

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter C, 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 C.

From one of The Mailbox books, I got the idea of having the students make a "C Collection" book. 

We turned C's into Caterpillars!

We also made Crocodile Puppets!

For our alphabet wall we made clouds of white paint on blue paper. I showed the kids examples of the three main kinds of clouds (Stratus, Cumulus and Cirrus). We talked about the differences, where they are and what they look like. Then each child got to make their own cloud.

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

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

Up next week: The letter Dd, the number 1, rectangles and "Being Healthy".