Five Senses- Week 2

Books This Week
On My Way to Buy Eggs
One Dark Night
Hero Cat

Small Groups For This Week:
1.Guess my rule: Each child will put 2 or 3 letter on a tray to show their friends. Then we will try to guess what attributes they have in common to "guess their rule." For example: X and V=Both letters have only diagonal lines, C and Q =both letter have big curves, F and K=both letters have 1big line and 2 little lines.
2. Five Senses Sorting Game- Each child will spin a spinner. They will land on one of the five senses. Then they will look for a picture that goes with the correct sense.
3. Math- We will be rolling a number cube to identify numbers. Then we will use a rug sized mat to move our pawn pieces.  When each child gets their pawn to the end, they will choose 1 sense to give a Mr. Potato Head, then go back to the start to go again.  The game will be over when every child has included all of the 5 senses on their Mr. Potato Head.
Making Musical Instruments-
Centers
Rug Activity- Instruments to explore to inspire us to make our own instruments during the week
Science- Herb Garden Growing(Mint Leaves to smell and taste)
Art Table:Lite Brites to explore light and color
Blocks: blocks
Sensory Table:colored rice to sound like rain when it is dropped
Book Area: books about senses
Writing Table: Unit Vocabulary Words
Dramatic Play: Cats and boxes
Puzzles and Manipulative: puzzles about senses

Let's Talk About It
-Instruments and how they sound different
-Binoculars,Magnifying Glasses, Telescopes(Things that help us see)
-Senses keep us safe(hot,smoke, flashing lights....)
-How some people do not have all 5 senses(blind, deaf)

Handwriting
We will continuing a program called Handwriting Without Tears. It's focus is on letter formation and letter awareness. This program reinforces proper grasp and trying to strengthen fine motor muscles.

Preschool Manners
-When someone is in your way or has something you want, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention, then say"May I _____" to get what you want.

Sense of Sight Watching Walk

Watching Walk- We created binoculars to help us on our watching walk.  We walked about our school to identify items with only our sense of sight.  When we came back to our classroom, we talked about what we saw.  We were even lucky enough to see the tortoises outside in their pen at the Science Center. 

After discussing all of the interesting things we saw, we created a chart.  To challenge the students a little further, we sorted what we saw into two catorgories (Alive and Not-Alive).  We talked about how things that are alive need to do three things:breath, grow, and eat.  It was tricky at times when we talked about leaves. We thought leaves could be both alive on a tree, but not alive when they are brown on the ground. It was a fun and interesting way to further our study of the five senses.

New Technology into the Preschool

 Our class has been using our Touch It boards for several weeks now. The students love using this technology for many classroom activities. We have used this technology in many phonemic awareness activities, such finding the rhyming pictures or beginning letter sound identification. We have also used a program to create a calendar for our classroom. It has also allowed us to view video clips that relate to our curriculum. In addtion,  during our transportation unit we learned about ramps. We visited a site that had the children move straight lines to form diagonal ramps to ultimately help feed a hungry cat a meatball.

We also used the touch it boards to incorporate our Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum.  Each child had a turn in a small group to write their name in a defined area. (Everyone remembered to start their letter at the top!)  Then we discussed what kind of lines did each child use in their name. (i.e. big line, little line, big curve, little curve, diagonal line....). 
Using this technology is motivating and a fun way to incorporate our curriculum goals.

Five Senses Week 1

Our New Unit- Our Five Senses

Books This Week
On My Way to Buy Eggs
Seven Blind Mice
Hero Cat

Small Groups For This Week:
1. Sensory Exploration- We will blindfold the children and have them use their sense of hearing and touch to find an object.  They will have to follow directions by listening alone.
2. Math- Understanding ordinal position- In the story Seven Blind Mice, one mouse at a time tried to investigate a mystery object (ie. first, second, third...)We will recall the ordinal position of each mice in the story.
3. Science- "Blubber Glove"- We will create an insulated glove to understand why artic animals do not freeze in the cold icy artic ocean.

1. Mystery Bags- Children will need to use their sense of touch alone to discover what is in the "mystery bags".(uppercase letters will be in the bags, they will need to identify the letters by describing their lines: straight lines, diagonal lines, curvy lines)
2. Letter Awareness- Guess my rule? Each child will choose 3-4 letters that have something in common.  (ie, all have straight lines, all have curvy lines.....) Then the other children in the group will try to guess what the letters have in common.
3. Zingo Game- A sight bingo game

Centers
Rug Activity- Dinosaur Mountain
Science- Herb Garden Growing
Art Table:Stained Glass creations
Blocks: blocks
Sensory Table:Oobleck (connstarch and water)
Book Area: books about senese
Writing Table: Unit Vocabulary Words
Dramatic Play: House
Puzzles and Manipulative: puzzles about senses

Let's Talk About It
-How we find out about our senses?
-What body part is connected to each sense?
-How do our senses work together?
-Listening Walk reading

Handwriting
We will continuing a program called Handwriting Without Tears. It's focus is on letter formation and letter awareness. This program reinforces proper grasp and trying to strengthen fine motor muscles.

Preschool Manners
-When someone is in your way or has something you want, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention, then say"May I _____" to get what you want.

Transportation April 2-5

**Just a Reminder-No School on Friday**Books This Week
Subway Sparrow
The Adventures of Taxi Dog
How Will We Get to the Beach?

Small Groups For This Week:
These groups are continued on Monday:
1. Language- Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Go Fish Game
2. Math- Rocket Ship Blast Off- We will put numbers in order from the highest to lowest as we create a rocket ship countdown strip
3. Engineering/Science- We will use paper, cardboard, and wood to create a bridge. We will attempt to create bridges to hold the most amount of pennies. We will then record and observe our findings.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday groups:
1. Science- We will be constructing tin boats to put pennies in the boats. We will try to think what shape of our boats will help hold the most pennies as we experiment in the sensory table
2. Touch It Boards- We will use our new touch it boards(aka:smartboards) in a transportation related activity
3. Phonemic Awareness- We will identify the beginning sounds in transporation vehicles. Some children will write the beginning letter and other will try to write the word for each vehicle.
Centers
Rug Activity- Tubes and connectors
Science- Can wind make things move? straws, boats, cars, etc....
Art Table:art with sand(promoting pinching "alligator fingers" to put sand on)
Blocks: blocks and cars
Sensory Table:Marble Mazes
Book Area: books about transportation
Writing Table: making street signs
Dramatic Play: Dunkin Donuts Drive Thru
Puzzles and Manipulative: puzzles about transportation

Let's Talk About It
-What kinds of transportation do people use around the world?
-Transportation Podcast
-What gets transported besides people?
-Space Travel (I want to Be an Astronaut)
-Transportation for recreation or run

Handwriting
We will continuing a program called Handwriting Without Tears. It's focus is on letter formation and letter awareness. This program reinforces proper grasp and trying to strengthen fine motor muscles.

Preschool Manners
-When someone is in your way or has something you want, say "Excuse Me" to get their attention, then say"May I _____" to get what you want.