It's almost party time!

Group Meeting:  We have been in school for 129 days.  Tomorrow will be the last.  Both Kindergarten Readiness classes have been very enjoyable for me this year, lots of good kids and lots of good parents.  Thank you so much!

Story:  Our story for today was Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats.  Peter has a new sister.  He notices that his parents have taken his crib and high chair and have painted them pink for her.   He is afraid that they are going to take his favorite chair and paint it pink for her too.  Ask your child to tell what makes Peter change his mind about giving his chair to his sister.

Small Groups:  The children completed a Let's Find Out magazine about ways to say good bye using animal rhymes. 

Large Group:  The children practiced the program for tomorrow one more time.

Snacks:  The morning class had Goldfish and juice brought by Jocelyn.  The afternoon class had muffins and milk brought by Mia.  Thank you!

The Countdown Begins

Group Meeting:  I reviewed the schedule for this week with the children.  Tomorrow is our field trip to the recycling center.  Wednesday will be our last "regular" day.  Thursday will be our party day at the park.  It's supposed to be a beautiful day!

Story:  Our story for today was Sam Helps Recycle by Judith Bauer Stamper.  Maya's dog Sam likes to help with recycling.  As the family collects items for the recycling center, he brings his newspaper from the yard and the water bottle that he was playing with.  However, he notices that his beloved food bowl is sitting on top of the plastic items for recycling.  Ask your child to tell you why?

Large Group:  During small group time, the children practiced the program for the last day of school.  We went to the Outdoor Classroom during Large Group time.

Snacks:  The morning class had granola bars and juice brought by Jackson.  The afternoon class had strawberries, apples, and milk brought by Leslie.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  Our seeds have been growing slowly in our windows for the past two weeks.  We are sending them home today to be put into pots or gardens.  They are green bean plants.

Story:  Our book for today was the non-fiction book Don't Lose It...Reuse It by Nancy Noel Williams.  This book gives children ideas of things that they can do with tubes, boxes, bottles, cans, paper bags, and socks instead of throwing them away.  Some of the ideas were things that the children had already thought to do in our Art Area.  A few new ideas were generated as well.

Small Groups:  We learned about Ladybugs with a Let's Find Out magazine and video.  We learned that Ladybugs go through a metamorphosis similar to butterflies. 

Large Groups:  The children completed the workbook pages for the numerals 7 and 8.

Snacks:  The children made Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Trees using graham crackers, apple slices, grapes, and letter grahams.  I've attached a few photos below.  It was Summer Birthday Day, so we also had birthday brownies. 

Group Meeting:  We have started to count down to the last day of school.  Today, we talked about the schedule for the last day and began to practice the program that we will be performing.

Story:  Our story for today was I Stink by Kate and Jim McMullen.  This is a story narrated by a garbage truck based in New York.  While you are sleeping, the garbage truck is out to eat your trash!  The garbage truck picks up all of the stinky, yucky garbage so that our city stays clean.  Ask your child to tell you about some of the trash that he picked up along the way.

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed in Monday's post.  The schedule for today was:
Activity #1 Green Group
Activity #2 Red Group
Activity #3 Yellow Group

Large Group:  The children completed the pages and numerals 5 and 6 in  their workbooks.  They also practiced some of the songs for our last day program.

Snacks:  The morning class had bread sticks, cheese, and juice brought by Isla.  The afternoon class had Ritz bits with cheese and juice brought by Lani.  Thank you!

Story:  Our story for today was The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch.  Elizabeth is a princess who is going to marry Prince Ronald.  However, a fire breathing dragon destroys her castle, her clothes and takes Ronald to his cave.  Elizabeth puts on the only thing that she can find, which is a paper bag, and sets off to rescue Ronald.  She tricks the dragon and rescues Ronald.  However, Ronald is not grateful to be rescued by a princess wearing a paper bag.  Ask your child to tell you what Princess Elizabeth tells him.

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed in yesterday's post.  The schedule for today was:
Activity #1 Yellow Group
Activity #2 Green Group
Activity #3 Red Group

Large Group:  The children are working on numeral pages in their workbooks.  We also went to the Outdoor Classroom.

Snacks:  The morning class had two kinds of cereal and juice brought by Hollie.  The afternoon class had granola bars and milk brought by Kullen.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  The children were invited to look at the bean seeds that they planted in zip-lock bags last week.  Most of the seeds have begun to grow roots and a few have stems.

Story:  Our story for today was The Adventures of Gary and Harry, the Tale of Two Turtles by Lisa Matsumoto.  Gary and Harry are two turtles who live in the ocean.  They love the ocean life with their friends.  One day, they were looking for something for lunch.  Harry saw jelly fish.  He went to bite one, but it wasn't a jelly fish.  Ask your child to tell you what it was.  This is a good book for learning about pollution in the water ways.

Small Groups:  The activities for this week and the schedule for today are listed below. 
Activity #1 (Red Group) The children are "writing" book reviews on some of the Dr. Seuss books that we have read during the past three weeks.  They are doing this in their journals which will be coming home next week.
Activity #2 (Yellow Group) The children sorted colored Goldfish crackers into groups.  They counted the amount in each of the groups and the sum of all the groups together.
Activity #3  (Green Group) The children played Color and Shape Bingo using 3D shapes.

Large Group:  We finished watching "The Lorax" last week.  Today, we reviewed the story and answered questions as we compared the book to the movie.

Snacks:  The morning class had cheese sticks, Goldfish, and juice brought by Gus.  The afternoon had Chex-mix and juice provided by the preschool.  Queen Kennedy was sick today. 

May Birthday Day

Group Meeting:  We had a lot to do today, so the Green Group did their Show and Tell during Group Meeting time.  This was the last day for Show and Tell.  It's been fun seeing all of the items the children have brought in.

Story:  We finished watching "The Lorax".  It was so much fun for us to see the joy on the children's faces as they saw how this movied ended.  On Monday, we will do a review and compare the book to the movie.  We will also discuss the environmental themes from this story.

Small Group:  For our snack, we made Pigs in a Blanket.  The children rolled out biscuit dough, placed a half of a hot dog in the middle, and rolled the hot dog up in the dough.  We put them in the oven and enjoyed them with ketchup and mustard.

Large Group:  The children went to the Outdoor Classroom.  The morning class had a group of children playing Monkey in the Middle, and the afternoon class had a group playing kick ball.  The weather was perfect.

Snacks:  The children ate the Pigs in a Blanket and had birthday brownies. 

We used the money raised at the Art Show to purchase a wind tunnel.  The children have been enjoying it this week.  Here's a few pictures.