HERE COMES SPRING!

This week we finished up the five senses with the children.  Some of the kids  finished putting their hands on their paper plate faces and then we moved on to sense of smell.  The children had to complete a sorting activity where they needed to cut out pictures and figure out which column they go in.  The two categories were things that smell good and things that smell bad.  They practiced cutting and used their knowledge of sorting to complete the have-to job on their own.  Next week we will add their noses and see if the children can identify each other by hiding their names and holding them up.  They all came out so great!

The kids were hard at work again this week with some new activities that we put out.  They really got into the floor puzzles and the NEW legos.  It was amazing how creative they got while building boats, houses, and patterns with them.  On the rug we put out a floor puzzle with a rainforest scene on it.  We thought that was appropriate since we are reading the Magic Tree House book Afternoon in the Amazon.  They worked very hard together to complete it and asked for a more challenging puzzle.  We then found a spaceship puzzle that was in three parts.  We helped them the first day we put it out and they were thrilled to complete it.  The next day they asked for it we left it up to them to work together and do it on their own. They worked hard and put it together all on their own.  They were so proud of themselves!

Every day at morning meeting we have a routine which we do everyday.  We felt since we have been doing it for the whole year it would be fun to let the children run a meeting.  Every day this week we have allowed one child to come up and lead the meeting.  It has been super cute and the rest of the children have responded very well to it.  This gives each child a leadership role and build their confidence in speaking in front of a group.  Each child will get a chance to do this as the year continues.

Spring is finally here!  This week we were able to change our season pointer from winter to spring.  This lead us into a discussion about spring and the things we like to do now that the weather is nice.  The Weekly Reader was also about spring and things that happen which we also read.  Each of the children got a Weekly Reader and we went over it together.  I allowed one child to come up and read it out loud with the group.  The children then had a have-to job where they had to draw a picture of their favorite activity in the spring is.  They used wet chalk which made the pictures look really bright and colorful.  Check them out on the have-to job board.

At the beginning of March we entered Green Decade's Enviro Art Contest.  We said that we would use wind energy to have fun and made several pictures of things we could do in the wind.  Each child received an invitation to the award ceremony on Thursday, April 5 at 6:30 pm.

Other things happening...

* Drawing on the whiteboards
* Playing on the hill
* Finding beginning and ending sounds
* Telescope/binocular making
* Letter stamps

Two More Senses and St. Patrick's Day!

This week we continued learning about the five senses.  We talked about the sense of sight and hearing last week and this week we moved onto the sense of taste and touch.  On Tuesday the children learned about how taste works and the different types of flavor a food can have.  We listed foods that were sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.  We also had a taste test with the children and graphing the results.  The children were asked to taste all four different flavor groups.  They each had to taste a chip (salty), raisins (sweet), lemon (sour), and Unsweetened chocolate (bitter).  Before tasting these foods they had to predict which one they would like better.  After tasting the four foods they then graphed which one they actually liked the best.  Then we counted and compared the results.  You can check out the results on our sense bulletin board above the cubbies.  The unsweetened chocolate was definitely not a crowd pleaser!  The children also added lips to their paper plate faces.






















On Thursday we started the sense of touch.  We discussed how touch works and different ways different things feel.  During meeting each of the children got a piece of fabric from the fabric box.  All the pieces feel different.  The children had to use description words to tell what their piece of fabric felt like and then walked it around to let the other children feel it.  Some words they came up with were smooth, fuzzy, rough, and soft.  We also made a list of other things we touch on a daily basis that feel like those four textures.  The children then traced their hands, cut them out, and added them on their paper plate faces.  Take a look!

We celebrated St. Patricks day at school on Friday.  We read a book about who Patrick was and why we celebrate this day.  The children were eager to start on the art activities.  There were leprechaun and shamrock coloring sheets at the art table.  Some of them did those while other children chose to make leprechaun hats out of construction paper and tape.  We also made four leaf clovers and shamrocks using a green pepper and paint.  The children used the green pepper which was cut in half as a stencil.  They dipped it into the paint and stamped it on their paper.  They then made a stem using brown paint.  They finished off the art project by adding yellow sand to them.  They came out great! Make sure to take a look.  For snack the children enjoyed green cupcakes!

We had a special visitor come in on Thursday that the children absolutely loved!  Big Joe brought in puppets and told some very funny stories.  The children seemed to really be enjoying themselves and were laughing most of the time.  He told both stories that the children recognized and could get involved in and stories he made up that the children sat quietly and listened to.  He had a bunch of different animal puppets to help tell those stories.

Other things happening around the class...
* Making R's with play dough
* Making things with the HWT materials
* The Weekend Report
* Reading together
* Art at the easels

Learning the Five Senses!

The children absolutely loved the doctor area in the dramatic play area. Following their interest we decided to do a unit on the human body.  We started this week with the five senses.   We began the five senses with the sense of sight. We read a book on the eye and how it works.  The book taught them the parts of the eye, such as the iris and the pupil.  We then had the children each come up and graph what color their eyes were.  We gave them mirrors so they could take a look and figure it out for themselves.  In the book it talked about how the pupil gets bigger and smaller as it gets darker and brighter.  We had each of the children face one another and stare into each others eye.  We then turned the light off and on in order for them to see the pupil changing sizes.  They absolutely loved that and asked us to do again about four times!  For their have-to jobs the children were asked to draw pictures of things they see on a daily basis.  We hung those up on the bulletin board above the cubbies.  The other have-to job was making their face with a paper plate.  They first had to look in the mirror to figure out their skin tone.  They then added their proper hair color and eyes.  Most of you have probably seen them hanging in the class.

The next sense we talked about was the sense of hearing.  They learned about how the ear works and we discussed the different day to day noises we hear.  Again they were asked to go to the art table to draw pictures of things that make noises we hear.  Many of the children drew pictures of animals such as cats, horses, and cows.  We also did a fun activity at the circle table.  They each got a piece of paper with pictures on it.  We would play familiar sound for them and they would have to match the pictures with the sounds.  They really enjoyed that activity.  They also added the ears to their paper plate face.  As we continue learning about the senses, they will continue adding the appropriate body parts.

The children have been wanting more and more academics lately, which has been really exciting.  They come into the classroom asking to do math or to read!  At the beginning of the year we made math packets for each of the children and only a couple kids were interested.   Rather then forcing them we placed them on the shelf and waited for the children to ask for them.  This week was the week!  We took them back out and the children were extremely eager to go through them.  Some pages have patterns that need to be completed, other pages have counting the shapes, and the other pages are basic addition and subtraction.  Every child was required to come over and do at least one page which best fit their ability.  Some of the children wanted to do the whole packet which we of course allowed.  They have become really good at looking at the problem, recognizing the sign, and either taking away or adding more counters.  It really is amazing to see how far they have come! (proud teacher moment :))











Other things happening around the class

*HWT (Handwriting Without Tears)
*"B" word puppets (Bats, Bunny, Bear, Butterfly)
*Castle Building
*Dramatic Play
*New Puzzles
*Making Binoculars

FYI: 
*April 29th is Newton Service Day.  We are looking for volunteers to help us to paint, build shelves, clean up room, etc...  If you are interested please let me know. 

*The brochure for the Summer Adventure Program is ready and available.  They will be going home with your children next week.  Each week is themed and you may sign up for as many weeks as you like.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact Deb at teachdebperry@gmail.com.

And the Reading Begins...

The children seemed very excited to be back at school after a week off.  They all came in on Monday excited to share what they had done over the break.  They also came in excited to begin their day and play with one another around the classroom.

In the last couple weeks we have noticed that the interest in working on academics has grown.  The children are getting very confident in their beginning sounds and are eager to move forward with that.  In following their need for more of a challenge we have begun putting out different phonics activities that match all the children's different levels.  Some children have come over to work on finding beginning, middle, and ending sounds while other children have started looking at the sound and letter books in small groups.  We have also been using the BOB books as well.  These books have a lot of commonly used words and repetition to help the children recognize sight words.  Many of the children are exhibiting beginning reader signs whether it be knowing sounds or looking at the pictures to decode the words.  As the year goes on we will continue to be working on this.

This week we worked on the letter P.  We began the week by talking about what sound the letter makes and the different words that start with it.  Then each of the children got a big line and a small curve from the HWT sticks and practiced forming it on the rug.  They all did a very nice job and used their fingers to trace the wooden letter the proper way.  We read the book Popping Pointy Patches by Elayne Reiss-Weimann and Rita Friedman so that the children could hear other P words.  After reading each page the children were asked to tell us what words they heard that started with P.  For a have-to job they practiced making the P a bunch of times and drew something that started with a P.

This week our weekly reader was about wind and what wind is.  We thought this was a very appropriate topic because the children have been interested in making kites at the art table.  Since we talked about it we decided to enter the EnviroArt Contest that is being held at the Green Decade office across the hall.  The question was "If I were President I would...to make America greener."  We brainstormed and figured since we talked about wind earlier in the week we would do something related to that.  Our answer was that we would use wind energy to have fun!  The children thought about all the different things that they can do outside with the wind.  They then made all of those things using paper.  Some of the things they came up with were flying kites, spinning pinwheels, sailing in boats, chasing leaves, and watching flags move.  They were very excited about it and are even more excited to enter the contest!











MUSIC:
This week Ms. Sachiko and Ms. Amy performed their concert pieces for the children.  Below is a sneak peek of the video.  It was truly amazing to watch and the children really enjoyed it.




Other things happening around the classroom...

*Mixing primary colors at the water table
*Playing doctor in the dramatic play
*Chutes and ladders
*Doggy, doggy where's your bone? (child run)
*HWT (Handwriting Without Tears) sticks
*Wikki Stix