Shadows and Reflections April 8-12

Last Week of Shadows and Reflections
-April 15-19 No School Vacation Week- Have a wonderful break!!
-School Pictures will be coming home Monday
-FYI- Our classroom is being painted over April vacation. If your child tells you that the walls at school are empty, that is why.
- Included in the blog are pictures of our prism exploration

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:

Beady Bear 

Kitten for a Day
Dreams

Small Groups:
-Science- Light Play- We will go into a dark room each with a flashlight, a mirror, and a prism.  We will try to make the light bounce off the mirror and go to the other side of the room. We will also shine a light in the prisms to observe what happens. 

-Math-How many bears? We will roll a cube then put the correct number of brown bears in a cave.  Then roll the cube again but this time put black bears in the cave.  We will then add how many bears there are all together in the cave and write the "number sentence" below.
-Language- We will label or identify the beginning letters of animals from our unit books.  We will create a small beginning letter sound book for the animals.  We will then write the beginning letter for each animal.
Special Small Group Activities
- Kaleidoscopes- We will be creating our own kaleidoscopes.  This is a fun project that reinforces that light is needed for reflections.

Choice: -

-Easel – watercolors
-Sensory–Water Reflections- Look into water using a prism to see a rainbow
-Dramatic Play – Projecting Images- We will have a movie theater using a view master projector- One child can project the images onto the wall to tell a story. The other 2 children will watch the show until it is there turn to project their show.
-Art/Language-Spring flower tissue pinching activity
-Writing Center – kaleidoscope app on ipads
-Puzzles –tangrams
-Blocks – Blocks
-Science Center- Mirrors and kaleidoscopes and Frog Eggs with magnifying glasses

Songs, Word Plays and Letters
Bingo – with the word Snake
Whose Reflection is in the Pool?  (Smart board Activity)
Little Letter/Big Letter Chant


Handwriting
-Magic C Letters Books finishing this week
-Flipping frogs in water bowls
-Squeezing sponges racing game
-Theraputty activities

Preschool Life Skills
We are continuing to review our previous skills 1-7.
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.
(6and 7 are join together)
7-When someone is in your way or has something that you want, say "Excuse me" to get their attention, and then say"May I_____?" to get what you want.
8-When an adult tells you to wait say, "Okay", and your waiting words. (Waiting Words= "When I wait quietly, I get what I want")
 9- When a friend tells you to wait say, "Okay", and your waiting words. (Waiting Words= "When I wait quietly, I get what I want")
We will review our life skills then start #10 after vacation.

We also have been learning:
"Checking our Body" - This is to remind us how to sit during large group activities. We will talk about how to "check" our bodies to get ready to listen. This is a important skill as we transition into kindergarten.