Families -Week 1 Oct 1-5

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:
Oonga Boonga by Frieda Wishinsky
Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats

Small Groups:
-Writing/Storytelling- Children will be encouraged to draw pictures in blank books and write letters or words for their illustrations.They will be encouraged to have a beginning, middle, and end.(first/then/at the end)
-Letter Matching- Children will match uppercase letters in small groups. Teachers will discuss the sounds for the matching letters.
-Name Puzzles- Children will cut and cut their name in the correct order
-Family Vocabulary- We will be creating books that discuss the members of a family.  It will be related back to our Oonga Boonga and Peter's Chair
-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- Taking Care of Babies
-Sensory Table- Water Movement using squeeze bottles and funnels
-Art Table- Making tissue paper collages
-Writing- Writing my name with letter stampers
-Blocks- Block Play
-Math-matching and sorting paint chips
-Library- Books about families

Let's Talk About It
-Learning how to take care of babies
-Harmonicas and other musical instruments
-Learning how to make bottle shakers for centers next week


Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Five Green and Speckled Frogs on Touch It board
-Dr. Jean Alphabet
-Stand Up
-Down by the Bay
-If your name starts with ____ raise your hand

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

Preschool Life Skills
-When something is too hard, find a teacher and say "Help me please."
Previous skills:
-When someone calls my name, stop, look and say yes.
-When a teacher tells me to do something, I will do it, "right away"

September 24 -September 28

 
Books This Week:
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Who Took the Cookie From the Cookie Jar (This version has noctural animals and we will make connections to the raccoon in The Kissing Hand, where all of the nocutural animals have a night time cookie picnic together)

Small Groups:
-Uppercase/Lowercase letter matching game on a coconut tree
-Visual Discrimination- Each child will use teacher provided pieces to make their tree look like the model of a coconut tree put together
-Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Bowling- Bowling pins will be set up with letters on them. Children will use a "coconut" to knock down pins. They will record which letters they knocked down.
Continued from last week:

-My favorite part of The Kissing Hand Journal page
-Kissing Hand Memory-We will first label the pictures from our story and then play memory with the picture cards.  Reinforcing turn taking and discussing how to react if you cannot find a match.

-Kissing Hand Spinner Game-In small groups, we will spinner a spinner and the children will record what story related picture it lands on. We will discuss more, less, and equal.
Handwriting Activities:
-Sorting letter manipulatives on charts (letters in my name/letters not in my name)
-Exploring HWT manipulatives (big lines and little lines) What letters or shapes can you make?
-Using "alligator fingers" to pinch tissue paper and make an uppercase letter of their name.
-Beginning HWT books
Centers
Art Table- Painting green leaves for our coconut tree
Block Area- ramps and cars

Sand Table- acorns
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-brown and green paint
Writing Table- markers and paper
Dramatic Play- restaurant with clip boards to help pretend
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- I Pad apps
Science -Things we find outside in the playground (i.e. acorns, leaves...)
Rug- Legos for building

Songs, Word Plays, and Language
-Touch It Board Letter Find- Identifying letters that are the same; either uppercase to uppercase or uppercase to lowercase
-Clapping our names (syllables in our names)

-Alphabet Action Song
-HWT-Building "Mat Man"

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg

Current Preschool Life Skill
-When I give you instructions, you them "Right Away".
Previous Skills We Review:

-When I call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say ,"Yes".
-When I give you an instruction, you do it "Right Away".

Handwriting and Fine Motor Activities

  Our program has using been using the researched based curriculum called Handwriting Without Tears. It focuses on fine motor readiness skills as well as promote the correct way to form letters and numbers.  The first weeks of school we will focus on further developing our "alligator fingers" to get ready to write.  We have be using different material in our handwriting small groups to increase our hand strength and try to isolate our thumb and pointer finger.  The children have been having fun as well. Below are some of our activities:

We have launched frogs into water and lily pads to isolate our pointer finger.

 We have used tiny sponges to fill little cups.  We used our only our thumb and pointer finger to help develop our "alligator fingers."

 We collected acorns outside. Then we used the acorns and our "alligator fingers" to paint.

 We used shaving cream on trays. Then we practiced making big lines on our tray. Some of us practiced writing our names and letters.

 We also used dry erase boards to write our names and draw pictures.  After we were finished, the children had to use small tissues to wipe away their work. This also promotes our "alligator fingers."

We also used play dough in a teacher directed activity.  Children made hot dogs with their play dough, then they used scissors to cut their hot dogs into smaller pieces. It is a fun way to practice scissor skills.

Our Classroom Motivational System

Classroom Motivational System

     I'm sure by now your child has told you about the mystery bags from our classroom. Below is a brief description of our classroom system.

        In our classroom each child is given a “High Five” chart.  When each child exhibits a desired classroom behavior, they will get a star to add to their “High Five” chart.  These behaviors range from listening nicely to a story, raising their hand and waiting, pushing a friend on the swing, transitioning to new activities, passing material to a friend, or using one of our Preschool Life Skills independently. The children are very excited and proud when a teacher notices them doing good work and then getting a star. Each child loves adding stars to their hands. This system provides all children with a model of how to be a good friend and what appropriate school behavior looks like.  

        When each child recieves 5 stars and fills up their individual "High Five" hand, they will choose a mystery bag.  They will not open these bags in school but bring them home to open.  They may have inside their bag a small prize or a classroom coupon that is good for a special job at school.  They can keep their prizes at home, but they can return their coupon in their folder so they can redeem it at school to have a special job in school.   (examples: Turn to ring the classroom bell, teacher helper for the day, go to the office with the cub of the day.)

       If you have any questions about our motivation system, feel free to email or call me.  The system will continue but may change slightly as the children progress through the school year.  Thank you for your help and encouraging your child to get a "High Five".

September 17-21

Our first week together as a class was wonderful.  I hope all of your children are excited to come to school each day.  The children were also thrilled to earn their mystery bags. We are looking forward to another fun filled week next week. I will post our upcoming activities on the blog the week before.
Books This Week:
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Who Took the Cookie From the Cookie Jar (This version has noctural animals and we will make connections to the raccoon in The Kissing Hand, where all of the nocutural animals have a night time cookie picnic together)

Small Groups:

We will be completing our all about me book:
-Who do you play with at school?-each child will draw themselves with one or more friends and describe who they like to play with.

-What is your favorite activity in school?- each child will draw then describe their favorite activity

-Who lives in your house? -each child will draw a picture of their house using a variety of shapes
-Kissing Hand Spinner Game-In small groups, we will spinner a spinner and the children will record what story related picture it lands on. We will discuss more, less, and equal.
Centers
Art Table- Painting our hands for a Kissing Hand project

Block Area- cars

Sand Table- wet sand and molding sand toys
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- markers and paper
Dramatic Play- dishes, cookware, and food
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- I Pad apps
Science -Things we find outside in the playground (i.e. acorns, leaves...)
Rug- Legos for building

Songs, Word Plays, and Language
-Touch It Board Letter Find- Identifying letters that are the same; either uppercase to uppercase or uppercase to lowercase

-Action Bingo Song:

There was a class that had a boy/girl, and _____was his/her name-o

(Each child chooses an action for others to follow)

Jump, Jump, (name), Jump, Jump, (name), Jump, Jump, (name) ,

We're glad you're in school today.
-If your happy and you know it.
-Here we are together at school
-Our Good Morning Chant
-The Cub of Day, Who will it be?

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg

Current Preschool Life Skill
-When I give you an instruction, you do it "Right Away".
Previous Skills We Review:

-When I call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say ,"Yes".

First Week of School - September 10-14

First Week of School- September 10-14

Our first month of school is upon us. We will begin our school year getting to know each other and establishing classroom routines. During the month of September, we will be focusing on developing classroom expectations, routines, and getting to know each learner. Our books for the first several weeks will pertain to transitioning to school and feelings about coming to school. We will also use these books to have the students become familiar with our curriculum approach which is to use books to build on our classroom activities.

Books This Week:
Starting School by Franzesha Ewart
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Small Groups:

-First Day of School Picture for Portfolios

-Self Portraits and Name writing samples (We will add these to your child's portfolio to monitor the wonderful progress they will make in preschool this year)
-All About Me Book-Each child will begin to create a book to share with their new friends at school and then bring it home to share with you.  Each day they will create a new page in their book. Some of the activities include:

          -Name Puzzle- cutting the letters of their name and assembling them in order in book

          - How old are you?- each child will cut the correct number of candles to add to a birthday cake

          -Where do you live? -each child will draw a picture of their house using a variety of shapes
Centers
Art Table- Bingo Dobbers

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- sand and sand toys
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- dishes, cookware, and food
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Pattern Blocks
Science - What I did over the summer. Exploring seashells
Rug- Legos for building

Songs, Word Plays, and Language

-Action Bingo Song:

         There was a class that had a boy/girl, and _____was his/her name-o

         (Each child chooses an action for others to follow)

         Jump, Jump, (name),      Jump, Jump, (name),     Jump, Jump, (name) ,

         We're glad you're in school today.
-If your happy and you know it.
-Here we are together at school
-Our Good Morning Chant
-The Cub of Day, Who will it be?

-ABC Rock by Steve and Greg

-Number Rock by Steve and Greg

Preschool Life Skill

-When I call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say ,"Yes".