The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Written and Illustrated by Eric Carle,

Putnam, 1969

The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been described as, "One of the greatest childhood classics of our time".* We read it as a class and did many large and small group activities and the student's loved it. This may be a good one to do at the of beginning of summer, since most of the students already are familiar with it and enjoy it immensely.

Read the book together, even if it's just summarizing for our developmentally younger students. Many concepts are great for emphasizing including counting, sequencing, labeling foods, labeling colors and allowing students to 'read' and re-tell it back in their own way.

Activity: There are many activities you can do with this book. Feel free to do some we did this last year as a class (click here, here and here), looking at the small group lesson plans.

Here is another one you can do. Collect the grocery advertisements that come in the mail. Cut out the different foods. You can take an pringles can or another similar cylinder, decorate it like a caterpillar and feed the food to it, counting and telling the 'story' as you go. 

Or

Make a giant caterpillar out of paper plates. Glue the foods on to each plate. Tell the story as you lay out each plate for each thing the caterpillar ate and watch it grow.

*Kate Taylor (22 October 2004). Eat Your Heart Out. The Guardian

Last Week of School!

It's the last week of school. It's amazing how fast this last month has gone. We're finally winding down and getting ready for the summer. It's a bitter-sweet time. It's fun to see how much each of our students have grown and progressed. We're excited for our Kindergarteners but they will be greatly missed! It's fun to look forward to spending summer hiking, swimming, going biking, having picnics and spending more time together with our families, however, it will be sad not being able to spend this time with our class. There are many things to discover and learn during the summer. I will try and keep the blog up during the summer. I'll be posting our summer reading activities and perhaps others ideas that I may stumble across. Thank you for all your support this year. Our students have amazing parents and they are wonderful because of you. Have a great summer and we'll see you again in August!

~ Ms. Ange

Next week's schedule: It's our school's "movie and moving days" so we will be getting the classroom packed up and ready so they can get it ready for us next fall. (This last week we did our end of year class party and celebration for our Kindergarteners.) We will be in Ms. Jeana's class on Monday while we pack up ours and then they'll join us on Tuesday. We'll make sure to get some gross-motor activities in as well and keep our opening schedule the same.

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Link to Summer Reading Program Info: (Click Here)

"Greeting Time Board"

Hide and Go Seek and London Bridges

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Hide and Go Seek- The Game:

We practice saying the 'Hide and Seek' chant as a class:

Lets All Play Hide and Seek

Cover Your Eyes, Don’t You Peek!

Then We’ll Count From 1 to 10

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Ready or Not, Here I Come! 

Then we choose a seeker and all the other student's hide while they say the chant including counting to 10 and saying, "Ready or not, here I come!".

The student then looks for the other students and are encouraged to use student's names as they find them. As they are found the other students come back to the rug and we talk about where they hid emphasizing prepositions including "under", "around", "in" and "behind". We also used distant words like, "closer," "nearer" and "over there". Once everyone is back, we review it once again and then start with a different seeker. We did this last week and the students loved it.

London Bridges

See Miss Melissa's Blog (Click Here).

Milk Star Shooters

We made a video of this small group activity (Click Here).

Hide and Seek and Bubbles

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Hide and Go Seek- The Game:

We practice saying the 'Hide and Seek' chant as a class:

Lets All Play Hide and Seek

Cover Your Eyes, Don’t You Peek!

Then We’ll Count From 1 to 10

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Ready or Not, Here I Come! 

Then we choose a seeker and all the other student's hide while they say the chant including counting to 10 and saying, "Ready or not, here I come!".

The student then looks for the other students and are encouraged to use student's names as they find them. As they are found the other students come back to the rug and we talk about where they hid emphasizing prepositions including "under", "around", "in" and "behind". We also used distant words like, "closer," "nearer" and "over there". Once everyone is back, we review it once again and then start with a different seeker. 

Giant Bubble Recipe (Link):

Ingredients:

6 cups water

1 cup light corn syrup

2 cups Joy dishwashing soap (If using an ultra concentrated dishwashing liquid, use only 1 1/3 cups)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl (at least 3 quarts) stir water and corn syrup until combined.

2. Add dishwashing liquid and stir very gently until well mixed. (Try not to make any bubbles.)

3. Dip (don't stir) bubble wands into bubble liquid and blow bubbles.

We have big wire hangers make-shifted into wands.

Miss Shirley's Large Group

Miss Shirley ran our large groups last week. I wanted to share with you a little more of what she did.

We sang a song about blossoms (Popcorn Popping) and about trees and flowers (In the Leafy Tree Tops). Miss Shirley drew a picture and shared with us the cycle of a plant from seed to blossom. She then let everyone touch the roots of a flower she pulled out of a pot. We then smelt different plants and compared them from stinky ones to sweet ones like sweet alyssum. We felt the different types, talked about colors and sizes. We also counted petals. Some had too many to count and some just had one, like the petunia. Everyone got to pick a flower to keep. I think it was one of the student's favorite large groups this year.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub & Sidewalk Chalk

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Rub-A-Dub-Dub

Rub-a-dub-dub

Three Men in a Tub

And who do you think they be?

The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker,

All Traveling Out to Sea.

Boat and Paddles

Butcher, Baker and Candlestick Maker

If the weather is bad, instead of sidewalk chalk, we will stay in and do a large group with our song board (click here) and do sidewalk chalk next week instead of the song board with our Monday/Wednesday class.

Bee's Knees, A Willow Springs Update

If your little one has come home with dirty finger prints, it might be because we have dirt in our sensory table, it may be that we've been tracing letters with dry erase markers, or it just might be that we have been making fingerprint bugs. Our principal Mrs. Sharyle Karren, who has been teaching at Willow Springs for many years has announced her retirement. The good news is that our Vice Principal, Marianne Yule has been selected to take her position and she will do an amazing job. We couldn't let our principal go without a thank you to remember us by, especially after all the years she has spent working with us down in preschool. We (both of our classes) made this picture board frame for her:

It's our little busy bees that make this job so wonderful. 

We are so glad we have them!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

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'Planting Seeds' Chart  for Small Group

Ms. Shirley is running our large groups this week on Monday and Tuesday. Every year in the spring she brings different flowers to large group so the students can see, touch and smell them. She'll talk with about how each are different and some concepts including colors, difference between buds and blooming, flowers that grow in the ground and blossoms from a tree. Since her flowers are at the perfect time for picking and bringing in, we will have the same large group two days in a row instead of spreading it over a few weeks period. We're excited to see what Ms. Shirley has prepared.

'Picking Up Worms' Small Group

Preschool Summer Reading Program

“Reading to your child may be the single, most powerful contribution that you,

 as a parent, can make toward their success in school.”

-William Russell

Summer is on it’s way! I am putting together activities that you can do with your child throughout the summer to encourage skills to prepare them for the fall.  These skills include book knowledge concepts, phonological awareness, alphabetic knowledge, concepts in relation to math and science, vocabulary, language and continuing to increase attending skills. However, don’t worry. They will be naturally embedded into the book and the activities and fun! Most importantly, they will provide an opportunity for you to be with your child as they continue to learn and grow.

Throughout the summer I will post activities and a corresponding book

that you can find at the library or may already own. Many of these books you can also find on youtube. For some of you that may have trouble getting your child to sit still through an entire story, create a routine, for example, at night to settle down before bed, or even while they’re in the bathtub. That’s the way I get through a one at our house. 

Enjoy your summer!

Here’s a kick off one even though we still have a month of school left:

Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See and Activities

Brown Bear, Brown Bear -SRP

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Written by Bill Martin Jr., Illustrated by Eric Carle,

Henry Holt & Company 1983

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

I see a Red Bird looking at Me.

Red Bird, Red Bird, What do you see?

I see a Yellow Duck looking at Me.

Yellow Duck, Yellow Duck, do you see?

I see a Blue Horse looking at Me.

Blue Horse, Blue Horse, What do you see?

I see a Green Frog looking at Me.

Green Frog, Green Frog, What do you see?

I see a Purple Cat looking at Me.

Purple Cat, Purple Cat, What do you see?

I see a White Dog looking at Me.

White Dog, White Dog, What do you see?

I see a Black Sheep looking at Me.

Black Sheep, Black Sheep, What do you see?

I see a Goldfish looking at Me.

Goldfish, Goldfish, What do you see?

I see a Teacher looking at Me.

Teacher, Teacher, What do you see?

I see Children looking at Me.

Children, Children, What do you see?

We see a Brown Bear, a Red Bird, a Yellow Duck, a Blue Horse, a Green Frog, a Purple Cat, a White Dog, a Black Sheep, a Gold Fish and a Teacher looking at us, that’s what we see.

Developmental Focus: Colors and Animal Names, “Wh” questions, Predicting, Concepts of Print

Activities: 

Read the story, predict what is coming next. Once they get the pattern of text down on each page, have them "read" it or fill in the blanks.

Listen to the song (http://youtu.be/ek7j3huAApc) and sign color and/or animal names.

Write or tell your own story: For example, we have done: Snowman, snowman, what do you wear? I wear a black hat on my head, Snowman, snowman, what do you wear? I wear a purple scarf around my neck etc… You can do different animals, foods, characters etc.

Make popsicle (or tongue depressor) puppets with the animals on them to hold up when they each one is read in the story.

Here are more activity ideas: Click Here, however, remember that simplicity is better, especially when your child is younger and you also want to choose activities that allow your child to self-direct and discover as they go along.