Snowy Dinosaurs

This morning we had a great time talking about snow.  We played with shaving cream and glue "snow" as well as powdered "snow".  We learned the letter F and never before has the letter F been so easy to teach (Thank You, Frozen!).  We're working diligently to sound out the letters and blend them into words. 

 One of the reading groups had a really fun time teaching their sock monkey all the things that good readers do.  It was so fun to watch them do this.  We also practiced tracing our names on snowflakes.  In math we continued working on graphing.  We did just a couple pages of practice on the SmartBoard before our time was up for the day.

This afternoon we were talking about the letter D and dinosaurs.  We started the day being paleontologists digging for dinosaurs in our mini sand boxes.  The kids really loved this activity. 

 We read a book about dinosaurs and used yellow markers to mark the words that we could read.  Then one group continued that strategy by marking the words in their mini readers.  We also read the page in our encyclopedia about dinosaurs.  In their encyclopedia you'll find a small paper glued into the dinosaur page.  It's a b and d reminder picture to help kids remember which is which.

We had a ton of fun with math today.  We're talking about 2d shapes and their characteristics.  Today we utilized a shape building toy I have to work on it.  I first pulled out the pieces to make a shape and asked them what shape I could make.  We talked about how we could know for sure what I was going to make (shape of the sides "curved or straight", how many sides, how many corners) and then I built it.  After the lesson I set them loose to make any of the 4 basic shapes on their own.  It was quite interesting to watch them figure out what pieces they need in order to complete the task.

We did a lot of great learning today. Don't forget that Wednesday is Polar Express day and kids are welcome to wear their pajamas and bring a teddy bear!

Thanksgiving and Snow

 We had a fantastic lesson about Thanksgiving today.  We made a giant list of the things we are thankful for.  I was so proud of them for listing things like: family, books, friends, hugs, houses, someone even said "life".  What a fantastic group of kids!  We learned the letter L the Lizard and practiced making the /l/ sound.  It's such a tricky sound to make!  We continued working on "Guess My Secret Rule", this time with the silverware drawer.  The idea of the game is much like the Sesame Street game "One of these things is not like the others".  There are 3 items that match and one that is different.  The children are to identify which is different and why (such as it is bigger than the rest, it's a different color, it's a fork not a spoon). The game is actually REALLY hard and we're struggling with understanding the concept.  So... please pull out your own silverware draw, line up 4 objects (3 the same and 1 different) and ask your child which one is different and why.  Play it every day!

Preschool B had a blast talking about snow.  It was fun to read all sorts of books about snow and discuss the weather and then see that it was starting to snow outside!  We worked hard in our reading groups mastering the letter F and working on the Moffatt Girls Ready2Read program.  We moved to ABB patterns in math and they picked up the concept right away!  

Preschool Polar Express

We had such a delightful time learning all about the Polar Express.  The kids loved watching the movie (a YouTube video with visual clips from the film as the book is read out loud).  We also sorted images according to syllables, practiced rhythm with our rhythm sticks and reviewed the letter F sound.  LittleA in the bottom left picture is signing "cold" and making the /f-f-f/ sound.

 We practiced reading bells with word family words, explored graphing some more and continued to make sets for "Guess My Secret Rule."  It was such a fantastic day of learning.  Find these activities and more in our Polar Express Preschool Pack.

Polar Express

We enjoyed pajama day today talking about the letter F and the Polar Express.  The kids love when I pull out the box of wood trains and they get to build all over the floor!

 We also played with fake snow and little blue beads in our sensory bin.   It was a big hit and they were making it "snow" on each other.  So, if you find little gel pieces in their hair that's what it's from.  They'll disolve in water.

 We also got to play with liquid glue and glitter today making paper snowflakes sparkle to decorate our classroom.  Boy that was fun!

 We loved playing with the Polar Express Tot Pack after watching the video/audio book on the SmartBoard.  We still have the snowflakes hanging from our ceiling from yesterday's preschool lesson about snow and the girls were so cute making one snowflake swing back and forth.

What a fantastic day!

Snow!

I love snow day!  It's so much fun!  We play with snow and talk all about what snow is and introduce the letter F.  We do F on this day because it's the sound you make when you're freezing.  We started the day playing with snow in cookie sheets.  We decided to use the fake snow since it wouldn't melt or cause any problems like cold fingers. 

 We had so much fun with our reading lesson today.  We continued with our shared reading and finding the words we know how to read within the text we have.  The kids have loved marking the words they know how to read.

 I'm so sad I missed pictures of them dancing in our snowstorm.  We have snowflakes suspended from the ceiling at varying lengths and everyone thought it was the best game to make them swing and "snow" a little bit while we were dancing and singing.  We worked on the letter F art from the Amazing Action Alphabet, made snowflakes with silver pipe-cleaners and even graphed snowflakes.  It was an option to go out and play in the snow at the end of the day but the girls declined since they were working so hard on their beading.  The boys enjoyed playing outside though!