Beauty and the Beast Preschool Show

Today the BHS performed songs from their show Beauty and the Beast for the preschoolers.  We loved listening to the songs and watching the performance.  The cast came down and spoke to our class after the performance.  It was a fun filled morning.

Waiting for the show to start in the BHS auditorium

The Beast and Belle singing with the chorus

Belle (Samantha) came down to talk to our class.

***A special thanks to our teacher Liz who organized this special performace for all of the preschoolers.***

****Thanks so much Liz****

March 28-April 1 Shadows and Reflections week 3

Shadows and Reflections – Week 3
Theme – During this unit students will explore shadows and reflections, using observations, experiments and books to learn what makes a shadow and a reflection. Through Story Time books, children hear about a girl playing by a still pond, a puppy who thinks he is a kitten, a crocodile collecting reflections in a pail, a sleepy boy who sees a shadow save a cat, and a raccoon who has an adventure with only his reflection for company.

Theme Concepts:
Reflections are images thrown back from a shiny surface.
There must be light or there is no reflection.
Mirrors and still water reflect light well; dull surfaces do not.
If water is moving, its reflections are blurry or crooked.
Objects are opaque, translucent, or transparent.

Shadows are the dark areas made when an object blocks light.

Stories:
Kitten for a Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Dreams by Ezra Jack Keats
Guess My Shadow by Stephen Swinburne
Night Shift Daddy by Eileen Spinelli
Small Groups:
-Tally Animals in Books: We will revisit 2 books from last week(Play with me and Raccoon on his own). We will compare and contrast which animals that were in both books or just in one. We will create a chart.
-Writing- We will create a journal page about which animal was our favorite animal from our unit books.
-Turtle Counting Book- We will write numbers and count the correct number of boxes to color in child made books.  We will reinforce the concept of left to right progression when counting and coloring.
-Snake Patterns- We will create AB and other patterns along the body of a snake.
-What is a Shadow?- We will look for shadows in our unit books. Then we will discuss how shadow can change shape by being closer or further from a light source. We will also go on a shadow hunt around our school to find shadows of chairs, tables, easels and other classroom objects.
-Class Book- Each child will create a page in a class book. They will write about the pet they would wish for.

Choice:
-Easel – blue paper to create cloud animals using cotton balls dipped into white paint
-Sensory–searching for collections in sand then sorting them into pails
-Dramatic Play – Donut Shop(In Puddle Pail, the characters saw reflections from the donut shop in puddles)
-Art –Star Painting using star stencils

-Yellow Table- Beads to create patterns
-Maniplative Table- I touches
-Writing Center – animal labels
-Puzzles – Animal Puzzles (Raccoons, crocodiles, grasshoppers, and fawns).
-Blocks –Shadow Tent with shadow puppets and flashlights
-Science Table- Reflection Exploration- Mirrors and magnifying glasses. Snake skin and bumble bee specimen. Pictures of animals to create reflections.

Songs, Word Plays and Letters
Five Green Frogs with child made props
Eentsy, Weentsy Spider
Bingo – with the word Snake
Whose Reflection is in the Pool?
The Turtle
Five Little Fishies

Shadows and Reflections -week 2

Shadows and Reflections – Week 2
Theme –  During this unit students will explore shadows and reflections, using observations, experiments and books to learn what makes a shadow and a reflection. Through Story Time books, children hear about a girl playing by a still pond, a puppy who thinks he is a kitten, a crocodile collecting reflections in a pail, a sleepy boy who sees a shadow save a cat, and a raccoon who has an adventure with only his reflection for company.

Theme Concepts:

Reflections are images thrown back from a shiny surface.
There must be light or there is no reflection.
Mirrors and still water reflect light well; dull surfaces do not.
If water is moving, its reflections are blurry or crooked.
Objects are opaque, translucent, or transparent.
Shadows are the dark areas made when an object blocks light.

Stories:
Raccoon on His Own by: Jim Arnosky
Puddle Pail
The Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle

Small Groups:
-Hand Held Mirror Play using mirrors and flashlights in a dark room to create reflections and use mirrors to make light reflect to opposite side of room. We will discuss how light is needed to create a reflection.
-Animal Memory Game- using picture cards from animals in our weekly stories.
-Sorting Animals by color, texture and characteristics. Children will discuss how to classify the reptiles and frogs and create categories to sort them by.
-Reflection painting- We will be using paint to add color to our "pails", then we will fold our pails to create a reflection.  This activity is inspired by the book Puddle Pail.
-Making Collections- Each child will be given a set of animals to sort from our books. Then they will sort the animals, count the sets, and then label the amounts(biggest collection, smallest collection, or equal collections).
-What is a good reflector? We will investigate different materials to see if they can reflect light or our images.  We will sort them and create a chart.
Choice: -
-Easel – frog foot print painting
-Sensory– Looking for reflections in water using child created floatable lids.  Reflective material will be in the bottom of the sensory table.
-Dramatic Play – Pet Shop
-Art –Photo Puzzles of each child to create
-Yellow Table- Materials to create lids to float in sensory table
-Maniplative Table- I touches
-Writing Center – Favorite Animal Page for class book
-Puzzles – Animal Puzzles (Raccoons, crocodiles, grasshoppers, and fawns).
-Blocks –Zoo Animals
-Science Table- Reflection Exploration- Mirrors and magnifying glasses.  Snake skin and bumble bee specimen. Pictures of animals to create reflections.

Songs, Word Plays and Letters

Five Green Frogs with child made props
Eentsy, Weentsy Spider
Bingo – with the word Snake
Whose Reflection is in the Pool?
The Turtle
Five Little Fishies

Unit 5 Shadows and Reflections (week 1)

Shadows and Reflections – Week 1

Theme – This is our first week of our new unit, Shadows and Reflections. During this unit students will explore shadows and reflections, using observations, experiments and books to learn what makes a shadow and a reflection. Through Story Time books, children hear about a girl playing by a still pond, a puppy who thinks he is a kitten, a crocodile collecting reflections in a pail, a sleepy boy who sees a shadow save a cat, and a raccoon who has an adventure with only his reflection for company.

Theme Concepts:

Reflections are images thrown back from a shiny surface.
There must be light or there is no reflection.
Mirrors and still water reflect light well; dull surfaces do not.
If water is moving, its reflections are blurry or crooked.
Objects are opaque, translucent, or transparent.
Shadows are the dark areas made when an object blocks light.

Stories:
Play with Me by Marie Hall Ets
Raccoon on His Own by: Jim Arnosky


Small Groups:
-Language – Book Browsing and Letter chart of beginning sounds of animals for the book Play with Me
-Lowercase and Uppercase Go Fish
-Reflection Turtle Painting
-Hand Held Mirror Play using mirrors and flashlights
-Animal Memory Game- using picture cards from animals in our weekly stories
-Sorting Animals by color, texture and characteristics
Choice: -
-Easel – Painting meadow, pond, and stream animals
-Sensory– Looking for reflections in bubbles (reflective paper in bubble solution)
-Dramatic Play – Dress Up with mirrors
-Art – Reflective-Paper Collages
-Yellow Table- Frog Log Song Props
-Writing Center – Drawing and writing about animals
-Puzzles – Animal Puzzles (Raccoons, crocodiles, grasshoppers, and fawns).
-Blocks – Construction Zone

Songs, Word Plays and Letters
Five Green Frogs with child made props
Eentsy, Weentsy Spider
Bingo – with the word Snake
Whose Reflection is in the Pool?
Little Letter/Big Letter Chant
The Turtle
Five Little Fishies

World of Color March7-11

World of Color - Week 4 (Last week of Colors Unit)
Theme Concepts– This week we will continue our Unit 4 of the Owl, World of Color. During this unit students will interact with colors explore topics such as color mixing, stains, fading, camouflage, and color patterns. Students will learn that color can be found in nature, that color can carry information, that paints and dyes are used to color things, colors can be mixed to make new colors and that sun and washing can make colors fade.

Weekly Reminders
This week the color is Your Favorite Color

During our color unit we will be having a "color day". Please have your child wear their favorite color and/or bring something from home that is that color. Color day will on Thursdays.

Stories

The Lion and The Little Red Bird

Dear Juno

Cat's Colors

Mouse Paint

Small Groups
-Paper Fading Book- We have been conducting an experiment to see how paper will fade in the sunlight. We have left paper in the sun for 1 week and 3 weeks. We will finish our experiment and complete our book to see what we have learned.

-Color Swatches- We will sort and match fabric swatches by colors. We will then put the colors swatches in a chart.

-Book Browsing- Using our characters from The Lion and the Little Red Bird, we will create a positional book to reinforce concepts such as above, below, between, and next to.

-Pattern Game- We will create patterns in a frame shape. Then we will draw a self portrait in the frame.  We will be saving this for the children's portfolios.

-Spray Bottles and Clear Tubing with colored water.  We will be spraying colors into clear tubes and watching what new colors we can create.  We will also be spraying white lids to watch how the colors mix on a surface.

-Writing- We will be "writing" letters to a secret pen pal in our classroom. Then we will go to the post office(really the high school mail room) and mail our letters.   This is related to how in Dear Juno, the character wrote to his grandmother far away. Children will recieve their letters at home in a few days to find out who their classroom pen pal was.

-Journal writing- We will be writing in our journals about our favorite color.

Choice:
- Easel-color ball painting
-Sensory table- Modeling Sand and shapes
-Dramatic Play- Post Office Store (cash register, money, stamps, packing supplies, boxes)
-Art Table-  mixing 2 primary colors to create a new color of their choice
-Writing Center – Writing Letters
-Library- Books about colors
-Fine Motor- color hunt in classroom. They will search for 3 primary colors in our classroom then draw and write what they found.
-Blocks –  Building Blocks

Let’s Talk About It (oral language development)
-Discussing how animals are many different colors.(Bluejays, flamingos, cardinals, penguins) We will look a pictures and discuss what we see.
-We will discuss how colors in signs help us to know what to do. (Red=stop signs, green on traffic light means go, orange cones in the road tell us to be careful.....)
Songs, Word Plays and Letters
1)Colors Song
2) Bananas
3) Five Green and Speckled Frogs
4) Green grass
5) What are you wearing?
6) Can you think of words that rhyme with__?
7) Stand Up (color recognition song)
8) Ice Cream Math Chant

Center Photos

We were very proud to put together this 100 piece puzzle.



Great Work Boys!!!






Pictures from our art store.  Children pretended to work in an art store.  Customers came to the store and bought art supplies. Then the customers took their supplies to the table to create their own masterpiece.  This dramatic play scheme was very exciting.  We then took their art work and put it in our "art gallery."