Vet Play, Volcano Magic, and Butterfly Release!

Last week, we had so much fun with letter Vv.  The kids enjoyed special play/learning centers as well as beautiful spring weather that was perfect for our butterfly release.  We worked on our letters, numbers, had fun with music, and learned about gardening.  Here are some photos and activities!

Vv is for Violin 

This is one of my favorite books on CD.  It's one of those stories where you look at the kids and can tell that they are all engaged and entranced.  Before reading, we talked about different instruments they've already been introduced to.  We talked about going to concerts, listening to music on CD's, and what instruments our older brothers, sisters, cousins, etc play.  I did a picture walk and showed them all the different instruments in a chamber orchestra.  Then, I played the story.  Not only does it introduce musical education with the beautiful sounds of each instrument, but it combines counting and rhyming as well.  The words of the story make a beautiful duo with the bright colorful illustrations and adorable little animals dancing on the corner of each page.  They loved sharing what their favorite instrument was after reading the story!  Many of them really impressed me with what they said!

 

 

Vv is for Vet

This might be my favorite dramatic play center we've done this year.  I've seen all different pictures and ideas on Pinterest and other blogs and I was really excited to try it out this year.  We kept the "Vet Center" open all week long so that the kids could get the most out of it and now that we cleaned it up Friday, I miss it!  Our "South Street Vet" center consisted of a check-in desk, waiting room, and examination room.  Materials included X-Rays that I found on Google, adorable printables I found on Pinterest, a medical kit, and many household, DIY items to make their play as realistic as possible!  Besides playing at our special center, we talked about how Veterinarians help our community.  We read Sally Goes to the Vet and thought about going to the vet from an animals point of view.  We also talked about pets and what they need.  The kids created adorable illustrations of their favorite pet with some little doodles explaining what their pet needs.  We discussed what a vet does and our own experiences with pets at the vet.  There are a ton of pictures!

One of our lovely secretaries getting ready for a busy day of appointments.

One of our vets preparing for patients.

Friends waiting patiently in the waiting room. I'd love to show their faces, but for privacy reasons, we have to blur them out!

 

Reading up on horses while she waits for her puppy to be seen!

Scrubbing in! I love this picture.  

Getting ready to see the patient.

Examining X-Rays for broken paws.

Bandaging, note-taking, etc.

Vv is for Volcano

Volcanoes are so fascinating for anyone, but especially little ones.  As soon as I said the word volcano, they went nuts!  While attending some meetings, my wonderful sub Mrs. B read the class a nonfiction story about Volcanoes.  They learned that an eruption is much like an explosion that takes place when you shake up a soda bottle.  They discussed important vocabulary and facts about volcanoes.  Then, on Friday with the PM kids and today with the AM kids, we created our very own volcano and predicted if it would erupt!  I loved their faces as the mixture of water, baking soda, dish soap, red food dye and vinegar shot out of our dough & water bottle volcano.  So fun!

Butterfly Release

The kids completed their last entry in their butterfly journals and continued to care for their little creatures.  We had beautiful weather on Thursday and Friday, so we let the AM kids release the two butterflies they named (Friday and Bonjour) on Thursday and the PM kids release the three they named (Cupcake, Chloe, and Mario).  We went out to the school courtyard, sang our song, and waved goodbye as each one flew away.  Even though we were a little sad, we were happy to see them fly freely and were comforted to know they would be back to visit us!  :)

Flowers/Plants 

Throughout the week, we learned about gardening, the life cycle of plants, and parts of a flower.  We did this through song, storytelling, science experiments, hands on crafts, and various student run learning centers.  They were introduced to important vocabulary and the tools needed to garden.  We read stories such as How a Seed Grows and Planting a Rainbow.  We pretended to be farmers as we sang "The Farmer Plants the Seed".  We talked about experiences planting and gardening.  We looked at real flowers and talked about what each part does.  They created little lift the flap booklets and put together puzzles to recreate parts of a flower.  They also sequenced events, sorted vegetables and flowers, and practiced writing vocabulary.  We are also still working on an ongoing science experiment.  We placed four white carnations in separate vases.  Each one was filled with water mixed with food coloring (red, yellow, blue, and purple).  We are beginning to see the color of the flowers change!  This is to show the kids the process they learned about with each part of the flower.  They learned that the water makes it's way up the flower stem from the roots to the top of the plant.  They also learned what plants need to grow: water, sunlight, soil, seeds, and love (one of them said this right away...adorable). 

The kids also did their usual routine with the letter of the week and their popcorn word "and".  I was soooo proud to hear and see them finding the letter and words of the week all over the classroom and in their library books.  They are so smart!  Our number of the week was 12. 

We are also in the middle of some very important Mothers' Day surprises!  I will be posting photos and more after our Mothers' Day Tea next Thursday.  I don't want to give anything away to any moms who are reading this! :)

The Beauty of Butterflies

Beauty in the Midst of Tragedy...

While the past week was a horrific week for our country, it was an uplifting, happy week at Pre-K.  While my heart was heavy about the events that transpired in Boston and Texas, the most amazing thing happened right in the middle of it all.  All week long, the children waited for our beautiful butterflies to come out.  Everyday, we were eager to check on them and slightly disappointed when we found chrysalides each time.  On Friday, I placed the butterfly garden on one of our tables.  Throughout the day, the children were so eager to watch over their little chrysalides.  Many of them sat there for long periods of time and watched patiently and quietly, making sure to not shake the table and harm the transformation.  Suddenly, I heard the most adorable sound.  A group of A.M. girls and boys were sitting around the table and began singing our butterfly song:

(To the Tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider)
The fuzzy caterpillar curled up on a leaf,

Spun her little chrysalis and then fell fast asleep.

While she was sleeping she dreamed that she could fly...

And later when she woke up, she was a butterfly!

They all began singing it over and over again and then I head a big commotion.  Two of the butterflies had emerged from their chrysalides!  It was so innocent and beautiful to see this happen.  What was really cool was that the P.M. kids also thought of singing to them.  They also read to them!  By the end of Friday, 4/5 butterflies were flying around the garden.  Hopefully, we will find our 5th one when we come back tomorrow!

Here is a summary of what we did this past week:

Uu, 15, and Me & My

We followed our typical routine for learning a new letter (Fundations drill, introducing new letter/sound, finding Uu words in our pocket chart, Heidi Butkus song).  I was so proud of my little letter detectives who found letter Uu all over the classroom.  Some places we found Uu included in our days of the week (Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) as well as many of our months, classmate names, color names, etc.  I didn't even ask the children about many of these, they just discovered them on their own.  We have a bunch of smart cookies!  We practiced finger tracing and writing our new letter and learned that writing Uu is like making a smiley face.  While working on our alphabet books, the children used umbrella manipulates to practice tracing/forming the letter Uu.  I was really impressed to see some of them creating patterns.  For Uu, we read The Umbrella by Jan Brett, a story of the rainforest.  We discussed animals in the rainforest and used the felt board to tell the story.  We reviewed story elements such as title, setting, characters, and sequenced events.  We also made predictions while reading.  Our number of the week was 11 and our popcorn words (aka sight words) were me and my.  We also worked on basic addition and subtraction.

The Butterfly Life Cycle

This is one of my favorite things to teach.  Especially since we get to see it all happen.  Science is such a fun subject area for any age.  Preschool aged children are naturally curious, so that really motivates them to learn.  They were so excited!  I've always believed that children learn best when they learn through experience and with authentic, real life experimentation and observation.  I ordered our caterpillars through Insect Lore.  This week, we observed the chrysalis phase.  The children had previously observed the caterpillar phase.  I taught the butterfly life cycle over the course of the last few weeks.  I introduced the topic by creating a science display with posters/visuals, magnifying glasses, fiction and non fiction books, and the jar of caterpillars.  We observed the caterpillars and chrysalides and created illustrations in our journals during these past few weeks.  I also taught them important vocabulary.  This week, I went into more depth.  I read From Caterpillar to Butterfly to teach the process of metamorphosis to the children.  We talked about our own experiences with caterpillars and butterflies, discussed more vocabulary, compared the butterfly life cycle to the ladybug life cycle that we learned in February, and learned the song I discussed at the beginning of this entry.  They created little pop up books to illustrate this process.  All week, we reviewed the butterfly life cycle with our facts and song.  We also read the well known, adored story of the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  Our Hungry Caterpillar crafts were a blast!  We used balloons to paint our own hungry caterpillar and created some food at the cutting center.  We can't wait to put these in the hallway!  We also created beautiful coffee filter butterflies.  On Friday, we discovered the miracle of life when our butterflies emerged.  The kids are so in love and treat their new pets as if they were newborn babies.  It was so cute to see them singing and reading to them.  Everyone wanted to name our little creatures, so we picked some names out of a hat.  Here are the winners:  Flutter Friday, Bonjour, Cupcake, Chloe, and Mario.  

More Earth Day Fun

We continued to discuss ways to take care of our planet this week.  We reviewed the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and read We are Extremely Very Good Recyclers starring Charlie and Lola from the Disney Channel.  We learned about recycling, reducing, and reusing household products such as plastic, metal, and paper.  In preparation of Earth Day, the kids  created beautiful trees using recycled magazines and newspaper.  We also discussed other ways to recycle!

When Tragedy Strikes...

I hope that all readers are enjoying the weekend and are safe.  It's unbelievable how many people were affected this week.  A relative of mine was running in the Boston Marathon and finished two minutes before the blast.  She witnessed it from only a block away.  We're so happy that she is safe and I hope that everyone's loved ones are too!  A father of a fourth grader that my fiance works with was in the marathon and they didn't know if he was okay until hours after.  This poor little girl had to worry about her state tests during the same week and was completely overwhelmed and emotional.  Things like this make me think about how to handle tragedy in the classroom.  What I've learned from tragedies we experienced in the past (a little girl who lost most of her family in a horrific crash last year, death, sickness, separations, disasters, etc) is that children need to feel safe, loved, and cared for at all times.  That is always the first priority.  When tragedy comes into the lives of their students, teachers need to show compassion and sensitivity to that child as well as their classmates.  No matter the age, children experience grief.  What I've found works well is to keep the information at a safe minimum, to be open and optimistic, and to use art as a means of expression (drawing pictures, making cards, etc).  Even when we don't experience tragedy, I explain the importance of being a "team" and caring for each other to my students.  What's beautiful to see is how much they show this when a tragic event occurs.  They are all caring, amazing, children.  You never know what will happen and unfortunately, sometimes life throws unexpected curve balls.  To help me grow as a teacher and a person, I hold onto these moments and take everything I can get from them.  Most importantly, I stick close to my little ones and try to help the families involved. 

Jj Week: Jumping, Jazz, Jelly Beans & More!

Jj Week

This week at Pre-K, the children learned about the letter Jj.  Our themes included jazz, jelly beans, nursery rhymes such as "Jack and Jill" and "Jack be Nimble", and various other "Jj" activities.  This week, we also focused on Earth Day, our butterfly journals, small/medium/large, comparisons, rhythm, rhyme, sequencing, number review, and popcorn words "a" and "I".  One of the best things about this week was going outside!!!!!!!!!!!  It was so refreshing to get some fresh air and run around.  We played Duck, Duck, Goose, Red Light/Green Light, parachute, and bubbles!  We're looking forward to many more outings.  

Day 1

Activities included letter and sound identification with letter Jj.  We followed our typical Monday morning meeting routine: reviewing our Fundations cards, learning our new letter, and finding various Jj words in our Alphabet Center pocket chart.  Then, we learned our singable song for letter Jj by Heidi Butkus.  At centers, we painted with Jell-O.  What a fun sensory experience!  We loved using our sense of smell to guess what each flavor was.  We practiced tracing Jj with our finger, then with our paintbrush.  We searched for letter Jj at our letter identification center as well.  At one of our play centers, we were so excited to see the kids creating letter Jj with tube toys!  They amaze us!  Our Nursery Rhyme of the day was "Jack and Jill".  We talked about rhythm ("a pattern of sound") and noticed the rhythm in our nursery rhyme.  We also identified rhyming words such as hill/Jill and down/crown.

Day 2

We worked on creating our "popcorn words" of the week.  We also practiced writing Jj during Rainbow Writing and the writing center.  Our nursery rhyme of the day was "Jack be Nimble":.  Our centers were based on the rhyme.  The kiddies created their own Jack be Nimbles using various shapes, colors, and with their own personal touches!  They also worked on their numbers at the sensory center: Play-Doh with birthday candles.  Our favorite activity was our Jack be Nimble jumping game.  For each child, we put their name into the rhyme and cheered for them as they jumped over the candlestick and we measured their distance!

Day 3: 

The kiddies were introduced to an important day in April: Earth Day.  This can be a difficult concept for a preschool child to understand, so we related it to our daily lives.  We talked about how important it is to take care of what belongs to us (family, friends, toys, backyard, room, house, etc), and then extended it to our planet.  We talked about how we live on the planet Earth and why we want to keep it beautiful and clean.  We sang, "We've Got the Whole World in our Hands", created an Earth Craft, read The Earth Book by Todd Parr, and discussed the 3 R's: Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle.  Todd Parr taught us some simple ways we can take care of the Earth: using both sides of our papers when we color, not wasting water, cleaning up after ourselves, recycling, and more.  We also are working on a hand print Earth for the hallway where we will display some other Earth Day crafts we will work on next week. 

Day 4

On Thursday, activities were based on comparisons, sizing, and sequencing.  After our morning meeting, we listened to the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  I used the felt board to tell the story.  The kids learned about small/medium/large and sorted objects into each category on the felt board after reading.  At centers, the kids practiced their cutting skills to create and sort their own Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear.  At the sand table, we sorted pom poms by size with tweezers to work on our fine motor skills.  We also graphed Jelly Beans and talked about more/less.  We even got to eat some!  Yum!  We have been graphing throughout the year, and now the kids are pretty much able to do the entire task independently!  Very cool to see.  After centers, we sequenced events in the story at the Felt Board and answered story comprehension questions about story elements such as characters and setting. 

Day 5

We all love Fun Friday!  Every Friday, I select one child's name at random from the cup of Popsicle sticks I use for our daily jobs.  The child chosen gets to complete all the jobs at the morning meeting.  Then, we give them a "drumroll" and they have to answer a "trivia question" from the week.  We all cheer after the child completes the task and they choose a special treasure from my prize chest.  It's a great way to boost a student's confidence and make them feel special and smart!  Fun Friday also consists of lots of "silly songs" and Free Play.  The children get to choose when and where they'd like to play instead of rotating centers.  Before free play, we reviewed rhythm and learned about jazz music.  Our activity was simple, but so full of fun and learning.  Each child found a large, white piece of paper at a table and wrote "Jazz Art".  Then, I played some music from the Early Jazz station on Pandora on our radio and the kids created illustrations while they listened.  Some of them drew instruments and music notes while others were inspired to draw scenes of their families and beautiful flowers.  It was so fun!  During free play, the kids enjoyed Jell-O paint, jelly bean counting, and many other sensory and dramatic play centers. We also read a new favorite, Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler.  The story has a repeating rhythm and the kids adore it.  They begged me to read it again and again after.  I definitely recommend it.

Butterfly Journals:

Here's what's new with our Butterfly Journals!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of their journal illustrations this week.  When we came back to school Monday, we noticed that all the caterpillars (except for one) made it to the top of the jar where they made their chrysalis.  What was really funny was that they were hanging in the shape of the letter Jj!  After a few days, I transferred them to the butterfly garden.  Tomorrow, we will see if metamorphosis is complete!  Important vocabulary this week included chrysalis and pupa.