Addition to 5 in Preschool

Today there was so much learning happening!  We enjoyed reading from the classroom library after warming up with our guided reading books and then we headed outside to work on our book reports.  

We spent the majority of the day engaged in our math lesson about number bonds (also known as fact families).  We're working on numbers up to 5 and started very basic addition today.  We played with little farm animal counters and multiple small white boards as different ways to set up addition problems.  I am so bummed I didn't get any good pictures of that activity - it was so hands on that I didn't seem to stop for a moment to document it.  After playing with all the counters we completed a fun under the sea addition to 5 booklet.  Kids learned the word "equation" and when they read the book to you at home please ask them to read you the equation on each page.  Utilizing the true vocabulary helps them understand from the beginning what they're working with.

Preschool B - May Math and Reading

Preschool B has been working on developing an understanding of sets greater than 10.  Today we got to explore with a cut and paste base ten printable.  It broke down tens+ones=set.

 After math (which they did excellent at) we moved into reading.  We're now done with our phonics lessons and were able to dive back into interest led reading.  We looked through our encyclopedias for the topic each person was most interested in reading about for the day.

 Lucky for us everyone's first pick had two books on ReadingA-Z.com.  We printed one book that was at/slightly above their independent reading level and printed a second book that was way beyond their reading level but would make a great companion reading text.

 Then they each took a highlighter and marked all the words in the books that they knew.  We discovered that one of the books they knew almost all of the words in and the other book was quite a bit harder.

 We took turns reading our independent reading book.  Then I read the first page or two of the companion reading text with each child.  As we read I would read words that weren't highlighted and the child would read all the words that were highlighted.  I'm hoping that you've been jointly reading the companion reading books all year long.

 If we came to a word that wasn't highlighted but I thought the child would be able to figure it out I would pause and see if they'd jump in.  If they did and figured out the word then they highlighted it.

 I sent home their highlighters in their companion reading book bags so you could continue through the book in the same fashion, adding highlighted marks as needed.

 Then we headed outside for some play time, song practice and snack.

 At the end of the day we drew and wrote in our journals about what we've learned, liked or experienced in preschool throughout the year.

What a great day of learning!

Wednesday Preschool - Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day from Preschool A!  We started our day with a little painting project. If you'd rather not see what your Mother's Day gift is please don't read this post till after you open your gift. 

 Yes, it involved painting feet as well :)

 We reviewed the letter Q and started reviewing all the letters of the alphabet.  Once we caught a letter we had to say the letter's name and the sound it makes.

 We've loved reading this book a few times throughout the year "Mouse Makes Words".  It's a fun one to follow along and practice some basic reading.

 Practicing our songs for our end of year celebration.

 Getting ready to wrap our Mother's Day gifts.

 First we had to draw on the faces.

 Afternoon preschool started in much the same way - painting feet.

 I thought these turned out really cute.

 We've picked up on on the numbers 20-100 really well but still seem to be struggling with a few of the teen numbers.  We played a memory match game with the numbers 10-20 to help us with the teen numbers.

 We're still talking about /oo/ and today we talked about the sound it makes in words like "good" and "brook".

 Doing all the writing, drawing and wrapping of our Mother's Day gifts.

 Practicing songs for our end of year celebration.

 After song practice they decided that playing instruments would be awesome.

Quilts and Patterns - Monday Preschool

We had some major fun today!

 We started coloring our Q headbands from the Moffatt Girls.

 We also did puzzles and some kids even helped others to get their headbands cut out, a fairly tricky job for our 3 year olds.

 Then we got to learn all about the letter Q, quilts and patterns.  We looked at a quilt my grandmother made for me and talked about all the different pieces of the quilt and how they had to be cut and then sewn together.

 Reading our Q Book from the Amazing Action Alphabet.

 We also read a book called "A Boy and a Quilt" that talked about how a little boy made a quilt.  Next we pulled out oodles of fabric, markers, cardboard (to trace the squares we'd be cutting), scissors, and the sewing machine.  Each child was given the opportunity to cut out their own squares for a small teddy bear blanket they would take home.

 Miss Amanda did end up cutting a couple dozen squares because fabric is so tricky to cut that it was becoming frustrating even for our super cutters.

 They were amazed at the sewing machine and watched in awe as I ran the pieces through it.  They each had to bring me 6 or 9 squares for their quilt.

 Our completed quilts.  Aren't they awesome?

 Today we did the last activity in our Amazing Action Alphabet Activity book.  The book came home today and contains work from all year long.  There is a little note to the parents inside letting you know that we're done with it and any undone pages can be done at home.  There are also Alphabet cards in the back and a number of pages with activity ideas to do at home.

 Afternoon preschool talked about the letters /oo/ as in Snoop.  We had fun reading about a dog detective that solves a mystery in the woods.

 We also reviewed what we had talked about with "greater than" and "less than" numbers.  We drew the angle of the alligators mouth and talked about how we could just draw that sign to show that the alligator would eat the biggest picnic.

 After doing a few with the images of base ten blocks we moved to comparing 2 digit numerals. This can be a bit tricky but they seemed to catch on quite well.

 Be sure to have your child identify the numbers by name as they're working on their homework.  They seem to be doing super great but having a struggle with numbers in the teens.

 While we were working on math EMan headed off to hammer a flat head screwdriver into my grass.  Awesome.

 Here is the obstacle course they decided to build while I got snack ready.

 Yummy snack of blueberries and cucumbers.

 During snack time we practiced singing our songs for our end of year celebration.  It's going to be so awesome!

 Art today was chalk on the big outside chalkboards.  They decided to draw X's on everything around the whole yard.  By the end of the day there were literally X's on everything :)