Happy Easter

Today the children enjoyed two great read alouds The Night Before Easter and Corduroy's Easter.  The children also went on a Easter Hunt to look for the Easter Baskets that the Easter Bunny hid on them.  During centers today the children visited the two centers that they did not get to yesterday. 

Well I won't see your children until a week from now, so I have included some great Easter links with projects and games.  The fist link http://www.education.com/activity/preschool/easter/ has wonderful art project ideas that can be made with items that you have around the house.  The second link http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/easter/games.php has online games that include an Egg Hunt, Eggbert's Tic Tac Toe, Easter Egg Designer, and Bunnies Jigsaw Puzzles.  At the last link you will find a selection of printable Easter coloring pages.  http://www.nickjr.com/spring-holidays/easter/ I have noticed during playtime that a large amount of children are visiting our writing center.  They truly enjoy having a conversation with each other while coloring their masterpieces.  I hope you enjoy the precious moments with your children during our break.  I know I will enjoy some quality time with my daughter!

E is for Eater and Eggs

Today's read aloud was titled Clifford's Happy Easter.  All of our centers today related to Easter and eggs.  Each child visited two centers today.  The two that they didn't do they will do tomorrow.  At Miss Sue's center the children cut out the letter "E" and an Easter basket.  They glued them onto a piece of construction paper.  They then decorated their Easter basket with egg stickers.  At Mrs. Severson's center the children took a plastic Easter egg and cracked it open.  They identified the object that was inside of it.  They then listened for the letter that made its beginning sound.  Lastly, they dotted the letter on their recording sheet.  At an independent center the children cut out and colored an Easter egg.  They then painted it with chocolate syrup.  This technique is called a crayon resist.  At my center the children made a book titled Counting Colored Eggs.  This book is based on the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?  Lastly, as a large group we made bunny Easter baskets.  It was a very busy day, but it was also a fun day!!

ipad

Today our read aloud was titled The Frog With the Big Mouth.  The purpose of reading this story was so we could compare and contrast it to the story we read yesterday titled The Wide Mouthed Frog.  We found that in both stories the main character was a frog.  Each time he met a new character he asked the question, "What do you eat?"  In yesterday's story the frog had a wide mouth, but in today's story he had a big mouth.  Both stories had a bird in them, except they were different species.  At the end of each story when the last animal is asked what he eats he responds, "A wide/big mouthed frog."  In both stories the frog is able to escape unscathed.
At Miss Sue and Mrs. Palmer's center today the children cut out the letter "y" and used yarn and their creativity to decorate it.  At my center the children were give a set of animal pictures.  They sorted them into two categories: animals that live in the ocean and animals that live in ponds.  At Mrs. Severson's center the children played on the ipad.  A few of the apps they explored were:
Candy Count

First Words: Sampler

 

ABC Phonics Word Family

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Bright Start Pre-K Letters and Numbers

Another Fun app is

 Ice Land Adventure

Wide Mouthed Frog

   
Today the children enjoyed two  read alouds The Icky Sticky Frog and The Wide-Mouthed Frog.  All animals have their favorite foods, and the wide-mouthed frog couldn't be more curious about what they are. This talkative frog with a huge mouth just can't stop asking the creatures he encounters what they like to eat -that is, until he stumbles upon a creature who just loves to eat wide-mouthed frogs!  With the use of some quick wit he is able to make an escape from his predator.

During centers today they children colored a wide-mouthed frog of their own.  They then glued it onto a headband.  We used the headband to act out the story The Wide-Mouthed Frog during closing circle time.  At Miss Sue's center the children were given a frog mask with a party blower attached as an Icky Sticky Tongue.  The children were also given a set of flies that were programed with the concepts they are working on mastering for their progress report.  The children spread out their flies and used their icky sticky tongue to catch them.  They then identified the concept on the fly for Miss Sue.  With Grandma Sue the children measured various log lengths with frog counters.  This activity helped them work on one-to-one correspondence as well and measure with nonstandard units of measure.

Jump, Frog, Jump!

Today we started our morning circle time by listening to the story We Share Everything by Robert Munsch.  The last few days the children have been less willing to share toys with one another.  We also have a few who continually want to be the first person in line.  This story talks about a pair of kindergartners who learn to share everything.  For the handful of children who continue to want to be first and cut in front of others, they will be moved to the end of the line. If this does not correct the behavior they will be asked to get out of line and wait for the rest of the class to change centers.  Then they will be allowed to  move when everyone else is done. 

 

Our theme today was frogs.  We listened to the tape for the story Jump, Frog, Jump!  The children then used flannel board pieces to retell the events in the story.  We also sang the song, "Five Green and Speckled Frogs." 
At my center the children practiced jumping like a frog.  I set up a set of lily pads that were numbered based on classroom assessment information.  The children stood behind the start line and jumped as far as they could.  They then recorded the number that they landed on.  When they were finished jumping they analyzed their data to see which number they landed on the most amount of times. 

 During playtime today the children were introduced to ramps and pathways.  My husband took cove molding and cut it into different lengths.  The children can use the lengths to build ramps.  They can roll bouncy balls down the ramps as a way to experiment with speed, angles, and pitch.

Dazzling Dragonflies

 

Today our topic again focused on animals that live by or around a pond.  Our read aloud was titled Dazzling Dragonflies.  A dragonfly laid her clutch of eggs and the life cycle of dragonflies began. We watched as the little nymphs changed over time into beautiful adults who can move through the air like an acrobat.  Besides learning what a nymph is the children also learned that dragonflies can be many different colors like blue, green, and red.

Today during centers the children made a dragonfly of their own.  They picked the color that they wanted and cut out a dragonfly body along with two sets of wings.  They then taped the wings onto the body along with pipe cleaners, which resembled the veins in the wings.  They then gave their dragonfly a face and painted it with dazzling glitter paint. 
At my center the children used blue play doh to make a pond.  They stamped letters in their pond and recorded them on a recording sheet.  Some friends stamped a few three letter words.  At the computer center the children visited the website http://www.ziggityzoom.com/games.php We tried to play letter blaster and word dog.  These two games proved hard to hear.  You may want to try them at home without the hustle and bustle of a classroom.  The match and learn game and the puzzles work wonderfully for mouse control.

Lucky Leprechaun

Today when the children came into the classroom they noticed that something was a miss.  Chairs were turned over, toys were spread around the room, and the contents of their book bins was dumped on their tables.  I had no idea who made the mess.  After we finished our morning greeting song, and I took attendance, a letter appeared on our smart board.  It was from a Leprechaun.  He told us that he was the mischievous one who made the mess in our room.  He said that he hid shamrocks around our room, and that they would lead us to him and his pot of gold.  We all know that if you find a Leprechaun he must give you his gold.  The children each found one shamrock.  They then sorted them by numbers.  Next we used the letters on the shamrocks to make words.  The words we made were, "In the hallway."  We figured this was our clue.  Next we went searching in the hallway.  Sure enough, we were able to find the Leprechaun and his gold.  Each child received a small treat. 

Today the children visited three centers. We discussed how if you find a four leaf clover you can make a wish.  The children then journal what they would wish for if they found one.  At the second center the children played a St. Patrick's Day path game.  They rolled a die, moved their counter, and picked a card from the playing deck.  They then identified the letter on their card, produced its sound, and listed any words they knew that had the letter as their initial consonant.  At the last center the children patterned green and white beads to make a shamrock necklace.

Ducks

Today we read one of my all time favorite stories One Duck Stuck.  "Splish, clomp, pleep, plop, plunk, sloosh, slosh, slink, zing."  When, "Down by the marsh, by the sleepy, slimy marsh, one duck gets stuck in the muck," who comes to the rescue? Two fish, splishing, for starters. Then three moose clomping, four crickets pleeping, and so on. Still, "No luck. Still stuck." It takes a whole lot of teamwork to get this particular stuck duck unstuck from the muck.
At an independent center today the children followed a set of directions to make a duck puppet of their own.  Now until the end of the school year it is my goal to prepare the children for kindergarten.  In kindergarten they are going to have to follow multiple step directions and complete tasks independently.  The children did an outstanding job with this today!  The children will use the puppet that they made to retell the story One Duck Stuck tomorrow.

At my center the children were given the outline of a pond to cut around.  I then placed a pile of white and yellow ducks in front of them.  I told them they needed to take some of each color to make a total of five ducks.  Once they had five they cut them out and glued them on their pond.  They then filled in an addition sentence _____ + ______ = _________ .  Some of the children had four white ducks and one yellow to make five.  Some had two white and three yellow to make five, while others had three white and two yellow to make five.

Splash!

Today our read aloud was titled Splash!  Splash goes the cat! Splash goes the dog! Who's jumping in the pond? Falling in and crawling out?  This story was the perfect springboard for teaching adding and subtracting.  Throughout the story we were able to count forwards and backwards to determine how many animals were in the pond at a given time.
Each day we do a little adding when we get our milk for milk break.  I will tell the children we need 8 chocolate and 2 white.  We will then start at eight and count on to find the total amount that we need.  If your child is interested in doing some simple addition at home you may want to check out the following link.  http://www.tlsbooks.com/kindergartenmath.htm Some of the easier math pages include:
http://www.tlsbooks.com/easyfruitaddition.pdf
http://www.tlsbooks.com/dinoaddition.html
http://www.tlsbooks.com/zooaddition.html
Today during centers the children visited the two centers that they did not get to yesterday.  The pond animal that we talked about again today was the turtle.  You can surprise your child this weekend by making the following turtle breakfast.  Enjoy!!!

What You’ll Need:
1 toaster waffle
apple
clementine
black sprinkle (a chocolate chip would work, too)

To Make Turtle Waffle:
Toast your waffle per directions on the box. Cut off a 1/4 of the waffle and place large portion on a plate as shown. Use slices of apple for the head, feet and tail. Use black sprinkle or chocolate chip for the eye. Peel a clementine and arrange slices as shown to create butterflies. Enjoy (slowly!)
http://www.recipe.com/blogs/cooking/category/kid-friendly/

Turtles

Today the children learned the rhyme, "I Had a Little Turtle."
I had a little turtle
And he lived in a box.
He swam in the water
And he climbed on the rocks.
He snapped at a minnow.
He snapped at a flea.
He snapped at a mosquito.
And he snapped at me.
He caught the minnow.
He caught the flea.
He caught the mosquito.
But he didn't catch me!
 

Our two read alouds today were titled 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Turtle Splash and Scoot!  Both of these books were written by the same author.  After reading them we were able to conclude that this author likes to write about pond and turtles. 
At one of the independent centers today the children cut out the body of a turtle.  They then painted a section of an egg carton for its shell.  At my center the children were given three turtle mats.  They identified a picture on their mat and placed the letter that matched its beginning sound on it.  With Grandma Sue the children traced, wrote, and stamped their last names.  At Miss Sue's center the children cut out the letter "g," painted it gold, and sprinkled it with glitter.
We even got outside and enjoyed the warm weather!!

Fish

To begin this week we have been talking about fish.  In February we learned about ocean animals, and in March we will talk about ponds.  Fish live in both of these habitats.  As an introduction to ponds we made a KWL chart that began by asking the children what they know about ponds.  The children only listed that ponds have water and they have fish.  Fortunately, there is a lot more to learn.

Two of our favorite read alouds have been The Rainbow Fish and Pout, Pout Fish.  Before I read the story The Rainbow Fish I gave each child a shiny scale.  They then listened to the story.  Shining from Rainbow Fish's multicolored body are several shimmering silver scales. All the other fish in the ocean admire him and want to play, but Rainbow Fish is too proud to play with them; nor will he share his sparkling scales. Alone and friendless, Rainbow Fish soon learns that generosity is far more rewarding than keeping everything for yourself.  After the story the children shared their shiny scale with a  friend, as a way to take what they learned and pay it forward. 
At centers the children made a Rainbow Fish of their own.  They cut out its body.  They put their hand in a bubble wrap glove and painted their fish to look like it had scales.  Lastly, they put on the scale that their friend gave them.  At my center the children fished for rhyming words.  When they caught a fish they looked at the picture on it.  They then matched it to the picture it rhymed with on their recording sheet.  At an independent center the children used pattern blocks to make pond animal puzzles.  At the last center the children were given a cup of fish.  They spilled them onto a pond.  They then arranged them in numerical order.  Lastly, they practiced writing  numbers on dry erase boards.

Shells

Today our daily message was, "We are going to dig for shells."  We talked about how s and h make the shh sound when they are together.  During centers the children visited the sensory table.  Inside they found lots and lots of shells.  The shells each had lowercase letters on them.  The children dug for a shell, identified the letter on it, and sorted it into the beach bucket that had its corresponding capital letter.  Some children sorted the shells by finding the picture on the pail that started with the letter on the shell they chose.  The children seemed to enjoy this center.  One child even said, "I am having a really good day!"  It's amazing what interactive learning can inspire.

At Miss Sue and Mrs. Palmer's center the children  cut out the letter "o." They then glued it onto a piece of paper.  Next they drew on a face.  Lastly, they finger painted eight tentacles on their "o" to make it an octopus.  At my center the children journaled about an animal that lives in the ocean.