End of our Snow Unit Feb. 3-7

Cub Cadet Olympic Games
On Feb. 6, our class will participate in the winter Olympics to celebrate the end of our snow unit.  We will create and take Olympic torches up to Louise D'Amato and Dr. Conti's offices.  They will help us official start our games.  Please have your child wear red, white, or blue to show our support for the USA games.  It will be a fun day.  

Books This Week:
Stella: Queen of the Snow
Katy and the Big Snow

Small Groups For This Week:
1.Social Science- Maps- We will be creating a map of our preschool then using the map to find all of the locations.  We will get a sticker from each location on the map and put it on the map at our location.  This will be a fun way to learn about maps and how they help us.
2.Math- We will be rolling a number cube. Then identify the number. Then each child will show the correct number of cubes for the number. Finally, they will need to use a bingo dobber to mark the number.
3. Phonemic Awareness(Continued project from last week)- We will be introducing the concept of "ear spelling" as we discuss animals in each of The Mitten books we are comparing.  We have read 2 versions of the same story.  We will be "ear spelling" the animals names (ie. mouse may be spelled MOS or boar may be spelled BOR) It is more about the process of listening to the sounds than having the correct spelling.
**Special Activity- Weather permitting- We will be given a scavenger hunt paper and a clipboard and go outside for a walk.  We will try to find animal tracks in the snow or animal homes in the winter.  We will record our results on our clipboards.

Let's Talk About It 
-Expanding (When we add water to sponges they get bigger)
-New life skill role play
-What to do to prepare for a blizzard
-Winter Olympics

Centers
Art Table: Olympic Torches / Open Ended Art 
Block Area: Igloos for people figures
Sensory Table:  Sand Toys
Book Area: books about weather
Easel: Snow pictures (white paint on blue paper)
Writing Table: weather pictures
Dramatic Play: Hot Cocoa Shop
Puzzles and Manipulatives: Surveys -Children develop questions and chart how their friends respond (yes/no)

Handwriting
We will continuing a program called Handwriting Without Tears. It's focus is on letter formation and letter awareness. This program reinforces proper grasp and trying to strenghten fine motor muscles.
-We are working on letters with big and little lines that include curves (ie: D,P, etc)

Songs, Word Play, and Language
-SNOWY (A version of Bingo) "There was a day when we were cold and snowy was the weather."
-Syllable Tapping for vocabulary words for Tracks In The Snow
-PETER (A version of Bingo) on the touch It Board
-Rhyming Game- One child will sit in a chair with their back facing the touch it board. A word will be displayed.  Children sitting on the rug will say words that rhyming with the word as the child tries to guess the picture behind them.

Preschool Manners
We are moving onto our new skill.
-When someone is in your way or has something you want, say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you, then you say"May I____________?" to get what you want.

Our I-Movie about Mat Man!!

Our class created a I-Movie about Man Man.  This was a fun way to incorporate technology with our Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum.  Our favorite part was watching our class build Mat Man and seeing him dressed up in costumes a the end of our movie. 

Enjoy the show!!

Snow Unit January 27-31

Books This Week:
Tracks in the Snow
Stella: Queen of the Snow
Katy and the Big Snow
The Mitten (used for reference with our small groups)

Small Groups For This Week:
1. Phonemic Awareness- We will be introducing the concept of "ear spelling" as we discuss animals in each of The Mitten books we are comparing.  We have read 2 versions of the same story.  We will be "ear spelling" the animals names (ie. mouse may be spelled MOS or boar may be spelled BOR) It is more about the process of listening to the sounds than having the correct spelling.
2.Science- Animal Tracks in the Snow matching activity
3. Math-Non-standard units of measure.  We will use blocks to measure how many blocks tall different snowmen are.  We will create a book to compare which snowman is taller and shorter.
1.Language- Book Browsing-We will look a unit books in a small group and reinforce vocabulary words we have learned.
2.Math- We will be rolling a number cube. Then identify the number. Then each child will show the correct number of cubes for the number. Finally, they will need to use a bingo dobber to mark the number.
3. Fine Motor- We will try to cut snowflakes. Then compare how each child's snowflake looks different (just like in real life)

Let's Talk About It 
-Maps
-Stuffing a mitten (We will add blocks to a mitten and try to predict how many blocks it will hold.  This will be related to our unit book The Mitten)
-Absorb and Repel Concepts
-Snow Insulation- using a foam cooler to hold snow and comparing to leaving snow in a bucket in our classroom overnight. We will make a prediction of what will happen (hypothesis).

Centers
Art Table: Making snow scenes with hole punchers
Block Area: Using "snowplows" in a snow storm
Sensory Table:  Ice blocks with letters in them
Book Area: books about weather
Easel: Snow pictures (white paint on blue paper)
Writing Table: weather pictures
Dramatic Play: TV Station reporting the weather
Puzzles and Manipulatives: matching different mittens




Handwriting
We will continuing a program called Handwriting Without Tears. It's focus is on letter formation and letter awareness. This program reinforces proper grasp and trying to strenghten fine motor muscles.
-We are working on letters with big and little lines that include curves (ie: D,P, etc)

Songs, Word Play, and Language
-SNOWY (A version of Bingo) "There was a day when we were cold and snowy was the weather."
-Book- When it starts to snow
-The Mitten story on Touch It board
-Syllable Tapping for vocabulary words for Tracks In The Snow
-PETER (A version of Bingo) on the touch It Board
-Environmental Print- We have been talking about reading words all around us.

Preschool Manners
We are moving onto our new skill.
-When someone is in your way or has something you want, say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you, then you say"May I____________?" to get what you want.

Snow Unit January 21-24

Information:
-No school Monday.
-Our school will be having an open house for new students interested in our program on January 24 from 1pm to 2 pm.  

Books This Week:
Tracks in the Snow
Stella: Queen of the Snow
The Mitten

Small Groups For This Week:
1. Science- Salt on Ice Experiment- We will predict what will happen to an ice cube if we put salt on top of it.  After we predict what will happen, we will put salt on top and watch.  Then we will draw a picture of what happened and talk about why.
2. Math-Subiziting how many(this the concept of looking at a set of objects and knowing how many there are without counting)  We will have a race to see if 2 or 3 will win.  A teacher will show 2 or 3 objects quickly then the children will have to say 2 or 3 then record their results.
3. Language- Animals in The Mitten and not in The Mitten- We will read the story then talk about the animals in the story.  We will then sort 2 ways to create a chart.
1.Science- Animal Tracks in the Snow matching activity
2. Phonemic Awareness- Rhyming words for Tracks in the snow book.
3. Math-Non-standard units of measure.  We will use blocks to measure how many blocks tall different snowmen are.  We will create a book to compare which snowman is taller and shorter.
Let's Talk About It 
-Absorb and Repel Concepts
-Snow Insulation
-Animal Tracks

Centers
Art Table: painting symmetrical painted mittens
Block Area: building a town to use a snow plow in
Sensory Table: Artic animals on icebergs
Book Area: books about weather
Easel: Snow pictures (white paint on blue paper)
Writing Table: weather pictures
Dramatic Play: Weather Station
Puzzles and Manipulatives: matching different mittens

Handwriting
We will continuing a program called Handwriting Without Tears. It's focus is on letter formation and letter awareness. This program reinforces proper grasp and trying to strenghten fine motor muscles.
-We are working on letters with big and little lines that include curves (ie: D,P, etc)

Songs, Word Play, and Language
-SNOWY (A version of Bingo) "There was a day when we were cold and snowy was the weather."
-Book- When it starts to snow
-Stella Ipad App
-Syllable Tapping for vocabulary words for Tracks In The Snow
-PETER (A version of Bingo) on the touch It Board

Preschool Manners
We are moving onto our new skill.
-When you want soemething form a teacher or friend and they are doing something say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you, then you say"May I____________?" to get what you want.

January 13-17 Snow Unit (Week 2)

Books This Week:
Good Night Baby Bear
The Snowy Day
Stella: Queen of the Snow
The Mitten

Small Groups For This Week:
1. Science- Salt on Ice Experiment- We will predict what will happen to an ice cube if we put salt on top of it.  After we predict what will happen, we will put salt on top and watch.  Then we will draw a picture of what happened and talk about why.
2.Sequencing 3 and 4 pictures to tell a story about a snowman. (ie. First building a snowman sequence, the sun came out, next the snowman melted sequence)
3. Art- We will color a picture of Stella( the character from our book). Then we will use epson salt on blue paper to look like snow.  When it is dry we will put Stella in the "snow storm".
1.Sorting Clothes in the snow and not in the snow.  First we will talk about items we need in the snow to keep warm.  Then they will be given items to cut, sort, then glue onto a chart.
2. Math-Subiziting how many(this the concept of looking at a set of objects and knowing how many there are without counting)  We will have a race to see if 2 or 3 will win.  A teacher will show 2 or 3 objects quickly then the children will have to say 2 or 3 then record their results.
3. Language- Snow Syllable Book- We will be tapping out unit words with sticks then writing how many sounds we ear in each word to create a book

Let's Talk About It 
-Winter Equipment
-Manners
-Melting(how do objects melt)
-Signs of Winter (Seasonal Changes)

Centers
Art Table: Winter Scenes with white paint, glitter, hole stickers, qtips
Block Area:blocks with bears to create caves
Sensory Table: Artic animals on icebergs
Book Area: books about weather
Easel: colored ice to paint with
Writing Table: writing shopping lists for winter clothes
Dramatic Play: Snowball Contest (points for throwing snowballs(paper balls) into buckets to get points)
Puzzles and Manipulatives: matching different mittens

Handwriting
We will continuing a program called Handwriting Without Tears. It's focus is on letter formation and letter awareness. This program reinforces proper grasp and trying to strenghten fine motor muscles.
-Shaving Cream to write word SNOW
-chalk boards (with sponges and chalk)
-frogs to flip (to begin talking about frog jump letters like F, E, D)

Songs, Word Play, and Language
-SNOWY (A version of Bingo) "There was a day when we were cold and snowy was the weather."
-Book- When it starts to snow
-Stella Ipad App
-Syllable Tapping for vocabulary words using sticks (like Peter in The Snowy Day)
-PETER (A version of Bingo) on the touch It Board

Preschool Manners
We are moving onto our new skill.
-When you want soemething form a teacher or friend and they are doing something say, "Excuse me" to get them to look at you, then you say"May I____________?" to get what you want.

Snow Experiment Today

Today we read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  In the story, Peter wanted to save a snowball in his pocket but later he discovered it had melted.  We wanted to see if we could think of an idea of how to save a snowball.  Some ideas were in the freezer and the refrigerator.  So we conducted an experiment to see where is the best place to save snow.  We collected snow in 3 containers (K for kitchen table, R for refrigerator, and F for Freezer).  We waited several hours later and then checked back to see what happened. 

Here is what we discovered:

Brandon- The snow in the freezer did not melt because the freezer is so cold.

Ryan- The snow on the table melted really fast because it melted by the lights.

Ellie- The snow melted on the table because it is really hot inside.

Colin- The snow in the freezer did not melt because was so cold.

Lily-The snow didn’t melt in the freezer.

Luke- The snow on the table melted quicker.

Chloe- The snow in the refrigerator melted a little bit.

Liam- The snow in the freezer stayed frozen and hard because the freezer is cold.

Niko- The snow on the table melted faster.

Brooke- The snow in the freezer didn’t melt because it was cold.

Ben- The snow melted in the refrigerator less than the snow on the table.

Phoebe- The snow on the table melted.

Matthew- The snow on the table melted because the hot air got closer to it.

Emmett- The snow in the freezer did not melt because the freezer is cold.