Insects

For the start of November we're introducing the letter I.  We love talking about insects, who doesn't? So, though most insects are starting to hide from the cold, we're happily playing with plastic bugs of all sorts.  We learn different facts about insects, such as they use their antenna to smell and they have compound eyes.  Imagine a group of preschoolers wearing glittery antenna and "smelling" everything around the room.  It was so fun!  We also got to go on a bug hunt.  Our cute ladybugs had letters and sight words on them.  As we found them we got to read them to the group. Check out our Insects lesson plans for all 43 pages of the printable goodness :)

 We practiced reading our letter I book from the Amazing Action Alphabet.  It's the first really "hard" book that we encounter.  Every page isn't exactly the same anymore and we really have to pay attention to what we're reading.  We also introduce the sight words "I" and "my", which also make the book tricky.  As we were practicing our reading one-on-one the other kids were playing a "Catch those Bugs!" game with tweezers.  They LOVE that game!  Today we also cut, glued and handprinted the letter I insect. Our cutting is really improving!  Keep up the practice at home!

 Throughout November we talk about rhythm in music.  Today was the first day that they got to play with the rhythm sticks and explore playing them fast, slow, loud or quiet.  We also had fun playing with insects in math and exploring a Montessori style insect matching board.

Safety - Preschool

Talking about safety helps preschoolers take a possibly abstract rule and understand its importance in keeping them safe.  We love talking about safety at Little Adventures Preschool.  We start the day building puzzles and talking about firemen, policemen, medical personal, etc.  We're also working on the letter S this week as well as recognizing the sight word "the".   In the Safety Preschool Pack there are 41 pages of fantastic activities that relate to staying safe and practicing letter S and the sight word "the", including the money and pockets sorting below. 

 We loved sequencing different events that will help us stay safe, like how to cross the road safely.

 We're currently reading the letter S book from the Amazing Action Alphabet.  It only includes letters that we've already studied (MTAS) and the sight word "the".  We're continuing to work on sounding out the letters in each word.  We talked about how there were spaces on the pages that didn't have any letters.  Those spaces indicate that we need to stop and reread the letters faster and faster until we can say the word.  When we can say the word we get to move onto the next word.

 During art we played with salt on plates and practiced writing the letter S and other letters that we've already learned. LilE was so excited after she wrote this S, and she should be because it looks fantastic!

 We played with the clip cards from the Spiders and Miss Muffet pack on Tuesday.  We're still working on recognizing the word 'the'.

Play Ball!

Today in preschool our theme was "Play Ball!"  We learned the letter P and the sight word 'ball'.  I put together a few printables for today's class and figured I'd share them with you.  Just click on the image below to download it.

It is just a few items that I knew I'd have time to use today in class. 

In this Mini Pack:

You'll explore:

·         Numeral to dot representation matching – assemble as you like

·         Touch Math Activity Sheet Printable for #2

·         Word and Letter Wheels

You'll need:

·         Scissors

·         File folder and Velcro for file folder game

·         Glue

·         Touch Math Printable (found here for $10) or make your own version

·         Brads to connect word and letter wheels

I didn't have my camera battery charged today so I don't have any pictures.  My flip video was handy though, so here is a little snippit of today's class:

We had a lot of fun today.  The kids got their word or letter wheels (baseball shaped) to practice their reading.  We made a P with glue and popcorn and a lizard with thumbprints.  We played "Hop Along the Path" from my Winter Pack, we practiced our program songs for our mid year program (next Thursday!) and we worked on the numeral 2 with our TouchMath texture cards and foam pieces.  Now that preschool is over and my camera battery is charged I got a few "after" pictures of our work.

This P page and the L the lizard are both from the Amazing Action Alphabet.

We also had a lot of fun playing with all sorts of balls and making them pop out of our hands like popcorn, etc.  Now I'm off to plan for Wednesday's Gingerbread theme!