Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Butterfly Release Today

 We released two more butterflies today.  We had to wait for their wings to dry before they could fly away which gave us more time to take a closer look.  One even stayed on one of our friend's hands before it flew away.  It was a wonderful experience to watch the metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a chrysalis to a beautiful butterfly.  Thank you to Wendy in the Science Center for sending our preschool these butterfly kits.  

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Things that grow unit May 20-24

Classroom Happenings:
-Egg Homework- We have been learning about how different creatures grow.  We have discussed how mammals are born alive and drink milk. We also discussed how reptiles and birds are born from eggs.  This is to go along with our things that grow unit which also focuses on size and measuring.  As a fun homework or "fun"work assignment, they were given an egg and their job is to find something at home that is not too big or too small to fit in their egg. They will bring it back to school on Wednesday May 22 to share with their friends.
-Our End of the Year Party will be on Thursday June 6. I will send home a sheet to let you know an exact time but I wanted to give you advanced notice to help you plan.

Unit: Things That Grow
Children will explore how living things grow, using observations, experiments, and books. Through story time readings, children will hear about ducks who find a special home, a new baby on a farm, a boy who grows from baby to school age, and a girl who discovers the joys of growing vegetables. Children continue to learn about letters, sounds, and rhyming words, and participate in many other math, science, music, poetry, and art activities.
Theme Concepts:

-Living things grow and have life cycles.
-Living things reproduce, and the offspring are the same kind of plant or animal as their parents.
-Living things need food, water, and proper living conditions to survive.
-Immature living things need special care.
-Living things interact, and among animals there are predators and prey.
Books This Week:
Make Way For Ducklings
Tops and Bottoms
Bigger

Small Groups:

-Comparing Length- We will cut  strips of paper then place them in size order from shortest to longest.  Then we will use cubes to measure their length and then write the number. 
-Sequencing- How a plant grows sequencing using up to six pictures.
-Nature Walk- finding things that grow and collecting items that we think a bird would use to create a nest.
-Building a nest- We will use the materials we find on our nature walk to build a nest.  We will look at a real bird nest that is in our classroom science center for ideas.
Centers
-Dramatic Play- Baby Nursery
-Sensory Table- Observing Worms

-Art Table- A Top Secret Project
-Science- Waiting for our chysallis' to open

-Writing Table- bingo dobbers/ Ipads
-Math- manipulatives
-Library- Books about growing

Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Green Grass Grows All Around
- I am thinking of something..(using vocab words from our unit; molt, grow, seeds aroma, mammal, egg,)

-Five Little Ducks
-First comes a Butterfly who lays an egg

Handwriting
-We will be working on our number books for HWT.  We will be using our workbooks and hands on activities to practice writing our numbers (dry erase boards, chalk boards, magnet boards)

Preschool Life Skills
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")
New Skill:
10- When someone gives you something, look at them and say, "Thank you."

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.


Friday, May 3, 2013

Things That Grow May 6-10


Classroom Happenings:
-Last week we made soup with the Friendly Frogs.  I have posted some pictures below.
-There will be 2 homework projects coming home to look for. One is a measuring project and another is a fun alternative to show and tell.  Both should not take long to complete.  It is just a help connect home and school.  
-Our End of the Year Party will be on Thursday June 6.  I will send home a sheet to let you know an exact time but I wanted to give you advanced notice to help you plan. 

Unit: Things That Grow
Children will explore how living things grow, using observations, experiments, and books.  Through story time readings, children will hear about ducks who find a special home, a new baby on a farm, a boy who grows from baby to school age, and a girl who discovers the joys of growing vegetables.  Children continue to learn about leters, sounds, and rhyming words, and participate in many other math, science, music, poetry, and art activities.
Theme Concepts:

-Living things grow and have life cycles.
-Living things reproduce, and the offspring are the same kind of plant or animal as their parents.
-Living things need food, water, and proper living conditions to survive.
-Immature living things need special care.
-Living things interact, and among animals ther are predators and prey.
Book This Week:
Make Way For Ducklings
Farfellina and Marcel
Bigger

Small Groups:

-Vegetable Memory Game
-Tally Vegetable Game- Each child will roll a cube with a different vegetable on each side.  They will then find that vegetable on a chart and color it in.  Then we will see which vegetable was rolled the most and least. 
-Vegetable Soup Count- We will first color a pot full of vegetables then count each vegetable.  Then we will write the correct number.
-Sequencing- How a plant grows sequencing using up to six pictures.
Centers
-Dramatic Play- Vegetable Stand
-Sensory Table- Sorting and exploring different seeds
-Art Table- A Top Secret Project
-Science- Live Caterpillars to observe

-Writing Table- Drawing seed packets.
-Math- manipulatives
-Library- Books about growing

Songs, Word Play, and Letters
-Green Grass Grows All Around
-Letter Garden- Each child will be given a fruit or vegetable.  A "seed letter" will be planted and they will be asked if they have a fruit or vegetable that has the beginning sound of that letter. 

-Five Little Ducks
-First comes a Butterfly who lays an egg

Handwriting
-Picking up seeds up alligator fingers
-Theraputty hidden treasures hunt
-Using spray bottles on coffee filters

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")
New Skill:
10- When someone gives you something, look at them and say, "Thank you."

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.


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Costume Day

After working on earning "high fives" in our classroom, we enjoyed our reward of dress up day.  After talking about our costumes in morning meeting, we decided to go on a costume parade to go see Deb and Sandy in the preschool office then go see Louise and Dr. Conti in Central Office.  They were so proud of us when we told them why we all had costumes on. Dr. Conti gave each one of us a real "high five."   Our class will have to brainstorm new ideas for our next classroom reward.  




Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Dress up day tomorrow

Just a reminder. We have earned 7 pom poms in our class reward bucket.  Your child can dress up to school tomorrow in a costume of their choice.  It can be as simple as wearing a special shirt or a favorite dress up costume.  It is a fun activity to celebrate everyone getting a high five for 7 days in a row.  Thanks for your help and I will post pictures of our special day.