Monday, April 7, 2014
Feelings
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Eric Carle
All of my nerdy teacher dreams are coming true with these fun author/illustrator weeks! I love hearing them use the words author and illustrator, and even say that they want to be one some day. I also love hearing them use the names of the people we're learning about and seeing their excitement as we learn more about them. So, this week was all about another common favorite, Eric Carle, and they were so excited to see the books and show me which ones they had at home and already knew all about. It was fun to help them learn about an author they already knew, and introduce them to other books by him too.
Dramatic Play
Since so many books by Eric Carle are about bugs, we played with bugs in dramatic play, and had all of Eric Carle's bug books as part of it. This was a huge hit with the kids!! We even took the bug catchers outside each day to search for live bugs too.
Blocks
We went with the bug theme and had a large bug floor puzzle, plus bug dominoes, and bug number puzzles. These were lots of fun and got lots of play time. They especially loved the floor puzzle and seeing such large pictures of their favorite bugs.
For the second week, I highlighted Eric Carle's book, Friends, and set out 2 multicultural floor puzzles. The kids needed more help from me on these, but we got them put together with cooperation!
Art
Q tip painting
Easel painting
I have a few pics of the kids doing it and it was a huge hit! They loved painting like a real artist :) Since I only have 1 easel with 2 sides, they were great at taking turns at the easel or sitting at the table and it was a constant turnover of kids painting.
Tissue paper squares and glue.
No pics here either, but lots of great creativity and art!
Cloud art
Inspired by Eric Carle's book, Clouds, I set our blue paper and cotton balls with glue so they could make cloud pictures. We hung some of them up around our spring tree since spring can be cloudy and rainy.
Small Manips
Ladybug ABC puzzle with The Grouchy Ladybug
Hungry Caterpillar Colorforms storyboard
Hungry Caterpillar puzzle
Rhyme puzzle
Snack
We ate some snacks from The Hungry Caterpillar: plums, strawberries, apples, oranges, strawberries, pears, swiss cheese, and cake. They ate as they watched the movie version of the story. The movie came in handy on the next rainy day when we couldn't go inside, so we watched a few more stories during snack.
We read Pancakes! Pancakes! and made my favorite pancake recipe. They were a huge hit! They each ate 3 and wanted more. You can find the recipe here.
Outside
I filled the sensory table with blue water and rubber ducks and had the book, 10 Little Rubber Ducks
Being interested in bugs, we took the bug catchers out each day and had lots of fun searching for and catching bugs. I had found some big worms the weekend before while pulling some plastic out of my garden area, so I saved some to pull up with the kids and we found lots of huge worms! They loved that. We also found slugs and ants. One day, we saw a curled up spider and thought it was dead. They asked if they could pick it up and I just asked them to use the tweezers (only because spiders freak me out). Once they got it in a bug catcher, it started running like crazy and freaked me out, but not the kids! They loved it and one girl wore it the whole time outside. Gross, but I'm glad they don't have my irrational fears.
Large Group
Day 1, we read The Hungry Caterpillar, and made pattern caterpillars with pipe cleaners and beads. I had leaves with holes punched in them and they thought it was so fun helping their caterpillars "eat."
Day 2, we read The Mixed Up Chameleon, and talked about Eric Carle's style of illustrating. I had paper with different colors painted on it, and they told me what shapes to cut out and they helped me put together a picture of their choosing, an elephant. Kind of :)
Day 3, we read Polar Bear Polar Bear, then worked on graphing the characters from that book.
Day 4, we read The Tiny Seed, then planted sunflowers in a cup.
Small Group
I helped my groups work on their number books.
Our mom volunteers helped our kids make Hungry Caterpillar pattern necklaces.
They also played The Hungry Caterpillar game with the kids to work on counting.
Dramatic Play
Since so many books by Eric Carle are about bugs, we played with bugs in dramatic play, and had all of Eric Carle's bug books as part of it. This was a huge hit with the kids!! We even took the bug catchers outside each day to search for live bugs too.
Blocks
We went with the bug theme and had a large bug floor puzzle, plus bug dominoes, and bug number puzzles. These were lots of fun and got lots of play time. They especially loved the floor puzzle and seeing such large pictures of their favorite bugs.
For the second week, I highlighted Eric Carle's book, Friends, and set out 2 multicultural floor puzzles. The kids needed more help from me on these, but we got them put together with cooperation!
Art
Q tip painting
Easel painting
I have a few pics of the kids doing it and it was a huge hit! They loved painting like a real artist :) Since I only have 1 easel with 2 sides, they were great at taking turns at the easel or sitting at the table and it was a constant turnover of kids painting.
Tissue paper squares and glue.
No pics here either, but lots of great creativity and art!
Cloud art
Inspired by Eric Carle's book, Clouds, I set our blue paper and cotton balls with glue so they could make cloud pictures. We hung some of them up around our spring tree since spring can be cloudy and rainy.
Small Manips
Ladybug ABC puzzle with The Grouchy Ladybug
Hungry Caterpillar Colorforms storyboard
Hungry Caterpillar puzzle
Rhyme puzzle
Snack
We ate some snacks from The Hungry Caterpillar: plums, strawberries, apples, oranges, strawberries, pears, swiss cheese, and cake. They ate as they watched the movie version of the story. The movie came in handy on the next rainy day when we couldn't go inside, so we watched a few more stories during snack.
We read Pancakes! Pancakes! and made my favorite pancake recipe. They were a huge hit! They each ate 3 and wanted more. You can find the recipe here.
Outside
I filled the sensory table with blue water and rubber ducks and had the book, 10 Little Rubber Ducks
Being interested in bugs, we took the bug catchers out each day and had lots of fun searching for and catching bugs. I had found some big worms the weekend before while pulling some plastic out of my garden area, so I saved some to pull up with the kids and we found lots of huge worms! They loved that. We also found slugs and ants. One day, we saw a curled up spider and thought it was dead. They asked if they could pick it up and I just asked them to use the tweezers (only because spiders freak me out). Once they got it in a bug catcher, it started running like crazy and freaked me out, but not the kids! They loved it and one girl wore it the whole time outside. Gross, but I'm glad they don't have my irrational fears.
Large Group
Day 1, we read The Hungry Caterpillar, and made pattern caterpillars with pipe cleaners and beads. I had leaves with holes punched in them and they thought it was so fun helping their caterpillars "eat."
Day 2, we read The Mixed Up Chameleon, and talked about Eric Carle's style of illustrating. I had paper with different colors painted on it, and they told me what shapes to cut out and they helped me put together a picture of their choosing, an elephant. Kind of :)
Day 3, we read Polar Bear Polar Bear, then worked on graphing the characters from that book.
Day 4, we read The Tiny Seed, then planted sunflowers in a cup.
Small Group
I helped my groups work on their number books.
Our mom volunteers helped our kids make Hungry Caterpillar pattern necklaces.
They also played The Hungry Caterpillar game with the kids to work on counting.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Dr. Seuss
It was impossible to not have fun during our Dr. Seuss theme! We learned about the word "rhyme" and did different activities each day to practice rhyming. I also challenged myself to make most of the activities related to a Dr. Seuss book. Here are the other fun things we did:
Dramatic Play
This was a tough one to come up with, but I looked through some books and decided on One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, and went with a fishing hole! I had magnetic fishing poles, with magnetic fish, plus I used foamie material to make 10 fish, numbered 1-10 with paper clips on them, so they could also be fished out. I was impressed how many kids fished them out, and lined them up in order (with no prompting!) Great number practice.
The second week, we got out the puppets and puppet theater.
Blocks
We built with Mega Blocks.
Art
Oobleck, inspired by the book, Bartholomew and the Ooblick. Ooblick is one of my favorite sensory play items, and it's just simply water and cornstarch! It's known as a "non-Newtonian goop," at least that was the term I learned in college, because it defies Newton's Laws by acting as a solid and liquid at the same time. It's seriously fun, even for adults, and I recommend trying it at home (and preparing for a mess)! You squeeze it and it turns hard and you can break it, then, within seconds, it's runny and drippy. So fun!
Truffula trees, inspired by the book The Lorax. I had a variety of collage items that reminded me of the trees in the book (pom pom balls, feathers, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks) plus glue, and I let them go wild! Keeping art open-ended, I didn't tell them to make truffula trees, but some of them did ask about the materials and the book there, and I told them the materials reminded me of the trees. We had some beautiful art projects!
Sweetened condensed milk painting, just because it's colorful and fun! It was a sticky hit, and we had lots of beautiful art. This is one of the projects you need to take a picture of, because you can onlyu enjoy it for a week before the milk starts to go bad and you've gotta throw it out.
ABC noodle collages with the book, Dr. Seuss' ABCs. They loved pouring on lots of glue and noodles! Great letter review too.
Small Manips
Dr. Seuss hat matching game from here
Rhyme puzzles
ABC magnet letters
Horton the Elephant counting links to go with Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg
Snack
Snack time was fun, and I was so proud of myself for doing a themed snack each day!
We used goldfish cracker counting mats from here, and practiced counting our goldfish crackers before we ate them, and also read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.
We read Ten Apples Up On Top, one of the favorite books they ask to read over and over, and I gave them each a styrofoam cup with a bamboo skewer in it, and they had to stack 10 apple pieces up on top. It was a great math and counting activity, plus good fine motor practice too.
We made green eggs and ham (the kids each got to crack one egg, they loved it), and we added blue food color to make the yellow eggs turn green. Great science! While they waited for them to cook, they watched the video of Green Eggs and Ham on youtube, since no one had the book to check out or buy during Dr. Seuss' birthday week! They were delicious!
We made Cat in the Hat kabobs, to practice making patterns and more fine motor skills. They put bananas and strawberries on bamboo skewers to make the hats. They were yummy!
Large Group
Day 1 , we read The Cat in the Hat, listening for rhyming words, and then we made our own paper plate hats by coloring red stripes in a pattern.
Day 2, we read The Lorax, then practiced more rhyming words. They each got a Lorax mustache, and I read pairings of words. If they rhymed, they held up their mustache, if not, they kept them down. We got a cute class pic too!
Day 3, we read Horton Hears a Who, and then used pom-pom clovers to sort and graph. They asked to have these "clovers" back out to play the next few days too.
Day 4, we read The Foot Book, and practiced measuring by using paper feet. They did awesome!
Small Group
Our mom helpers helped the kids rhyme by using ABC magnets to make a 3-letter word, then changing the first letter to make a new word that rhymes.
Our mom helpers played a Cat in the Hat rhyming memory game I found here.
I helped the kids work on their number books.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Families/Robert Munsch
After a successful author/illustrator week with Jan Brett, I was excited this week to read and learn more about Robert Munsch. He's famous for writing Love You Forever, which is a great book! We focused on families, and that book, and also read many more of his funny family books.
Dramatic Play
We had the housekeeping center back out, with the kitchen, washer/dryer, baby bath and cradle. This will also be a favorite dramatic play! So simple, too. It coincided with our blocks area.
Blocks
We had our grocery store out. This is a big time favorite too. They love using the shopping cart, and the cash register most of all. I love having this giant dramatic play center out and the kids had a really fun time playing families. This center was constantly busy and buzzing, all 4 days.
Art
Day 1 we made slime. It's super fun to play with, and we also used our dried out markers to color it. I love that we have a good use to dried up markers! They loved playing with this and I loved it too. It's fun, because you can hold it and squeeze it and break it like something solid, but it also drips and flows kind of like a liquid. It's fascinating and just as much fun for adults. I hate that I forgot to get a picture!
It's super easy to make and here's the recipe:
In large bowl, mix 2 cups white glue and 1 1/2 cups water
Then, in 3 small bowls mix until dissolved 1/3 cup warm water, 1 tsp borax
Now add the contents of the small cups to the glue and water mixture. It will quickly coagulate in the bowl, you can lift it out, then add the other small cups. You can add color to the solutions, but I keep it white.
Day 2, we used the art table for snack prep, and made yummy homemade bread. We used this recipe for miracle bread, that can be done in an hour. It took just over that for us. We then brought out the slime again to play with the last half of our self-select time.
Day 3 we just used the classic water colors.
Day 4 we had elmer's glue with googly eyes and wavy hair. Their imaginations went wild and we had some fun, mostly monsterish, creations!
Manips
We played an ABC bingo game, with beginning sound pictures.
We played with magnetic counting books.
We did a puzzle that makes a game board for an ABC safari game. It was super popular and we'll have to do it again.
We played with the giant 123 foam puzzles.
Fun snacks
Nothing says family and home to me like homemade bread, so we did that one day, like I mentioned above. It was delicious and they begged for more!
I also helped them make another one of my favorites snacks from growing up, no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies. We were able to make them in an electric frying pan so they could all help. They LOVE cooking and helping and taking turns with all the ingredients and mixing. Here's my family's recipe:
Melt 1 stick butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1/2 cup and 1 TB evaporated milk. Mix in 3 cups of oatmeal. Drop onto cookie sheet with wax paper or saran wrap, and let sit in the fridge. Easypeasy.
Large Group
I decided to review our vocabulary word from friendship week, Cooperation, since it's so important.
Day 1, I read Love You Forever, and thought I could be all tough, but just cried. It sure got the kids quiet as they just stared at me :) It led to a great discussion about how much our moms love us, and always will! We then drew pictures of our families in our journals.
Day 2, we read Alligator Baby, then graphed our family members. We knew everyone would have parents, but it was fun to see how many brothers, sisters, and pets we have. We also graphed if we had grandparents who live close, or far away. They wrote their names on the post it notes before bringing them up, for more name writing practice.
Day 3, we read The Sand Castle Contest and each child shared their favorite family vacation. I had planned to have them write about it in their journals, but we were short on time and just shared instead.
Day 4, we talked about cooperation in families, and did role playing on how we can cooperate with our families. I explained to them how moms and dads work so hard, but just can't do everything at home themselves. We headed over to dramatic play, assigned a few kids to be parents, and they recruited kids to help them do dishes, make dinner, do laundry, grocery shop, and take care of pets (the dog role-playing was excellent). So if your kids came home amazingly helpful, you're welcome. If they were just the same, like mine, then we'll keep trying :)
Small Group
I started working with the kids on some number books. We're doing a book for each number 1-10. They learn how to write the number (they look pretty good because I'm helping them write them, hand over hand), and also how to count to that number. They will come home when they're all done. They have to count out that number of crayons to color the number, we write the number, then they also draw that many items on the back. When you go over them, you will see some mistakes, but I am working with each of them, one by one, and call it good as they count their items and we fix our mistakes. They're doing great work!
Our first mom volunteers helped the kids sort pictures by babies, children, and adults, and they also played a family memory game with pictures of different types of families.
Our second mom volunteers helped the children color their family trees, drawing themselves, their moms and dads, and their grandparents.
Dramatic Play
We had the housekeeping center back out, with the kitchen, washer/dryer, baby bath and cradle. This will also be a favorite dramatic play! So simple, too. It coincided with our blocks area.
Blocks
We had our grocery store out. This is a big time favorite too. They love using the shopping cart, and the cash register most of all. I love having this giant dramatic play center out and the kids had a really fun time playing families. This center was constantly busy and buzzing, all 4 days.
Art
Day 1 we made slime. It's super fun to play with, and we also used our dried out markers to color it. I love that we have a good use to dried up markers! They loved playing with this and I loved it too. It's fun, because you can hold it and squeeze it and break it like something solid, but it also drips and flows kind of like a liquid. It's fascinating and just as much fun for adults. I hate that I forgot to get a picture!
It's super easy to make and here's the recipe:
In large bowl, mix 2 cups white glue and 1 1/2 cups water
Then, in 3 small bowls mix until dissolved 1/3 cup warm water, 1 tsp borax
Now add the contents of the small cups to the glue and water mixture. It will quickly coagulate in the bowl, you can lift it out, then add the other small cups. You can add color to the solutions, but I keep it white.
Day 2, we used the art table for snack prep, and made yummy homemade bread. We used this recipe for miracle bread, that can be done in an hour. It took just over that for us. We then brought out the slime again to play with the last half of our self-select time.
Day 3 we just used the classic water colors.
Day 4 we had elmer's glue with googly eyes and wavy hair. Their imaginations went wild and we had some fun, mostly monsterish, creations!
Manips
We played an ABC bingo game, with beginning sound pictures.
We played with magnetic counting books.
We did a puzzle that makes a game board for an ABC safari game. It was super popular and we'll have to do it again.
We played with the giant 123 foam puzzles.
Fun snacks
Nothing says family and home to me like homemade bread, so we did that one day, like I mentioned above. It was delicious and they begged for more!
I also helped them make another one of my favorites snacks from growing up, no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies. We were able to make them in an electric frying pan so they could all help. They LOVE cooking and helping and taking turns with all the ingredients and mixing. Here's my family's recipe:
Melt 1 stick butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup chocolate chips, 1/2 cup and 1 TB evaporated milk. Mix in 3 cups of oatmeal. Drop onto cookie sheet with wax paper or saran wrap, and let sit in the fridge. Easypeasy.
Large Group
I decided to review our vocabulary word from friendship week, Cooperation, since it's so important.
Day 1, I read Love You Forever, and thought I could be all tough, but just cried. It sure got the kids quiet as they just stared at me :) It led to a great discussion about how much our moms love us, and always will! We then drew pictures of our families in our journals.
Day 2, we read Alligator Baby, then graphed our family members. We knew everyone would have parents, but it was fun to see how many brothers, sisters, and pets we have. We also graphed if we had grandparents who live close, or far away. They wrote their names on the post it notes before bringing them up, for more name writing practice.
Day 3, we read The Sand Castle Contest and each child shared their favorite family vacation. I had planned to have them write about it in their journals, but we were short on time and just shared instead.
Day 4, we talked about cooperation in families, and did role playing on how we can cooperate with our families. I explained to them how moms and dads work so hard, but just can't do everything at home themselves. We headed over to dramatic play, assigned a few kids to be parents, and they recruited kids to help them do dishes, make dinner, do laundry, grocery shop, and take care of pets (the dog role-playing was excellent). So if your kids came home amazingly helpful, you're welcome. If they were just the same, like mine, then we'll keep trying :)
Small Group
I started working with the kids on some number books. We're doing a book for each number 1-10. They learn how to write the number (they look pretty good because I'm helping them write them, hand over hand), and also how to count to that number. They will come home when they're all done. They have to count out that number of crayons to color the number, we write the number, then they also draw that many items on the back. When you go over them, you will see some mistakes, but I am working with each of them, one by one, and call it good as they count their items and we fix our mistakes. They're doing great work!
Our first mom volunteers helped the kids sort pictures by babies, children, and adults, and they also played a family memory game with pictures of different types of families.
Our second mom volunteers helped the children color their family trees, drawing themselves, their moms and dads, and their grandparents.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Valentine's Day
I am so glad I decided to dedicate whole weeks to the holidays this year. It's too hard to try to fit them into another theme, and it's fun to celebrate with fun learning activities. I just somehow forgot to take any pictures...
Dramatic Play/Blocks
It has nothing to do with Valentine's. I couldn't really think of anything that did. I had requests from some kids to have out stick horses, so I got them out, along with cowboy hats and vests. To go along with that, I also put the barns and farm animals in the block area. And again, due to popular demand, I had out the doll house and people.
Art
We made TP tube hearts. I also had paint brushes out so they could just paint with the red and pink paint too.
I'd had requests for glue and glitter the week before too, to make valentines, so when things slowed up with the painting, I pulled out the glue and glitter and the art table was busy the rest of the day. It was a messy, but fun day of art!
Thursday, we made our bags to collect our valentines in. There were die cuts, stickers, and stamps. There was also paper for them to make valentines once their bags were done.
Small Manips
We did a valentine puzzle, ordering numbers 1-10 to make a picture. I found it here.
We also made valentine and heart pictures with beads. Found here.
Writing
We had valentine stamps, die cuts, and colored paper to make valentines.
Snack
The first day we got our sugar fix by decorating and eating heart sugar cookies.
The next day we tried to be healthier (mainly since they'd be getting their valentines today), so we made healthy pink smoothies with berries, bananas, and mangoes. We also added heart shaped ice cubes.
We only had 1 outside day with bad weather, but snow is melting, and we're already getting spring fever over here!
Large Group
We learned the song Skidamarink.
Day 1, we read a book called The Best Thing About Valentines, and learned that the nest thing is having friends to exchange valentines with. We then sorted and graphed conversation hearts. I introduced graphing by looking at our weather graph we do daily, then we graphed some hearts as a large group. We reviewed the instructions several times (sort, graph, show teacher, then eat) and I was SO impressed at how well they followed them. Every single one of the, sorted and graphed their hearts with NO HELP! I was very proud of them!
Day 2, we read Franklin's Valentine, then passed out our valentines. I attempted this last year one at a time, while they waited. Not great. So this year, I put my mom skills to use, and did what I often do when I need to get something done, I turned on a show. It was educational, though! I tried to find a good valentines movie and couldn't, so instead we watched an episode of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood about friendship. It worked like a charm, and I was able to help each child pass out their valentines, then we went home (we did small group first today).
Small Group
We made tissue paper hearts. It helped with small motor skills (scrunching the tissue paper), and also reviewed their number recognition. I got the idea here.
We did a phonics activity, focusing on beginning sounds. I got it here.
Dramatic Play/Blocks
It has nothing to do with Valentine's. I couldn't really think of anything that did. I had requests from some kids to have out stick horses, so I got them out, along with cowboy hats and vests. To go along with that, I also put the barns and farm animals in the block area. And again, due to popular demand, I had out the doll house and people.
Art
We made TP tube hearts. I also had paint brushes out so they could just paint with the red and pink paint too.
I'd had requests for glue and glitter the week before too, to make valentines, so when things slowed up with the painting, I pulled out the glue and glitter and the art table was busy the rest of the day. It was a messy, but fun day of art!
Thursday, we made our bags to collect our valentines in. There were die cuts, stickers, and stamps. There was also paper for them to make valentines once their bags were done.
Small Manips
We did a valentine puzzle, ordering numbers 1-10 to make a picture. I found it here.
We also made valentine and heart pictures with beads. Found here.
Writing
We had valentine stamps, die cuts, and colored paper to make valentines.
Snack
The first day we got our sugar fix by decorating and eating heart sugar cookies.
The next day we tried to be healthier (mainly since they'd be getting their valentines today), so we made healthy pink smoothies with berries, bananas, and mangoes. We also added heart shaped ice cubes.
We only had 1 outside day with bad weather, but snow is melting, and we're already getting spring fever over here!
Large Group
We learned the song Skidamarink.
Day 1, we read a book called The Best Thing About Valentines, and learned that the nest thing is having friends to exchange valentines with. We then sorted and graphed conversation hearts. I introduced graphing by looking at our weather graph we do daily, then we graphed some hearts as a large group. We reviewed the instructions several times (sort, graph, show teacher, then eat) and I was SO impressed at how well they followed them. Every single one of the, sorted and graphed their hearts with NO HELP! I was very proud of them!
Day 2, we read Franklin's Valentine, then passed out our valentines. I attempted this last year one at a time, while they waited. Not great. So this year, I put my mom skills to use, and did what I often do when I need to get something done, I turned on a show. It was educational, though! I tried to find a good valentines movie and couldn't, so instead we watched an episode of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood about friendship. It worked like a charm, and I was able to help each child pass out their valentines, then we went home (we did small group first today).
Small Group
We made tissue paper hearts. It helped with small motor skills (scrunching the tissue paper), and also reviewed their number recognition. I got the idea here.
We did a phonics activity, focusing on beginning sounds. I got it here.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Friendship
We had a fun and productive few weeks learning about friendship. It's one of our most important themes, since the main reason parents put their kids in preschool is to learn social skills. It's also a little difficult as a theme, since it's based on skills I'm trying to teach them each day.
We learned the word cooperate, and practiced cooperating in our play and clean up times. They did awesome!
Name Writing
Our name writing practicing is going really well, and each morning they have remembered to move their bus and come write their name with me. We're working on starting all letters from the top, and I'm already seeing great improvements. They're even more willing to write their names on their own now in art and the writing center.
Dramatic Play
I got out the tents and tunnels, since winter time is making us a little stir crazy, and needing some more active play! They have a blast playing in them, and I love watching the games they play and the great imaginative things they come up with!
One of their dinosaur castles, protecting the baby dinos from an impending volcano:
Blocks
Since the kids have been begging for dinosaur toys, they came out this week! I only planned on it for 2 days, but each day, they'd ask to have them out the next day, so they were out all 4. I set out the book, The Mine-o-saur, so at least it went along with our friendship theme. It was great having the book there, and I ended up reading it to them all several times during their play, and it's an awesome book about a dinosaur who's selfish, then learns to share to make friends.
Their dinosaur play is fun to watch too. They built them homes, castles, and nests with the blocks, and took them into the tunnels on trips and to bedtime. Great imaginative play this week.
Art
We painted with frozen paint. I just freeze it over night in an ice cube tray with popsicle sticks. It's kind of like a crayon at first, then once it starts melting, it paints more like paint. They liked it, and made quite a few pictures at the beginning, but the tents and dinosaurs won most of the attention this day!
We played play dough with capital ABC stamps and scissors. I love scissors and play dough. It's a great way to master the cutting skill, and strengthen small motor skills, and it's easier than paper to start out.
We had another sensory play day with trays of baking soda and cups of colored vinegar with droppers. The droppers are another great small motor skill. This was a huge hit, and they were amazed by the fizzing and bubbling they made when combined! It was also fun to watch the colors mix. And of course, my child figured out that when you add enough vinegar, it makes a sticky dough. That was a lot of fun for many of the kids, and they played here until they were all just colored blobs!
We painted with ABC stamps. Even with all the fun art we do, sometimes they just want to paint, and they had a great time.
Small Manips
We did ABC floor puzzles.
We played with the number peg puzzles.
We threaded ABC beads.
Writing
We did a letter rubbing activity, so they could rub the letters onto their papers. I have these alphabet cards I laminated, then traced over the letters with puffy paint. I use them for the kids to trace over the letters to practice their formation and learn their name and sound (it's a powerful tool, to combine the senses, in touching the letter, saying it, and hearing it). I showed them how they can also use it for the crayon rubbings and they enjoyed that.
Snack
The first day, we carried over our Jan Brett theme with Gingerbread Friends. For snack, I shared the original Gingerbread Boy story, then we made gingerbread people. I wanted a healthier snack, so we cut them out of bread, them toasted them, and added some jelly or cinnamon/sugar. This was one of their favorite snacks, and I've already had several requests for toast again!
Small Group
Week 1, our volunteer moms read the book The Crayon Box That Talked. It's about crayons who can't get along, until they realize they're all important. The kids then each got 1 crayon, and had to work together to make a picture. Tuesday's group was really sweet and wanted to give their picture to one of our friends who was home recovering from tonsil surgery.
I continued practicing numbers and counting with the kids with a game with our math "friends."
We rolled our giant dice, then, the kids had to each count out that many "friends." It was nice for me to be able to work with them one-on-one on this important skill.
Week 2, our volunteers helped the kids with their number recognition by reading the book Chicka Chicka 123, then the kids found and glued numbers 1-10 on their trees. Nothing to do with friendship, but number recognition is something we're really working on right now.
My group played with our math "friends" again to practice more sorting and patterning. We've done a lot of this, but I was reminded how much I need to use the proper vocabulary with them. When I explained we were going to sort them, they were all confused. Once I explained what sorting was, they got it and did great, but I need to use the word sort more, so they recognize what it is they're doing.
Large Group
Day 1, we read Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett, and watched a Sesame Street clip about what friends are and why they're important. We had a great discussion, then played a Gingerbread people game. It was the same one we played over Christmas, and they were excited to see the people hidden all over the room. I showed them a Gingerbread man or woman, then they had to find its match hidden in the room. This time, I told them we were working on cooperation, so once someone found it, they needed to help their friends come find it. No competition to be first, but cooperation to help each other. They did really great at working together and not arguing!
Day 2, we read a book about cooperation, then cooperated to build a Lego tower. First, the kids each got their own pile of blocks and were told to build the tallest tower they could, and they weren't allowed to share. They didn't love that rule, and thought it wasn't nice to not share. They all finished their towers, and thought they were pretty small. I asked what we could do to make a bigger tower, and they all wanted to share. We pooled the blocks together, stacked our towers, and had to help each other hold it steady, and we learned to cooperate. We then wrote in our journals about ways we can cooperate. We had to skip outside time because of rain today, so we had extra time and made Get Well cards to cheer up one of our classmates and friends who had her tonsils out.
Day 3, we read a book called Making Friends by Fred Rogers. It had a lot of good discussion points, like about how hard it can be to play with friends who want to do different things and how to do that, or what to do when you're left out by your friends, or get in a fight with friends. We spent a lot of time talking about these situations, and role playing what we can do in those situations. Often, these are things I tackle during play time (seeing someone left out, or someone trying to join and doesn't know how, and kids fighting or having a hard time sharing, etc), and I think it has the most impact when it's actually happening (one of the reasons the free play time is SO important in pre-k), but how to deal with these situations is something that needs to be taught and role-played.
When I help children in these situations, I try to not solve the problem for them, but talk through with them what they can do, then offer the support they need to do it. (For example, Tommy won't share that toy Billy wants, so I go over and help Billy ask Tommy if he is done with the toy yet, and if not, if he can play with it when you're done, and other situations close to that.) This is what we role play too. Role playing can be powerful. I've seen it work with my daughter, who gets frustrated easily when she doesn't get her way with friends, and I've seen her leave, and take deep breaths to calm down before coming back to work things out. This is something we've had to practice over and over for her to finally start doing it! Role playing with your children can offer them a powerful problem-solving tool.
Day 4, we read a book about being selfish and it had so many great discussion points. The kids had lots to talk about and we role played too. It ended up taking up most of our time so we couldn't do our activity, since we fit in show and tell. I didn't mind though, because they were right on topic and it was a productive lesson about selfishness and sharing!
Outside time this week was cut short because of bad air quality, and rain/snow, but the days we got out were fun. We enjoyed more coloring the snow with these food coloring/water bottles and that's always a hit. The snow is also low enough to swing on the swing set some more, and they always like sledding. They also searched the yard for deer footprints, and loved discovering that the birds have eaten almost all their bird seeds! It's fun to see the scratch marks in the peanut butter where they were eating.
We learned the word cooperate, and practiced cooperating in our play and clean up times. They did awesome!
Name Writing
Our name writing practicing is going really well, and each morning they have remembered to move their bus and come write their name with me. We're working on starting all letters from the top, and I'm already seeing great improvements. They're even more willing to write their names on their own now in art and the writing center.
Dramatic Play
I got out the tents and tunnels, since winter time is making us a little stir crazy, and needing some more active play! They have a blast playing in them, and I love watching the games they play and the great imaginative things they come up with!
One of their dinosaur castles, protecting the baby dinos from an impending volcano:
Blocks
Since the kids have been begging for dinosaur toys, they came out this week! I only planned on it for 2 days, but each day, they'd ask to have them out the next day, so they were out all 4. I set out the book, The Mine-o-saur, so at least it went along with our friendship theme. It was great having the book there, and I ended up reading it to them all several times during their play, and it's an awesome book about a dinosaur who's selfish, then learns to share to make friends.
Their dinosaur play is fun to watch too. They built them homes, castles, and nests with the blocks, and took them into the tunnels on trips and to bedtime. Great imaginative play this week.
Art
We painted with frozen paint. I just freeze it over night in an ice cube tray with popsicle sticks. It's kind of like a crayon at first, then once it starts melting, it paints more like paint. They liked it, and made quite a few pictures at the beginning, but the tents and dinosaurs won most of the attention this day!
We played play dough with capital ABC stamps and scissors. I love scissors and play dough. It's a great way to master the cutting skill, and strengthen small motor skills, and it's easier than paper to start out.
We had another sensory play day with trays of baking soda and cups of colored vinegar with droppers. The droppers are another great small motor skill. This was a huge hit, and they were amazed by the fizzing and bubbling they made when combined! It was also fun to watch the colors mix. And of course, my child figured out that when you add enough vinegar, it makes a sticky dough. That was a lot of fun for many of the kids, and they played here until they were all just colored blobs!
We painted with ABC stamps. Even with all the fun art we do, sometimes they just want to paint, and they had a great time.
Small Manips
We did ABC floor puzzles.
We played with the number peg puzzles.
We threaded ABC beads.
Writing
We did a letter rubbing activity, so they could rub the letters onto their papers. I have these alphabet cards I laminated, then traced over the letters with puffy paint. I use them for the kids to trace over the letters to practice their formation and learn their name and sound (it's a powerful tool, to combine the senses, in touching the letter, saying it, and hearing it). I showed them how they can also use it for the crayon rubbings and they enjoyed that.
Snack
The first day, we carried over our Jan Brett theme with Gingerbread Friends. For snack, I shared the original Gingerbread Boy story, then we made gingerbread people. I wanted a healthier snack, so we cut them out of bread, them toasted them, and added some jelly or cinnamon/sugar. This was one of their favorite snacks, and I've already had several requests for toast again!
Small Group
Week 1, our volunteer moms read the book The Crayon Box That Talked. It's about crayons who can't get along, until they realize they're all important. The kids then each got 1 crayon, and had to work together to make a picture. Tuesday's group was really sweet and wanted to give their picture to one of our friends who was home recovering from tonsil surgery.
I continued practicing numbers and counting with the kids with a game with our math "friends."
We rolled our giant dice, then, the kids had to each count out that many "friends." It was nice for me to be able to work with them one-on-one on this important skill.
Week 2, our volunteers helped the kids with their number recognition by reading the book Chicka Chicka 123, then the kids found and glued numbers 1-10 on their trees. Nothing to do with friendship, but number recognition is something we're really working on right now.
My group played with our math "friends" again to practice more sorting and patterning. We've done a lot of this, but I was reminded how much I need to use the proper vocabulary with them. When I explained we were going to sort them, they were all confused. Once I explained what sorting was, they got it and did great, but I need to use the word sort more, so they recognize what it is they're doing.
Large Group
Day 1, we read Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett, and watched a Sesame Street clip about what friends are and why they're important. We had a great discussion, then played a Gingerbread people game. It was the same one we played over Christmas, and they were excited to see the people hidden all over the room. I showed them a Gingerbread man or woman, then they had to find its match hidden in the room. This time, I told them we were working on cooperation, so once someone found it, they needed to help their friends come find it. No competition to be first, but cooperation to help each other. They did really great at working together and not arguing!
Day 2, we read a book about cooperation, then cooperated to build a Lego tower. First, the kids each got their own pile of blocks and were told to build the tallest tower they could, and they weren't allowed to share. They didn't love that rule, and thought it wasn't nice to not share. They all finished their towers, and thought they were pretty small. I asked what we could do to make a bigger tower, and they all wanted to share. We pooled the blocks together, stacked our towers, and had to help each other hold it steady, and we learned to cooperate. We then wrote in our journals about ways we can cooperate. We had to skip outside time because of rain today, so we had extra time and made Get Well cards to cheer up one of our classmates and friends who had her tonsils out.
Day 3, we read a book called Making Friends by Fred Rogers. It had a lot of good discussion points, like about how hard it can be to play with friends who want to do different things and how to do that, or what to do when you're left out by your friends, or get in a fight with friends. We spent a lot of time talking about these situations, and role playing what we can do in those situations. Often, these are things I tackle during play time (seeing someone left out, or someone trying to join and doesn't know how, and kids fighting or having a hard time sharing, etc), and I think it has the most impact when it's actually happening (one of the reasons the free play time is SO important in pre-k), but how to deal with these situations is something that needs to be taught and role-played.
When I help children in these situations, I try to not solve the problem for them, but talk through with them what they can do, then offer the support they need to do it. (For example, Tommy won't share that toy Billy wants, so I go over and help Billy ask Tommy if he is done with the toy yet, and if not, if he can play with it when you're done, and other situations close to that.) This is what we role play too. Role playing can be powerful. I've seen it work with my daughter, who gets frustrated easily when she doesn't get her way with friends, and I've seen her leave, and take deep breaths to calm down before coming back to work things out. This is something we've had to practice over and over for her to finally start doing it! Role playing with your children can offer them a powerful problem-solving tool.
Day 4, we read a book about being selfish and it had so many great discussion points. The kids had lots to talk about and we role played too. It ended up taking up most of our time so we couldn't do our activity, since we fit in show and tell. I didn't mind though, because they were right on topic and it was a productive lesson about selfishness and sharing!
Outside time this week was cut short because of bad air quality, and rain/snow, but the days we got out were fun. We enjoyed more coloring the snow with these food coloring/water bottles and that's always a hit. The snow is also low enough to swing on the swing set some more, and they always like sledding. They also searched the yard for deer footprints, and loved discovering that the birds have eaten almost all their bird seeds! It's fun to see the scratch marks in the peanut butter where they were eating.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)