The 5 Senses

A huge thank you to all the parents for sending your students' spotlight items with them this month. It was so fun to get to know all the kids! Next week we will be starting show and tell. Be sure to check the newsletter for your child's assigned day!

This week we had lots of fun learning about the letter B and words that start with B (including body!). We also learned about shapes and the number 1.

We finished up our body unit this week by talking about the 5 senses.

On Tuesday we tested our sense of touch and taste by wearing blindfolds and trying to figure out what different items were. The kids were all super good at it! The only one that stumped them a little bit was a piece of yarn. They got some good observations on that one as they were trying to figure out exactly what it was.

We also explored our bodies through some fun games like Simon Says and Tissue Dancing. For Tissue Dancing each child got a tissue to put on their head and tried to keep it there while dancing. It was a lot harder than they expected it to be! Some kids tried ripping it in half to see if that would make it easier and some tried crinkling it up in a ball. It was fun to see them experiment with it!

Fingers, Toes, Eyes and Ears

We started this week off by learning all about our fingers and toes!

The kids helped me make a venn-diagram showing all the things they already knew about their fingers and toes. After that we explored them some more by making puppets, trying to pick things up without our fingers and walk without our toes. We also talked about left and right and played Twister! Left and right is a tough concept at this age and comes with lots of repetition. Help your child out with this by referring to their shoes by right and left as they are putting them on and specifying right hand/foot or left hand/foot when you are talking to them!

On Thursday, we moved up to faces and started talking about eyes and ears. We had lots of fun using our eyes and ears to play 'I Spy' and 'Telephone'. 

We also learned about the letter A this week. I hope everyone has had a chance to read 'Aachoo Andy' with their child. The kids had so much fun with that! 

We talked about circles as well and worked on recognizing them and ordering them from smallest to largest. We also got some fine motor skill practice as we strung the circles onto necklaces.

SEEL

This week will be our first of many weeks learning about the alphabet! During this time, we will be doing a lot of activities from the SEEL (Systematic Engaging Early Literacy) program. This is an amazing program that gives the kids great opportunities to learn about the alphabet in a fun and meaningful way. Please take some time to read a little bit about it here.

Every time we do a SEEL lesson in class, your child will bring home a 'SEEL at Home' page. These will give you an activity to do at home that is an extension of our lesson. Some of them are super fun and some do sound super cheesy. Please do as many of them as you can with your child to help reinforce what we are learning in class! It is so good for kids to take the knowledge they have gained in one setting and be able to use it again somewhere else. 

Back to School

We had an amazing first week of school this week! Starting preschool can be a rough transition and everyone did really well!

During the first week we spend a lot of time learning and practicing our rules and procedures. If you want to talk to your child about the preschool rules, they are:

 We will listen and follow directions
We will be kind to others
We will do our best every day
We will raise our hand to talk
We will take care of our things
We will talk quietly
We will use good manners

Another important aspect of the first week of preschool is for the kids to learn to recognize their own name. We have done several projects with our names such as salt art and making our names out of playdough. Starting next week the kids will be tracing their names daily in preparation to be able to write their name on their own!

We have also played a lot of fun games this week! We've done a few matching games, puzzles and getting to know you games!

This week was also the first week of our body unit! We learned 'Head, Shoulders, Knees' and toes and made sure the kids knew all the major body parts. On Thursday everyone got to be traced and draw themselves!

Reading Rocks - Week 2

It has been so much fun to spend the last two weeks playing games and learning with these amazing kids! We played so many games this week, I can't even keep track!

We learned the sounds of all the letters in the alphabet and reviewed them with circle maps and games like the Pancake Flip, 

and Phonics Eggs.

We also learned about blending sounds together into words and how to tap out CVC words.

We learned new sight words and studied them with some bingo,

Go Fish, 

Sight Word Find-A-Fish,

bowling,

Super-word Snap, 

and Don't Eat Pete!

Your child has now learned the words I, a, and, the, see, if, in, is and it. Spend some time this summer reviewing these with your child! Let them point these words out in the books you read, make some flashcards of recreate any of the games we have played at summer camp. Most of the can be quickly put together with items from around the house!

Reading Rocks Week 1

We've had tons of fun this week working on our reading skills!

On Monday we made sure that the kids all know the alphabet by putting a mixed up alphabet back in the right order and being detectives to find all the letters of the alphabet hidden around our classroom!

After that we started the week off right by learning 3 new sight words! We had lots of fun with sight word tic-tac-toe. 

On Tuesday we started on letter sounds by learning about vowels and playing Vowel Leap Frog.

We also added 'the' to our sight word list and practiced them by smashing bags with our sight words on them and playing sight word twister! Sight word Twister is a great way to learn new things and work on motor skills at the same time! Just cover each color on the mat with a word and play like normal. If your child still needs some alphabet work, use letters instead of words!

Wacky Wednesday was a big hit! Thanks for helping your kids dress wacky today! They absolutely loved reading the book "Wacky Wednesday". Next time you go to the library, consider checking that one out. We just didn't have time for the kids to find all the wacky things in the story!

During phonic time today we reviewed our vowel sounds and started on the consonants. We got to reuse our Twister mat by playing Phonics Jump. Each circle has a different letter. I told the kids each a letter sound and they had to find and jump on the letter that makes that sound without stepping on any of the other circles!

Also during phonics time we pulled with all different kinds of letters to make our own wacky words and just play with the alphabet!

After a wacky snack we learned a new sight word, 'see'. We played with our sight words today by making ice cream cones and playing 'Whack the Word'!

Have a great weekend and I will see you all on Monday!

Color, Sound and States of Matter

We had lots of fun with centers this week, playing all our favorite games one last time and getting things solidified before the end of the school year. Please make sure that you continue to read with your child over the summer! That is the very best thing you can do to help them remember what they've learned. Aside from that, play some educational games with them, have them point numbers and letters as you are driving and grocery shopping, and don't forget to look back through to blog if you need ideas for things to do!

We also got to finish up our science lessons this week! 

Monday was all about color. We learned about primary colors and how we can combine them to create secondary colors. We also talked a little about light and how is separates into different colors.

Wednesday was a lesson on sound. We learned about how vibrations create sound and had lots of fun feeling those vibrations by putting our fingers against our throats. We experimented with making high sounds and low sounds.

The kids also got to make their own musical instrument to take home! I'm sure you've been enjoying those, it was definitely not quite here once they finished coloring!

Friday was water day! We started out our day by learning about the states of matter and experimenting with them by mixing baking soda and colored vinegar. 

For our second experiment we talked about how ice melts and brainstormed ways to get the toys out of the block of ice. When punching it was unsuccessful, they decided to put it in the pool and squirt it with squirt guns, which worked much better!

We also got to play a few games! We did a water balloon toss and used our squirt guns to wash the letters of the alphabet off the walls.

The kids had tons of fun experimenting with and playing in the water!