Friendship and Valentines

Dramatic Play

We had a Post Office for sending valentines and letters to our friends. The kids loved this dramatic play center! I had to explain a lot about what a Post Office is, since many haven't been or don't remember it, and they caught on quickly. They loved working there and could use the phone, computer, or cash register, plus they got to stamp the letters coming through. They also had to collect the mail from the big mailbox and deliver it to mailboxes around the room.
They loved stuffing envelopes and adding stamps and sending them in the mail. They really enjoyed this center!

I added Valentines to the shelf on week 2:






  



Blocks

Puppet theater




Dinosaurs with the book, Mine-o-saur

Valentine beanbag toss game


Art

Paint with colored sweetened condensed milk



Foamie ABCs and glue


Valentines boxes

Rolling and stamping out sugar cookies for snack, then playing with pink play dough.

Small Manipulatives

Bears and pattern cards


People floor puzzle and lacing beads


Valentines flat marble pages


Small 12-piece puzzles

Magnet board:

Pattern block puzzles


Valentine 1-10 puzzle


Reading


Writing

Colored pencils

Valentine stickers

Valentines

Large Group

We learned the word cooperate this week. They caught on quickly and used it constantly throughout the day to point out whenever they were or weren't cooperating.
We learned a song from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, "Before you take something away, stop and ask if it's ok." We watched a clip the first day, then listened to and sang the song the other 3 days. We also sang Daniel Tiger's song about taking turns "you can take a turn, and then I'll get it back."

Here are some great topical friendship episodes or clips. The one we watched isn't on YouTube yet, but we watched it off the PBS Kids app.

This was a snowy week so we had to get fully dressed in snow clothes to head outside. They were totally bummed about only watching short clips of Daniel Tiger, so I actually used it to help us get ready to go. I turned it on, then would help 2 kids at a time get their snow clothes on while the others watched. We were able to get all 8 dressed and ready to go without chaos, in a 13 minute video clip! I rarely have any screen time at school, but was relieved to find episodes about friendship that tied into the theme, and helped us to get ready to go outside with less chaos than usual.

Day 1, we watched a Sesame Street clip to learn about cooperation. Then we read I Can Cooperate. We made patterns with little people. Then I put them with partners, and they had to cooperate to make a pattern together.

Day 2, We read the Mine-o-saur, which is about a dinosaur who takes all the toys, and then has no one left to play with. We role-played sharing. We practiced asking for something we want instead of just taking it away, as well as answering "yes, I'm done" or "I'm not done yet. I'll give it to you when I'm done." We also role played taking turns.

Day 3, we read a book about friendship by Mr. Rogers and they had so many comments and questions about it! Then we played Valentines Bingo.

Day 4, we split into 2 groups. My group sorted and graphed Sweethearts candies. I had a mom volunteer and she helped her group gather valentines that the kids mailed to you. After playing post office all week, they were pretty excited to add a real stamp and have it go to their houses. They all wanted to see what kind of stamp the post office would put on it.


Small Group

Week 1, my group worked on a beginning sounds puzzle, and we practiced taking turns getting pieces to match.
The other group worked on lacing cards.

Week 2, my group extended and made patterns with conversation hearts.
The other group drew their friends in their journals.


Happy Valentines Day! Love, Miss Lisa!

Fall

My favorite season for preschool because there's just so much fun stuff to do! Here's what we did:

Dramatic Play

Apple Orchard/Leaf Raking







Fellow teachers: I've tried many different ways to "hang" the apples each year. Each way has its pros and cons. This year I just did balls of masking tape and it worked great for a day, but each day after pulling and placing the balls so many times, I had to replace it, which wasn't a big deal. If you've tried this in your dramatic play areas at school, let me know how you did it! This idea is one of my most pinned, so I'd love to see how it's working for you.

Then added the Pumpkin Patch after 2 days. Also, foud the cutest banners and apple bags at Target that I had to have!! Perfect for this center. I love fall!





Blocks 

Wood train sets


They loved it, so it was an option all week, along with the 4 seasons puzzle and usual blocks.

Art

Tissue paper squares and liquid starch painting


Spin art, love how these turned out! It's a popular and busy center.

We used the art table to make our homemade applesauce for snack, then got out dot paints.

Small Manipulatives

Pumpkin shape-matching mats (perfect review of last week) from Totschooling


Fall Pattern Cards


Lacing pumpkins and Flat marbles and pumpkin and apple dot pages from Totschooling


Magnet Board was Ten Little Apples Up on Top. I LOVE that this board made them curious about the book, because I got called here over and over to read this, and it either was followed by asking me to read something else, or them recreating the book on the magnet board.


Reading


Writing

Fall stickers


Fall/Halloween stencils

Texture rubbing plates


Snack

Day 1, we tasted red, yellow, and green apples, colored our favorite to hang in the tree, and graphed our results. (picture below in large group section)

Day 2, we had grape juice and grape jelly made from our own backyard grapes, and learned how they're juiced.

Day 3, we made and ate our own applesauce.

Outside

The sensory table was an "apple pie" mix with oatmeal,  cinnamon sticks, and toy apples/pom poms, plus cups and scoops. It was fun to watch them make muffins and cookies.


After 2 days, I changed it to this sensory fall mix (thanks Dollar Tree), that we also used the next week, so they had 3 days with this one. They loved sifting through for "treasures" (anything plastic and/or shiny).

Large Group

We learned the songs, Round and Round the Seasons Go, Leaves are Falling (they love this one because they get to throw leaves), and 5 Little Pumpkins.

Our word was deciduous, which is my favorite word to teach all year, and the one they often remember the best because it's so fun to say. Each day we watched a different Sesame Street video to help us learn the word.

The deciduous rap

Deciduous word on the street

Day 1, we played a leaf rhyming game and matched rhyming words. Raking Rhymes from Kelly's Kindergarten.

Day 2, we read about pumpkins, counted pumpkins, and decorated little pumpkins.

Day 3, we took a fall walk to find deciduous trees and signs of fall.

Small Group

My group made karo syrup leaves for our tree, and the others made leaves with the leaf rubbing plates.


My group counted apples with my apple counting mats (we're going to be practicing this A LOT), the other group colored an apple life cycle page. Counting mats are from Kelly's Kindergarten.

I can't tell you the guilt I feel when I send home what looks like a worksheet, but there's always a reason for anything I do. I honestly didn't care if they learned the apple life cycle by coloring it, because I doubt they did (worksheets don't work), but this group is still learning to work together without the teacher, and other tasks I've tried have required my interventions, leaving my group waiting. I value the small group learning time to help teach hard concepts on an individualized level, so I need the other group to be able to work alone. And the coloring went great!

Ladybugs

Ladybugs! One of my favorite things about this unit is teaching the life cycle with the real bugs. It's interesting how few of us actually know the life cycle of a ladybug, and recognize its larva. I don't think I knew until I taught Kindergarten! And I remember my daughter and nephew showing their grandma a larva in her yard and she had no idea! My boys found several in the neighbor's yard and she didn't believe them that they were ladybugs! It's kinda fun empowering these preschoolers with knowledge that so many grown ups around them don't have, so they can teach them something new! Here's how our larvae looked when they arrived, and how they grew and changed! I order all our bugs from Insect Lore.

Tiny larvae:













 Growing bigger:
 
 And bigger:
 

 
 Pupae!
 
 Caught this one right after it changed. The pupa is yellow for just a few hours before it hardens and turns black:
 


 And ladybugs!

Most activities were bug-themed, but I also fit in some art and other activities that weren't going to fit into favorites week, or that we just hadn't had time to do and are so fun!
 
Dramatic Play

Flower garden full of bugs!


 

 

 

 
 

Blocks

Bug floor puzzle


Ladybug ABC puzzle


ABC puzzle


Magnets


Art

Water colors

Paint with bug stamps


Gelatin molds. So fun! Just plain gelatin in different molds. I have squirters and colored water they can stick into them, or some just tore it apart with their hands. Such a fun and unique sensory experience.


Jello shakers. I love the way they make the room smell!
 

Small Manipulatives

Flat marble pages


Ladybug line tracing and dry erase markers


Ladybug math (after we had done in small group)
 

Magnets
 

Writing

ladybug stamp markers
 

Outside

Once again, we got so lucky! We often see ladybugs near our peach trees, so we went searching there first for ladybugs. And we found some! Not only that, but we found aphids, so now the kids could see in real life, outside of books, what we're talking about when we talk about ladybugs eating aphids! Plus, super lucky, we saw ladybug larvae too! We took a twig of aphids in to feed our larvae too and they loved them! But then some other tiny bug was also on the twig and kinda infested the ladybug land, so I did have the wipe down the glass and pull out the ones I could. Who knew caring for bugs could be so much work?
 

 

Large Group

Day 1, we learned about the ladybug life cycle and cut out and made one.

Day 2, we did math. We read 5 Little Ladybugs, then they each took a turn rolling the dice and cutting out that many ladybugs. We then added them to our graphs. They each took 2 turns.
 

Day 3, we read The Grouchy Ladybug and made a ladybug. I cut out the body and we found its 3 parts (head, thorax, abdomen). They practiced cutting on the wings. I attached it with a brad so the wings could open. They added 6 legs and antennae, and colored their spots.
 

Day 4, we reviewed all our bug life cycles and, with partners, took turns putting them all in order with our models (ants, ladybugs, praying mantis, butterfly).

Small Group

Wrote in our journals what we learned about ants.

My group did ladybug math with the mats pictured above in small manips. With my "magic" dice that have one die inside another, they made an addition equation. One die determined how many spots they added on one wing, the other die determined how many on the next wing. Then they counted them all together to tell me how many dots they had all together. Great counting and addition practice!

The second week, they journaled their favorite fact about ladybugs.

My group did more lady bug counting. They picked a leaf card that had a number on it, then counted that many ladybugs onto that leaf. Show the teacher, and repeat with new leaf card and new number. I really worked with them on one-to-one correspondence as they counted.

**Just wanted to add a note about teaching children about bugs. I personally don't like bugs. At all. But I've never wanted my kids to know that! I haven't wanted them to be afraid of them either. So I'm careful what I say when I'm around them and we see bugs, and I feed into their natural curiosity about bugs by pointing them out and naming them so they know what they are, and teaching them which ones can bite or sting, and which are fine to hold. My kids love digging for worms and catching ladybugs or snails or grasshoppers. The preschool kids do too. They have been more intrigued by these bug units than any other that I teach. I think it's partially due to their natural attraction to bugs, and partly because these are things we find outside in our own yards and they can explore them on their own. I hope you parents can too feed your children's curiosity about bugs! If we teach them they're gross or scary, they'll believe us. I don't love pulling up rocks and finding bugs under them, but my kids do and so I encourage it by doing it with them! And I've actually learned so much about bugs myself! So I hope you can continue feeding this curiosity we've started and get digging for bugs in your won yards, and learning more about them! They can be a lot of fun! And even if none of these kids grow up to be scientists and study bugs, they're hopefully learning a respect for the world around them, and ability to find out more about subjects that fascinate them.