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.  

5 Senses

This week the children will be learning about their five senses.  Our read aloud today was titled The Listening Walk.  To help us learn our senses each day we are adding one at a  time to our class potato head.
Today we had two centers based on the sense of hearing.  At the first center the children played sound bingo.  Various sounds were recorded on a CD.  The adult played them one at a time on our laptop.  The children listened to each sound and found its corresponding picture on their Bingo board.  At my center the children experimented with hearing by using plastic eggs that were filled with various items.  The children took turns shaking the eggs and predicting what was making the sound that they herd.  The children recorded their findings on a recording sheet.

My Friends

To end the week we will be discussing ways to be a good friend.  We will read a variety of Dinofours books.  These books are about dinosaurs who are four and are starting out in school.  The books will teach us how to say sorry and mean it, how to help people feel better when they are sad, and how to be a caring friend.

Today during centers the children cut out the outline of a person.  They then colored it to look like themselves.  They also cut pieces of yarn to glue on for hair.  They turned out very cute.  Then the children dictated an ending to the sentence, "I am a good friend when I ......."

At another center the children played a "Friendly Letter Fun" game.  They took turns rolling a die and identifying the letter they rolled.  They then recorded it on a recording sheet.  One side of the die asked the children to say something nice about the friend they were playing with.  This took some thought on the part of the children.

The Three Little Pigs Continued

Today we read another version of the book The Three Little Pigs.  After reading the story we compared and contrasted it to the story that we read yesterday.  At one of the centers the children cut out pictures from the story and sequenced them in the correct order.  At another center the children visited the website starfall.com as a way to practice letter identification and letter sounds.

Today the children also had the opportunity to make a straw house, stick house, or a brick house.  This weekend I picked up some large boxes from local stores.  We worked to make the boxes look like houses.  For the next week we will use the boxes and the puppets that we made yesterday to act out the story of The Three Little Pigs.  The best part of this activity was learning to be creative, and learning to get along with others as a team in order to complete a task.

The Three Little Pigs

Todays' read aloud was titled The Three Little Pigs.  At one center the children chose to make a pig or a wolf puppet.  I must say that the children's coloring today was awesome.  Maybe all of the practice that they get by doing letter books is paying off.

At another center the children played the "Huff Puff" game.  Each child received a game board.  Some children worked on 0-10 while others worked on 0-20.  The children took turns picking a card from a basket and identifying the number on it.  They then marked it on their recording sheet.  If they picked a card that said "Huff Puff" they blew their house down.

Fun Friday

Today was another busy day.  Both classes had buddies today.  During buddies we talked about how to be a good friend.  The children then made a friendship book together.  The afternoon class was able to visit the gym, for Fridays are their days.  Both classes drew a picture of their families and made the "n" page for their ABC books.

Just Playing

 

When I'm building in the block area,

Please don't say I'm "just playing."

For you see, I'm learning as I play,

About balances and shapes.

Who knows, I may be an architect someday.

 

When I'm getting all dressed up,

Setting the table, caring for the babies,

Don't get the idea I'm "just playing."

For you see, I'm learning as I play;

I may be a mother or father someday.

 

When you see me up to my elbows in paint

Or standing at an easel,

Or molding and shaping clay,

Please don't let me hear you say, "He is just playing."

For you see, I'm learning as I play.

I'm expressing myself and being creative.

I may be an artist or an inventor someday.

 

When you see me sitting in a chair

"Reading" to an imaginary audience,

Please don't laugh and think I'm "just playing.'

For you see, I'm learning as I play.

I may be a teacher someday.

 

When you see me combing the bushes for bugs,

Or packing my pockets with choice things I find,

Don't pass it off as "just play.'

For you see, I'm learning as I play.

I may be a scientist someday.

 

When you see me engrossed in a puzzle

Or some "plaything' at my school,

Please don't feel the time is wasted in 'play.'

For you see, I'm learning as I play.

I'm learning to solve problems and concentrate.

I may be in business someday.

 

When you see me cooking or tasting foods,

Please don't think that because I enjoy it,

It is 'just play.'

I'm learning to follow direction and see differences.

I may be a cook someday.

 

When you see me learning to skip, hop,

Run and move my body,

Please don't say I'm "just playing."

For you see, I'm learning as I play.

I'm learning how my body works.

I may be a doctor, nurse or athlete someday.

 

When you ask me what I've done at school today,

And I say, "I just played',

Please don't misunderstand me.

For you see, I'm learning as I play.

I'm learning to enjoy and be successful in my work.

I'm preparing for tomorrow.

Today, I am a child and my work is play.

 

-  Anita Wadley

Who stole the cookies?

Today our read aloud was titled Who Stole the Cookie From the Cookie Jar?  This book was a great lead into making predictions.  Some children looked at the cover picture and used the clues to predict that the sister did it.  Some children said the dog did it.  Besides lending itself to prediction this story, was also a counting book that subtracted one from each page, and it was a rhyming book.  On the second to last page the author wrote, "I was hiding in this shoe, when I noticed there were two, stealing cookies is very bad!  So it must have been ......"  At this point the children shouted out DAD, because bad rhymes with dad.  Sure enough it was dad who stole the cookies in the end.

Today during one of our centers the children were given a strip of letters from either their first or last names.  They then had to sort them from letters that are in their names and letters that are not it their names.  

At another center the children were given a piece of paper.  They looked through a tray of letters to find the ones that are in their last name.  They then glued the letters in order on their papers. 

Play time fun!!

N is for Name

This week the children will be working hard on identifying and writing their last names.  When you work on writing at home please make sure your child is using their pincher fingers to grasp the pencil and that they are starting at the top when they write their letters.  At one center today the children worked on writing their last name.  The children looked at their name.  Traced their name. Wrote their name, and then stamped their name.


At another center the children used dotters to dot the letters in their last name.  If you would like to have your child practice name writing at home I have included a link that you can use to make handwriting practice pages http://tools.atozteacherstuff.com/printable-handwriting-practice-worksheet-maker/ or may may try http://handwritingpractice.net/handwriting/index.html