Harvest Unit (September 30- October 4)

Please revisit our blog we started to create a big red barn. Next week we will cut yellow paper in a handwriting activity to create hay for our barn.  We will also role play the story of Farmer Duck in our dramatic play area. I will create a blog posting about this fun activity.


Harvest Unit (Week 1)
Books This Week:
Eddie's Garden
Farmer Duck

Concept Questions For This Week:
-What is a garden?
-What cares does a garden need?
-What is a farm?
-What work needs to be done to grow food?
-Why do farmers have animals?

Handwriting Activities
-Theraputty- We will be using a special therapy putty to pull "seeds" (really tiny beads).  We will use our "alligator fingers" to remove all the seeds
-Yellow paper cutting to create hay for barn
-Clothes pins to create animal gates- We will place an animal in a pen. Then as a team we will use alligator fingers to put clothespins around the gate to keep the animal safe.
-Mat Man- We are using "Mat Man" to remind us of how to draw a person.  We will sing songs about Mat Man and then see if they can draw him will all of his parts and add details.

Small Groups This Week:
1. Planting seeds- We will decorate cups with markers, add soil, and add grass seeds. We will be watching our seeds grow over the course of this unit.
2. Sequence the life cycle of plants- We will color, cut, then sequence 4 pictures to show the life cycle of plants.
3. Math- We will be cutting pictures of farm animals. Then we will sort the farm animals to count them. We will then graph them to determine the most and least. We will discuss the beginning letters of the animals as well.
1. Bingo Game- Our bingo boards will have tools that can be found on a farm. (rake, tractor,hoe, shovel, sickle,.....)
2. Art- Creating textured animals to add to our farm mural (to be created at center time)
3.Math- we will create patterns to reinforce left to right progression. We will add a farmer at the end to illustrate the farmer getting chased by the animals.(Just like in our story Farmer Duck)

**We have 3 small groups a day that rotate with different children.

Some activities will continue next week. **

Centers

Art Table:Farm Mural

Block Area:blocks and farm animals

Sensory Table:dirt and popscicle sticks to make rows for seeds

Book Area: books about farms and growing

Easel: painting with primary colors

Writing Table: creating seed packets

Dramatic Play: playing farm (role play being farmer and animals)

Puzzles and Manipulatives: farm related puzzles

Science Table: Acorns from the playground

Preschool Life Skills

Every week we will be reinforcing previous skills and introducing new skills. Some weeks we will spend more time with a previous skill before moving to a new skill.

      New Life Skill:   "When I give you an instruction, do it right away."

      Previous Life Skill: "When a teacher calls your name, you stop, look at the speaker, and say "yes".

B.E.C.C. New Playground

We love our new playground. 

September 23-27

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:

-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?
-Beginning HWT books (Handwriting Without Tears)
Centers
Art Table- Painting green leaves for our coconut tree
Block Area- ramps and cars

Sand Table- Sand and Searching for letters in Sand
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

Preschool Life Skill:

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

September 16-20

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)
Corduroy Goes to School by Don Freeman

Small Groups:

-We will be creating all about me books. The pages within the book will include; our eye color, our favorite color, our favorite foods, our favorite toys, and what we would like to be when we grow up.  This is an opportunity for us to create discussions as well as get to know each other more.(2-3 days to complete) 

-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.
-Kissing Hand Sequencing Activity- We will cut then create patterns using 2 types of pictures.  First we will create AB patterns with the pictures, then AABB patterns. Then each child will then choose one of the patterns to create independently within the small group.
Centers
Art Table- Using a hand print rolling pin with paint. Then gluing hearts on to create a Kissing Hand collage

Block Area-blocks with cars (encouraging them to build ramps with 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- Cooking Breakfast
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- I Pad apps
Science -Mirrors
Rug-Building tracks for cars that move

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

-Alphabet Action Song

-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 call your name, stop what you are doing, look at me, and say "yes."  (Our goal is to have them do this within 2 seconds.  This is especially difficult when the children are participating in preferred activities)

First Week of School September 9-13

First Week of School
September 9-13

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
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

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)
-Introduction to Fine Motor/Handwriting activities

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

Handwriting/Fine Motor Skill Develpment Activities
-Playdough Pinching and Rolling
-"Writing" with our fingers in rice trays
-Pom-Pom pickup (We will roll a number cube then use our alligator fingers to pick up the correct number of pom-poms)

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 (restaurant role play)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- Pattern Blocks
Science - Looking in mirrors (to connect with drawing our faces during small groups)
Rug- Doll Houses

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".

Classroom Motivational System
-We will be learning classroom routines and expectations within our new classroom.  In order to create a successful and rewarding environment, each child will have a motivational system. Our classroom system promotes positive classroom behavior through positive peer modeling and teachers providing positive reinforcement for desired behaviors.  This system will be explained more throughly in an upcoming blog posting.