HAPPY 100th DAY OF SCHOOL!

This week we had a lot of fun celebrating both Valentine's Day and the 100th day of school!

On Monday the children were asked to decorate a bag that they would receive Valentine’s in.  They used stickers and markers to make their own bag.  On Tuesday, the children were very excited to celebrate the holiday.  Many of them came in wearing red or pink and were eager to show it off.  We had some fun activities around the class for them to do.  They had a couple have-to jobs that day that they all did great on.  At the circle table the children were given a bag of colored candy hearts and a graph.  They had to color in how many of each color heart they got.  After they counted each individual color they then were asked to count how many they had all together.   This activity helped reinforce many skills such as sorting, counting, and graphing.  Another have-to job was to write a card.  They each got a heart shaped card and were able to choose what they wanted to write in it.  These are the cards that you all received with your carnations.

Since the beginning of the year we have been counting how many days we have been at school at meeting with popsicle sticks.  Every time we got to ten we would make it a bundle by taping the popsicle sticks together.  This was allowing the children to learn to also count by ten.  By the time we got to 90 the children were extremely eager and counting down the days until the 100th day of school.  By the time we got to 100, the children were able to count to 100 all by themselves either by tens or ones.  On Wednesday we decided to celebrate the 100th day of school. The children started off the day by wanting crowns that had the number 100 on them.  They decorated them and wore them around all day.  We also had two have-to jobs that day that you may have seen hanging around the class.  The first one was that the children were asked to draw a picture of themselves now and in 100 years.  Many of them drew the same picture but made themselves HUGE 100 years later.  The other activity was to write what they would buy if they had 100 dollars.  The answers were very cute!  At the math table we put out pasta for the children to count.  They used the 100 grid to match up each number with each piece of pasta until they got up to 100.  We also had a sheets with 100 stars on them which some of them used to match the pasta with as well.  Other children were writing numbers 1-100.  They were eager to go to all the different activities and it was cute to see how truly excited they were.

 

Some other things going on in the class this week:

*The doctors office
*Playing in the sand table
*Doing simple math on the white boards
*Reading in the library
*Painting hearts at the easels
*Using the tweezers and bears
*Using letter and number stamps

Calling ALL Doctors!!

The children had a very busy week playing hard and working hard.  We felt that it was very important for us to assess the children acedemically to understand where they each stand.  As I am sure you recognize all your children have come such a long way since the fall.  The big have-to job of the week was that all the children had to fill in the missing letters on an A-Z alphabet chart and the missing numbers on a number chart from 1-20.  They all did a very nice job and it allowed us to see what we need to focus more on.  We put out the big and small curves and lines for the children on the rug.  We also have put out the Wikki Stix which the children have used to make numbers.  They have been doing a very nice job properly forming all the letters and numbers with those materials.

The letter of the week this week was D.  We read the book A Dozen Delicious Donuts and brainstormed all the different words that the children could think of that started with D.  They came up with quite a list of different words.  They also practiced the sound it makes and with their fingers in the rug at meeting, the correct way to form it.  At the end of the week each child had to practice writing the letter D multiple times.   They all did a nice job starting at the top, making one line down, lifting their hands up, and making a curve.

The doctor visit was a big success this week and prompted a change in the dramatic play area.  Dr. Rhee (Sydney’s mom) came in and talked to the children about the importance of going to the doctors and some of their roles.  She also let all the children use her stethoscope and listen to another child’s heart.  Their excitement lead us to change the dramatic play into a doctor’s office.  The scrubs and all the other materials we have gotten has made the area so much fun for all the children.  They have been taking turns being doctors and patients and treating each other.  We love looking over and seeing one of the children sitting in the chair reading a story in the pretend waiting room and hearing the doctor call out “next patient!”  They have been playing very well together.

MUSIC:
This week the children learned new songs such as Skip to my Lou, Baby Bumblebee, and She'll be Coming Around the Mountain.  They made up their own words to rhythms and formed letters with their bodies while the other children counted to 8 using do, re, mi...

Other Jobs Around the Class...

* Lincoln Logs (look what they have built now!)
* Reading stories on the rug
* Practicing their last name (saying and writing it)
* Coloring in a rainbow with dot dot markers
* Pin the horn on the dinosaur
* Math counters and numbers

Walk Like an Egyptian

This week we transformed the classroom into Ancient Egypt.  We got a bunch of books on Ancient Egypt, pyramids, and mummies.  The children enjoyed playing Jack and Annie (the two characters in The Magic Treehouse Series) over in the pyramid at the dramatic play area.  They pretend that they are solving mysteries while the other children play the other characters in the story such as the ghost queen and the black cat.  The children learned about the Nile River and the how mummies are made.  They also learned that Ancient Egyptians wrote using Hieroglyphics.  They each got a chance to write their names in hieroglyphics using the different symbols.  They did a nice job replicating the picture they saw in front of them to the sentence strips.  

This week we talked about the letter J.  Last week the letter of the week was G.  When we were reviewing the sound the letter G made, the children often said the J sound.  In order for them to practice more with both sounds and be able to differentiate between the two they each got a picture at meeting with something that started either with a G or a J.  On the big poster board with the large letters, they needed to figure out where their picture went and taped it on.  After meeting we left out magazines on the rug that the children were able to go through and find their own words that start with either J or G and place them on the right poster.  They did a nice job independently finding their own pictures, cutting them out, and pasting them.

On Thursday we celebrated Groundhogs Day in our class.  At meeting time we discussed what Groundhogs Day was and the meaning of it.  We took a prediction toll to see who thought the groundhog saw his shadow and who didn’t.  Two people predicted that he did not see his shadow, while the rest of the class guessed that he did.  When we were done discussing it at meeting the children did a fun craft.  They made construction paper groundhogs coming out of the grass (cups).  They really enjoyed making them and were showing them off to all their friends. 

Here are some other things that went on this week in our class:

*Dot dot art

*Making maps to buried treasures

*Making computers by writing numbers and letters

*Playing dinosaurs in the block area

*Weekend Report

*Making a list of commonly used words

Here are videos of Peter and Ethan performing their recital piece to the whole and half notes.