Seuss Month: Week 2

The Pre-K'ers are continuing to learn and play through the stories of Dr. Seuss.  Our letter of the week was Ee.  Here are some of the fun things we did:

Alphabet Book Art: Ee is for elbow painting!  

The kids cracked up as they dipped their little elbows in paint and traced their letters.  Little Ee was tricky for us, but many of the children made great improvements from the beginning of last week to now.  

Ee is for Elephant: Horton Hears a Who

Sensory Play:  The "Whoville Table"

Using their jumbo tweezers, the kids collected their own "specks" and played with the "Truffula trees", and eggs.  Some even searched for Horton and the mayor.  A lot of cute dramatic play.

Horton the Elephant Puppet: 

This was a lengthy, but exciting project.  They were thrilled to make puppets.  

Ee is for Eggs: Green Eggs & Ham

Craft: 

 

We mixed shaving cream and glue as well as construction paper to create our green eggs and ham.  The children pondered: Would you try green eggs and ham?  We will be cooking up a batch for our big Seuss party in a few weeks!

Egg Matching Games:

Match the sound!  Shake shake shake...the kids listened to the sounds in each egg to find a match.  Some materials included sand, jingle bells, beads, felt, pasta, and math chips.  This was a big hit.

Color match up!  The goal of this game was to match the correct inside to the right egg by color.  Then, they had to match it to the correct color in the carton.  The sense of accomplishment after completing each game was great to see.

Ee is for Exercise! 

Each day, we did a lot of stretches and cardiovascular exercises such as jumping jacks, toe touches, running in place, rocket blast-offs, etc.  Here are some of the games we played...unfortunately, inside due to snow and cold weather!

Cat in the Hat: 

The objective of the game is to figure out a way to balance some of the items from the story (dish, fish, cake, rake, etc).  Great rhyming activity too!

One Fish, Two Fish:

The kids were divided into two teams (red fish & blue fish).  The first child on each time had to walk to the opposite side of the room with a bowl, pick up some plastic fish, place them in the bowl, and balance them on their head all the way back to the start.  When they reached the start, they placed the fish in a bucket and passed the bowl to the next player.  I could not believe the energy in the room.  It was so exciting and adorable as they cheered each other on and jumped up and down!

Green Eggs & Ham:

They were beyond pumped for this game...they had to walk with a partner with a piece of "ham" in between their shoulders with a green egg in a relay race.  Really funny to watch.  Great cooperative game.

Number Review: Ten Apples Up on Top

The kids really enjoyed this story.  After reading the story at the start of our day, the kids created their own faces with ten apples stacked on top.  They wrote and sequenced their numbers independently.  The kids were really into balancing games. They carried concepts from the stories into sensory play.  A lot of the kids in the afternoon class were making "apples" out of sensory foam.  They counted and stacked up large piles. 

Word Families: AD

Using "Mr. Mad Face", we reviewed our first word family.  The kids helped me sound out each word as I wrote it.  Then, during centers, we did word work using magnet letters and cookie trays.

All About Me: Week 2

This month, we have an "All About Me" theme as well.  The children are creating their own books.  This week, they brought in a special show & tell object.  They created a page about their special possession.  They also traced their names with dot markers and measured them with unifix cubes.  They practiced writing their numbers.  They also wrote their possession's name using my writing as a guide.  

Rhyming:

Rhymes were everywhere this week!  In the stories we read, the word family we studied, games we played, and puzzles we put together.

I use "rhyming dice" after story time sometimes to let each child create a rhyme that matches the picture they roll.  We also created silly rhymes after reading There's a Wocket in my Pocket!  The kids laughed and laughed as they came out with their own wacky rhymes such as "There's a deer in my ear.", "There's a chair in my hair", and many, many more.  It was great to hear them continue to rhyme in the days following. 

On Friday, we played rhyming bingo in groups of three.  My assistant drew cards out of the cat's hat and the children had to look for a picture that rhymed with the one that she found.  Many of them were very successful!