Building Houses with the Letter Hh

 Learning about the Letter H, meant we got to build a house! We used two shapes: square and triangle to build our house of sticks!

Apples, Apples, Up on top!

Monday, we worked with Ms. Ginger. We had our first introduction into our next theme: Apples! Everyone worked so hard with balancing apples on our head. Once we got really good at this, the challenge was to jump!

Pete the Cat

Last week (sorry for the missing pictures) we were introduced to Pete the Cat! Last week was all about Pete's shoes (I hope you enjoyed the story that came home. We are working on learning everyone's name in the classroom, writing our names, emergent/predictable reading/text). Along with Pete the Cat, we continued to explore another letter; the letter Ff. We practiced cutting shapes (circle and triangle) to add our "fish" into our "fishbowl," and we created another letter for our scrap books; Finger prints on the F.

This week we will:
-Read Pete the Cat: My Four Groovy Buttons
-create button names to go along with book
-learn about the Letter H: writing in our letter books, creating a house using the shapes triangle and square
-academic choice will focus on shapes (we are in our final week of colors and shapes with academic choice)
-roll and build (first intro into adding and subtracting-roll the die, add that number of buttons onto the shirt until they are out of buttons in their bag (up to 10), for more advanced, we will do roll and take away
-letter H hand prints for ABC scrap book
-ABC hand print book (we will be completing: bird, fish, and heart with our hands)
-learning another new strategy for calming down and taking a break at school (we have already learned and practiced taking deep breaths, and wall pushes). This week will be squeezing the octopus

Octopus, Octopus

This was such a great fine motor activity. The children learned about different body parts on the Octopus (tentacles, and the suction cups on those tentacles), and had to glue the Cheerios onto the legs (squeezing glue, using pinchers to manipulate the Cheerios!)

Handwriting

Along with journal writing, I have also implemented a time for learning to write each letter, and "hunting" for them for improved letter recognition.
Each child has their own book, with all 26 letters. We will practice our letter of the week: writing and using dot paint to go for a "letter hunt" to find the upper and lower case letter in the box of varying print provided.
For some children, this is a great way to practice how to form the letters, practice writing them without a dotted model, and thinking of words that make that sound/start with that letter. For others I am not concerned with their writing ability; it is a matter of following the directions, tracing the letter and listening to the prompts of how to form the letter, as well as recognition of the upper and lower case form.

Writing Center

One of the last centers to open up in the classroom, was the writing center. I was so excited to be able to make connections to our stories we are already read (Brown Bear, Chicka, Chicka Boom, Boom), show them the "writing" process, and all the resources they have available.

Some of the resources they have to use include:

-ABC (upper and lower case) writing practice

-numeral writing practice

-blank books (some with lines for words, some without)

-sheets of paper

-construction paper

-markers

-crayons

-word wall (all names included on the word wall)

-how to draw books

-color words, name cards, story characters

There is also an Octopus Books board. Second group time is where children have the opportunity to share they stories they create during the school day. We talked about the safety of using push pins and how the "needle" only touches the paper to hold the book. Writing your name on the book so that everyone knows who the author is, and be ready to share with the whole class the creation!

Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom

This is one of my favorite books, and weeks that happens in preschool. This week will be Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom!
This book is what starts our exploration into the letters; starting this week and going until April, we will learn a new letter each week. That will involve: recognizing the letter, the sound it makes, sorting by the sound, writing the letter, smart board activities, art activity to create our ABC scrap book, Alpha tales stories, and some type of small group activity centered around that letter. This week is the letter B. For example: we will read the alpha tales story of "Bubble Bear," but out the 3 parts of the bear (fine motor cutting rectangles), put him back in order (body awareness activity) on Brown or Black paper, and color.
This week we will:
-practice the letter B (Bubble bear book, fixing the bear, blue/black/button B, smart board activity, writing the letter B
-Chicka, Chicka, chart with our names
-sorting our friends names by letter and adding them to the coconut tree (i.e. C is for Courtney)
-create a class book of chicka, chicka, boom, boom names
-starting to work on art to remember projects
-academic choice topic is shapes

-learning coping strategies and utilizing the take a break area
-subitizing with dot plates (learning how to recognize that 3 dots, means 3-and fast!)

Academic choice: colors

Academic choice is one of my most favorite times of the day. It is such a great way to work on needed skills in a small group setting cooperatively and through play!
Last week, colors was the topic. Some of the activities are very basic, like looking at books about colors, or matching colored pictures to the correct colored mat.
Others had opportunities to make the activity harder like colored sticks and legos. Both of those activities allowed for the children to work on patterns, vs. just matching and building what they saw on the card.

color mats

pattern colored legos

colored sticks/patterns

color books