"Cub Cadet Idol"

 In our dramatic play area this week, we have been playing instruments and playing instruments to roleplay our version of  "American Idol".

This is Cub Cadet Idol!

As we sang some familiar songs, we tried to sing along and play instruments to reinforce how we use our sense of hearing.  After we sang the judges, told us what they liked about our song.  This was a noisy but very fun addition to choice time.  

Parrot in Classroom

Meet Crystal, an African grey parrot, who will be visiting our classroom from the Burlington Science Center.   We will have her visit our classroom during the last two weeks of our Senses Unit.
We learned that she uses her sense of hearing to repeat sounds she hears.  For example, she will make sounds such as a telephone ringing, someone sniffling, the backup sound of a beeping truck, the bubbles of the water bubbler, as well as words such as "Morning".  We will be listening carefully to hear Crystal making these sounds. 

Five Senses (Smell, Hearing, Taste Weeks)

Senses of Smell (May 14-18)

Books This Week:

Hero Cat
Jack and the Beanstalk

Concepts we discuss:

-Senses keep us safe (smell smoke, touch hot)

Small Groups For This Week:

-Smell Painting- We will be painting with paint that smells. (grape, orange, cherry paints)
-Magic Bean Game- We will have Jack's magic bean in a bag. In the bag are beans with the numbers 1-10
inside. Taking turns we will take our a bean and record the numbers on our papers.
-Rolling 5 senses cube game- We will roll a cube with the 5 senses on it. We will record the sense we land
on and name one way we use that sense. (I smell a skunk with my sense of smell)
-Visual Discrimination Puzzle- Using the cover of our unit book, we will cut the pieces and put the cover back together using a visual model at our tables.-Smelling Matching Game- We will match smelling jars to pictures we think have the same smell.  (rose, peppermint, banana)
-Sequencing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk
-Take Home Handwriting flashlight activity- use a flashlight at home on a door and have your child guess the letter you are "writing" on the door.
-Journals- We will be writing in our journals "I can smell_________" and using "ear spelling" to write a word.

Handwriting Without Tears Activities

Letter / Handwriting Small Groups (Lowercase letters u.y, and k )

Centers

Art Table: beanstalk building with green tissue paper

Block Area: beanstalk building

Sensory Table:beans

Book Area: books about senses

Dramatic Play: Firestation with cat to role play book
Big Rug- Legos
Independent Table: Counting beans

Senses of Hearing (May 21-25)

Books This Week:
The Listening Walk
The Billy Goats Gruff

Concepts we discuss:

-Vibrations and air movement

Small Groups For This Week:

-Phonemic Game- We will be listening for shorter and longer words in small groups. We will be placing
long and short strips under the pictures based on how the word sounds
-Listening Walk- We will have clipboards and go on a walk to record sounds we hear.
-Beginning Sounds Trucks- We will be listening to letter sounds and build trucks with the beginning sounds
we hear.
-Sound Eggs- Using eggs, we will shake eggs and predict what we think are inside.
- Animal Sound Bingo
-Playing with Sounds - We will be dropping beans on different materials and comparing the sounds we hear
(ex: will beans sound different if dropped on metal or plastic?)
-Hearing Show and tell presentation- Each child will have a turn to bring in one object from home in the brown
bag provided and we will guess what it is based on the sounds we hear.
-Journals- We will be writing in our journals "I can hear_________" and using "ear spelling" to write a word.

Handwriting Without Tears Activities

Letter / Handwriting Small Groups (Lowercase letters a, d, g, and q)

Centers

Art Table: making rain sticks/painting with bells on paintbrushes

Block Area: building bridges

Sensory Table: colored rice

Book Area: books about senses

Dramatic Play: "Cub Cadet Idol"(a stage with microphone, instruments, and music)
Big Rug- legos
Independent Table: telephone tube (listening and talking to friends)

Senses of Taste (May 29-June1)(No school Monday Memorial Day)

Books This Week:
Stone Soup (2 different versions)

Concepts we discuss:

-Effect of throwing a stone into soup (varied splashing)

Small Groups For This Week:

-Who Stole the cookie from the cookie jar? (Letter game version) We will take cookies out of a jar. If we take a
letter cookie we will say the letter, it's sound, and something that beginnings with that letter. There will be other
surprise cookies such as double stack to take 2 cookies or a cookie with a bite telling us to put one cookie back)
-Popcorn POP game- We will take popcorn from a bucket with letters. We will we will say the letter, it's sound,
and something that beginnings with that letter. If we pull a popcorn that says pop, we all stand up and say POP.
-We will go on a 5 senses scavenger hunt with clipboards around the school.
-Super flex activity- We will be talking about how to be flexible in our thinking when something does not
go according to our plan.
-Journals- We will be writing in our journals "I can taste_________" and using "ear spelling" to write a word.

Handwriting Without Tears Activities

Letter / Handwriting Small Groups (Lowercase letters e,i, j, and f)

Centers

Art Table: water colors

Block Area: blocks with cars

Sensory Table:soup with vegetables, water and soup bowls
Book Area: books about senses

Dramatic Play:making soup
Big Rug-doll houses
Independent Table: patterns

Science Center Visit

Wendy from the Burlington Science Center visited us with three animals yesterday to explain how animals use  their senses. We learned how snakes, rabbits, and alligators use their senses to help them explore their environment. Thanks Wendy!!

Five Senses Week 1 and Week 2 (Sight and Touch) April 30-May 4, May 7-11

Senses of Sight

Books This Week:

On My Way To Buy Eggs
It looks like split milk

Concepts we discuss:

-What body parts are connected to each sense
-How do our senses work together

Small Groups For This Week:

-Beginning Sound Rainbows- We will be pairing beginning sounds in words with letters to create a rainbow
-Word - We will be cracking eggs to find 3 letters and a picture from our letter line. We will then "turtle talk"
the word and try to place the letters in the order we hear. We will write the letters to record
-Kaleidoscope building- We will be coloring and assembling
-Fill The Bucket- As a team, we will be given a container, manipulative, and a number cube. Taking turns,
we will roll the cube, count out the number of manipulatives, and add them to the container. We will note
along the way how many more do you think we need to fill the bucket.
-Rhythm patterns- We will be creating auditory patterns in groups. For example, clap, clap, stomp, stomp.
We will try each child's pattern at our small groups.
-Ink Blots- We will be references our book "It looked like spilt milk" to create our own spilled milk
-Journals- We will be writing in our journals "I can see_________" and using "ear spelling" to write a word.

Handwriting Without Tears Activities

Letter / Handwriting Small Groups (Lowercase letters l, t ,r, and p)

Centers

Art Table: blindfolded painting

Block Area: blocks

Sensory Table:blue tinsel and fish

Book Area: books about senses

Dramatic Play: chicken and eggs (collecting eggs and selling them in a farm stand)
Big Rug- Legos
Independent Table: Finding hidden pictures

Senses of Touch

Books This Week:

Princess and the Pea

Concepts we discuss:

-Senses that keep us safe (ie hot, smoke)
-Textures (smooth, rough)

Small Groups For This Week:

-Princess and the Pea Letter /p/ bed- We will be creating a bed for the princess using only /p/ words
-Rhyming Peas- We will be cutting a set of peas and pairing them with their rhyming pair
-Make a Pea- We will be brainstorming a word that begins with /p/ and creating a chart
-Number Bed for Princess- Using green dot markers, we will count the correct number of peas to create a bed
-Mystery Bag by Touch Letter Game- We will be putting our hand in a bag and guessing the letter by
our sense of touch
-Journals- We will be writing in our journals "I can touch_________" and using "ear spelling" to write a word.

Handwriting Without Tears Activities

Letter / Handwriting Small Groups (Lowercase letters n, m, r, and p)

Centers

Art Table: salt painting

Block Area: blocks

Sensory Table: cooked spaghetti

Book Area: books about senses

Dramatic Play: role play of princess and the pea
Big Rug- Legos
Independent Table:light table for colored letters