This week, on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, we revisited favorite songs we've sung with Miss Carrie throughout the school year. Favorites included Wake Up Daily Routines, Bouncy Bouncy Bouncy, Five Little Ghosts, H-E-A-R-T, One Finger One Thumb, and Must Be Santa.
On Wednesday, we went to the art show. The show features art from other students in the school. There were so many things to see and talk about!
There were a lot of themes featuring space.
Everyone LOVED this exhibit! Not only did the art glow, so did our clothing!
We learned that the containers that hold flowers are called vases.
Miss Jeana and Miss Jen now have bugs encapsulated in little cubes to observe and explore. All the children commented on these bugs and how they were like the little bugs in class.
Is it a city? A neighborhood?
Some children observed that this was sunset.
So many liked the train pictures.
Some children liked the planets the best.
We tried to pose like an artist but the pictures were too tall for many of the kids.
These masks are made from jugs.
Frogs or monsters or aliens?
We practiced our /s/ sound while looking at the suns.
If you can find a kid-friendly art exhibit, it might be worthwhile to check it out. The children loved to see the art and we had so many attempts at communication as well as expanded communication.
Transition Song: Circle Time Song by the Kiboomers
(This is one of the most popular songs I sing all year.)
Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: on top/under/in front/in back or behind/next to,
on/off, tall/short, high/low, same/different, full/empty, yes/no, make, break,
build, labeling color, small/smaller/smallest, tall/taller/tallest.
Pre-Literacy: Draw the letter M: Go up the mountain and back down. Go up the next mountain and down to the town. What words have a /m/ sound in them? Who has a /m/ sound in their name?
This week, Miss Carrie brought out a lot of boxes. Come of the boxes were small. When we shook them, we could hear that they were full? We opened the small boxes and there was a smaller box inside! We shook the smaller box and could hear something inside. It was the smallest box! The smallest box was empty. Miss Carrie also had bigger boxes that were empty. Some of the boxes were covered with duck tape so we couldn't open those.
Miss Carrie asked what could we make with all of the boxes? We made tall towers. Some towers were short but some were taller than we were. The tallest tower was taller than the teachers. If we wanted a block a friend had, we had to ask. They could say yes or no. If we wanted to knock down a tower, we had to ask. Our friends could say yes or no. We had to problem solve if a tower was knocked down or kept falling down. We discussed if the boxes looked the same or different. We had to ask our friends to reach next to or behind them to hand us another box.
When Large Group was done, we had to put the small/smaller/smallest boxes back together. We had to make sure the design on the lid was the same as the design on the box. If they were different, we had to look for another box or lid.
DO THIS AT HOME: Find some boxes that you can nestle together (they don't have to be the same shape, they just have to fit). Or find a few boxes or bags that you can put toys or other things in. Talk about full and empty, make a tower, or build a fort together. Talk about full or empty as you take food out of the fridge or pantry, do laundry (empty laundry baskets, hooray!), or while your drinking or eating a favorite food (My cup is empty!).
Transition Song: One Finger, One Thumb Keep Moving
Materials: Let's Get Moving Activity Mats (Thanks, Donors Choose project donors!), Laminated Letter C
Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: jump, march, jog, hop, tiptoe, arm circles, crab walk, frog jump, jumping jack, sit, reach, skip, stretch, balance, squat, touch toes, exercise, help
This week we played I Can Do That. Miss Carrie brought a bunch of colorful squares that she put all over the classroom floor. Each square had a picture of an action. We could go anywhere in the room, look at the picture, then try to do the action. We could tell our friends and teachers "I can do that!", or we could ask for help. We labeled all the actions. We hopped, jumped, balanced, stretched. We skipped, marched, squatted, and circled our arms. If we needed help balancing, we could ask for help and hold hands.
DO THIS AT HOME: It's easy to play I Can Do That! It's even more fun when your child gets to lead and show you what he/she can do and you try to do it, too. You can make cards or just come up with fun actions. Be sure to label your actions to increase that vocabulary.
Materials: What Will Fat Cat Sit On? By Jan Thomas, Laminated letter C, puppets
Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: happy, scared, worried, on/off, problem, solving, chair,
cow, dog, chicken, pig, cat, mouse not, animals sounds, yes/no, "I want ________" phrases Preliteracy: Draw the letter C. Who has a letter C in their name? Miss Carrie does! Sometimes a letter C makes a /k/ sound and sometimes it makes a /s/ sound.
This week, Miss Carrie read the book What Will Fat Cat Sit On by Jan Thomas. (Hey, did you hear that Fat and Cat sound the same? They rhyme!) Fat Cat has a problem. He doesn't know where to sit. His friends have to help him solve the problem. He wants to sit on all of them. They do NOT want Fat Cat to sit on them. Mouse has a solution to the problem that everyone can agree on. We discovered if Fat Cat agreed to the solution, too. (Miss Carrie loves to use this book to talk about conflict resolution. By this time, many of the children have had more than a few months to learn about conflict resolution as we solve problems in class.) We also practiced animal sounds. We noticed the animals feelings. We labeled happy and mad. Miss Carrie introduced a new feeling: worried. The animals looked worried when Fat Cat wanted to sit on them......well, except the dog. He was MAD! (which the children thought very funny)
Then Miss Carrie brought out puppets. She had a lamb puppet. The lamb liked to sit on knees or shoulders or heads. The lamb asked us if she could sit on our knee. We could say yes or no. Sometimes we gave the lamb a hug. Miss Carrie had a lot of puppets. We could pretend to have our puppets ask if they could play or fly or sit on friends heads. Then we could ask to trade. Friends could say yes or no. We also practiced conflict resolution if anyone wanted the same puppets.
Miss Carrie singing One Finger, One Thumb, One Arm, One LEG!
Pig is feeling worried! Can you make a worried face?
Fat Cat is feeling scared! Can you make a scared face?
Dog is feeling mad! Can you growl like Dog?
Lambie Pie asking if she can sit on his knee. He said no.
Lambie Pie asking if she can hug the pink rabbit
Lambie Pie LOVES hugs but she always asks first.
Showing off his bee puppet.
DO THIS AT HOME: Make puppets or use toys. In conflict resolution, everyone has to agree to the solution. This is also a great time for children to practice yes or no. And their puppet voices are hysterical.
Transition Song: One Finger One Thumb Keep Moving. (There are a lot of versions of this on the internet. I do a modified, much slower version with no outside music. The first verse goes:
One finger, one thumb keep moving.
One finger, one thumb keep moving.
One finger, one thumb, keep moving
We'll all be happy today.
We add on one arm, one leg, one head, stand up-sit down on additional verses. I'll try to post a video during one class time so you can get the idea. Everything on the internet was too fast, different words, so not similar enough to post.)
Materials: Laminated Letter C, Book: Caterpillar to Butterfly, scarves
Vocabulary and Basic Concepts: first/next/last, little/big, molting, metamorphosis, caterpillar, butterfly, grow, chrysalis,
proboscis, head, body, wings, leaves, ground, air, fly, crawl, wriggle, wiggle,
eat, egg. Pre-Literacy: Draw the Letter C Start at the bottom? NO! Start at the top. Draw half a circle and then we stop.
This week Miss Carrie brought out a BIG book called Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman. (Thanks again to everyone who donated to this Donors Choose project! The children love the giant books.) It had a lot of big new words in it. Every time we heard the words Caterpillar or Butterfly, we would say it and clap the syllables. Ca-ter-pil-lar. Bu-tter-fly. We even tried to clap the biggest word ever: Metamorphosis. We talked about what happened first, next, and last. We learned about chrysalis. then we used scarves to crawl like caterpillars, wrap up like a chrysalis, and fly like butterflies. We talked about if we had ever seen a butterfly in our own yards or at the park. (Sorry, no pictures this week) DO THIS AT HOME: Check out caterpillar/butterfly books at the library to read at home. Go on walks to look for caterpillars and butterflies. Thanksgiving Point has a Butterfly Biosphere that would be fun to visit.
