Rocks

We had fun learning about rocks this week.  On Tuesday we heard the story Everybody Needs a Rock.  We looked at the rock collection I brought in and passed the rocks around.  We observed how the rocks looked, felt, and smelled.  Then it was time to go outside and go on a rock hunt!  We looked all around the church grounds and each of us had to choose just one, very special rock, that we wanted to take home with us.  We had lots of fun doing this!  When we went back inside it was time to celebrate Brooke's birthday!  She brought in ice cream cups with sprinkles that we could mix in if we wanted to.  (Of course everybody wanted to!!) Yum!! We sang "Happy Birthday" to her in English and Spanish! Happy 5th Birthday, Brooke!!

Mrs. Jenkins had us doing the hokey pokey among other things during music time. After music we had activity time.  We finished our houses today...they turned out so cute and the kids enjoyed writing on the inside using the prompt "Home is....."

Wednesday We read another good book about rocks.  This one was called A Rock Can Be...It helped us use our imaginations and get ready to paint some rocks and turn them into various creatures!

Look closely, we've got frogs, bees, lizards, ladybugs and butterflies!

Mrs. Chyko helped us use tooth brushes and water to clean rocks and see what they look like when they are wet.  Some of them got darker and shinier, some didn't change much.  The  kids enjoyed using the tooth brushes to get the rocks clean!!

On Thursday we heard the story If Rocks Could Sing.  We talked about the letter R and it's shape as well as the sound it makes. We each took a piece of black paper and went outside to put rocks around the letter R.  This  helped us become familiar with it's shape even more.  We were making sunprint art, so we left the papers outside to sit in the sun to see what happens!

We  practiced making R's with side chalk too.  Some of us wanted to write our names and make other things with the chalk as well!

We had snack when we came back inside.  We had enough ice cream left over from Brooke's treat on Tuesday to have it again today....yum!  Thanks so much Brooke for sending in such a delicious treat!

After snack we had Mr. Fleming (a Maple Leaf parent from the previous two years) come in and teach us some Spanish.  He'll be coming in on Thursdays about twice a month to work with us on Spanish.  Today he had us practicing how to say "hello" (hola) "good bye" (adios) and "my name is _____",  as well as counting to 10 in Spanish.  The kids really enjoyed this...thanks Mr. Fleming for volunteering your time to come and work with us!!

Many of the ideas for the rock unit came from kidssoup.com a wonderful resource for early childhood educators and parents!

All About Me

This week we talked about ourselves and our families.  On Tuesday we heard the book Clifford's Family.  Then we sat in a circle and all shared pictures of our families.  Each child told the names of the people in their family.  We had music with Mrs. Jenkins today.  She played the guitar and we sang songs that helped us get to know one another's names a little better.  After music it was time to go outside.  We had a bucket full of water and a bunch of paper towels and we all worked together to clean our outside play equipment....then it was time to play!  We had so much fun running around, climbing on the equipment, playing make believe games, and getting to know each other better.  When we went inside we had activity time.  We were busy playing with sand, trains, play dough, blocks, cars, and finishing our fingerpainting! 

Here are just a few of the fingerpaintings.  First the kids painted on paper and then we put another piece on top of their work to make a print.

We used cheerios and glue last week to write our names.  Matthew was so excited that he took his home and so it didn't make it in the picture!

On Wednesday we were talking about our homes.  We read the book Who's Behind the Door at My House?  Then we went around the circle and took turns sharing pictures of our houses.  We talked about the color of our houses and who lived inside.  During activity time we started making a house out of construction paper that looks like the house we live in.  We can open it up and see who lives inside!  The kids had a lot of fun with this project and wanted to take their time working on it.  I thought we'd finish it in a day but we're going to need another day or two before everyone is done!

Here's a sample of what the houses look like that the kids are creating.  

Today was another beautiful September day so we made sure to have plenty of time outside to run around and play!

We had our first birthday celebration on Thursday!  Caden had an August birthday and he wanted to celebrate it with his friends at school.  He brought in a delicious birthday treat of rice krispie treats dipped in chocolate and sprinkles!  Yum!!  He even helped make the treat with his mom.  

We sang Happy Birthday to Caden in English and then Mrs. Chyko taught us how to sing Happy Birthday in Spanish!  Here are the lyrics.  It might be fun to practice singing this version at home with your kids.  We're planning to sing it (along with the english version) each time we celebrate a birthday at school.

Feliz cumpleaños a ti

feliz cumpleaños a ti
feliz cumpleaños querido/a(name)
feliz cumpleaños a ti.

It's sung to the same melody as Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday, Caden!  Thanks for the yummy treats!!

We try to incorporate music as much as we can at school.  In addition to  Happy Birthday, we have learned a Clean up Song, Good Morning Song, Time for our Snack Song, Days of the Week Song and Good Bye Song!  I hope the kids have been singing some of them at home for you!!

 It was such a beautiful day we had to take advantage of the weather so we went for a walk to Wildwood Park.  

We had a great week at school!!

Welcome Back

It was great to see everyone this week!  "Meet the Class Day" is always a fun event and a great way to transition into the school year.  Thanks parents for your support with this and for turning in all the needed paperwork.

Wednesday we read the book Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood.  During activity time we filled in a story based on this book.  The  pattern was I'm as ______ as a ________.  The kids had great ideas as we filled in the blanks! 

 We played several games to help us get to know one another.   The unanimous favorite was "hot potato".  We passed around a potato and whenever the music stopped, whoever was holding the potato had to shout out their name. Then the kids had a chance to go around the circle and try to say everyone's names.  Hopefully by the end of September we'll all know one another's name!

Thursday we heard several stories about preschool.  We heard Maisy Goes to Preschool and Spot Goes to School.  It was rainy outside so we did movement inside.  We listened to the song "Animal Action" by Greg and Steve and acted out all the different animals.  Your kids may show you how they pretended to be frogs, elephants, monkeys and snakes among other things!! During activity time the kids finger-painted with Mrs. Chyko and wrote their names using glue and cheerios with Mrs. Gould.

 We met our pet frogs today.  We've come up with some ideas but haven’t voted on them yet.  Next week we'll name our frogs!