After a restful vacation, we were all so excited to see each other again. Our first week of April was full of excitement and learning...
Letter Review
Each day, we reviewed a few of our
letters. Typically, we run letter drills implemented by the Fundations
program in which "Echo the Owl" (a puppet provided by the program I use) recites each letter,
picture, and sound for each card. Then, the children recite it back.
This week, I encouraged the children to raise their hand and recite the
cards on their own. They did a fabulous job! After reviewing five or
so letters a day, they came up and matched a card from our Alphabet
Center pocket chart to the correct letter. Other activities we did to
review our letters included a magazine sound/letter hunt, matching
games, and writing activities.
Popcorn Words (Sight Words)
This week, we started sight word practice. We are calling them "popcorn
words" because they are common words that "pop" up frequently when we
read. At the beginning of the year when we learned our colors, I taught
the children Heidi Butkus' sight word songs for red, yellow, and blue.
These were our first three "popcorn words" we focused on this week.
Throughout the week, we completed various activities to help the
children identify, read, and write each word. First, we reviewed our
songs and placed the words on our "Popcorn Words" chart. Next, we built
our words using magnet letters. Then, we "buttered" our popcorn words
on the morning message using a yellow marker. Finally, we practiced
writing our words. The children enjoyed practicing their writing at the
"Post Office Center". They will also practice writing these words for
homework.
Claude Monet
The children created beautiful Spring artwork inspired by painter Claude
Monet. I introduced the children to this artist at our morning
meeting. They learned that Monet was a french painter who enjoyed
painting scenes of the outdoors. They also learned that as a child, he
would draw pictures of people for money. They were so intrigued. We
encouraged them to find the inner artist inside of them to recreate
Monet's Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies. To mimic Monet's
impressionist style, the kids used fingerpaints and blotted their colors
around their bridge made of masking tape. When they finished, my
assistant and I peeled off their bridge to complete their works of art.
We are going to matte each piece and hang them in the hallway to bring
some colorful Spring cheer!
Passover
To explore the holiday of Passover, we read Sammy Spider's First Passover.
This is a great story because it exposes the children to different
Passover traditions that families share. It also reviews shapes. After
reading our story and talking about Passover traditions, we enjoyed a
yummy Matzo snack. Two of our afternoon friends introduced me to a new
and delicious idea: Chocolate Matzo. All you need is Matzo and
chocolate frosting. The kids loved it! Our morning class loved Matzo
and butter.
April is Nursery Rhyme Month!
Our literature study this month is Nursery Rhymes. Throughout the week, we explored many different Nursery Rhymes...
On Wednesday, we had a blast with "Humpty Dumpty". The kids listened to the nursery rhyme and helped to identify rhyming words wall and fall. We also predicted whether or not an egg can sit on a wall. They really enjoyed our center activities. At the art center, they created "Egg Shaker Paintings" by shaking egg filled plastic eggs over their paper. They also put together Humpty Dumpty puzzles and helped put him back together again using bandages. At the blocks center, they worked together to build walls for Humpty. For letter review, they played an egg letter matching game in which they had to match uppercase letters to lowercase letters. After centers, we revisited and tested our predictions from our morning meeting. We placed Humpty Dumpty, a real egg, on top of one of the walls the children created. Very carefully, we let go of Humpty and watched in awe as discovered that an egg cannot sit on a wall! Poor Humpty! We also had fun with a silly song/rhyming game where we recited and acted out the nursery rhyme. After the first verse, the children thought of new rhyming verses (ex: Humpty Dumpty sat on a bed, Humpty Dumpty fell on his head and Humpty Dumpty sat on some jelly, Humpty Dumpty, fell on his belly).
This week was also pattern review week. After reading "Peas Porridge Hot" and identifying rhyming words old, cold, hot, and pot, we created patterns with different kinds of dried peas.
Pajama Day!
Thursday was pajama day! This was a very memorable day for all of us.
As they walked into our "glow in the dark" classroom, the children
gasped and cheered with excitement. We covered up the windows with dark
bulletin board paper and filled the room with glow in the dark
objects. Centers included glowing shaving cream, glow paint, butterfly
journals, and other play activities. The kids loved the the sensory
experience at the glowing shaving cream table and practiced drawing
shapes and writing letters and numbers. At the butterfly journal table,
they observed the caterpillars/larvae and created illustrations and
important notes. We also read Pajama Day. We finished our day
with a special treat, cookies and milk! After eating at the tables,
they snuggled up with their blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals and
watched a special episode of "Blue's Clue's: Tickety's Favorite Nursery
Rhyme" on the Smart Board. They helped Steve & Blue find the clues
and solve what Tickety the clock's favorite nursery rhyme is: "Hickory
Dickory Dock"! That morning, we had listened to "Wee Willie Winkie" and
"Hickory Dickory Dock", so they did a great job solving the puzzle!
They also helped Steve & Blue identify words with the "Pp" sound.
(Here is a picture of our Caterpillar Corner)
Address Practice
Due to all the weather issues this year, we had to change our schedule and curriculum around. Since we missed some important days of Address Practice back in February, we made up for it this week. The children learned a song to the tune of "The Muffin Man" to help remember their address. We created crafts of our houses on Friday!
Stranger Danger
This week, we also discussed a very important safety topic: Stranger Danger. After researching and looking through many different books, I found a great story to help children without giving too much or too little information. We read Once Upon a Dragon: Stranger Danger for Kids (and Dragons). It told the tale of a young child and a dragon who traveled from the slide at the park into the pages of a fairy-tale book. Throughout the book, the characters visit many familiar stories where danger lurks in the form of strangers-the hungry wolf in "Little Red Riding Hood", the old lady from "Hansel and Gretel", and many more. The child has to watch out for dragon who doesn't know that he should not follow or take treats from a stranger. It gives a lot of great concrete information about strangers for kids: Here is a list of what we learned from the story and our discussion prior to reading:
1. A stranger is someone that we do not know.
2. Not all strangers are bad. Most strangers will not put us in any danger.
3. Always ask Mom or Dad before going anywhere.
3. Never follow a stranger or get into a stranger's car.
4. Never accept treats from strangers (unless given permission by Mom or Dad...for instance, on Halloween) and always have Mom or Dad check these treats first.
5. If something does not feel right, then do not do it.
6. Always let Mom or Dad know if a stranger approaches you. If a stranger puts you in danger, yell & tell Mom or Dad or a safe stranger such as a Police Officer.
We reviewed these rules with a rhyme provided at the end of the story. We reviewed these rules all week.
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