October 17-21

**Please remember our field trip to Parlee Farms is Thursday. Please arrive by 8:30. Children in our class are welcome to have lunch and stay until 12:30. Please send in a lunch on Thursday as usual if you plan on having your child stay until 12:30.

Books This Week
The Little Red Hen
Annie Farmer Annie
Farmer Duck

Concept Questions For This Week:
-How does food get from the farm to your house?
-What can we make with apples?
-What can we make with potatoes?
-What happens to wheat before we can eat it?

Small Groups This Week:
1. Comparing Weight of Fall objects- We will be using a balance scale to predict which objects weight more or less. We will then graph our results on a classroom chart.
2. Animals on the farm book-We will create a textured book of animals on the farm. We will also be writing the beginning sounds of words for each page.
3.Vocabulary from The Little Red Hen Memory Game- We will first browse the book and discuss vocabulary words. We will use memory card with pictures of the words in a memory game.
**We have 3 small groups a day that rotate with different children.

Centers

Art Table:gluing colored pom poms in apple barrels(OT-using our pinching fingers to sort the pom poms and improving our fine motor grasps)
Sensory Table:"dirty dishes" with soap, water, and sponges(We will wash the dishes "All by ourselves", like the Little Red Hen)
Book Area: books about farms and growing
Easel:watercolors to create farm scenes

Writing Table: writing farmer's market lists

Dramatic Play: Farmers Market with a cash register, market bags, food scales, and a variety of foods to buy.
Puzzles and Manipulatives: farm related puzzles
Science Table: Observing our new gerbils from the Science Center

September 11-14

Books This Week:
The Little Red Hen
Eddie's Garden
Farmer Duck

Concept Questions For This Week:
-Where does food  come from?
-How do machines help farmers?
-How is food prepared?
-What happens to wheat before we can eat it?


Small Groups This Week:
Last week we did not complete our small groups because we were busy creating a garden outside of our playground. We will be finishing these small groups this shorten 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. Animals on the farm book-We will create a textured book of animals on the farm. We will also be writing the beginning sounds of words for each page.
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:Animals for our farm mural(sheep-with shaving cream and glue)
Block Area:barns and farm animals
Sensory Table:dirt and popscicle sticks to make rows for seeds with seed packets
Book Area: books about farms and growing
Easel:painting pumpkins with tissue paper and glue to create "stained glass" for our windows.

Writing Table: farmers to do lists

Dramatic Play: role play of the little red hen. Props will be baking pans, mixers, bowls, pretend bread, and animal headbands to show who they are pretending to be.
Puzzles and Manipulatives: farm related puzzles
Science Table: Observing our new gerbils from the Science Center

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.
-Manner 1-"When a teacher calls your name, you stop, look at the speaker, and say "yes".
-Manner 2- "When I give you an instruction, do it right away."
-Manner 3-"When I give you instructions, you do them right away."(following multi-step directions)

Pictures from this week

We planted a garden today.

 We dug in the earth(our vocabulary word). We then planted daffodils and crocus bulbs. We talked about waiting for spring to see the flowers. So to get some instant color, we planted a mum. It was a fun day.

We created a mural for our farm unit. Along with having some gerbils visit our classroom from the science center. We are going talk about how snowball and snowflake get ready for the winter like animals outside do.

We also discussed in our unit how animals help make gardens grow. We read a book about an earthworms life. Then we looked at bait worms from a fish shop. They look and feel like worms.

We also had dirt in our sensory table this week. We used popscicle sticks to make rows in the dirt. Then we "planted" pumpkin seeds. We then used seed packets to label the rows of pumpkins.  

Last week we surprised Pat for her birthday. We made her a card and had popscicles. Happy Birthday Pat.

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?

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: Observing our new gerbils from the Science Center

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.

-Manner 1-"When a teacher calls your name, you stop, look at the speaker, and say "yes".

-Manner 2- "When I give you an instruction, do it right away."

-Manner 3-"When I give you instructions, you do them right away."(following multi-step directions)

September 26-30

Books This Week:The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Small Groups:
-Coconut Bowling- Children will use a coconut(a brown ball) to knock down pins that have letters on them. They will tell us the letters they knock down during their turn.
-Charting Letter in their name and not in their name- We will cut letters out and then glue them in a chart. This activity will help children to become more aware of letters in their name and not in their name.
-Number Matching- Children will use clothespins to pinch onto cards that have pictures from our story The Kissing Hand. This will strengthen fine motor and number awareness.
-Book Investigation- We will discuss and browse The Kissing Hand. In a teacher led small group, children will discuss their favorite part. Then put their handprint on a page to bring home to discuss with their family.
-Patterning- We will create AB patterns with pictures from our classroom story. We will make headbands with our pattern strips.
-Letter Slide Game- Children will color and cut to create a slide game to encourage letter identification skills.

**We have small groups in groups of three at a time. These small groups will continue into next week as well.
Centers
Art Table- Hand Print Painting using forearm as trunk and hand as leaves(inspired by the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree) Then stamping letters.

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- water and squeeze frogs (fine motor skills)

Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-bingo dobbers
Writing Table- Books to write and color about our book
Dramatic Play- taking care of animals (related to how Mother raccoon from our story cares for her child)
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives- shape puzzles
Science - Magnifying glasses
Rug- Waffle Block Gears

Songs, Word Plays, and Language
-If your happy and you know it. ( Greg and Steve version)
-Here we are together at school
-ABC rock
-The number rock
-The Cub of Day, Who will it be?
-ACORN (Tune of Bingo)
-Five Little Monkeys

Preschool Manners(Preschool Life Skills)

Every week we will discuss "preschool manners". This is a program that promotes cooperation, patience, sharing techniques, and positive classroom behaviors. Every week we will reinforce previous skills and build on new skills.

This week will be continuing to reinforce our two skills before adding a new skill next week.

-Manner 1-"When a teacher calls your name, you stop, look at the speaker, and say "yes".

-Manner 2- "When I give you an instruction, do it right away."

Nursery Rhyme
-Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around!

Week 2

Books This Week:Starting School by Franzesha EwartThe Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Small Groups:
-All About Me Books - What foods do you like to eat?, What do you like to play with?
-Raccoon Graphing- We will spin a spinner using pictures from our class book we are reading.  We will color in the square that the spinner lands on. Then we will discuss our outcomes. (Which picture did the spinner land on the most and the least?)
-Raccoon Math Book- We will recoginize numbers then use 1:1 coorespondence to place the correct number of objects on each page.
-Chicka Chicka Letter Match- We will match uppercase and lowercase letters on our trees using bingo dobbers.
**We have small groups in groups of three at a time. These small groups will continue into next week as well.
-Coconut Bowling- Children will use a coconut(a brown ball) to knock down pins that have letters on them. They will tell us the letters they knock down during their turn.
-Charting Letter in their name and not in their name- We will cut letters out and then glue them in a chart. This activity will help children to become more aware of letters in their name and not in their name.
-Number Matching- Children will use clothespins to pinch onto cards that have pictures from our story The Kissing Hand.  This will strengthen fine motor and number awareness.

Centers
Art Table- Raccoon Masks

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- water

Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Chicka Chicka puzzle pictures
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- babies and objects to help take care of babies
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-
Science - Magnifying glasses
Rug- Zoo Animals

Songs, Word Plays, and Language
-If your happy and you know it.
-Here we are together at school
-ABC rock
-The number rock
-The Cub of Day, Who will it be?
-ACORN (Tune of Bingo)
-I'm a little acorn

Preschool Manners(Preschool Life Skills)

Every week we will discuss "preschool manners". This is a program that promotes cooperation, patience, sharing techniques, and positive classroom behaviors. Every week we will reinforce previous skills and build on new skills.

-Last week's skill-"When a teacher calls your name, you stop, look at the speaker, and say "yes". 

-This week's skill- "When I give you an instruction, do it right away."

Nursery Rhyme
-Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around!

First Week of School- September 12-16

Our first month of school is upon us. 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
Small Groups:
-Uppercase Letter Collage- Each Child will be given the beginning letter of their name. They will use fine motor pinching grasp to glue tissue paper onto their letter. We will discuss letter sounds and other friends in our name who have the same or different beginning letter.
-Letters in Name Sort- Each child will be given a letter sorting mat and letter manipulatives. We will sort letters in their name and letters not in their name.
-Name Letter Puzzles- Each child will cut out letters and put into a bowl(Letter soup). They will mix up their letter soup then put the letters back into the correct order of their name.
-All About Me Book- Children draw a self portrait and write their name in their book. We will look at ourselves in mirrors and draw what we see.
-All About Me Book-How old are you?
-All About Me Book- What foods do you like to eat?

Centers

Art Table- Painting Hand Prints for name cards

Block Area- blocks

Sand Table- sand and sandtoys
Book Area- Exploring Books about school
Easel-Markers and paper
Writing Table- crayons and paper
Dramatic Play- dishes, cookware, and food
Math, Puzzles, and Manipulatives-
Science - What I did over the summer. Exploring seashells
Rug- Legos for building

Songs, Word Plays, and Language
-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?
-ACORN (Tune of Bingo)
-I'm a little acorn

Nursery Rhyme
-Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear turn around!