This week in Miss Julie's Classroom - ARROW TO THE SUN

This week in Julie's classroom, for Small Group the children are exploring the book Arrow to the Sun by Gerald McDermott.

 Part of exploring the book is using magnifying glasses.  We noticed all the lines, circles, triangles, and other shapes.  

A Pueblo Indian tale about a boy who goes looking for his father.  He leaves the pueblo and comes upon three different characters before one of them can tell him where to look.  His father turns out to be the Sun.  How can the boy get there?  By arrow!

What does Corn Planter do?  What does Pot Maker do?  What does Arrow Maker do?  Also, notice how the pictures on the kivas before the boy goes into them and then again after he comes out.

Do this at home:  This book is available at your local library.  Read it together.  Look for signs that tell you what a person does for a job, or what may be in the next kiva.

Vocabulary: maiden, mocked, kiva, pot, arrow, lions, serpents bees, lightning, power, rejoiced, emerged, celebrated. I know these seem advanced for preschoolers, but they can understand that serpent is another word for snake and emerged is another way to say came out.

I used to watch this movie on PBS when I was a child.  I loved how different the artwork and story were from anything else I'd read.  The music and drums are pretty awesome as well. This video brings back a lot of memories for me.

This week in Miss Jeana's classroom...

In Jeana's classroom this week, she has two activities that will rotate during Small Group.

The first one is looking at numerals, describing them, recording, and tallying which ones have straight lines, curved lines, or straight and curved lines.

 The children learned the definitions for straight and curved.  They've learned about recording and tallying in previous Small Group Activities. 

 Each child received several numeral to explore.  They named them (if they knew them), and traced or copied the numerals onto their own papers.

 They also talked about whether all, some, or none of the numerals had parts that were straight or curved.

Try this at home:  look for numerals while you are out and about or on packages and boxes at home.  Do they have straight lines, curved lines, or both? What about the numerals that make up the ages of the people in your family?  What about the number that defines how many are in your family?

The other activity in Small group involves the ever-popular playdough.  We're making snowmen!

Not just any type of snowmen.  We're making snowmen out of all kinds of shapes.

 Vocabulary: circle, square, triangle, oval, rectangle, big, little, more, less, squish, roll, top/middle/bottom, next to, "I need", "I want".

 Check this out.  The red snowman is 3-D.  The green snowman is made out of stacked shapes.  How avant-garde is that?

The purpose of this activity is to describe, record, count, and compare the type and number of shapes we used to make snowmen.

Do this at home:  Get out play dough, or cut out shapes from paper or other materials.  What kind of shapes can you use to make snowmen?

April Week 2: Binoculars up!.....SAFARI!

phoneme: /p/

Transition song: The Rainbow Song by Signing Time

Materials:  Laminated letter M, Safari Song by Preschool of Rock.

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: up/down, Monkey, Lion, Snake, Mosquito, /s/, /z/, hear, see, What-questions.

This week we're going on Safari.  Binoculars up!  Out in the jungle, what do you see?  I SEE A......

We're listening to the Safari Song by Preschool of Rock.

We use our hands to pretend we are looking through binoculars.  We're moving all over the Large Group rug.  When the animal is called out, we get to pretend to be that animal.  The children were excited to move around the room like a Snake, Lion, Monkey, and Mosquito.

Do this at home:  Make a pair of binoculars out of toilet paper tubes and go on a Safari around your house and yard.  What animals do you see?  Can you drum like the jungle drums?

Next week, we'll do this without music and make our own drum music and also call out our own animals. I have a feeling zebra will be one of them. Have you ever heard what a zebra sounds like?

Check this out...

April Week 1: Hiding Phil (Back by popular demand)

phoneme: /p/

Transition Song: The Rainbow Song by Signing Time aka TreeSchool

I took some time to teach the children the ASL signs for the different colors before we started the song.  I recommend using Signing Time's Sign Dictionary if you would like to learn signs at home.  Also, check out their videos online or at the library.

Vocabulary and Concepts: Who, Where, Under, Happy/Sad, Hiding, Elephant, Dog

Materials: Laminated Letter P, Hiding Phil book

Refer to January Week 1: Hiding Phil to see this activity.  We're doing it again because the preschool SLPs for the district asked me to film it for our next professional development meeting.

Pre-Literacy:  Let's draw the letter P.  Start at the top and draw down.  Go back to the top and draw a little around.  What words have that /p/ sound?  Purple has TWO /p/ sounds!  Help, pop, picture, popcorn, popsicle, party, happy.