Books

Addie brought home three awesome books from her preschool through and early steps program 'Raising a Reader'. We've read them so many times, Addie's favorite is Where is Bear by Leslea Newman. 

This is a cute story about forest animals that are playing a game of hide and seek. The rhyming and simplicity of the story make it an easy and fun read. It also is very sweet too as it talks about working together and taking care of friends. 

The second book is: My Granny Went to Market by Stella Blackstone

Another great story for counting and rhyming. It takes readers around the globe to different countries for a little glimps of life. 

The third story is What Time Is It, Mr. Crocodile? By Judy Sierra. Another great rhyming story and an introduction to telling time. 

Self portraits

Today Addie and I made matman. Matman is from the curriculum Hand Writing Without Tears. I used this activity and song while teaching in my preschool classroom. It is amazing to see the difference in their self-portraits after teaching them this song and using the pieces to build him.

Book review

We got Dog's Colorful Day by Emma Dodd from our local library this past week, well several weeks ago, and Addie and I have enjoyed reading the story as well as giving Dog colorful spots and the wiping him clean. It is a good story for learning colors, retelling the story, and jut good fun.

Flower Life Cycle

In our theme of Growing and Changing, I decided to focus on the flowers lifecycle as well as parts of the flower. The girls each colored and sequenced pictures of a flower that grew from a seed to sprouting and then growing into a flower. 

As you can tell he is really into purple right now. :-) 

We read the book Sunflower Life Cycle  by Jeff Bouter.  It is perfect for showing pictures of each stage. 

We also told the story of Jack in the beanstalk. It was a very short story but we used little props and pretended to plant a seed. I feel like we could have gone a lot further into the story and planted our own seeds and over the next two weeks watch them grow in little windowsill plastic bag planters. Maybe that will be an activity for just me and Addie. 

Then we decided to focus on parts of the flower; we talked about the roots, stem, leaves, and the flower petals. The girls made two pictures. The first picture was placing pieces of the flower in order to create a whole picture. 

The second picture I had them paint glue and use pieces of tissue paper to decorate their flower. These look especially nice hanging in the window. 

We also learned three new songs that taught us all about flowers. 

The Seed Song 

Seeds are planted deep deep deep 

In the ground they sleep sleep sleep Yellow sunshine bright bright bright Raindrops falling light light quite 

Gentle breezes blow up blow blow 

Seeds begin to grow grow grow and grow and grow and grow and grow. Song to the tune of twinkle twinkle little star. 

Flower Garden 

The farmer plants the seeds 

The farmer plants the seeds

 Hi ho and Merry-O

The farmer plants the seeds. 

 

Sung to the tune of the farmer in the Dell the following verses are as follows. 

The rain begins to fall… 

The sun begins to shine… 

The plants begin to grow…

The buds all open up… 

The corn is growing high… 

The farmer picks the corn… 

The farmer eats the corn…

Plant a Little Seed 

Plant a little seed in the dark dark ground. 

Outcomes the warm sun yellow and round. 

Down comes the cool rain wet and slow. Up comes the little seed grow grow grow. 

Sung to the tune I'm a little teapot. 

Jack and Jill

This morning we stared off by talking about the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill. The girls colored a picture and they each had to trace their name and write it once as well as the words Jill and Hill.

Addie was practicing her lower case e's. For circle time we recited the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill and used felt pieces to retell the story. We then moved on to focus on rhyming words. I was planning on doing a rhyming concentration game but seeing the skill level that the girls were on with rhyming changed my plans to create a matching game. 

Each girl took a turn to choose a card from the bottom pile they then had to identify the picture and find the matching picture with the one on the board. Once they found their match they put it in their own pile. When we were finished they each organized their rhyming pairs into piles. 

We put them back on the board while singing a rhyming song by Dr. Jean. 

For example:

"Whale, tail, these words rhyme 

Whale, tail, these words rhyme

Whale, tail, these words rhyme 

Now let's sing some more"

Sung to the tune: Skip to my Lou

Craft stick Puzzles

These number puzzles are so great! I got the idea/printout from MakeTakeTeach@blogspot.com. She has wonderful products, some are free but mainly I love getting ideas from her blog. It was fairly easy to do and I love that I can put any picture on the craft sticks and use whatever symbols I want on the bottom (numbers, letters, etc.) The ones shown here are print outs from the previously mentioned blog but using a variety of pictures and number if sticks could be a great way to keep kids quietly entertained. 

Addie loved figuring out the puzzle and she used the numbers to help her figure it which stick was next. Great for those counting skills. 

Luke on the other hand liked destroying the puzzle and of course eating the puzzle. 

Preschool- Vegetables

Picture search: I spy. 

 Told the story of Stone Soup with flannel storyboard pieces. Each child cut out pictures if vegetables and glued them to their own black pot.

We made play dough and the girls used it to create their own salads. I gave them plastic knives and plates and let them have at it. By then end they were creating cakes, but I guess cake is tastier than salad.