Shells

Today our daily message was, "We will look for shells."  We talked about how s and h make the shh sound when they are together.  During an independent center the children were placed with a partner.   Each group of children were given a tub of sand with shells hidden in it. The children dug for a shell, identified the letter on it, and sorted it onto a capital letter grid.  Some children sorted the shells by finding the picture on the grid that started with the letter on the shell they chose.  The children seemed to enjoy this center.  One child even said, "I am having a really good day!"  It's amazing what interactive learning can inspire.

At my center the children made the letter "q" page for their alphabet book.  At another center the children listened to the story Sea Stars.  They then cut one out, painted it with glue, and sprinkled sand on top of it.

Shark Tales

The children loved the stories that we read about sharks.  The first was titled The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark.  We made a text-to-text connection when we compared this story to the story The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.  Instead of huffing and puffing the houses down, like the wolf, the shark munched and crunched the houses down.  In both stories the characters used three different types of materials to construct their houses.  At the end of both stories the characters were safe from the wolf and shark.


For centers the children read the paper book titled Watch Out Fish.  On each page the children tracked the words from left to right with their pointer finger.  They then listened for the number in each sentence.  Lastly, they drew the corresponding number of fish on the page for the illustration.  At closing circle the children reread their story to a friend.  Rereading books helps with memorizing words and fluency.

The children also played an ocean in a bag math game.  I made oceans in a bag that included ocean animals with numbers on them.  The children worked with a partner to find the ocean animals and identify the number on it.  They then recorded the number on a recording sheet.  Here are the directions on how to make an ocean in a bag.

 Squeezed blue hair gel into a Ziploc baggie. You might be able to find a bottle at dollar stores. Next,  added water animal foam stickers, beads, and glitter.  Tape the top of the bag shut and then have fun exploring.

Jellyfish

Today our ocean animal of choice was the jellyfish.  We learned that a jellyfish is an invertebrate.  Jellyfish have dangerous stingers.  Some fish swim alongside jellyfish as a way to protect themselves from predators.  At one center the children made a jellyfish of their own.

At the second center the children made a puppet of their favorite animal from the song "Slippery Fish."  We used the puppets to act out the song, as well as make a graph of our favorite ocean animal.  At the third center the children used fish to measure the length of various ocean animals.

Seahorses

Today we learned about seahorses.  Seahorses have gills, so they are categorized as fish.  One of our read alouds today was titled Mister Seahorse.  When Mrs. Seahorse lays her eggs, she does it in Mr. Seahorse's pouch! She knows he will take good care of them. While he swims waiting for the eggs to hatch, he meets other underwater fathers caring for their babies.  Good thing Mr. Seahorse has a pouch like a kangaroo to keep the eggs safe.

During centers today the children cut out a seahorse and used doters and their creativity to decorate it.  At my center the children played Seahorse Roll a Letter.  Groups of children were given a die with letters on it.  They rolled the die and stamped over the capital and lowercase letter that they landed on.  Some children rolled words from the -op word family.  At the third center the children made an ocean counting book.

O is for Ocean and Octopus

Today we started our new theme "Ocean."  During this unit we will be reading many books from a Pebble Books Series.  This series of nonfiction books are just right for our reading level.  They are short, but give us a variety of facts for each ocean animal.  They do have this series of books at the Kiel Public Library if your child is interested in animals.


Today during centers the children made an octopus of thier own.  They had to do some very tricky cutting to make their octopus.  For the suckers on each of the eight tentacles the children patterned fruit loops.  Some patterns were simple like turn taking patterns, while others were more complex like ABC patterns: red, yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue.

Today the children also learned a new song titled "Slippery Fish."  This song is always a favorite.  I have included a YouTube video for your enjoyment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_k45_iyVG0

Queen of Hearts

This month our nursery rhyme is "The Queen of Hearts."  
The Queen of Hearts, 
She made some tarts 
All on a summer’s day. 
The Knave of Hearts, 
He stole the tarts 
And took them clean away. 

To begin the day today we made tarts (cupcakes).  When we came back to the classroom after washing our hands for snack they were gone, and in their place was a letter.  The letter was from the knave stating that he stole our tarts and in order to get them back we needed to go on a scavenger hunt around the school.  Each child was given a map that had hearts programed with letters on them.  In the hallways of the school we found pink hearts hanging up.  Each heart contained three pictures.  We listened to the beginning sound of the pictures and determined what letter they began with.  We then colored the corresponding heart in on our map.  The last heart for the scavenger hunt was on our classroom door.  When we walked into the room it was transformed into a Valentine oasis.  The tables had tablecloths on them, there were Valentine plates and napkins, cups, and our TARTS!!!  The children had lots of fun during this experience.

Valentine's Week

This week our theme is Valentine's.  I have found some great websites with printables that you may want to use this week make it Valentine's Week at your house too.  The following site has a variety of mazes that your child might want to try http://www.busybeekidsprintables.com/Preschool-and-Kindergarten-Valentine-Math-Worksheets.html.  The next site has printable coloring pages with Disney characters that would make great pictures to give to relatives for Valentine's Day.http://disney.go.com/DisneyVideos/preschool/valentine/funngames.html The last web site has Valentine's day puzzles that you can put together.  You can change the amount of pieces in the puzzles to increase difficulty. http://www.coolmath-games.com/holiday-valentines-day/puzzles/01-valentines-day-puzzle-15.html

Get the Wiggles Out

With the cold weather the last to days more wiggles have entered our classroom.  To get them out we learned "The Cool Bear Hunt" song.  During this bear hunt the children go thorough a candy factory, swim across a peanut butter river, and walk through a jello swamp.  I have attached a You Tube link for a different version of the bear hunt that you may want your child to do at home to get the wiggles out.http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you+tube+the+bear+hunt&view=detail&mid=453D25F21A6A412A45AA453D25F21A6A412A45AA&first=0  
Another favorite of ours is the "Go Bananas" song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ucN0ss2NTQ
I have also attached the You Tube video that goes along with the song Who Let The letters Out?  This song is another favorite in our classroom. http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you+tube+who+let+the+letters+out&view=detail&mid=8380BD712DB5B1F3E3288380BD712DB5B1F3E328&first=0&qpvt=you+tube+who+let+the+letters+out
The last link is for the song "The Number Rock."  This song is sure to get the wiggles out! http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you+tube+the+number+rock+greg+and+steve&view=detail&mid=9DF021AB219D0DAD09ED9DF021AB219D0DAD09ED&first=0

Teeth

The last two days the  children have been learning how to keep their teeth healthy.  On Monday they cut out a yellow tooth.  They then used a toothbrush and white paint to brush it and make it clean.  This week the children also colored a toothbrush like the one they use at home.    At another center the children were given a tooth(glob of play doh) that had cavities in it(black beans).  They used tweezers to get the cavities out of the tooth.  They then placed the cavities on a recording sheet that was labeled with numbers.  We also played a tooth game that worked on one-to-one correspondence using marshmallows.

Today the morning class also had a special visit from Liam's mom Dr. Murphy who is a dentist.  She taught us about foods that are healthy for our teeth, as well as how to brush.