This week we had so much fun reading books by Bill Martin Jr. On Tuesday we read Chicka Chicka, Boom, Boom and we also sang it!! It's about letters climbing up a palm tree and turning it into an alphabet tree, then OH, NO!!! Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom, they all fall out!! The kids had lots of fun helping me say that part. This book uses a lot of rhyme and repetition as well as a fun beat so the kids love hearing it over and over. It is also a fantastic way to expose children not only to letters and sounds but also to phonemic awarness which is the #1 predictor of success in reading. Phonemic awareness is being able to segment the sounds individually in words. Rhyming words are great for this because the kids practice hearing the individual sounds (flee= fl + ee and tree= tr+ee). Not only do kids need to know individual letter sounds but they also need to know the blends and vowel combinations. In preschool we expose them to this stuff through fun activites so that they're ready when they enter elementary school.
Kids also love learning the letters in their names so we made their names out of cheerios and glue. We painted a palm tree and tomorrow we're going to turn it into an alphabet tree!! 
On Wednesday we read Chicka Chicka 1,2,3 which is about numbers climbing up an apple tree! Again a lot of fun, rhythmic rhyming plus a great way to practice counting and recofnizing numbers. This book counts up to 20 by 1's and then up to 100 by 10's. The kids had a lot of fun chanting the numbers with me as we read the story! 
During activity time the kids could choose to play with gears, a giant aqua doodle, easle painting, cheerio art, blocks, the sand table, the kitchen center, and the farm little people set. The weather ws so nice we made sure to get out and play each day! Mrs. Jenkins taught us the song Down by the Bay and Mrs. Bulgerin came in a read with us.
We had puppets join our class this week! The kids had fun reading to them during our "reading workshop" where the kids each get to choose their own books to look through. We also had our first "writing workshop" where everyone wrote in their journals and then sat in the author's chair and shared what they wrote with the class! We also have a puppet that we pass around during circle time nearly every day for the kids to share whatever they'd like to with the class. We hear things like "I went to my Grandma's" or "I grew a carrot in my garden". Ask your child what some of the things are that he/she has shared with the class. 
In addition to learning what the letters look like we're also learning sign language to go with the letters! So far we've learned: 
We had a wonderful day at Lime Kiln Park on Thursday. Lisa will be sending out a link to the photos soon! Have a wonderful evening!!
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