Balloon Faces

Click to View Larger

This week is Parent-Teacher Conferences. Let me know or email me if you didn't receive information on signing up. With all the short weeks, our schedule with Ms. Melissa has been switched around. Next week she will be here on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Balloon Faces

For our large group activity on Monday, we are doing ballon faces. Our main Key Developmental Indicator (curriculum) is Emotions. This last week we got out the balloons during work time (we had been explaining how static worked because of a toy that works using static) and we needed a better example. We spent the entire rest of the time flying them across the room, keeping them up in the air and sticking them to ourselves. They loved it. For large group, we will review what the different basic emotions are with big picture cards (happy, sad, angry, surprised, embarrassed, shy) and then the students get to decide which face they want on their balloon. When everyone has a balloon with a face (and their name) then we will throw them in the parachute. If one fall's out, flies up etc... we can say, "oh no, we lost the happy balloon". As a extender, if needed we will also do more with balloon tossing and static clinging. 

Napping and Peanut Butter

(Week of February 24-27)

Napping, peanut butter, a dog and mustard. What do all these have in common? This next week they will all part of our Mathematics curriculum! We will be using the story of The Napping House (by Audrey Wood) and an over-sized sandwich to facilitate understanding of position and sequencing concepts.

The Napping House

We will be reading the story while emphasizing that Granny is on the bed, and then the boy is on Granny... till the flea is off, the mouse is off, the cat is off... and so forth. We have a large poster with each of the characters to put on and off while we read about it. Afterwards, we get to act it out. Squishing and giggling might be involved.

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Have you heard the song? You can find multiple versions of it on youtube. This is the one we chose to open our Large Group with. We have an over-sized sandwich with lots of toppings. After we sing the song, they can direct me as I make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. Then, students will get to pick what different kinds of toppings (some shown below) to add and take away, emphasizing "on", "off", "next to", "first", "next", "last" etc. It will be fun to see what different types of sandwiches we can make as a class.

Here are our lesson plan activities for the week:

Click to View Entire Image

Pete the Cat, I love My White Shoes

Happy Valentine's! The last two days were a blast in our class! Thank you for sending Valentines with your children. They had so much fun, especially with handing them out to each other.

This next week, because it is a short week, Melissa will be running Large Group on Tuesday and Wednesday. With her we will be doing Feather Dancing. On Thursday, for Large Group, it's Pete the Cat again for our Tuesday/Thursday students (although they all loved it so it will be a good review for the students that come Monday as well). Click Here for the blog post explaining our Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes Large Group.

Here are our Activities for next week:

Click to View

Hearts and Cookies and Valentines, Oh My!

Click to View Larger

Large Group Activities

Valentine Parties: This week is our Valentine Party. We will be doing it on Wednesday and Thursday to make sure all of our student's get to do it. I have found that the best way to help a child continue learning and not to create chaos is to keep your routine. Our class routine will stay the same, we will just change activities to meet them:

Small Group: Valentine Bag Decorating

Snack: Decorating Heart-Shaped Cookies (We have a treat for student's with dietary needs)

Large Group: We will be focusing on each student's name and helping to encourage the concept of giving. One student will come up with his/her valentines that they brought (or extra's on hand), we will have them 'read' the student's names and then have them put it in the bag of that student that will be sitting with it.

Motor and Movement: A combination of songs that teach one-step directions through music (like the hokey-pokey) and also some imitating of patterns of movement (e.g. clap-clap, stomp-stomp, hands up and turn-around).

Recommended Favorite Children's Books

Here is a list of my favorites and highest recommended books for our students. One day when I have more time, I will write a short synopsis and some activities to go with it, however, that being said, I still wanted to post them for you. Almost all of them we have read or will read in our classroom this year. The more you read to your child, the better it prepares them for kindergarten including attending, comprehension of activities and preparing for reading themselves. Enjoy!

The Way I Feel Series