Miss Carrie reads The Little Red Fort

 Hey, friends!  Did you look outside today?  It is snowing!  In fact, it snowed so much, that there is no school today.  Even the teachers are staying home.  

This is what it looks like at my house this morning.  What does it look like at your house?

But we can still have large group at home.

I'm going to read to you one of my favorite books.  It's called The Little Red Fort.

Wow, those children worked so hard to build a fort.  And it looked like so much fun!  Hmmmm, I wonder if we could build a fort.  Have you ever built a fort before?  Maybe we could make one inside today.  Tell everyone at your house that  you need to look around and find something to build a fort.  Maybe pillows?  Blankets?  Chairs?  What do you think you can build with.  I'm going to look around my house, too.

I decided to use pillows to build my fort.  And look!  I had snack time in my fort.  I ate fruit snacks and I drank water.

What did you use to make your fort?  Take a picture and send it to me.  Then we can look at the pictures when we go back to school.

Now, I'm going to go make some hot cocoa.  Without marshmallows.  Maybe some whip cream.  I'll see you at school next time!

We're Going On A /h/ Hunt!

 Transition Song:  H-E-A-R-T by the Kiboomers

Vocabulary And Basic Concepts:  sound, breath, H, happy face, hero, hat, harmonica, horseshoe crab, horse, hippo, hot dog, hamburger, heart, hand, house, helicopter, hammock hat, helmet honey, hair, hanger, hammer, Humpty Dumpty, hunt, match, who/what/where.

This week, we noticed pictures all around the room.  We were going on a /h/ hunt.  I can feel my breath on my hand when I make the /h/ sound. All of the pictures started with that sound.  We could choose one of the pictures on the floor and then go hunt around the room to match the picture with one on the wall.  We could ask or answer to teachers and peers: What is it? Where can we see it?  Do you have one at your house?  Do you like it?

Afterwards, everyone gathered on the rug and Miss Carrie showed pictures of our /h/ hunt?  Who is that?  What did they find?  Where did they find it?

There were two pictures that stumped everyone.  What is a harmonica?  What is a horseshoe crab?  Miss Carrie showed videos of playing harmonica and learning about horseshoe crabs.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Without your child, pick a letter sound and take pictures of items around the house with your phone.  Then, go on a hunt together.  Look at the picture, talk about the sound, and go find it together.

Hiding Phil

 Transition Song: H-E-A-R-T by The Kiboomers

(Just first verse and clap all of the letters.)

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts:  hide/hiding, elephant, up/down, over/under, in front/behind, next to, big/small, bigger, biggest, bus, look, play, jump, slide, teeter-totter, bath, wet, whisper/shout, quiet/loud, paint, sneeze, suitcase, tree, Where-questions, Who-questions, He/She/We/They, His/Hers, locations around the classroom, peer names.

(This can be found at the library.  It is a kid favorite.)

This week we read the book Hiding Phil by Eric Barclay.  Phil is an elephant who is new in town.  They kids play with him. But when they worry that Mom and Dad won't love him, they try to hide him.

We talked about where Phil was hiding.  Did it work?  Where did they hide him next?  What happened?

Then we played Hide-and-Seek.  We hid around the room while Miss Carrie counted to 10.  Then, when she found us, she took our picture with her iPad.  We went back to the rug and Miss Carrie put the pictures on our Apple TV and asked "Who is it?" and "Where are they hiding?"  This game was so much fun, that we played it several times.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Easiest and most fun game!  Play hide and seek at home as a family.  When you find someone, take their picture of where they are hiding.  Then everyone get together and talk about Who it is and Where they are hiding.  Emphasize under, behind, next to, on top, in front.  Go for a few rounds and end with a fun treat.  This is one of the most popular activities we do all year.  Kids will be requesting to play hide and seek this way for the rest of the year.