Camping Unit-Our Last Weeks of School

Important Dates
Our End of the Year Family Celebration: Friday June 5
      -Show of Literacy Songs/ Slide Show Memories of our year
Our Last Day of School: Friday June 19

Camping Unit
Books This Unit

Just Me and My Dad
Bailey Goes Camping
Absolutely Not
Curious George Goes Camping
Molly Goes Hiking

Small Groups For This Week:
Week of June 1-5
Motor Monday-Language- Camping Vocabulary Books
1.Math- We will sort strips from shortest to longest then measure the strips. We will write numbers next to each strip to show how long each is.  

2. Practice our show for our preschool friends
3. HWT- Diagonal Line Book
June 5- Day of our Family Celebration

Week of June 8-12
Motor Monday-Language- Camping Vocabulary Books continued
1.Math- Sets of 5. We will creates sets of 5 objects using camping pictures.  This is to introduce simple addition sentences( 2+3=5)
2. Phonemic Awareness- We will play a rhyming memory game.
3. Science- Sink and Float Exploration with "canoes" and some cargo.
HWT- Using a door to write letters using flashlights- We will send home more information about this activity so you can do this at home with your child.

Week of June 15-19
 Motor Monday- Sequencing Camping Scene- We will be coloring then sequencing a camping scene. We will give details about the pictures and try to tell an oral story about the sequence.
1. Art Project- Multi-step campfire activity.Using red and orange paint and cutting brown paper to create a campfire (This is a 2 day projects for small groups)

2.Math-Counters in a cup. We will be using marshmallows to count to 10. Then we will put some in the cup and leave others out of the cup.  We will record how many different ways we will make 10.

3. Math- We will spin a spinner then record which picture is the outcome.  We will create a chart and discuss math terms such as most, least, and equal.
*"Camping Out" Celebration- Last Day of School Fun!!!

Centers
Rug Activity- Lincoln Logs/ Tinker Toys/ Legos
Science- Plastic bugs to explore with magnifying glasses/Plants
Art Table: Campfire craft/ collage with sticks and other outside materials
Blocks: building "campfires" with blocks and red tissue paper
Sensory Table: fishing for letters/ frogs on lily pads/water play
Book Area: books about The Great Outdoors
Writing Table: making camping lists/
Dramatic Play: BBQ cooking (hot dogs and hamburgers)/ Tent and Camping Props
Puzzles and Manipulative: puzzles

Let's Talk About It

-What activities do you do outside for fun?

-Outdoor Safety
-Book- When We go camping
-Book- Sheep takes a hike

-Cooking Outside(BBQ, camping, fishing for dinner)
-Recreational activities in the water(canoe, swimming,kayaking..)
-HWT- Using a door to write letters using flashlights- We will send home more information about this activity so you can do this at home with your child.
-What do you need to take on a camping trip?

Field Day 2015 at the BECC

We played parachute games with the Kinderstars and the Barnyard Buddies.  We played following directions games such a if you are holding yellow, if your name has an A in it, if you are wearing brown.  It was so much fun.  

Next we played with chalk on the wall.  

After a picnic snack, we played games such as fishing for letters, bubble exploration, and hula hoop letter toss.  

Then we played water relay races.  We squeezed sponges full of water and ran to fill our friends bucket across the hill.  

To end our day, we at lunch in the high school cafeteria! It was a fun field day!

Beautiful day for a picnic!!

We earned a class reward today! 

Things That Grow May 11-15, 18-22

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 there are predators and prey.

Books This Week:

April 27-May 1

Make Way For Ducklings
I Heard Said the Bird

May 4-8
Bigger
Make Way For Ducklings


Small Groups:
May 11-15
-Motor Monday- We will be cutting circles and then lacing them onto string with colored straws to make necklaces for our show
-Measuring ourselves with blocks then we will record our results
-We will be writing the word for animals then matching their babies to their mothers.  For example( PIG then matching a piglet)
-Sequencing the life cycle of a frog by cutting and sequencing
-Sorting animals born alive and animals born from an egg

May18-22
Motor Moday-We will be making ducks to go along with our story, Make Way for Ducklings
-Seeds Book- Writing things that a seed needs to go
-Fine Motor- We will make a flower then label all of its parts
-Vegetable Memory
-Math- Placing strips in order from shortest to longest then measuring each strip.

Centers
-Dramatic Play- Making vegetable soup/ Vegetable Stand
-Sensory Table- Worms and Dirt to explore/ Grass and play animals
-Art Table- Sequencing Seeds/Painting leaves
-Science- Growing Seeds/ Live Caterpillars 
-Writing Table- Drawing seed packets/About us project
-Math- manipulatives/cubes to measure objects in room
-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. 
- First comes a butterfly
- So many things that grow, grow, grow
-Alphabet Vactation

Let's Talk About It
-Observing and talking about our garden
-Observing and talking about our butterflies
-Changes in animals(butterflies/frogs)
-Measuring our green bean plants
-Animals born from eggs/Animals born alive
-What do animals need to go?

Independent Activities/Handwriting
-We will be continuing our Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum to combine our concepts.  (ie. diagonal lines, magic C, and diagonal lines to create letters with all strokes such as R)
-Sequencing a girl painting a picture
-Sorting Vegetables
-Write the Room to find and write vocabulary words
-Measuring the Room with cubes
- Name writing practices an number writing



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:
-Size of the problem- How big is your problem? Does the way we react match how we react?
"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.

Super-Flex- We are learning how to be flexible in our thinking and not get a "rock brain"