Arrow To The Sun

Miss Jeana's class has been exploring the book Arrow To The Sun in small groups.  I used to love the video when I was a child watching PBS.  So I'm posting the video here if you'd like to watch it at home.  I suggest getting the book from the library and exploring it at home.  Miss Jeana and her aides have been asking the children "What do you see?"

November Week 4:

Phoneme: /s/

Transition Song: Must Be Santa by Raffi

NOTE:  The song is too fast for our pre-K kids so we sing this without the music.  We are learning the first three verses.

Materials:  Laminated Santa parts, Laminated letter S, Scarves, music

Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: Santa, body parts, clothing parts, fast/slow, loud/soft, scarves, swoop, swirl, sway, sit, stand, dance, jump, float, bend, throw, see, watch, look, colors, pronouns, What questions, Who questions.

We are starting our holiday songs early in order to have time to learn it.  This week we started practicing Must Be Santa.

We have a Santa we put together.  We talked about the parts: boots, hat/cap, shirt, pants, nose, beard, night, and HO-HO-HO. We are also learning simple actions.

Preliteracy:  Santa has a /s/ sound.  To make that sound we close our teeth and hid our tongue.  Then we hiss /s-s-s-s-s-s/ like a snake.  To draw the letter S we

Start at the top.

Swooooop over.

Swiiiiiiiirl down.

Swooooop under.

And STOP!

That was a lot of /s/ sounds!  What other words have an /s/ sound?  Snow, snack, small group, sing, sit, stand, SUPERMAN!

Miss Carrie pulled out a box that had something else with /s/ sounds.  Scarves!  We chose the color we wanted.  We learned that if we didn't get the color we wanted, we could ask our friends to trade (problem solving!).  We listened to a lot of music and decided if it was fast or slow.  Then we danced to that music with our scarves.

There was classical music, hip hop, movie soundtracks, bluegrass, disco, rock, country, and jazz music.  Some of the music started slow and then went fast.  Sometimes it was quiet and then it was loud.

DO THIS AT HOME:  Put on your favorite music.  Talk about what you like and don't like.  Wave scarves, blankets, pillowcases, or hand towels.  Or, just dance.  Copy the dance moves of your child.  Ask them to show you how to do certain moves.  Put them in charge.

See what else happened in class this week:

Elephants invaded the house!

Practicing cutting skills with the playdough.

Playing The Cat In The Hat-I Can Do That.  This game is great for learning prepositions and following directions.

One of our friends had a birthday and brought blue cupcakes!

Learning to bounce and catch the ball.

Take four giant steps.

Spontaneous singing during Book Time.

Knocking on the castle door.

Miss Jeana has A LOT of animals.

"Miss Carrie, I am drawing the tree."

Exploring what you can make with shapes.

Bouncing and catching the ball.

This is an important skill.

"I'm making a bracelet for my mom."

Exploring Rosie's Walk during small group.

Reading books during Work Time.

Counting.

Exploring art during Work Time.

"I have to go to the store."

Arrow To The Sun

This week in Miss Jeana's classroom, she is reading the book Arrow To The Sun by Gerald McDermott with the small groups.

This was one of my favorite books as a child and started and life long fascination with American Indians.  Part of that reason was the short film that used to air on PBS when I was a child.  It was so different from anything I had watched before.  I was hooked.

DO THIS AT HOME:  The book can be found at your local library.  It is a great way to read together, ask Where questions, ask What is happening and try to determine from the pictures, and look for the "Spark" on nearly every page.

Favorite Books!

Some of the favorite books being read in the classroom, either during Small Group, or Book Time at the start of the day:

SUPERTRUCK by Stephen Savage.  A blizzard hits the city.  Who will save the trucks?  Simple words and colorful pictures make this book a BIG hit in Miss Jeana's room.

Pete The Cat I Love My White Shoes by James Dean and Eric Litwin.  Pete The Cat keeps walking through things that turn his shoes different colors.  But he doesn't stress about it.  He SINGS about it!  I love my white shoes! I love my red shoes!  I love my blue shoes!

Little Blue Truck By Alice Shertle and Jill McElmurry.  There is a whole series of books.  This one has a moral to the story.  Plus, the animals are funny. Little Blue Truck and his friends are good helpers.  This book is a big hit in Miss Julie's room.

Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann.  Gorilla sneakily took the keys from the zookeeper.  Guess what he does with them?  Be sure to look for the balloon and the mouse carrying the banana.  Also notice the color of the keys match the cages.  Great for predicting what happens next.

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson.  This is a classic book that the children choose to be read aloud during Snack Time over and over. Harold decides to go for a walk and draws the items he needs. That purple crayon must be magic!

Put Me In The Zoo by Robert Lopshire is another classic book.  This unusual animal can do amazing things.  He wants to be in the zoo, but the zoo won't let him stay.  Where else can he live?

Llama Llama Time to Share by Anna Dewdney.  There is series of Llama Llama books that are just wonderful.  This one is relevant to the kids.  They relate to Llama Llama who has some drama (yes, rhyming is in there) when Nelly Gnu plays with his toys.

These books can be found at the library.