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.

Big and Little! (R, S, T and 30)

Our theme this week was "Big and Little" and we focused on the number 30, and reviewed the letters R, S and T.

We finished the month of May this week, perfectly on Friday =], so we talked about our weather this year and last year. We do the weather every day as one of our Morning Meeting jobs.

For our calendar, we made an AAB pattern. They did awesome!

We read this week:  The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
                                There's a Hippopotamus Under My Bed by Mike Thaler
                                Little Cloud by Eric Carle
                                The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Our question of the week was "What are you bigger than?"

For our theme of the week, 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 other 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.

The class wrote in their journals about something that they are smaller than.

I cut colorful straws into different sizes, and the kids in small groups organized them into piles by size. (I forgot to take a picture =[)

Our song of the week was a review of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" which we'll be singing at graduation..... which is only 3 weeks away!! Yikes, I need to get moving!

For our number,  I made a worksheet 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.

30 is the highest number that we focus on in detail. (My kids definitely love counting to 100 and higher at lunchtime) We used our math boxes to help us count, and then we worked on their writing of the number and the word for 30.

For our letter activities, we reviewed writing and finding the letters that we are talking about; R, S, and T. 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 "R" page came from Book 2, the "M" page came from Book 2, and the "N" page came from Book 1.

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 "run".

Birds and Bugs! (O, P, Q and 29)

Our theme this week was "Birds and Bugs" and we focused on the number 29, and reviewed the letters O, P and Q.

We read this week: Duck & Goose by Tad Hills
                              Duck, Duck Goose by Tad Hills
                              Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
                              Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems
                              The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems

Our question of the week was "If you were a bird, where would you fly to?"

For our theme of the week, searched the skies for birds and the ground for bugs!.

Hand-print Bumblebees are the perfect way to celebrate bugs (they are my absolute favorite!). I found this project right here! I modified the project so my kids could draw a background and scenery, but cutting them out and putting them around the classroom would be super cute as well.

How about a hand-print bird as well? We used feathers to make them fancy and even gave them a nest out of ripped up lunch bags!

We wrote in our journals about what kind of bug it would be the best to be!

Our song of the week was "The Itsy Bitsy Spider!". 

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 29.

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

The kids made a really cute book from  Letters for Little Learners. about the things that an Octopus can sit on. My class enjoys working on projects that they can all do together at tables and at their own pace.

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 "O" page came from Letter if the Week: Book 2, the "P" page came from Book 2, and the "Q" page came from Book 1.

From the book Alphabet on Parade I got the idea to give my kids "P Riddles" to solve. I gave them a clue like, "What is black and white and lives where it's cold? A penguin!" This was a lot of fun. They even carried on with this during lunch and tried to make riddles for each other to solve.

Also from Alphabet on Parade We talked about different animals and whether they were "Quick or Quiet". It's so fun to see and hear your class/child really thinking through something, and even defending their opinions!

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.

Here is what we have mastered so far! 

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