November 28-December 2

Books This Week:
Bunny Cakes
Yoko's Paper Cranes
A Carp for Kimiko

Concept For This Week:
-Japanese Culture
-Different kinds of birthday cards
-Immigration of our relatives and family
-behavior at a store

Small Groups This Week:
1. Max Cover Puzzle- We will cut and then assemble a 9 piece puzzle. It will be the cover of our Bunny Cakes book.
2. Journal writing- The places you have gone.  Then we will create a class book to be sent home.
3. Paper Folding- We will make origami cats and dogs like in Yoko did with her grandpa.
1.Paper Carps- We will use fine motor skills to create paper fish (carps) just like Kimoko wanted in our unit book
2. Carp/Doll Patterning- We will extend or create patterns using dolls and carps around our cover of our book.
3. Pine Cones to put outside to feed the birds. Using crisco and bird seed we will create a tasty treat for birds outside our classroom.

Centers
Art Table:playdough birthday cakes
Block Area:blocks
Sensory Table: colored rice
Book Area: books about families
Easel:Max and Ruby birthday cakes
Writing Table: lists for the grocery store
Dramatic Play: grocery store
Puzzles and Manipulatives: Ipads

 Handwriting
We will be starting a program called Handwriting Without Tears. We will be starting an extra time in our schedule for this program. It's focus is on letter formation and letter awareness. For example, we will be stressing that letters and numbers start at the top; letters are formed with big and little lines as well as big curves and little curves. We will be playing with these shapes to form letters.

**Please remember that Wednesday is an early dismissal day. We will be dismissing at 11:30. ***Have a wonderful holiday. !!

Books This Week:Bunny Cakes
Yoko's Paper Cranes

Concept For This Week:
-Cultural Foods and Traditions
-Traveling (International Travel and Local Trave)
-Mail (mailing a letter, email)
*Special Activity*
On Wednesday, we will be making peach cobbler(like in our theme book Full, Full, Full of Love). Then we will be watching the video of Max and Ruby Bunny Cakes. It will be a fun day and a fun way to start our Thanksgiving break.

Small Groups This Week:
1. Max and Ruby Geometric Houses- After reading Bunny Cakes, we will create a house for Max and Ruby. Each house will consist of various shapes(square, circle, oval, rectangle, triangle) We will color, cut and glue. It can be tricky to cut different shapes so this is good practice.
2. Journal Writing- We will be discussing in large group about the places we have gone. In small groups we will draw a journal page to show a place each child has gone. Then we will put all of the pages together to make a book. It will be sent home when we have completed.
3. Uppercase Letter Pumpkin Matching- We will be playing a matching pumpkin game. We will use pumpkins with uppercase letters on them to match to the same upppercase letter. Then we will try to match lowercase letters to the uppercase matches
**The above groups are done in groups of three. On Monday we will finish our cycle.
1. Max Cover Puzzle- We will cut and then assemble a 9 piece puzzle. It will be the cover of our Bunny Cakes book.

Centers

Art Table:completing our turkey frames
Block Area:blocks
Sensory Table:leaves
Book Area: books about families
Easel:Max and Ruby birthday cakes
Writing Table: lists for the grocery store
Dramatic Play: setting the table with placemats and dishes. Max and Ruby pilgrim hats as well.
Puzzles and Manipulatives: Ipads

 

Handwriting

We will be starting a program called Handwriting Without Tears. We will be starting an extra time in our schedule for this program. It's focus is on letter formation and letter awareness. For example, we will be stressing that letters and numbers start at the top; letters are formed with big and little lines as well as big curves and little curves. We will be playing with these shapes to form letters.

Fun in the leaves

Our class had a great time playing in the leaves. Please look at our fun pictures in our flickr account(pics to the left).

November 14-18

Books This Week:
Apples and Pumpkins
Full, Full, Full of Love
Bunny Cakes

Concept Questions For This Week:
-What is a family?
-Who are the people in your family?
-Presenting family tree project

Small Groups This Week:
1.Setting the dinner table- We will be cutting and gluing a place setting. This will be related to our story Full, Full, Full of Love.  We will also discuss manners at the dinner table.
2.Sorting Pumpkins by size.Given a field of five pumpkins, children will sort them from smallest to biggest and biggest to smallest.  Then they will choose which order to put on their paper to finish.
3.Jack o Lantern sequencing- We will sequence pictures of a jack o lantern then save it for our portfolios.
1. Max and Ruby Geometric Houses- After reading Bunny Cakes, we will create a house for Max and Ruby.  Each house will consist of various shapes(square, circle, oval, rectangle, triangle) We will color, cut and glue. It can be tricky to cut different shapes so this is good practice.
2. Journal Writing- We will be discussing in large group about the places we have gone. In small groups we will draw a journal page to show a place each child has gone. Then we will put all of the pages together to make a book. It will be sent home when we have completed.
3. Uppercase Letter Pumpkin Matching- We will be playing a matching pumpkin game. We will use pumpkins with uppercase letters on them to match to the same upppercase letter. Then we will try to match lowercase letters to the uppercase matches

Centers

Art Table:create family trees with our arms and hands with paints (continued)
Block Area:blocks pumpkins to make rows
Sensory Table:water  and fishes swimming( like in Full, Full, Full of Love)
Book Area: books about families
Easel: pumpkins and orange and green paints
Writing Table: family words to copy
Dramatic Play: setting the table with placemats and dishes.

Puzzles and Manipulatives: Ipads

 

Handwriting

We will be starting a program called Handwriting Without Tears.  We will be starting an extra time in our schedule for this program.  It's focus is on letter formation and letter awareness. For example, we will be stressing that letters and numbers start at the top; letters are formed with big and little lines as well as big curves and little curves. We will be playing with these shapes to form letters.

November 9-7 Family Traditions

***Just a reminder, there is no school on Thursday(Prof. Dev) and Friday(Veteran's Day) for students.***

Books This Week:
Apples and Pumpkins
Full, Full, Full of Love

Concept Questions For This Week:
-What is a family?
-Who are the people in your family?
-Begin discussion of family tree project

Small Groups This Week:
1. Pumpkin sorting- We will put real pumpkins in size order, then cut and glue a set of pumpkins to put them in order from smallest to biggest and/or biggest to smallest
2.Measuring and scooping a pumpkin- We will estimate the height and circumference of a pumpkin using non-standard units of measure(using cubes to measure how tall and string to measure length around the pumpkin). Then we will scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin. We will use our senses to discuss the inside of each of our pumpkins.
3. Pumpkin and Vine Math Books- First we will draw vines on each page of our books. Then we will use 1:1 correspondence to place the correct number of pumpkins(our thumbprints) on each page. We will focus on numbers 6-10.

Centers

Art Table:create family trees with our arms and hands with paints

Block Area:blocks pumpkins to make rows

Sensory Table:water in gloves(like milking a cow) We will fill funnels to put water in gloves

Book Area: books about families

Easel: pumpkins and orange and green paints

Writing Table: family words to copy

Dramatic Play: tools

Puzzles and Manipulatives: Ipads

Science Table: Our last week with snowball and snowflake-Drawing them a picture to say good bye

Our Harvest Soiree to Complete our Harvest Unit

The Cub Cadets had a fun day today. We read The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything under a sheet with a flashlight. Then we created a real scarecrow. Our class carried the scarecrow into the office. Sandy(our secretary) was a little scared at first but she really liked it. We left him in the office for other friends to see.

After we made our scarecrow, we put on our party hats and set the tables for our soiree. We had a yummy snack of oatmeal raisin cookies or popcorn. We listened to music while we ate. It was such a fun day.