Dr. Seuss

Dr. Suess celebrated his birthday on Monday, March 2nd.  He would have been 111 years old! What an amazing author, kids continue to love his books! He has left such a wonderful legacy to our children!!  In honor of his birthday we read several of his books this week.  We started the week with reading the book Ten Apples up on Top.  After we read the story we all made a project using a picture of ourself and counting out the apples needed to write our names on our head!

In addition to being a great language activity it was also a terrific math activity!!

Carter was our Maple Leaf of the Week!

On Tuesday, his Mom and Dad came in to talk to us about farms.

Scott grew up on a farm and brought in a lot of farming equipment and animals for the kids to use.  He also brought in a replica of the barn that belongs to his family!  We heard a story about tractors and then we had a special snack....tractor tires and hay bales!!

Wednesday we heard the Dr. Seuss story One  Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  Mrs. Jenkins came in and we had music and Betsy came in to read us Carter's favorite book, Ideas.  

After we heard the book we used marshmallows, toothpicks, and our own ideas to create shapes!

When we were all finished, we got to eat a marshmallow too!!

On Thursday, we painted fishbowls.  When they're dry we'll put in a red fish and a blue fish! We talked a lot about rhyming words and listened to There's a Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Seuss.   We had a special snack of fresh grapes, strawberries and a lego sucker! When the kids came in for circle time there was a lot of excitement because our amaryllis finally bloomed!! We also had a great time sharing the things we brought in for Show and Tell!

Grandma Debbie (Carter's Grandma) came in Thursday to teach us about exercise and taking care of our bodies.

  We had so much fun moving to the different songs she brought in.  We moved to Happy, Awesome (from the Lego Movie), Let's Go Fly a Kite and a bunch of other great songs! 

We had so much fun....it was AWESOME!!!  Thanks Carter for sharing your family with us this week!!  

Friday we heard The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss.  Then we painted our feet and made footprints!  We turned our footprints into puppets.  We also talked about right and left and put stickers on our right foot to help us remember our different sides.  It was nice outside so we went out to play, it felt so good to be outside!!  Hopefully spring is on its way!!

Birds

We spent the week learning about birds.  We focused on 7 main birds, the cardinal, baltimore oriole, robin, blue jay, indigo bunting, warbler, and wood pecker.  We talked about how birds have beaks to eat food and no teeth!  Then we talked about how they get hungry in winter and how nice it would be for us to put some food out for them.  We had blast making bird feeders!

 We had bird figures that the kids could play with this week.  We used our blocks to create bird houses for them!

We spent one day talking about how penguins are a kind of bird.  We discussed how they don't fly but their wings are called flippers and are designed for them to swim underwater.  We made a class list of what we know about penguins and then Mrs. Chyko helped us write a book about penguins!

We also had lots of fun continuing to use our imaginations with Wikki Stix.  Here are some of our creations!

On Friday we talked about Peacocks.  We used coffee filters, markers, a spray bottle and some tempera paint to create our own peacocks!

We also had fun using our Lincoln Logs to create a train track!

Coins, Bats, and Pigeon Books

It was President's Day on Monday, so on Tuesday we read a book called President's Day by Anne Rockwell.  it talked about Mount Rushmore and the 4 presidents who are carved on the mountain.  

After we read the book we talked about how president's pictures are on our coins.  We sorted through a bunch of coins and put them in piles.  We talked about the names of the coins and that each coin has 2 sides, heads and tails.  We played a game where we threw the coin up in the air and had  the kids guess whether it would land on heads or tails.  The kids really liked doing this!

Naomi was our "Maple Leaf of the Week", so during circle time she shared her poster board with us.   We had V8 Fusion to drink and a special snack that was a "Batman Boomerang" made out of Cocoa Krispies. Yum!!

 Using markers, clothespins, construction paper and google eyes, Heidi came in and helped all of us make a bat project.  So much fun!!

After our project, Heidi read us the picture book Stellaluna.  Jake stopped by to visit and read us a couple of Pigeon Books by Mo Williams, He used silly voices for the different characters and had all the kids laughing!  Thanks Naomi, Jake and Heidi, for helping us have such a great day!!

Later in the week we did a science experiment where we cleaned pennies.  We used vinegar, salt, water and a toothbrush to make the pennies shine!

The kids watched how the experiment worked and now they're each getting a turn to clean 8 coins!  This might be something fun to do at home!

Mrs. Chyko has been working with the kids as they make their own Piggy Bank. Each child cut out paper coins and glued them down.  Mrs. Chyko helped them add up how much money they had in their bank!  Next week we're going to use our clean, shiny coins to play a matching game with our Piggy Banks!

Not only was Naomi "Maple Leaf" this week but it was also her birthday week.  We  celebrated  on Thursday with a delicious treat of banana chocolate chip muffins and pretzels!  Happy 4th Birthday, Naomi!!

We enjoyed using wikki stix this week!  Most of the kids had never used them before.  We used them to trace over cards, create our own designs, and make a rainbow coin rubbing!

Some of the other things we did this week included playing with our kinetic sand, building with blocks, playing with cars, working in our kitchen, building our marble run, singing songs, playing movement games, using stencils, coloring, cutting, and reading!!

If you look on the counter by the globe you can see our Amaryllis.  It has really been growing!  We observed that is was bending towards the sun so we turned it around so it can bend back and straighten up.  It has 2 big blooms on top, hopefully they will bloom next week!!

Friendship and Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day!  We had a great week at school celebrating friendship.  We heard several really good books about Clifford the Big Red Dog and Valentine's Day.  We also heard a book called Our Peaceful Classroom about a Montisorri School with illustrations all done by children.  We heard several books about Care Bears.  Aftter we read those we listed all the Care Bears we could remember on the white board.  Then we reread the story to check back for any Bears we may have forgotten.  The kids thought this was fun and it was teaching them the reading comprehension skills of recall as well as how to skim through a book to recheck for information when needed.  

Carter told the class that each Care Bear has a special superpower which has to do with it's name.  So we decided that each of us should pick a name of a Care Bear and have that super power too! We wrote it down on special heart necklaces.  

Parker was Share Bear because he likes to share things with people.  Knox was Grumpy Bear because he likes to do nice things for people to take their "Grumpies" away.  Charlie was Sunshine Bear because he likes to make people happy.  Carter was Share Bear because he is so good at sharing things with his friends. Zoefii was Love a Lot Bear...that name says it all.  Emma was Moon Bear and she likes to help people fall asleep and bring them good dreams. Tori was Rainbow Bear because she draws rainbows and makes people feel happy.  Brooke was Rainbow Bear because rainbows make people happy!

We had music on Wednesday and Mrs. Jenkins had us up and dancing to some dinosaur songs!!  Thursday was our Valentine's Day Party.  We made our Valentine Bags earlier in the week so they were all set out when we arrived.  We each had fun passing out our valentines to our friends. We had morning activity time, circle time and then it was party time!

Our room moms, organized everything.  Thanks so much...the room looked so pretty and the kids had so much fun.  Thanks to all the parents for sending in the treats and other supplies to make the party a success!

We frosted our sugar cookies and put pink sprinkles on top.  We had popcorn and apple juice too!  Then it was time for our relay game!  Heidi put 2 raisins on a spoon and handed it to the first person in line who had to walk around a giant square of tape without dropping the raisins and then put the raisins into the next person's spoon.  Meanwhile the kids were all cheering for each other.  So much fun!

Aftter our class relay we broke into small groups.  Betsy had a valentine craft for us to do, Heidi had a bean bag toss going, Joan had a coloring activity, and I had playdough with cookie cutters, a mini play dough oven and a play dough grill.  At the very end of the party we played a game called "Valentine, Valentine, Where's Your Heart?"  I wonder if the kids could tell you how we played it?

We heard the book called My Heart is a Zoo on Friday.  We took the idea from the book and each child picked an animal they'd like to make out of hearts.  Then we practiced cutting and glueing and put together different animals.  Zoefii made a frog, Jayme made a bear, and Charlie made a coyote. 

Could be a fun activity to do at home on a cold day too! We also used model magic, paint, and beads to create a really special heart.  

Play Dough and Nursery Rhymes

It's been a great week.  The kids had so much fun saying and singing nursery rhymes.  Joan and I would sing or say a few and as soon as we finished the kids would say to us "Do more!" They especially liked Hickory, Dickory, Dock because it involved "Mousie" running up a clock.  We wanted to find Mousie as we read the rhyme but he was missing!  We went on a mouse hunt to try and find him but we couldn't.  Finally at the end of the day he appeared.  The kids were so glad to find him!!  

We made a mouse out of shapes today.  We had it set up as an art activity but it was also a math activity.

Knox was our "Maple Leaf" this week.  On Tuesday he brought in his pictures and told us about some of his adventures.  We heard about his trips Mexico and Utah.  He also brought in a snack bags of oreos, vanilla wafers and chocolate chips cookies to share with us....yum!!  Thanks Knox!

Wednesday his Mom and Dad and little brother, Krew,  came to school and made play dough with us.  We all got our own bowl and put in about 1 part hair conditioner to 2 parts corn starch.  The kids mixed it up with spoons and their hands and had so much fun playing with it.  Corn Starch was all over the table and the floor which made it even better!!  It smelled so nice and felt so silky.  

We've also been really busy using pearler beads to make different shapes.  What a great activity to develop those fine motor skills....so important for cutting and writing!

The marble run is one of the kids favorite activities!

Friday was Humpty Dumpty Day.  We learned the nursery rhyme and then watched a video of nursery rhymes on the ipad.  We made Humpty Dumpty and had to put a band aid on him since he hurt himself falling off the wall!  We also had scrambled eggs for snack.  Each of the kids had a chance to crack an egg and put it in the bowl.  

Not all of the eggs made it in the bowl.  One of the eggs even looked like Mousie!!

We mixed the eggs, and cooked them...yum!

If you want to find out why Nursery Rhymes are so important for young children here's a link to a great article on this topic!

http://www.kbyutv.org/kidsandfamily/readytolearn/file.axd?file=2011%2F3%2F2+Rhymers+are+Readers-Why+Important.pdf