Farm Animals! (I, 6, Heart)

Sorry I'm a little behind on posts, life has a tendency of getting in the way every once and a while. =]

Our theme for the first week of November was "Farm Animals" and we focused on the letter Ii, the number 6 the heart shape.

We read this week: Humphrey's Farm Adventure by Igloo Books
                               Duck for President by Doreen Cronin
                               Little Oink by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
                               The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
                               Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming

Our question of the week was "What would you grow on your farm?"

For our theme of the week, we danced the chicken dance, sang "Old MacDonald" and pretended to be different farm animals with a game of charades.

I painted a picture of a farm scene with no animals and hung it up on the wall. The kids were all very intrigued as to what we would be doing with it. Well, we turned their hand prints into farm animals. I love this craft. They get to choose what animal they want to make, we paint their hand and with some eyes, ears and a mouth we have a farm animal! The kids and the parents love when this mural is hanging on the wall. =]

We talked a lot this week about the shape heart. To the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot" we sang,

I found it here! 

I drew hearts, triangles and circles and asked the kids to color each shape it's own color. They did a great job with it!

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 6.

I made these worksheets that reinforces the one to one concept. The kids practice writing the number and have to color a square for each picture that they see. (I forgot to take a picture =[)

For our letter activities, we used our handwriting sheet for the letter Ii from this book,  and the sheet that helps work on letter recognition that I got from this book,  The students also wrote in their journals for the letter I.

We turned an I into an Insect! This book is great.

I found this worksheet that has words with different vowel sounds. The kids have to color the pictures that have the short i sound in them to make the fish. I did this in small groups and gave each child a choice between a word that did or didn't have the short i, then the group would color the short i word that was picked.

We watched a short video that I found of a young boy learning how to make an igloo. The kids really love this one. Then I gave them a blue piece of paper, white squares that I cut out ahead of time and a glues stick. We talked about how the boy built the igloo, how he layered it from the bottom, how it has a door, a curved roof, and then set them free to create their own.

We played a category game and sat in a circle naming different ice cream flavors. Next time I do a category game I'll write down all of the things we come up with so that they can see it.

We practice cutting with "The Insects are In" The kids had to color the insects, cut them out and put them "in" the right container.

For our alphabet wall we made fingerprint insects.

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

Here are the words we came up with this week!

We had a special visitor come this week. A local girl scout made display boxes for our school nature trail and came to talk to my class about the different things that we could put in them. She gave us deer bones, tree cookies and we even got to meet a baby box turtle! She talked to us about worms, foxes, chipmunks and different kinds of trees.

Another teacher and I went out to the nature trail the next day and put some of the things she donated in the displays. (We also added some things that we found in the woods :])

Up next week: The letter Jj, the number 7, star and "The Harvest".

Happy Halloween! (H, 5, Pentagon)

Our theme this week was "Happy Halloween" and we focused on the letter Hh, the number 5 the shape pentagon.

We got to compare the weather in October this year and last year. I love getting the kids thinking about what is different and the same about the two graphs. We always have such good conversation. I like this activity, because I also thinks that it makes them realize that what we do at morning meeting really does matter.

We read this week:  Scaredy Cat Splat by Rob Scotton
                               What Was I Scared Of by Dr. Seuss (Last in The Sneetches and Other Stories)
                               Curious George Goes to a Costume Party by Margret and H.A. Rey
                               Mouse's First Halloween by Lauren Thompson
                               Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills

Our question of the week was "What is your favorite candy?" This turned out to be a little tough for them to answer, they had trouble picking just one!

For our theme of the week, we actually didn't talk about Halloween that much. We did a little bit, but we focused more on pumpkins this week. I just have to say, I rediscovered that fresh pumpkin is one of my favorite smells. This of course prompted all of my kids to repeatedly come over and smell the cut open pumpkin. =]


First we cleaned out our large class pumpkin and separated the pulp from the seeds. Their faces when they stuck their hands in the pumpkin were priceless! The class voted on how I should carve our pumpkin. A silly face won over Frankenstein and sad face.

After we cleaned it out I roasted the seeds using a recipe that I found on this blog. I never would have thought to boil them in salty water first, but man, did it help make those shells nice and crunchy! My few kids who were adventurous really enjoyed them.

Each child in my class got a small pumpkin that they got to paint. I gave them white, blue and green paint and let them paint however they wanted. I love how each child does just how they want to.

I found the idea to "plant" a pumpkin from this blog. AMAZING! Just put dirt in the pumpkin and let the seeds sprout. Genius! I cut the pumpkin open and we talked about what was in there, what it looked like, what they thought about the inside of the pumpkin. Then they each got to put some dirt in the pumpkin... and we're just waiting for a sprout! (All that day they kept coming to tell me that we didn't have anything growing yet. I don't think they really believe me that it's going to take a couple weeks. =])

We had our school Halloween Parade, which is always fun, and the kids really love to show off their costumes. It's always nice to have a fun school day like Halloween.


I drew a cross section picture of a pumpkin. We talked  about the different parts and they colored it. I was sad that i forgot to save some of the raw seeds to clue on, so we used some macaroni to represent the seeds and pieces of string for the pulp.

We talked a lot this week about the shape pentagon. I couldn't find a song, so I wrote one like others that we sing to the tune of "frere jacques"

"This is a Pentagon, this is a Pentagon.

How can you tell? How can you tell?

It has five sides that are the same size,

it's a pentagon, it's a pentagon."

The kids practiced recognizing pentagons out of other shapes.

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 5.

I made these worksheets that reinforces the one to one concept. The kids practice writing the number and have to color a square for each picture that they see. (I forgot to take a picture =[)

We also used a color by number page with the numbers 1-5. My kids are really getting good at this, and it's only the second/third time for them! They are getting better and sitting and listening for the directions, working at their own pace. I love it!

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

We turned a H into a Horse

We played Monster Munch. The kids have to feed the monster candy, but he only likes to eat "h" candy.

We freeze danced and hopped to music.

For our alphabet wall we made hummingbirds and watched this video. I watched this with my kids last year too. It has great imagery of the hummingbird up close and in slow motion. We talked through the video about what they were saying. At one point we were standing up and "feeling" the difference between eagle bird flaps and hummingbird figure 8 wing movement.

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

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: The letter Ii, the number 6, heart and "Farm Animals".

Creepy Crawlies! (G, 4, Hexagon)

Our theme this week was "Creepy Crawlies" and we focused on the letter Gg, the number 4 and the shape hexagon.

We read this week: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
                               Grandpas are for Finding Worms by Harriet Ziefert
                               Grandmas are for Giving Tickles by Harriet Ziefert
                               Curious George by Margret and H.A. Rey
                               King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood

Our question of the week was "What is your favorite song to sing?"

for our theme of the week, we did all sorts of activities dealing with bugs and crawly, creepy things. Yuck!

We sang the 'Itsy Bitsy Spider" and made spider webs! They came out so cute! First I gave the kids a square of newsprint paper and told them to ... scribble!! I also told them that this was probably going to be the only time they heard that out of my mouth, so to take advantage. =]. I folded the paper for them and drew lines for them to cut on. Everyone had to try to cut their paper by themselves first, and if they needed i was there to help. Then we unfolded and even though they knew it was going to be a web, each child was so happy with how cool theirs was!

I make sure to take my kids outside at least once a day unless it's pouring rain... I love being outside and so do they! We took advantage of our beautiful fall weather and dug around for worms. (I have to say, I don't know what's in the dirt there.. but those worms could moonlight as small snakes.. I've never seen such big worms... shudder.)

We played with play doh and I challenged the kids to make me some bugs. When we do activities like this I make sure that I'm not pressuring them to make an exact replica of a butterfly or something. I want them to make their own creation, but then they have to walk me through how it is a big. Where are it's legs, antennae, eyes, what kind of bug is it... these are all things that they have to tell me.

Here's my bug....

We marched around outside and sang "The Ants go Marching".

We walked around outside trying to find bugs to see what they do in their natural habitats. Look what we found!

We talked a lot this week about the shape hexagon. I found this cool song on Pinterest to the tune of "Head, shoulders, knees and toes."

"A hexagon has 6 sides, has 6 sides.

A hexagon has 6 sides, has 6 sides,

The sides are equal and angles are the same.

A hexagon has 6 sides, has 6 sides!"

The kids practiced recognizing hexagons out of other shapes.

When we worked on our number activities, we practiced writing the number and word for the number 4.

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

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

We made a class list of animals and colors that started with the letter G. Then the kids each picked what they wanted to make for a page in our class book.

We played "Goose Egg on the Loose", also known as hot potato but with a plastic Easter egg.

We painted "Shades of Green" I put spots of green and white paint on their papers and they used their paintbrushes to spread it out and mix the colors together. When they were done, we pointed out the different shades that they made.

We turned a G into a Grasshopper.

For our alphabet wall we made grapes with dot painters.

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

Here are the words we came up with this week!

Up next week: The letter Hh, the number 5, pentagon and "Happy Halloween".