Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, March 23, 2012

Willow Room: MWF class

We read "If you give a pig a pancake" by Laura Numeroff

We asked the children if they could think of :P" words- we talked abotu the sound the letter P makes.

WE did an oil pastel drawing.  Then we painted over the picture with watercolors.

We sang Pass the bean bag, bear hunt, and we sang all of our nursery rhymes we have learned.

We looked at objects that start with the letter P.

Maple Room:

We read Little Cloud" by Eric Carle and talked more about his style of illustrating books.

We did a collage inspired by Eric Carle using paper we made on Wednesday.  (see other two blog posting about Eric Carle for more details.

At the easel we used textured brushes on dark blue paper to look like clouds.

We did The March song, List of dances, Herman the worm, the freeze dance and Sticky bubble gum for music today.

We did letter "U" activities on ry erase boards.  We placed a letter sound game.

We also read Does a Kangaroo have a Mother too? by Eric Carle

Oak Room:

We read "The story of the Red Rubber Ball" by Constance Levy and "should I share my ice cream? another Elephant and Piggie book

We did an art process using watercolors and then sprinkling salt over the picture.  It reacts with the paint in an unusual way. 

We did some board games, we took the children in the hall and let them played a game with a ball.  We are finishing our ball unit today.  The children have had fun learning abotu balls.  

We did a beginning letter sounds game- match letter to picture.

We did number puzzles.

For music we did "Finger boppin", and "Sammy"

What starts with the letter Y?

More Eric Carle fun in the Maple Room

We added watercolors to the collages we made on Monday.

We showed more of Eric Carle's art style and made out own stars from collage

Adding watercolors to our collages

We followed the style of Eric Carle and did an outline of a star, the children filled it in with snips of the painted paper they created on Wednesday. 

The did a great job with this project.

The children snipped the painted paper into small pieces to place them where they wanted.

Each child's picture became a unique creation.

The children really enjoyed learning about the artistic style of Eric Carle.  We showed them and read to them many of the books he has done and did several art projects that continued over a few days.  I love how they created the paper, then used it later to make a different picture. 

Trinity Preschool Activities for Thursday, March 22, 2012

Willow Rom- T/TH class

We read "One fish two fish, red fish, blue fish", by Dr. Seuss

Our rhyme is Jack and Jill went up the hill and we asked the children if they ever climbed a hill?

We painted a pail shape by putting it in a covered cake pan with prickle balls dipped in paint and we shook the pan to get the paint all over the paper.

We sang "I like my hat" (with paper plate hats), "Finger Bopping" and "Dog in school"

We did scissor cutting int he sensory table we cut scraps of paper.

We are enjoying out pet doctor office.

Maple Room:

We read another Eric Carle book "Papa, Please get the moon for me" we talked about Eric Carle's style of illustrations and we talked about the phases of the moon too.

We did watercolors over the tissue paper collages they made on Monday.  We had paint and shapes at the easel.

We did The March song, Today is Monday, 2 little blackbirds, Tap your toe and follow me and little fish for music time.

We played an opposite game, each child got several pictures and . The we held up the opposites and the children had to figure out who had the picture of the opposite action.  They did great.

Oak Room:

We read Morgan plays soccer" by Anne Rockwell

We used balls with rubber bands wrapped around them, dipped in paint and rolled on paper for art.

We did a rhyming matching puzzle, The letter Y puzzle, and sequencing cards to put the pictures in the proper order.

We passed a ball around the circle to music and we went outside and played with balls on the parachute.

We did a sports graph- which balls use a bat, a stick, or feet?

Maple Room Learns about Eric Carle

A selection of materials the children were given to embellish their painting.

Each child was given a paper plate with fresh paint to begin their picture.

First the children painted using brushes or other tools to spread the paint on the paper.

The children used bubble wrap, potato mashers, scrapers, dab tools to make unique images.

They also had legos, and texture pads to use for painting.

The teacher wet the paper slightly and many children spread paint all over the paper before adding textures with other tools.

Each picture came out so unique.

Two of Eric Carle's books the teacher read first and showed the children how he made his illustrations.

 

We watched a video by Eric Carle about how he made the illustrations for  The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The children are learning about the wonderful illustrator and author, Eric Carle.  We have been reading some of his books all week and today we talked about  how he creates his illustrations.  The teacher showed the children tissue paper and tracing paper and explained how he paints right on tissue with paint and other materials to create the various looks.  We didn't paint on tissue paper as it is pretty thin and fragile, so we used regular paper, but followed some of his techniques. We are going to use the paper after it dries to create some pictures on Friday.  I will post those pictures too. We watched a video on you tube by Eric Carle about how he created his Very Hungry Caterpillar. We talked to the children about what an author does and what an illustrator does.     It was fun to see how excited they were and how much they understood.  You can find many great videos about Eric Carle books, art, etc on you tube.

Here is the link to the Eric Carle video we showed the kids.
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/video.jsp?pID=1640149541&bcpid=1640149541&bclid=1557820329&bctid=14259130001

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, March 21, 2012

We played outside and had a great time enjoying the climbers, bouncers, balls, trucks and our friends just running around.

Stay and Play:  

We decided it was so nice outside, we adjusted out food for the day and had a picnic!  We wanted to spend as much time outside as we could. We read "Whoosh went the wind!" by Sally Derby.  We painted using twirler brushes and stubby paint brushes.

We used scarves and sang Let's go fly a kite, and we sang the little fish.

We used the addition boards and practiced writing words on the magic boards. We also played a small group game with rhyming words, the children had picture boards and they had to reach into the box the find the words that rhyme with their boards.

Willow Room:: MWF class

Do you have the letter P in your name?  Our rhyme was Jack and Jill went up the hill.  We read One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish, by Dr. Seuss

We acted out the rhyme of Jack and Jill too.

We put a paper shaped like a pail in a covered pan and added prickle balls dipped in paint.  We shook it around to make design on our Jack and Jill pails.

We sang "I like my hat" using paper hats, "finger bopping", "dog in school."

We are enjoying our pet doctor office in the dramatic corner.

we are amazed at all the flowers outside!

Maple room: 

we are learning about the illustrator Eric Carle this week and I will do another BLOG highlighting our activities, but for now, we read "The Foolish Tortoise" by Richard Buckley and illustrated by Eric Carle.  We also read "From Head to Toe" by Eric Carle.  We watched a video narrated by Eric Carle about how he did The art for the Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

We painted with different brushes, stampers, texture pads, to create paper that looks like t he kind Eric Carle uses in his collages.

At the easel we had turtle shapes with paint and tissue paper.

We did letter U activities, and we played a letter sounds game.  We did the Brown bear (also illustrated by Eric Carle), March song, and underneath the broomstick ( 2 times)  for music today.

Oak Room: 

We read "Stop that ball!" by Mike McClintock.  we also read "I broke my trunk - another Elephant and piggie book.

We worked in our journal notebooks on letter Y pictures.

We played a guessing game, which ball is in the feely box- just by touching it.  We had inch blocks and sequencing cards.

We did dancing with a ball, on our head, between our feet, between our knees, etc.  We  also did on the count of five ( hands inside the circle)

We had the estimating jar, how many golf balls do you think there are?

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, March 20, 2012

We keep waiting for the "payback" for the great winter we  had, but the weather just keeps getting nicer and nicer.  We sure are enjoying the time outside!

Willow Room- T/TH class

We read "Pets at the Vet" by Alyse Sweeney

we asked hte children if they had ever been to an animal hospital.

We painted numbers on a clock shape and glued a mouse running on it for our nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock.

We did Hickoru Dickory dock for music, we also did Put your finger on, Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, and 2 little black birds.

We talked about the care animals doctors give to pets and our doctors give to us.

Oak Room:

We read "Berenstain Bear goes out for the team." , by Jan and Stan Berenstain

We also read another one of the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems

We painted with prickly balls in a pringles can.

We did Silly dance contest, My name is Joe, and we played a which ball is missing game.

We are talking about balls and we looked at the insides of balls, we also inflated a ball to see how much air it took to fill it.  we had a feely box with different kinds of balls inside and we had to feel them and guess which ball we were touching.  

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, March 19, 2012

We did a fire drill today.  The children did a great job lining up and going outside quietly and safely.  

All the classes except Stay and Play played on the playground today, it started to rain right before the stay and play kids went outside, so they played inside.

Stay & Play: 

We read  "The Fox and the Springtime Blossoms" by Julia Rawlinson

We used various mediums and textures to paint with today.  We brushed paint onto paper, put a textured design under the paper and rolled a rolling pin on top of the paper to transfer the design.

We did "Rock and Roll band" with maracas; "Play soft, play loud" with clackers for music time today.

We did floor puzzles, lego creatures and we  had the addition game out, children do simple addition and can self check their answer is correct.

Willow Room:

We read "Pets at the Vet" by Alyse Sweeney  We asked the children if they had ever been to an animal hospital?

We made clocks for our rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock- we added numbers to a clock shape, and then added clock hands and a mouse to run up our clock.

We did "Hickory Dickory Dock", Teddy Bear, Two Little Blackbirds, and Put your finger on" for music today.

We talked about the letter O and the sounds it makes.We also talked about what words start with the letter O.

Maple Room: 

We are talking about Eric Carle this week-  his books, and his way of illustrating them.

We read "The mixed up Chameleon" by Eric Carle

We did a sweet collage.  We used sweetened condensed milk and tissue paper.

We did dab a dot painters at the easel.

We did the March song, Put your hands up in the air, and I like my hat" for music today.

We did letter U activities.

Oak Room:  

We read "Franklin plays the game" by Paulette Bourgeois and we read "There is a bird on your head" by Mo Willens

We painted with football shape balls to make prints on paper.

We did Miss Mary Mack, Brown Bear, and Today is Monday for music.

We are talking about the letter Y this week.  We also are still doing balls, we rolled different kinds of balls down a ramp to see which ones goes the fastest.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, March 16, 2012

Stay & Play: 

We read "Scare a Bear" by Kathy Jo Wargin

We used picture stampers for art today.

We did "Rock and Roll Body Parts", "Everybody has a face" and "Hands are for Clapping" for music today.

We had green playdough and we had fun playing with the balls in the Oak classroom.

Willow Room: MWF class

We read "Silly Sally" by Audrey Wood and we asked the children if they have the letter O in their name.

We did night sky painting, a group art project with star and moon cookie cutters dipped in paint.  We finished our Hey Diddle Diddle (the cow jumped over the moon) art project.

We did "When I was a little fish, Hello everybody, and Tap your toes and follow me for music.

We glued letter O pictures onto our letter O chart.

Maple Room:

We went on a leprechaun   hunt through the school and when we got back to our room, we found the leprechaun had been in our room!  He made a mess- knocked over some chairs, and left glitter all over the floor, but he also left a pot with gold glitter in it and some candy money.  

We read "The night before St. Patricks's Day" by Natasha Wing

We did a cutting and gluing project with rainbows and tissue paper, with pots of gold.  We  used green paper, with glitter [aint and green tissue and paper to make a collage.  

We did "Silly dance contest", March song, Shake your sillies out, and 5 little shamrocks for music today.

We did letter T activities on the dry erase boards.  We did an alphabet game with beginning letter sounds.

Oak Room:

The book we read about balls today was called "The great Fuzz Frenzy" by Janet Stevens

It was a fun story about a tennis ball falling into prairie dog tunnel and they don't know what it is. 

We painted with pom poms attached to a clothespin and it looked like the fuzzy tennis ball.

We did prickle ball painting at the easel.

We had number pegs out, key sorting, and an addition activity called slide and count simple addition center.  It is a beginning math addition activity. The children did great at it and really enjoyed it, we will do it more now that they know who to use the materials.

We did some rhythm stick activities , tap and count, marching song, and wheels on the bus.  

Trinity Preschool Activities for Thursday, March 15, 2012

 We played outside, it was a glorious day today!

 Willow Room: 

We read "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed" by Eileen Christelow

We asked the children what letter their name begins with? (as they looked at their name tags)

We did the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" and for art we made a dish run away with the spoon.  We used tempra paint glue and flour and used the spoon as a brush.

We did the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle, and "over the deep blue sea" for music.

We are really having fun in the animal hospital, the children take such good care of the animals and we made cute DR. hats.

Oak Room:

"Watch me throw the ball" by Mo Willens

We painted with golf balls dipped in paint. We rolled them in a big box with a partner.

We had magnetic mazes, magnetic letters, and bristle blocks out today.

We did "Here's a little bird"(a rhyme that follows the music scale), Little Bunny Foo Foo" and a limbo dance "Underneath the broomstick"

We did sounds of balls- we listened to the sounds different balls made when bounced.  Then we closed our eyes and guessed which ball we were hearing.

Maple Room:

We read "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" by Judi Barrett

We did finger painting with chocolate pudding.  (We also ate pudding for snack)

We did Jump Jim Joe, March Song, Bear Hunt, and  Freeze Dance for music today.

We worked on patterns as a math activity today.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, March 14, 2012

 

We all played outside today- we are having such nice weather!

Stay & Play:

We read "Wacky Wednesday"

We painted with brushes attached to popscicle holders

We played with balls and ramps.

We did late last night for music 

 Willow Room:

We read "Five little monkeys" by Eileen Christlow

We painted a moon shape using paper plates, flour, salt and paint.  Then we made a cow using a stamper for "The cow jumped over the moon" 

Nursery rhymes Hey diddle diddle and the song Over the deep blue sea were our music today.

We talked about why it is important to walk in school.

We talked about and looked at objects that start with the letter N.

Maple Room:

We read "Pancakes, Pancakes " by Eric Carle

We made home made pancakes today and ate them at snack time.

At the easel we had circle shape paper with paint and purple and brown circles to look like chocolate chips and blueberries in our pancakes.

We did Letter T activities and read "Llama,llama, Mad at Mamma" by Audrey Dewdney

Oak Room: 

We read "Play ball " by Margaret Hilert

and "A ball for daisy" by Chris Raschka

We worked in our journals on writing and drawing a picture of things that start with the letter X.

We did 5 green and speckled frogs ( the children each have their own set of frogs, logs, and a pond and get to act it out and count themselves), Herman the worm, going on a bear hunt, and come and get a smiley face for music today.

We did a science experiment- we put a rubber ball in the freezer and compared how it bounced with the same kind of ball not in the freezer ( it did not bounce as high).

We also put a tape measure on the wall, and bounced different kinds of balls at the same time to see which on would bounce higher.

Alphabet Rainbow in WIllow Room

Great picture of our alphabet rainbow.

Nursery rhymes art and bulletin boards preschool

Itsy Bitsy Spider Bulletin Board

Mary Had a little lamb bulletin board

More lambs made with shaving cream and glue mixture.

Spiders made with paper plates, pipe cleaners and google eyes.

Twinkle Twinkle little star.

Humpty Dumpty re-enacted

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, March 12, 2012

Willow Room- T/Th class

Our story was "A rainbow of my own" by Don Freeman

Humpty Dumpty is our rhyme - we used a real egg to act out the rhyme.

We made tissue paper eggs for Humpty Dumpty

We did "The sneezing song, hands are for clapping, and the fish song for music today.

We are changing over our dramatic corner into a veterinarian office (animal doctor) office and we will take care of our pretend pets.

Oak Room:

We read "Froggy plays soccer" by Jonathan London

We painted with ping pong balls dipped in paint and we put them in a big bottle and shook them up to paint he paper.

We did The ABC song, pirate song, 5 little monkeys, and don't wake mama

We are learning about balls, and talking about the letter X this week.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, March 12, 2012

Stay & Play: 

We read "Yes we can!" by Sam McBratney

We mixed our own paint- we added a flour and salt mixture to create our own puffy paint for art.

We did "The finger band has come to town, and the opposite's song for music.

Willow Room:

Our question today was "do you have the letter N in your name?

We read the story My name is Alice" by Jane Bayer

We did the Humpty Dumpty Rhyme and we first showed the children the rhyme with a real egg and then we set it up for them to play with it with a plastic egg. They had fun acting it out.

For art we glued white tissue paper squares onto an egg shape.  We will draw a face on it later for our rhyme.

We had paint and small brushes at the easel.

We did "The sneezing song", "Little Fish", "Put your thumb in the air", and reviewed our nursery rhymes for music.

Maple Room:

We read "To Market, to Market" by Anne Miranda

We had paint at the table and pastel oil crayons at the easels.

We did the March song, The Pirate song, Today is Monday, and Face the facts for music today.

We did letter T activities and rhyming activities.

Oak Room:  

We read Froggy plays T-Ball" by Jonathan London and  "Balls" by Melanie Davis Jones.

We are starting a unit on balls so today we painted with tennis balls cut in half and dipped in paint.

We did "come and buy a doughnut" for music.  We also did list of dances and 5 little monkeys in a tree.

We talked about different kinds of balls and we are starting to learn about the letter X

Trinity Preschool Activities for Friday, March 9, 2012

Willow Room:  

We read Green as a bean" by Karla Ruskin

We made a cool alphabet rainbow today by pasting different colors of foam alphabet letters ( I will post a picture later).  It is so cute.

We did finger stamping at the easel.

We did The Pirate ship song, alphabet letter sounds song, we reviewed our nursery rhymes we have learned so far.

We also glued pictures to our letter M chart, they are hanging in the hall.

Maple Room:  

We read "Shopping with dad" by Matt Harvey

 We painted with green peppers cut in half and we had watercolors at the easel.

We sang Tap your toe an d follow me, this is the way and hands are for clapping, and the Alphabet sound song.

We practiced the letter S on our dry erase boards.

  

Oak Room:  

We read Moon Rabit" by Natalie Russel and "Little Rocket's Special Star" by Jack Tickle

We are finishing our planet unit today and the children are coloring the pages of their planets books.  

We did sheep blast off, hidden astronauts, list of dances, 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed for music.

We talked about what starts with the letter W, and asked the children if they have a w in their name.

Movies for little ones at AMC movie theaters

http://www.amctheatres.com/sff/

The link above is for information for AMC movie theaters for movies that are shown on the first Saturday of the month at 10:00 a.m.  The movies are designed to be OK for children with sensory issues, but I think it is better for any young child for a movie experience.  I took my grandson (who is not autistic and does not have sensory issues) to see the movie "The Lorax" at an AMC theater without realizing it was the special sensory showing.  I had been a little concerned that the loudness of the movie would bother him (he is 3 1/2); so I was pleased when the sound was plenty loud but not obnoxious.  It also says the lights are not as dark, but I didn't seem to notice that.  He sat enthralled through the whole movie- it was a good movie for him and a great experience. I don't know how many other people were there like us, unaware it was a "special showing"- it just was a nice way to watch the movie.  If you look at the link above, you will see a list of the movies for the next few months.  It is a good way to show support for a a movie theater company who is being supportive of families with children with sensory issues, many who could never see a movie in a theater without something like this.  Way to go AMC!

Trinity Preschool Activities for Thursday, March 8, 2012

Willow Room: T/TH class

We read Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Iza Trapani

We played a flashlight game  at our second circle.

We made glitter stars to decorate our room, we painted star shapes yellow, and then sprinkled glitter to make them sparkle.

We played pass the bean bag, Tommy Thumb, and we sang all of our rhymes.

Maple Room:

We read "The Berenstain Bears & too much Junk food" by Jan and Stan Berenstain

We did roller painting with clementine oranges, by rolling them in a box.

We did the Physical ED CD - exercise to music

We did math cube activities.

Oak Room:

We read Curious George gets a medal.

WE made a cover for our planet book,  We used planet stampers to decorate our books.

We asked the children which planet they would like to visit.  We also did list of dances.

We talked more about the letter W.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Wednesday, March 7, 2012

It was very windy today, but we played on the playground and had fun!

Stay & Play:

We read "Where do balloons go? by Jamie Lee Curtis

for art, we used a sponge to wet our paper and then we drew on the paper with chalk.

We did "ants in your pants" and I took a train using tambourines for music

We had marble works and K-nex creatures to play with in the room.  

Willow Room MWF class:

We did the story of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star By Iza Tampani

We played a flashlight game during our second circle.

We asked the children if they had the letter M in their name?

We painted star shapes with yellow paint and then sprinkled glitter on them.

We had alphabet letters at the easel.

We did Dancing in your seat for music, and What do people do?

Maple Room:

We read "Don't forget the oatmeal" by BG Ford

We did a cutting project for shopping lists, we are starting to talk about grocery stores.

We painted out own grocery bag, using paint and brushes on brown paper.

We acted out the Three little pigs again today.

We did letter S activities, a number recognition game 1-10 called find the shopping cart. 

We have the dramatic corner set up as a grocery store.

Oak Room:

Oliver who would not sleep was our story today, written by Mara Bergman

We read the W book and we worked on the letter W in our journals.

We had lego building letters , lacing activities, and the rocket ship game, roll the dice and blast off.

We did one little astronaut song, and the freeze dance.

We did our estimating jar today, guess show many pegs are in the jar.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Willow Room: T/TH class

We are continuing our nursery rhyme unit with "Mary had a little lamb" we listened to a book on tape by Iza Tranpani

We asked the children if they have a pet?

We glued cotton balls onto a lamb shape and added goggle eyes to make lambs for our story.

We had dry erase markers at the easel with erasers.

We sang "Mary had a little lamb:" and "The tempo marches on"

We played outside today- it was windy and mild.

Oak Room:

We read "Moon Plane" by Peter McCarty and we read "Space shape."

We had construction paper cut into shapes, circles, rectangles, triangles, and squares of various sizes and after we looked at the book space shape where they made pictures all out of shapes, the children then made thier own pictures out of the shapes.  They came up with great ideas.

We had a shape sorting center set up today, we also brought in various sizes and types of ball ramps the children explored.

We did "Gravity" with ribbons for music, and "Rocket ship run"- we moved around the room with ribbons

We guessed what the objects that start with the letter W were in our mystery box.

Trinity Preschool Activities for Monday, March 5, 2012

Stay & Play

We told the story using magnet board props of The picnic on the moon" 

for music we did "This old man" and "Mack Chicken Dance" 

We got out the marble run and assembled it, then we used marbles in it.

We used marshmallows and toothpicks to make structures.

We used LEGO blocks to make prints on paper.  The children could choose a house shape, a rocket shape or a rectangle shape.  

Willow Room:

We did the nursery rhyme and story "Mary had a little lamb" by Iza Trapani

We asked the children "Do you have a pet?" and we graphed the results.

We made lambs using the shaving cream and glue mixture (2 parts shaving cream,m, 1 part glue).  We added buttons for the eye.

We sang "Mary had a little lamb" ; "May there always be sunshine", and "The tempo marches on".

We talked about and thought of words that start with the letter L.  We also made the letter sound.

Maple Room:

We read "The true story of the Three Little Pigs" written by A. Wolf as told to Jon Scieszka

We finger painted with shaving cream and green glitter paint.

We did the March song and we started acting out the Three little pigs story with the children taking turns being the pigs and the wolf.  Everyone will get a turn, if not today, then on WEdnesday.

We did letter S activities. 

Oak Room;

We are finishing our space unit this week.  Today we read "Little Cloud" by Eric Carle and "Papa Get the moon for me", also by Eric Carle.  We also read My book of planets, the children have a good understanding of the planets.

We used eye droppers to drip white paint on light blue paper .  The we folded it over and pressed the paper.  when we opened it, we looked to see what it looked like. Some of the children then added more paint, and pressed the paper again to see how the image changed. We had puffy paint at the easel.

We used marshmallows and toothpicks to make constructions like space rovers and robots.

We had out geometric shape designs.

We did some beanbag songs, including "Bean Bag Alphabet Rag-a movement for each letter.

We also  played a game "What color rocket ship is missing.?

We started talking about the letter W today. We learned the W letter song.

Trinity Preschool Facebook Page- pictures added

I added a number of new pictures from some recent activities on our facebook page.  Be sure to check it out!

Oak Room:recap- Space unit

It has been a very busy few weeks for me, and I have gotten behind on my daily tidbits.  I will get back to doing the daily activities this next week, but for now, I want o recap what has been happening in each class.

The Oak room Pre- K class has been doing activities and learning about space.  They have learned songs about the planets and have read " "There's no place like space" (about the solar system) by Tish Rabe,Bamboo and Friends - The moon, by Felicia Law; "If I were an astronaut" by Eric "Stars" by Thomas K Adamson; "The Sun is my Favorite Star" by Frank Asch; "Frog in space" by Tedd Arnold; "Moo Cow Kaboom" by Thacker Herd; " Kitten's First Full Moon" by Kevin Henkes; "What the moon sees" "what the sun sees" " Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown; "What is the full moon full of?" by Shulamith Oppenheim' and "Neptune, what is it like?" ; "What next baby bear" " by Jill Murphy; and "Pluto, the dwarf planet".

For art we did  the following:  We cut out rocket ship shapes and painted them with red and blue water colors for our bulletin board.  We added each child's picture to be the astronaut. When we talked about the moon, we glued round objects onto paper plates and covered them with foil, and pressed down around the circle shapes so it was like the craters on the moon.  (see picture on facebook).  We dipped star shapes in glue and pressed them onto paper.  then sprinkled glitter over the top. We  paper mache'd balloons to make planets, then we painted them and hung them in our room to be our own solar system.  We made constellations by putting star shape stickers on a black piece of paper, then we used a yellow colored pencil  to make a line to connect the stars to form our constellations.  Each child told us what their constellation looked like.  Another day, we cut out circle shapes and drizzled glue on it.  Then we sprinkled colored sand over the  glue to make our own planets.  Each child named their planet. We talked about gravity and magnetic fields, so for art one day, we dripped paint onto a paper plate adn put a paper clip on the plate in the paint..  Then the children used a magnet wand under the plate to move the paper clip around to paint the plate.  We drew pictures after reading the book "What the moon is full of" of what we thought the moon is full of.  After the teacher glued two paper bowls together to make it look like a space ship, we painted the bowls with glitter paint an glued small shapes on for windows. 


Our dramatic corner is set up for space- we have computer keyboards, we made jet packs, space helmets, a control center and more.  See pictures on facebook


Some of the other space activities we did the last few weeks are: space puzzle, solar system floor puzzles, a space match game, a space board game, we learned about each of the planets, we did several science experiments, one with a balloon on a string that shoots in the air, and some about gravity. 


We did songs about  the planets, robots, and about astronauts.   We really have fun learning about the planets











 

Maple room- recap

It has been a very busy few weeks for me, and I have gotten behind on my daily tidbits.  I will get back to doing the daily activities this next week, but for now, I want o recap what has been happening in each class.

The Maple room has been talking about construction and as part of that is doing the story of the three little pigs.  Our dramatic corner is a construction zone, we have great construction worker vests, hard hats, a lot of different kinds of blocks, and tools.  We made a construction bulletin board too.

The books we have read : " The house that max built" by Maxwell Newhouse, "Building a house" by Byron Barton, "Alphabet under construction" by Denise Fleming, "The three little pigs" by Charlotte Voake", "Alphabet Adventure" by Audry Wood, The Three little Pigs " as retold by Rochelle Larkin, "The three little pigs" (Disney Version), "My lucky day" by Keiki Kasza, "The three little pigs" as retold by Harriet Ziefert (AS you can see there are many versions of the Three little pigs- some end differently!  As part of our Three little pigs, the children also retold the story themselves and we wrote down what they each said for a book.


For art, we have done panting projects for our bulletin board, and for our three little pigs houses.  


We did a group painting project using giant rolling pins, and scrapers and squashers to make a picture we cut into building shapes for our bulletin board.  We also had small house shapes made out of cardboard and the children worked to decorate them with found objects.
We did a gluing letter collage project, we also used markers and crayons to illustrate the three little pigs story for our books.  We used trucks to make tire tracks painting.  Another day, we did "marble type painting" using bolts.  We dipped bolts in paint and rolled them back and forth in a box. 


We painted some large boxes so we can reenact the three little pigs story- we painted one house by using rubber bands attached to pencils dipped in paint to make it look like straw.; then we painted a another box with the edge of pieces of cardboard to look like sticks.  Our house of bricks was made by using sponges dipped in red paint to make it look like bricks.  

We will act out our Three little pigs story on Monday, March 5, 2012.

Some of the other activities we have done lately:
Letter activities, we use the dry erase boards to practice the letter of the week.  We also play games at group time where we guess which letter is missing, or we guess which number is missing. We did some rhyming and sorting game,  We made some marshmallow structures using marshmallows and toothpicks.  We made houses of straw (yellow yarn) , a house of sticks, and a house of bricks ( small red pieces of paper).  
 
 

Willow room- MWF class

It has been a very busy few weeks for me, and I have gotten behind on my daily tidbits.  I will get back to doing the daily activities this next week, but for now, I want o recap what has been happening in each class.

Our class has been learning about letters and letter sounds this year and we have been doing some books about the Alphabet. We also started learning about Nursery Rhymes

We read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin, "The letters are loose" by Lisa Campbell Ernst, "Max's ABC" by Rosemary Wells, "It looked like spilt milk" by Charles G. Shaw, "A silly snowy day" by Michael Colman, Mother Goose Three little kittens; "Itsy Bitsy Spider, and we celebrated one of the great children's author's, Dr. Seuss, birthday by reading The cat in the hat.  We made his great hats for art too.


For art the past couple of weeks we have done the following:


We used funny brushes and painted with red, yellow, blue and white. We made icicles by slanting a tray and dripping silver and white glitter paint with eye droppers down blue paper. We used letters dipped in tempra paint for an ABC picture. We made special pictures to go with our "Spilt milk" book- we folded a sheet of paper in half and dripped white paint on one side.  Then we folded the paper over and pressed on the paper.  When we opened it, it looked like a shaped cloud in the sky- we asked the children what they thought their picture looked like. We used water colors with liquid starch on wax paper to create unique pictures.  for our nursery rhyme- Itsy Bitsy Spider- we painted paper plates black using powder paint and water.  We will add pipe cleaner legs and google eyes to create fun spiders.


We have been doing large group floor puzzles; we also have continued to work on our letter of the day and the picture charts of words that start with each letter.








 

Willow Room- Terrific 2's and 3's activities

It has been a very busy few weeks for me, and I have gotten behind on my daily tidbits.  I will get back to doing the daily activities this next week, but for now, I want o recap what has been happening in each class.

Our Terrific 2's and 3's class has been exploring colors, we have a great color train in the hall with items the children have all brought in and we want to thank everyone for finding such great colorful items.

Our color was Pink today.  We read the story "Chameleon's colors" by Chisato Tashiro.  We did a color mixing  experiment and made orange, green and purple.  We used special paint brushes to mix white paint and red paint to make pink for art.  Our dramatic corner is a kitchen now.

Our color today was white and we read the story "It looked like spilt milk"  by Charles Shaw.  We painted with white paint on blue paper- we  put drips of paint on one side of the paper and folded the other side over it and pressed.  when we opened it, we had the same image on both sides of the paper.  Then we asked the children what they thought it looked like?  The papers are hanging in the hall and we wrote their answers on the paper too.  (I will post some pictures on facebook of the some of the pictures from this project.)


We have paper in our sensory table for the children to tear - great for fine motor skills.  A good pre-scissor skill.

We moved onto the color brown and we read The three bears for our story.  We made chocolate teddy bears for art.  We sprinkled cocoa over glue on teddy bear shapes.  Smells good.


We had magnetic gears at the easel. We brought in  real mittens and clothespins with a clothesline and the children clipped mittens onto the clothesline using the clothespins.  some children chose to find the pairs, some clip individual mittens on the line.
Today we finished our color train with the color black and we are moving into Nursery Rhymes. Today we did "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and did the story by Keith Chapman.

We painted paper plates black and we will add legs and google eyes to make spiders.