Ants, Flies and Ladybugs

The caterpillars are finished! Thank you so much for supporting your kids by hanging the caterpillars up at home. The kids were so excited to work on this each day because they knew they got to go home and display their work.

Along with the caterpillars, we worked some more on sight words this week. One activity that they loved was bean bag spelling. Each student was given a word and a bean bag. They had to toss the bean bag onto the correct letters on our alphabet rug to spell the words. They had a blast and it really helped the words stick in their minds. Some of the words we have been working on are: and, a, I, am, was, were, she, and the. As you are reading at home, give the kids opportunities to identify these words in the story!

Monday was all about ants. We played this game called 'Ants in My Pants' and also 'Ants on My Plants'. The game was so simple, but worked on so many skills! We put their fine motor skills to the test as they tried to pick up the ants one by one. We put their counting to the test to count how many ants they had picked up (often 30 or more) and we talked about words that rhyme with 'ant'.

Wednesday was about flies. The kids had tons of fun with our SEEL lesson on flies. Their favorite part was this poem. It was one that I'm sure they would love to do again at home!

On Friday we talked about ladybugs and did a little ladybug math. The kids did a great job at gluing on the right number of spots and adding them together to solve their addition problem.

We also used playdough and other items I had around the house to make our own bugs. They had tons of fun with it and were so creative. There were several times when they were stumped by how to make things like a mouth or ears, but they worked together, shared the supplies and helped each other figure out what to do!

On Friday we said goodbye to our butterflies. Most of the kids were a little freaked out about the idea of the butterflies touching them, so we just sat around their cage and watched them fly away!

Spiders, Worms and Butterflies!

For centers this week, we've been reviewing the alphabet by making our alphabet caterpillars. The kids have been doing a great job with remembering their letters and how to write them. 

We also started learning a few sight words by playing Don't Eat Pete, spelling the words with scrabble tiles and looking for the words in the books we've been reading.

On Monday we learned about spiders and practiced gross motor skills with spider web walking. The kids threw a bean bag out onto the web and then went to get it by walking on the lines, crab walking and skipping.

On Wednesday, I just about had a heart attack when I walked into the preschool room to find this! They were not supposed to come out until early next week. I was not ready at all. It worked out well though because the preschoolers got to help me make their food and find some flowers to put it on.

They are all out now and the kids have so much fun watching them!

(Can you tell that I got a new camera between the two pictures? So excited to finally have clear pictures!)

We also did another SEEL lesson on Wednesday, Sneaky Spider. We talked about words that start with S and the kids came up with a great list! 

On Friday we took a break from the alphabet caterpillar to work on numbers. We started with trashcan basketball. Two teams worked to pick up the numbers in order and shoot them into their baskets!

Our group activity for Friday was all about worms. We learned about all the cool things worms can do. We also talked a little bit about the letter W. Then the kids got to let their fingers be worms in pans of shaving cream. They practiced wiggling and writing and then got their worms wet to wash them off. (It was a lot of W words!)

I hope you are getting a chance to do some of the SEEL activities at home. They are super simple, lots of fun for the kids and help them get a better grasp on letter sounds. Even singing the 'Sneaky Spider' song over and over again (even though Mom is going crazy after the 10th time), helps them to better understand the S sound.

Caterpillars

Our caterpillars are getting huge! It has been amazing to watch them grow. This week we continued to learn about caterpillars and butterflies and to make observations about our caterpillars.

The kids all enjoyed making their own tree and painting their butterflies.

We've also been talking a lot about patterns lately. Bugs are a great way to learn about patterns since they have their own patterns. We used some circles to make a patterned caterpillar and practiced with a patterns coloring page. I was super impressed with how well the kids were able to follow directions on that page.

We worked some more on math this week with math bugs. The kids used fruit loops to represent each addition problem. They figured out a few of them before even reaching for the cereal!

This week finished out the alphabet with the letter Z! Over the next few weeks, we will be reviewing the alphabet to make sure the kids know all the letters. The kids will be bringing home pieces to an alphabet caterpillar each day. It will look similar to the one below. Please have a designated place in your home to display their caterpillar and add on the new pieces each day.

For the next two months, I will also be pulling some review activities from the SEEL (Systematic Engaging Early Literacy) program. Please take a minute to visit this website to learn more about the program. I will be sending home some great activities that you can use to extend what we are learning in class!

Going Buggy

This week was the beginning of our bugs unit!

The week also started out with April Fools Day. For our April Fools joke we had purple water at snack. The kids got into the spirit quickly and had fun playing April Fools jokes on each other.

Before we can learn about bugs, we had to know what a bug is! We learned about some of the characteristics of bugs and did a sort, separating bugs and animals. The kids then got to make their own bugs to put on the bulletin board.

They really wanted to add flowers to the board, so on Wednesday we learned about bees and how important they are to us! Then we made some flowers to go on the boards.

On Friday we did some more math! We played some games like number bowling and number matching and then introduced subtraction for the first time. They did a really good job!

Also on Friday, our caterpillars arrived! I wish I had taken a picture so you could see just how tiny they were. Watch for the picture next week, they've become pretty big caterpillars. We talked about how scientists do their job and the importance of making careful observations. We then made observations about our caterpillars, which is something they were great at (kids notice everything)! They saw the little pieces of silk the caterpillars had already spun, some pieces of their exoskeleton they had shed and where they had eaten bits of their food. We can't wait to see the caterpillars become butterflies!