Halloween! (Tuesday)

Letter of the week: Jj

Science: Does it float?

Math: Number recognition from 1-10

Sorry for the small break in posts. First, fall break really threw me off my game. Second, I lost my camera so I haven't been able to take pictures (my phone camera doesn't work either). But I promise daily posts are back in the schedule! So this week are really just having a lot of fun in the classroom. Today we made hand print Frankensteins. The kids enjoyed painting their owns hands. We then participated in a science experiment to see if a pumpkin would float. Today we tried a small pumpkin and sure enough! It floats! Tomorrow we will be experimenting with a large pumpkin. The general hypothesis was that a large pumpkin will not float. What do you think? We then wrote on the table with our dry erase markers. Usually we play a game where I call out a letter or number they have to write it on the table. The kids love this game! Tomorrow is our first Halloween party! Can't wait!

Ocean Animals! (Tuesday)

Review at Home:

Please review letters A-H

Salt Water vs. Fresh Water

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great fall break. I was on my way to and from Missouri on Friday and Monday so some wonderful subs took care of the kiddos while I was gone. On Friday they concluded the dinosaur theme by making dinos from Q-Tips. Monday morning Jen introduced our Ocean theme by reading Rainbow fish and the students made their own rainbow fish to take home. She also led them in several singing and dancing activities.

Today we enjoyed reading about the Ocean and discussing what kind of water it is and what animals live there. We did a counting exercise on the table and then headed outside. Jen led them in a song of Tooty-Ta. And then we watched a video from National Geographic call Open Ocean. The kids really enjoyed watching the whales, dolphins, and fish.

Herbivores, Carnivores, and Omnivores (Thursday)

This morning we discussed the names animals are called because of the things they eat. Many of the students struggled with the large words. We brainstormed the names of the dinosaurs they know, then looked up online a picture of that dinosaur and if it was a herbivore, a carnivore, or an omnivore. Some of the students were very interested to know which dinosaur was like them- an omnivore. I explained that because dinosaurs lived so long ago that it is hard for us to know now what they were like. I did pull up one dinosaur and explained how the dinosaurs teeth were a bit like ours and how scientists believe they ate both plants and animals. The dino is called a Heterodonotosaurus. This was the database we used: http://www.kidsdinos.com/dinosaurs-for-children.php?dinosaur=Heterodontosaurus

The students then completed a letter H maze where they colored the big letter H one color and the little letter h a different color. We have done these mazes in the past but I try to put a different twist on them to work on patterns, colors, numbers, etc. as well.

We then worked on our pattern skills by cutting and pasting on the next dinosaur in a pattern. I enjoyed this worksheet because it was more than just the ABAB pattern and it let them think about variances in a pattern a little more. Some of the students finished faster that others so they got to choose between lacing boards or pattern sticks with me. These are two of the different activities I have for students during transition times/waiting periods for other kids to finish up. 

After snack and outside time we once again discussed biggest and smallest. We reenacted the activity where the students sorted who was biggest (tallest) or smallest (shortest). We had a good time laughing at each other trying to be one or the other. (At one point I tried being the smallest but I'll spare you that picture!) In this picture one of the girls rolled into a ball so she could be the smallest in the class. 

Yesterday I introduced a favorite song of mine- The Dinosaur Dance. The kids love acting out the words to the song, especially when it comes time to ROAR and then stop and freeze. I got some fun pictures of them all dancing around- some of them blurry, I wonder why?! :)

Fossils (Wednesday)

Things to talk about at home: 

Vocab words like herbivores, omnivores, carnivores

Biggest to smallest

Letter H word/sound recognition- Point out everyday items that start with H! 

We started out our day discussing like and different. We completed a worksheet that most students felt was really easy. So most students had to answer why some of the dinosaurs were different which proved to be difficult. The majority knew that one dino was different but had difficulty explaining why it was different. I think asking these why questions are so important. It helps the students analyze why they are choosing something and it also increases their ability to use words to express themselves.

We also completed a counting and number exercise where the students counted the dinosaurs and then colored in the correct number. I am starting to see more students grasping number recognition this week which is exciting!

Today was chapel- something they look forward to every week. We learned about Jericho and the Isrealites marching around the walls. Pastor Pam had the children reenact the Bible story by building a wall around a table, which then became the city. The kids marched around the wall 6 times and then on the 7th time the boys played pretend trumpets and the girls yelled out "Praise the Lord!" Pastor Pam then explained how the walls came down without any of the Israelites touching the wall. She then knocked over the blocks. It was a lot of fun.

After outside time the students went on a fossil hunt. Sadly we weren't able to find any fossils near our buildings but we discussed how it might be hard to find fossils because they are small even if you look closely you might miss it. We went back to the class and made our own "fossils" out of model magic clay. The fossils are now drying and will go home Friday. The students had a great time making imprints in the clay. I had them take turns picking a stencil, making the imprint and then having the class guess which imprint it was.

Volcanos! (Tuesday)

Things to talk about at home: 

Vocab words like herbivores, omnivores, carnivores

Biggest to smallest

Letter H word/sound recognition- Point out everyday items that start with H! 

So first I apologize because I have no pictures. My camera was sitting on the counter all morning and we were having such a good time (I think I was covered in glue today!) that I didn't even think about the camera. We started the morning out by discussing volcanoes and if they were real and still exist. It was a very interesting conversation as most of the kids did not think there were still real volcanoes. We then made our own paper volcano with red tissue paper. The students took squares of tissue paper, squished them up, and glued them to the top. It looked something like this:

After snack and outside play time we spent the majority of our morning discussing biggest and smallest. I'm really sad I forgot to take pictures here because we played a fun game of the students acting out who was biggest and who was smallest, including one child curling up into a small ball. 

After going over the concept they cut out different sized dinosaurs and then glued them in order from biggest to smallest. We then enjoyed circle time and discussed how it was the first day of October (which I'm told is Halloween-tober). We ended class time with Count the Monkeys by Mac Barnett which is a great and funny book to reinforce number recognition. We also discussed which number was biggest-10 and which was smallest-0.