Wind and Water Week 1- Jan 2-4

Welcome Back

Wind and Water Theme

This theme allows children explore wind and water using observations, experiments,

 and books to learn more about topics such as evaporation, weather, temperature, insulation, rain, and snow

Books this week

            -Giberto and the Wind by Marie Hall
            -One Dark Night by Hazel Hutchins

Small Groups this week

-Math- Shape Bingo Game
-Science-Observing movement of objects in the wind. We will use a variety of objects and use a hairdryer with a teacher to see how objects move.  We will record our results to share with our family. A home project will come home shortly to connect with this activity.
-Gilberto Letter Book- We will use vocabulary words from our unit book, Gilberto to reinforce letter sounds.

Center Activities

Art: Painting with straws (moving paint on paper blowing into straws)

Easel: Painting with colors from the book Gilberto and the Wind  (black, brown and and white paint)
Writing: blank books with crayons and markers
Sand and Water: water and student and teacher created sailboats
Library: Exploring books
Puzzles and Manipulatives: Matching uppercase alphabet arch letters

Dramatic Play: pl clothes line and clothes pins for dramatic play
Blocks: building with blocks

Songs, Word Play, Letters
Songs:  Come On and Join in the Game; Clap Your Hands; Wheels on the Bus
Poems: Hands; Stand Up; My Big Balloon; Mix a Pancake; Five Little Owls in an Old Elm Tree
Literacy Skills: Naming sound game and rhyming word game

Try this at home: Observe signs of weather with your child.

When you are outside ask them to look at the sky and talk about clouds, rain, wind, and storms.

Gingerbread Measuring Adventure

Gingerbread Measuring Adventure in the High School

We have been reading different versions of the Gingerbread Man in school.  We have introduced the concept of measuring using non-standard units of measure.  For example a book can be 3 blocks long instead of 10 inches.  We will be using a gingerbread ruler.

Then with gingerbread rulers in hand we walked the halls of the high school to find fun things to measure.

Yesterday we used the touch it board to introduce this concept with a large ruler. We measured our friend's arm, it was 3 gingerbread long.

The Help Desk Teacher needed some help too.  He asked us to measure his Ipad.  He wanted to know what size case he needed to buy.  We were happy to help.

We also helped some high school students measure their shoes and a candy cane they had.

The a classroom in the high school made holiday stockings.  We were glad to measure them.

We measured a jelly fish in a mural in the high school.

We measured lockers.

We measured door knobs on the science doors.

We measured fire alarms.

We measured signs on doors.

We measured the police badge in the main lobby in the high school.

We measured light switches.

We measured lockers in 2 different ways, up and down then left to right.

We measured high school art work in the upper library.

It was a fun day of measuring.  It was so fun to meet some high school teachers and students. They were happy to help us on our measuring adventure. 
Have fun with your child at home on a measuring adventure. Rulers and charts were sent home. If you have any questions please email me.

Gingerbread Unit

We will be reading multiple versions of the gingerbread man this week

Gingerbread Homework Due: Dec. 19 (See blog posting)

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and new year!

 

Books this week

Gingerbread Man
Gingerbread Girl
Gingerbread Pirates
Gingerbread Cowboy

Small Groups
-Measuring with non-standard units of measure with our gingerbread rulers
-Visual Discriminiation Puzzle- Each child will decorate a gingerbread man then cut him or her into pieces.  Then they will reassemble their puzzles.
-Gingerbread Tally Game- We will spin a spinner and record which gingerbread man it lands on. We will discuss concepts of more, less, and equal
-Number Gingerbread Math- We will use 1:1 coorespondence to count and write how many gingerbread we see.


Center
Blocks-Blocks
Sensory Table-Snow (aka popcorn from boxes)
Dramatic Play-  House
Library- A variety of books about gingerbread
Art Table-gingerbread and magic reindeer food
Easel- Water Colors
Puzzles- Puzzles
Manipulatives- Ipad apps to make cookies
Writing Center- Writing Letters


Song, Word Play and Letters
Poems- 5 little cookies
Songs- gingerbread songs
Literacy Skills- Letter Sound Activities, Change and Rearrange Words
Handwriting
-We will be making reindeer food with our alligagtor fingers
-We will continue to work on our shape HWT books
Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-4.
1-When a teacher calls your name, stop, look and say, "Yes".
2-When a teacher tells you to do something, do it "Right Away".
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".
4-When something is too hard, first try then say,"Can you help me please?"
5-When you something from a teacher or a friend and they are doing something, say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you.
This week: A review of all skills and we will start #6 in the new year

SuperFlex
We have also been learning about how to be "flexible" in our classroom when something does not happen the way we thought it would. We have introduced the children to the newest action hero, "SuperFlex". He has the power to be flexible and is a great problem solver. If you child receives a "SuperFlex Award", they demonstrated great flexibility in a situation at school.

Holiday Party Reminder

Holiday Party Monday

December 10 at 11:15

 

Please arrive at 11:15. Please wait in the hallway until we open the door. (We will be getting ready).

After we open the door, please come in and join the audience chairs.  We will start our performance shortly after promptly at 11:20. 

We will be providing a light lunch/snack after the performance which will include apple sauce and oatmeal cookies we made for you. 

We will not have a designed lunch time unless your child stays for the afternoon sessions. 

Hope to see everyone there. The cub cadets are very excited.

Friends Unit-Dec 3-7

Upcoming Events:
Dec. 3 ---No School -Teacher Conferences
Dec. 7 ---send in stuffed animal with your child that fits in their backpack
Dec. 10 --Holiday Class Party

This is our last week of Unit 2-
In Unit 2, children will be talking about friendship, how to be a good friend, and ways to resolve conflicts with friends. Through the Story Time books, children hear about the importance of being who you are, helping friends, enjoying special times together, and getting along. In addition to listening to stories, children will learn to identify rhyming works and beginning letters and sounds in words, as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also participate in a variety of music, poetry, math, science, and art activities.

Theme Concepts:

-A friend is someone we like and want to spend time with. Friends like to do things together. They enjoy each other's company.
-We can have more than one good friend, and we might like to do some things with one friend and other things with other friends.
-Friends usually share with and help one another.
-Friends may have arguments and get mad at one another. Usually, friends work out their problems and continue to be friends.
-We can make new friends and also keep old friends.

Books this week

Hooray A Pinata
Road Builders
The Door Bell Rang

Small Groups
-Writing Journal- Our stories in unit 2 involve the characters with pets.  We will discuss how to take care of pets and how they can be our friends. We will draw and write about how to take care of pets.
-Exploring Different Foods and how they taste. We will have a taste test and discuss how different foods taste sweet, salty, and sour. We will relate our conversations to events in Matthew and Tilly and Hooray A Pinata.
-Hungry Monkeys-We will further develop 1:1 correspondence and divide sets of objects equally among the monkeys.  We will discuss vocabulary such as equal, half, and whole.
-Pinata Party!!!!

Center
Blocks-Blocks
Sensory Table-Building Roads at a construction site
Dramatic Play-  Construction Zone
Library- A variety of books about friends
Art Table-Crayon Resist with watercolors
Easel- Water Colors
Puzzles- Puzzles
Manipulatives- Letter Matching Activity
Writing Center- Writing Letters
Song, Word Play and Letters
Poems- Five Juicy Apples, Five Little Owl in an old oak tree
Songs- We will be practicing our songs for our performance.
Literacy Skills- Letter Sound Activities, Change and Rearrange Words
Handwriting
-We will be constructing a pinata in our handwriting groups.  On Friday, we will have a pinata party and invite a stuffed animal friend from home.  We will be writing letters to them.

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-4.
1-When a teacher calls your name, stop, look and say, "Yes".
2-When a teacher tells you to do something, do it "Right Away".
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".
4-When something is too hard, first try then say,"Can you help me please?"
New Skill:
When you something from a teacher or a friend and they are doing something, say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you.

SuperFlex
We have also been learning about how to be "flexible" in our classroom when something does not happen the way we thought it would. We have introduced the children to the newest action hero, "SuperFlex". He has the power to be flexible and is a great problem solver. If you child receives a "SuperFlex Award", they demonstrated great flexibility in a situation at school.

Nov. 19-21

We will have an early dismissal on Wed. Nov. 21 at 11:30.
We will be closed on Nov. 22 and 23 for Thanksgiving.
Have a wonderful holiday!!
**Our class book order in Due Nov. 29**

In Unit 2, children will be talking about friendship, how to be a good friend, and ways to resolve conflicts with friends. Through the Story Time books, children hear about the importance of being who you are, helping friends, enjoying special times together, and getting along. In addition to listening to stories, children will learn to idenify rhyming works and beginning letters and sounds in words, as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also participate in a variety of music, poetry, math, science, and art activities.

Theme Concepts:

-A friend is someone we like and want to spend time with. Friends like to do things together. They enjoy each other's company.
-We can have more than one good friend, and we might like to do some things with one friend and other things with other friends.
-Friends usually share with and help one another.
-Friends may have arguments and get mad at one another. Usually, friends work out their problems and continue to be friends.
-We can make new friends and also keep old friends.

Books this week

Hooray A Pinata
A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats

Small Groups
-Exploring Money- We will be discussing and exploring money.  The characters in our stories play with a cash register and buy things at various stores.  We will sort coins and role play with a cash register.
-Recording Data- Each group will be given a set of 2 sided coins to flip.  We will flip the set of coins then count the color that each land on.  We will record what happens on our papers.  Then we will dicsuss the concepts of more, less, and equal.
-Ice Cream Friendship Project- Our graduate student friend Kerry is going to be discussing thing that build a friendship(like helping and sharing) and things that melt a friendship (like stomping your foot or shouting). This will continue next week as well
-Making a book about friendships- Each child will pick a picture of themselves playing with a friend from school. Then they will tell a story about the picture and draw an illustration. We will be creating a class book to bring home.
Center
Blocks-Dollhouses and friends
Sensory Table-Sand
Dramatic Play-  Lemonade Shop
Library- A variety of books about friends
Art Table-pumpkin lacing
Easel- Water Colors
Puzzles- Vegetable Puzzles
Manipulatives- Stringing Beads to make friendship bracelets
Writing Center- Creating Handmade Stationary
Song, Word Play and Letters
Poems- Five Juicy Apples, Five Little Owl in an old oak tree
Songs- Thanksgiving Dinner
Literacy Skills- Clap out our names(counting the syllables in our friends names), If your name starts with a __ raise your hand, Chiming in with rhyming words.

Handwriting
-We will be continuing our color books for the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum. We will focus on proper grasp holding our stubby crayons.

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-4.
1-When a teacher calls your name, stop, look and say, "Yes".
2-When a teacher tells you to do something, do it "Right Away".
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".
4-When something is too hard, first try then say,"Can you help me please?"
New Skill:
When you something from a teacher or a friend and they are doing something, say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you.

SuperFlex
We have also been learning about how to be "flexible" in our classroom when something does not happen the way we thought it would. We have introduced the children to the newest action hero, "SuperFlex". He has the power to be flexible and is a great problem solver. If you child receives a "SuperFlex Award", they demonstrated great flexibility in a situation at school.

Pizza Day Nov. 7

Our class has been reading the book The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza).  Last week we had a pizza shop in our dramatic play area and making pizza at the art table with brown paper, red paint, and yellow tissue paper.

Today we made pizza for lunch. We first stretched the dough. Lisa flipped the dough up in the air for good luck (just like the little red hen did in the story). Then we pinched string cheese with our "alligator fingers" for the cheese. We made our pizzas then put them in the oven. When they were ready we enjoyed yummy pizza for lunch.

We also created pizza boxes for our paper pizzas. Then at the end of the day we sang some pizza songs. It was a really fun day.

Election Day Fun!

Cub Cadet Election

Today our class held a mock election.  During one of our “Let’s Talk About It” discussions, many of our friends knew who Obama, Romney, Warren, and Brown were.  They talked about all the TV commercials they saw. We decided to have our own class election. We have 2 baskets, one for each candidate.  Then we used popsicle sticks to cast our vote.  Each child went to the “secret” poll and put their stick into the basket of there choice. Then we use 1:1 correspondence to count our results.  We then discussed which had more and which had less.

Here are our results:

President

Barack Obama  10 votes (more)

Mitt Romney     5 votes  (less)

 We think the next president will be Barack Obama

U.S. Senate

Elizabeth Warren  2 votes  (less)

Scott Brown        13  votes  (more)

We think the next senator will be Scott Brown.

It was a fun and exciting process to have a class election.

We are excited to see if our election will be the same or different from tomorrows election.  

Friends Unit Nove. 5-9

In Unit 2, children will be talking about friendship, how to be a good friend, and ways to resolve conflicts with friends. Through the Story Time books, children hear about the importance of being who you are, helping friends, enjoying special times together, and getting along. In addition to listening to stories, children will learn to idenify rhyming works and beginning letters and sounds in words, as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also participate in a variety of music, poetry, math, science, and art activities.

Pizza Day on Wed. November 7---We will be using dough and making pizza for lunch

Theme Concepts:

-A friend is someone we like and want to spend time with. Friends like to do things together. They enjoy each other's company.
-We can have more than one good friend, and we might like to do some things with one friend and other things with other friends.
-Friends usually share with and help one another.
-Friends may have arguments and get mad at one another. Usually, friends work out their problems and continue to be friends.
-We can make new friends and also keep old friends.

Books this week

The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza)
A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats

Small Groups
-Science- Exploring Pizza Dough- Children will be given pizza dough to observe. They will use language to describe they observations such as how does it feel and what does it look like. They will be encouraged to knead the dough and shape it just like at a pizza shop. We will be making pizza and enjoying it for lunch. A letter will follow shortly to tell you when we will be cooking our pizza.
-Writing- Friendship Pictures- Children will illustrate a picture of something they like to do with their friends at school. They will talk about their picture in small groups. We will create a class book using the illustrations.
-Math- Pizza Books- We will put toppings onto pizzas, count, then write the number for each pizza. -Language- Alphabet Letter Tiles and Storybook Word Cards- They will match letters to create words of familiar vocabulary from our stories this week. Some groups will be matching uppercase to uppercase and other groups will try to match lowercase to uppercase.
-Science- Sorting food and items from the grocery store.  We will be discussing why we find different foods in different sections of the grocery store(ex- cold items together, freezer items together, dairy items.....)Then we will sort our food into categories.
-Ice Cream Friendship Project- Our graduate student friend Kerry is going to be discussing thing that build a friendship(like helping and sharing) and things that melt a friendship (like stomping your foot or shouting). This will continue next week as well
Center
Blocks-Dollhouses and friends
Sensory Table-Modeling Sand
Dramatic Play- Grocery Shop
Library- A variety of books about friends
Art Table-Playdough and letters
Easel- Water Colors
Puzzles- Vegetable Puzzles
Manipulatives- Stringing Beads to make friendship bracelets
Writing Center- Creating Handmade Stationary
Song, Word Play and Letters
Poems- Five Juicy Apples, Five Little Owl in an old oak tree
Songs- Come On and Join In To The Game, Down by the Bay, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Literacy Skills- Clap out our names(counting the syllables in our friends names), If your name starts with a __ raise your hand, Chiming in with rhyming words.

Handwriting
-We will be continuing our color books for the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum. We will focus on proper grasp holding our stubby crayons.

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-4.
1-When a teacher calls your name, stop, look and say, "Yes".
2-When a teacher tells you to do something, do it "Right Away".
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".
4-When something is too hard, first try then say,"Can you help me please?"
New Skill:
When you something from a teacher or a friend and they are doing something, say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you.

SuperFlex
We have also been learning about how to be "flexible" in our classroom when something does not happen the way we thought it would. We have introduced the children to the newest action hero, "SuperFlex". He has the power to be flexible and is a great problem solver. If you child receives a "SuperFlex Award", they demonstrated great flexibility in a situation at school.

A few things...

A few things:
Pajama Day
Tomorrow is still pajama day. Have your child wear their pajamas to school.  It should be a fun day!

Regarding 2 hour delays for our classroom:
http://beccblog.org/ (Director's Blog)
Dear BECC families,
Well our first 2-hour delay of the school year occurred much sooner than expected! We hope the morning was not too confusing for you. Please use the following guidelines when the Burlington Public Schools has a delayed opening:
-Whenever there is a two hour delay, all AM sessions are cancelled.
-If your child is in the Cub Cadets with Lisa B. and Lisa P., your child will have school from 10:30 to 12:30.

New Unit: Unit 2 Friends Oct 29-Nov2

In Unit 2, children will be talking about friendship, how to be a good friend, and ways to resolve conflicts with friends. Through the Story Time books, children hear about the importance of being who you are, helping friends, enjoying special times together, and getting along. In addition to listening to stories, children will learn to idenify rhyming works and beginning letters and sounds in words, as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also participate in a variety of music, poetry, math, science, and art activities.

Theme Concepts:

-A friend is someone we like and want to spend time with. Friends like to do things together. They enjoy each other's company.

-We can have more than one good friend, and we might like to do some things with one friend and other things with other friends.

-Friends usually share with and help one another.

-Friends may have arguments and get mad at one another. Usually, friends work out their problems and continue to be friends.

-We can make new friends and also keep old friends.

Books this week

The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza)
A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats

Small Groups
-Science- Exploring Pizza Dough- Children will be given pizza dough to observe. They will use language to describe they observations such as how does it feel and what does it look like. They will be encouraged to knead the dough and shape it just like at a pizza shop.  We will be making pizza and enjoying it for lunch.  A letter will follow shortly to tell you when we will be cooking our pizza.
-Writing- Friendship Pictures- Children will illustrate a picture of something they like to do with their friends at school. They will talk about their picture in small groups. We will create a class book using the illustrations.
-Math- Pizza Books- We will put toppings onto pizzas, count, then write the number for each pizza.   -Language- Alphabet Letter Tiles and Storybook Word Cards- They will match letters to create words of familiar vocabulary from our stories this week. Some groups will be matching uppercase to uppercase and other groups will try to match lowercase to uppercase.
- Making Stationery- We will be creating stationery like in Letter to Amy.  We will create patterns on our paper and include a new self portrait to add to our portfolios.
-How many chips? Children will use 10 or 5 two sided chips. We they will put the chips into a cup then put them on a plate. They will sort what colors are on the chips. Then use basis addition skills to count how many.
Centers
Blocks-Dollhouses and friends
Sensory Table-Washing Dishes with soap and sponges
Dramatic Play- Pizza Shop
Library- A variety of books about friends
Art Table-Pizza Art
Easel- Water Colors
Puzzles- Vegetable Puzzles
Manipulatives- Stringing Beads to make friendship bracelets
Writing Center- Creating Handmade Stationary
Song, Word Play and Letters
Poems- Five Juicy Apples, Five Little Owl in an old oak tree
Songs- Come On and Join In To The Game, Down by the Bay, Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Literacy Skills- Clap out our names(counting the syllables in our friends names), If your name starts with a __ raise your hand, Chiming in with rhyming words.

Handwriting
-We will be continuing our color books for the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum. We will focus on proper grasp holding our stubby crayons.

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-4.
1-When a teacher calls your name, stop, look and say, "Yes".
2-When a teacher tells you to do something, do it "Right Away".
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".
4-When something is too hard, first try then say,"Can you help me please?"
New Skill:
When you something from a teacher or a friend and they are doing something, say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you.

SuperFlex
We have also been learning about how to be "flexible" in our classroom when something does not happen the way we thought it would. We have introduced the children to the newest action hero, "SuperFlex". He has the power to be flexible and is a great problem solver. If you child receives a "SuperFlex Award", they demonstrated great flexibility in a situation at school.

Families Week 4 October 22-26

Families ThemeChildren will be exploring and talking about families and the many different ways families relate to and help one another. Through the Story Time books, children will hear about a boy who helps his family take care of his baby sister, a boy who realizes how much he has grown when a new baby arrives, a girl who behaves badly when she want attention, and a lonely stuffed bear who finds a new friend. Besides listening to stories, children will begin to recognize initial sounds in words and identify rhyming words as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also be participating in a variety of music, poetry, mathematics, science, and art activities during Center Time and in Small Groups.
Theme Concepts:
*Family members have role names: mother, father, sister, and so on.
*Some family members live together; some live in other places but are still family members.
*Grown-ups in a family take care of the children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
*Children sometimes get angry at parents and may feel that their parents don't love them as much as their siblings.
*Sometimes grown-ups in a family don't like things that children do and tell them to stop or be quiet.
*Families do things together that are fun.


Books This Week:
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats
Time for Bed

Small Groups:
From Last Week:
-Marble Play- We will be observing marbles using magnifying glasses and drawing our observations. Then we will watch how marbles more differently on different surfaces and inclines.
-Uppercase/Lowercase Bingo- We will play bingo to reinforce letter identification skills. Some groups will be matching uppercase to uppercase and other groups will match uppercase to lowercase.
-Book Browsing- We will be reviewing vocabulary words from our stories and then creating unit 1 vocabulary books.
New this week:
-Rhyming Words-We will be matching words that rhyme. To extend this activity will be singing rhyming words during SWPL
-Book Browsing- We will be reviewing vocabulary words from our stories and then creating unit 1 vocabulary books
-Sequencing- We will cut and arrange pictures from our unit book Corduroy to retell the story.

Centers
-Dramatic Play-  Dress Up with costumes
-Sensory Table- water wheels

-Art Table- Marble Painting

-Writing-Black Paper with chalk (inspired by Peter's chalk lines in Whistle for Willie)
-Blocks- blocks with superheroes (inspired by SuperFlex)
-Math- Manipulatives
-Library- Books about families

Let's Talk About It
-Discussing Fabrics
-"Have you really wanted something and had to wait?"
-review and role playing Preschool Life Skills
-Special Viewing of Unit Books with Friendly Frogs on Friday to celebrate the end of unit

Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Rhyming Words Song
-Dr. Jean Alphabet
-Stand Up
-Down by the Bay
-PETER Bingo song on Touch It Board (There was a boy who had a chair... There was a boy who learned to whistle...)

Handwriting
-We will be continuing our color books for the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum. We will focus on proper grasp holding our stubby crayons.

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-3.
1-When a teacher calls your name, stop, look and say, "Yes".
2-When a teacher tells you to do something, do it "Right Away".
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".
We will reviewing our skill from last week:
"When something is too hard, first try then say,"Can you help me please?"

SuperFlex
We have also been learning about how to be "flexible" in our classroom when something does not happen the way we thought it would. We have introduced the children to the newest action hero, "SuperFlex". He has the power to be flexible and is a great problem solver. If you child receives a "SuperFlex Award", they demonstrated great flexibility in a situation at school.

Families - Week 3 October 15-19

Families ThemeChildren will be exploring and talking about families and the many different ways families relate to and help one another. Through the Story Time books, children will hear about a boy who helps his family take care of his baby sister, a boy who realizes how much he has grown when a new baby arrives, a girl who behaves badly when she want attention, and a lonely stuffed bear who finds a new friend. Besides listening to stories, children will begin to recognize initial sounds in words and identify rhyming words as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also be participating in a variety of music, poetry, mathematics, science, and art activities during Center Time and in Small Groups.
Theme Concepts:
*Family members have role names: mother, father, sister, and so on.
*Some family members live together; some live in other places but are still family members.
*Grown-ups in a family take care of the children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
*Children sometimes get angry at parents and may feel that their parents don't love them as much as their siblings.
*Sometimes grown-ups in a family don't like things that children do and tell them to stop or be quiet.
*Families do things together that are fun.

Books This Week:
Corduroy by Don Freeman
Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells
Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats

Small Groups:
- Which bear is first? - We will be discussing ordinals through an activity.  We will first color, cut, then glue a set of bears.  Then children will place them in the correct order on a path. (First, Second, Third...)
-Sound Cans- We will be listening to objects in metal cans and predicting what objects are in the cans.  This is related to Noisy Nora.
-Book Browsing- We will be reviewing vocabulary words  from our stories and then creating unit 1 vocabulary books.
-Marble Play- We will be observing marbles using magnifying glasses and drawing our observations.  Then we will watch how marbles more differently on different surfaces and inclines.
-Uppercase/Lowercase Bingo- We will play bingo to reinforce letter identification skills. Some groups will be matching uppercase to uppercase and other groups will match uppercase to lowercase.
-Book Browsing- We will be reviewing vocabulary words from our stories and then creating unit 1 vocabulary books.

Centers
-Dramatic Play-  Noisy Nora's Tool Shop
-Sensory Table- marble mazes

-Art Table- piggy banks

-Writing- unit words
-Blocks- Building Car Tracks with battery operated cars
-Math- Ipads - Bubble Ball App (a marble rolling app to promote problem solving)
-Library- Books about families

Let's Talk About It
-Time for Bed book
-Birth Announcements
-Discussing our birth weight and length -Thank you for sending in the information :)
-Cook Books and Recipes (related to Noisy Nora; when she follows a recipe with her mom)

Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Rhyming Words Song
-Dr. Jean Alphabet
-Stand Up
-Down by the Bay
-If your name starts with ____ raise your hand, jump, clap your hands (following directions game)

Handwriting
-We will be continuing our color books for the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum. We will focus on proper grasp holding our stubby crayons.

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-3.
1-When a teacher calls your name, stop, look and say, "Yes".
2-When a teacher tells you to do something, do it "Right Away".
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".
We will reviewing our skill from last week:
"When something is too hard, first try then say,"Can you help me please?"

SuperFlex
We have also been learning about how to be "flexible" in our classroom when something does not happen the way we thought it would.  We have introduced the children to the newest action hero, "SuperFlex".  He has the power to be flexible and is a great problem solver.  If you child receives a "SuperFlex Award", they demonstrated great flexibility in a situation at school. 

Our Fun Fall Day (on a rainy day)

Today we had a special day. We made apple crisp in the morning.  We each had a turn to mix the ingredients in the bowl. Then we all made a trip to the kitchen to put it in the oven.

While the apple crisp was cooking, we read the book, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.  As we read the story, we used props to help tell the story. 

At choice time today, some friends helped to stuff the clothes from the story with shredded paper. It so much fun. Then we assembled the pieces to create a scarecrow.

At the end of the day, we voted on a name for our scarecrow on the touch it board. Each child wrote a tally mark to show which name they would like.     Please  meet  the newest member of the cub cadet room......Boo-Boo Head.  

 

October 9-12 Families Week 2

Families Theme
Children will be exploring and talking about families and the many different ways families relate to and help one another. Through the Story Time books, children will hear about a boy who helps his family take care of his baby sister, a boy who realizes how much he has grown when a new baby arrives, a girl who behaves badly when she want attention, and a lonely stuffed bear who finds a new friend. Besides listening to stories, children will begin to recognize initial sounds in words and identify rhyming words as they build vocabulary and comprehension skills. They will also be participating in a variety of music, poetry, mathematics, science, and art activities during Center Time and in Small Groups.
Theme Concepts:
*Family members have role names: mother, father, sister, and so on.
*Some family members live together; some live in other places but are still family members.
*Grown-ups in a family take care of the children. Younger children need more care. Older children can help take care of younger brothers and sisters.
*Children sometimes get angry at parents and may feel that their parents don't love them as much as their siblings.
*Sometimes grown-ups in a family don't like things that children do and tell them to stop or be quiet.
*Families do things together that are fun.

Books This Week:
Noisy Nora byRosemary Wells
Owl Babies
Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats

Small Groups:
-
continued from last week:
-Paint Chip Matching- We will explore paint chips from a hardware store and match the colors. This is related to Peter's chair. His family painted his old blue chair to pink for his baby sister.  As an extension, we will then match uppercase letters to their lowercase letters to create a paint chip train.
-Airplane Derby- We will create paper airplanes(just like Daniel airplane from our book Oonga Boonga).  Then we will fly our planes and see how far they go.  Children will then find the number that matches the distance the plane flew then put the same number sticker on their plane. We will compare our results with our friends.
-Peter's Chair Sequence- We will look at our unit book Peter's Chair and discuss the events in the story. Then each child will cut and paste the order of the story on a strip to retell the story through the pictures.
-Family Portraits- We will look in the books Oonga Boonga and Peter's Chair and discuss their families. Then children will be encouraged to draw and label their own family portrait.
-Watch Me Count- Children will count objects from our unit and label each set with a number. We will be working with sets of 3, 7, and 15.
-I pad app My Playhome (Which can be described as an interactive dollhouse.) Children will be able to explore this app and we will discuss what they are doing in their "dollhouse".

Centers
-Dramatic Play-  Painting Chairs (paint brushes, class chairs, paint buckets with soapy water)
-Sensory Table- washing a baby with soap, wash clothes, and towels to dry

-Art Table- tambourines with plates and rice

-Writing- unit words
-Blocks- Block Play with family people
-Math-Sorting buttons by color, shape, and number of hole
-Library- Books about families

Let's Talk About It
-Time for Bed book
-Paper Airplanes and other folded paper objects
-Mixing paint and paint chips (related to Peter's chair)
-Cook Books and Recipes (related to Noisy Nora; when she follows a recipe with her mom)

Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Rhyming Words Song
-Dr. Jean Alphabet
-Stand Up
-Down by the Bay
-If your name starts with ____ raise your hand, jump, clap your hands (following directions game)

Handwriting
-We will be continuing our color books for the Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum. We will focus on proper grasp holding our stubby crayons.

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-3.
1-When a teacher calls your name, stop, look and say, "Yes".
2-When a teacher tells you to do something, do it "Right Away".
3-When a teacher tells you to do 2 things, do it "Right Away".
We will beginning our new skill this week:
"When something is too hard, first try then say,"Can you help me please?"

Science Center Visit Today

 

 Today we went to the Burlington Science Center in the high school. We saw some amazing animals. Two high school students, Brian and Hannah let us get a closer look at the corn snake and a rabbit. We also saw salamanders, fire belly toads, guinea pigs, a huge snapping turtle, parrots, an African hedgehog, baby snapping turtle, an American alligator, and a tarantula. Just to name a few. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful place to visit in the high school.

We went to Burlington Science Center today