On to April in Pre-K!

Hi All,

Important information for the upcoming week: 

• Please make sure to continue to send a coat, hat and mittens to school EVERYDAY. As we know, New England weather varies day to day....often throughout the day... where our morning recess is cold and when we dismiss it is warm. 

• Show & Tell for Letter N will be on Thursday.

The week went by quickly in our classroom. All of the children were very busy during Center Time. 

We began a new Reading Street Unit, Who Lives Here? Our first book in this unit was Sweet Dreams, How Animals Sleep by Kimiko Kajikawa. "In rhythmic words and affecting pictures, this inviting picture book introduces young children to a world of sleeping creatures. Some animals like bats, sleep upside down, while others like the koalas and lions, snore up in trees." We talked about how and where the different animals sleep. And where and how we all sleep too. The children enjoyed this book so much. After our first read through of this book, I would name the animal and the children would show how it sleeps before I actually showed the picture in the book. 

Our Reading Street Song was Where Are You Sleeping? The vocabulary words this week were doze, float, hang, koalas, rest and sloths. 

Our Letter of the Week was M. Our Letter Sound Song was Merry Mama Mouse and Gramma Mole. 

We also read Oh My Gosh, Mrs. McNosh! by Sarah Weeks, Mind Your Manners by Nicola Edwards and Pete The Cat Big Easter Adventure by James Dean. 

Other activities included: 

Art Easel: We started the week with an egg outline and watercolors for the children to create their own beautiful egg. Then we switched to tempera paint. The children could choose to decorate their egg with this paint or use cardboard to smear the paint once they were done. There was much excitement as they watched what happened as they smeared the paint horizontally and vertically. Many children decide to cut out their own eggs the following day once they dried.

Pretend Center: You may have heard our Pretend Center is now a doctor's office. Complete with babies, a doctor's desk, lab coats, scrubs and instruments to check the patients. This was very popular!

Play Doh: Green play doh, spring cookie cutters, scissors and plastic eggs.

Listening Center: Don't Worry, Hugless Douglas by David Melling

Discovery Table: Unifix cubes and animal patterns.

Math Table: M is for money....dollar bills and coins were available 

Blocks: There was the addition of a giant marble run for the children to build and test out. 

Project Table: At the beginning of the week,  the children were coming by this table for free art. They were able to draw anything they wanted. I also began to have meetings with the children for assessments. 

Plastic eggs were available to turn into whatever the children wanted. Some children created bunnies while others turned the egg into family members by adding a face and hair. 

Bunny Jumpers were created. The children decorated a cup to look like a bunny, then added a rubber band on the bottom and another cup. By pushing down on the top cup their bunny hopped.

Bunny faces were also created on construction paper by using markers and stickers.

Sensory Table: Kinetic Sand with tools and molds

Writing Table: M worksheets, paper, shape punchers and scissors.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Kelley