Reindeer Games

Today the children took part in playing reindeer games.  The games included BINGO, Santa, Santa, Reindeer(which is like duck, duck, goose), they played The Reindeer Pokey, and pass the candy cane.  We also had our class treats and exchanged gifts.  If you have time over the break please have your child write a thank you card for the gift that they received.  I hope you have a happy and healthy holiday!

Rudolph

Today we read the following Rudolph color poem:

 

Rudolph! Rudolph!

What will you do?

You can’t guide Santa

IF your nose is

blue!

Rudolph! Rudolph!

You’re such a silly fellow,

Who will know it’s you

If your nose is

yellow!

Rudolph! Rudolph!

Your way cannot be seen

Through the wintry weather

If your nose is

green!

Rudolph! Rudolph!

Santa gave a wink,

But what will Santa think

If your nose is

pink?

Rudolph! Rudolph!

It’s time to fly at night

But you’re quite a sight

Cause your nose is

white!

Rudolph! Rudolph!

It’s time to go to town

But Santa’s wearing a frown

Cause your nose is

brown!

Rudolph! Rudolph!

Santa has his sack,

But you’re not ready

If your nose is

black!

Rudolph! Rudolph!

The children are in bed.

And now I know you’re ready

Cause your nose is red!

 

During center time the children made their own take home book based on this poem.  The objective of this poem is to practice rhyming words.  Red sounds the same as bed they rhyme.  Yellow sounds the same as fellow they rhyme.

At our second center the children made a deer headband.  They will use their headband tomorrow when we play our reindeer games.  

Christmas and Math?

We all know that Christmas is a very exciting time of the year.  It is a time to learn the importance of thinking about others before ourselves.  Christmas is also a great time of the year to learn more about math.  During today's centers the children did just that.  At one center the children used unifix cubes to measure the height of three different presents.  At another center the children were given a bag of holiday marshmallows.  They sorted their marshmallows and counted to see how many of each kind they had.  They then compared them using most and least.  The best part of the activity was at the end when the children could eat their marshmallows.

Friday Fun

Today we had another busy day.  Both the morning class and afternoon class had buddy time.  In the morning the children listened to a Pete the Cat story and then completed a following directions activity.  In the afternoon the children wrote letters to Santa.

During centers the children made their "W, w" page for their class letter book.  They also had the opportunity to dig in the snow for letters in our sensory table.  Don't worry the snow was only cotton that we pretended was real snow.  If your child is still learning their letters you may want to try this type of activity at home.  You would need a cheep set of magnetic letters(I get mine at the dollar store)  you can hide the letters in a tub of rice, flour, packing peanuts etc.  Then have your child dig and find the letters.  When they find one they can identify it and the sound that the letter makes.  You could take it a step further and have them think of a word that starts with the letter sound.

Hot Cocoa Day

Today at one center the children experimented with ice.  They were each given a direction sheet.  They rolled a die and followed the corresponding direction.  Sometimes they had to shake salt on their ice, while other times they had to hold it in their glove/mitten.  The purpose of this activity was to observe the reaction to warmth on ice.  Through this experiment the children learned about solids and liquids.

 

 

We couldn't talk about ice and winter without mentioning cocoa.  Today during snack the children taste tested hot cocoa with marshmallows.  The reason we do taste tests in 4K is so that we can graph the results.  Being able to analyse information and make comparisons is a life skill.  Both the morning and afternoon classes had the most votes for liking hot cocoa.

Today the children also cut out and colored a hot cocoa mug.  They then decorated it with a shaving cream and glue mixture and real marshmallows.

W is for Winter

Today we had a very fun day.  At my center the children read the story Snowflakes Falling.  We learned that I can be a letter as well as a word.  On each page the children read the sentence, and identified how many snowflakes they needed to stamp to have the correlating number.

At another center the children played snowball toss.  When it was their turn they tossed a snowball(pretend) onto a snowflake.  They then identified the number that was on their snowflake and recorded it on a recording sheet.  When the game was finished the children looked to see which number their snowball landed on the most.

At the third center the children visited the listening center.  Here they listened to the story Snowman All Year Long.

Sneezing, Sniffling, and Upset Bellies

Today we had it all.  It is definitely that time of the year.  Today we had three children out sick.  We do our best at school to have the children wash their hands before they eat.  We also wipe down the tables with cleaning wipes various times throughout the day, but those germs still make their way into our systems.  Today I have included a link from Parenting the Magazine on how to try to stay healthy during the winter months.  http://www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/advice/your-guide-to-staying-healthy-this-winter/#page=7

Thursday Fun

Today we had a great day.  We started the day by listening to the story Gingerbread Baby.  I have included the link if you would like to view it along with your child.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSZiceeXaAA After listening to the story we compared it to the other gingerbread stories we read this week.

Today during centers the children sewed a Christmas Stocking.  This activity helped make the children's muscles in their little fingers stronger.  At this age we want to increase each child's fine motor abilities so they can hold their pencils correctly and not get tired fingers when they are writing in Kindergarten.

Today we also practiced our songs for the Holiday Program.  The children are starting to sound spectacular!!

Future Bakers

Well I must say we have some future bakers on our hands.  Today we started our day off by doing centers.  At one center the children  rolled out the cookie dough we made yesterday and used a cookie cutter to cut a gingerbread man out of it.  At my center the children cut out the outline of a gingerbread man.  They then used doters to make a pattern around the edges of their man.  An example of a pattern would be red, red, blue, blue.  We have been working on patterning each month with our daily calendar. The purpose of this project was to see if the children could apply what they learned.

 After our cookies were cooled each child took one bite of their cookie then STOPPED.  We then graphed on the SMART Board what they bit first.  Was it the head, arm, or leg?  

Gingerbread Fun

Today our read aloud was titled The Gingerbread Man.  The children listened to this story on a CD.  I must say that they truly enjoyed the readers use of different voices for each character in the story.  This week we are learning about the letter "C."  We can't talk about the letter "C" without talking about cookies.  Each day this week we will read a different version of the story The Gingerbread Man.  Through our discussions we will compare and contrast the characters in each story, the problem, and the solution in the story.  

Today for centers the children made gingerbread dough.  During this lesson the children learned what ingredients are, why we use a recipe, the difference between wet and dry ingredients, and how they don't like the smell of vinegar, ginger, or cloves.  We also worked on the beginning sound and letter that started each ingredient's name.

Today when the children entered our classroom they found that it was transformed.  Our classroom now looks like Santa's Workshop.  In the writing center the children can make cards for loved ones, write a letter to Santa using words from our word wall, or by sounding out the word and writing what they hear.  They can also color Christmas tree ornaments or string beads on a pipe cleaner to make ornaments for our class tree. 

Happy Thanksgiving

May the spirit of Thanksgiving
Bring you love, laughter,
And a warm heart!

I hope your family has a wonderful holiday.
Mrs. Meyer

T is for Thanksgiving

Today in the afternoon we did a favorite activity of the children, which is called, "Find What's Missing."  I first showed the children a picture of a turkey.  They looked it over carefully.  Then I showed them another picture that had something missing.  The children then took turns identifying what was missing.  I have included a few pictures for you to give it a try.  the morning children will do this tomorrow, for they had cookies from Mr. Ramminger for another 10 orange slips instead.

Over the last few days the children made a turkey art project out of the coffee filter that they experimented with last week.  At my center the children drew a picture of what they are thankful for.  At another center the children made a story titled Where is Turkey?  This story worked on position words.  The word beside was very tricky for the children.  You may want to incorporate this word into the directions that you give your child.  For example you may say, "Put the fork beside the plate."

T is for Taste

Today our sensory experience started during snack time.  The children were each given a tongue cutout.  The tongue was broken into different sections based on the areas that the tongue uses to taste different types of food.  The children were given lemon slices to put in the sour sections.  Pretzels to put in the section that tastes salty foods.  Gummy bears for the sweet section, and dark chocolate for the bitter section.  The children then tasted each food item and decided which one they thought tested the best.  We then graphed our results.  Both classes liked sweet foods the best.

T is for Touch

Our story for today was titled Lucy's Picture.  Vivacious Lucy's entering school skipping through the school room, announcing her Grandpa's coming to visit. Her teacher, Mrs. Kelley, tells her it's time to paint. However, the colored paints that the other children are using will not do for Lucy. Instead she tells Mrs. Kelley she wants to make a collage. Mrs. Kelley then seats Lucy at a table by herself and she has so much fun going through the box of scraps Mrs. Kelley presented on the table for Lucy when she told her teacher she needed to paste items on her picture.

In fact, it was even better when Lucy closed her eyes to feel the different textures. You see, Lucy's grandfather is blind. Lucy's making a collage out of fabric, paper, twigs, leaves, feathers, sand and even a piece of her own hair.

During recess she collected the twigs, sand, leaves, feathers in a cup and made trees and a path of glue with sand spread over it. She wrinkled fabric for flowers from a piece of paper and made a dog and used a piece of her hair for the fur representing her Grandpa's dog. She used the feathers for bird wings 

When school ended there was Lucy's Mom and Grandpa with his seeing eye dog,Honey waiting outside for her. Lucy gives Grandpa her picture. Lucy explains some of the subjects in her picture "these are hills and here's the road" she says as she is guiding Grandpa's hand. Grandpa is delighted with the picture. Grandpa touched the picture carefully"a tree, a bird and what's this?" It feels like your hair Lucy." "That's Honey" says Lucy smiling. "How clever! and what a wonderful surprise!" "It's the best picture I've ever seen" said Grandpa.

During one of the centers today the children made a touch picture of their own.  At my center the children used their sense of touch to make a book titled Touch and Go.  We read the words on each page and used the descriptors to help us decide what object to glue on each picture.  We touched things that were soft, rough, bumpy, and fuzzy.

Here are a few pictures of our play time fun.