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.