Group Meeting: Today was birthday day. We will make our snack and celebrate the January birthdays with brownies at snack time.
Story: Our story for today was How Do You Lift a Lion? by Robert E. Wells. This story describes how we can use levers, wheels, and pulleys to do work. The children in the story use a lever to lift a lion, wheels to pull a panda on a pallet, and pulleys to lift a basket of bananas to a baboon birthday party. The text uses scientific terms such as gravity, friction, and force. While the children might not be able to understand all of these words right now, they are becoming familiar with the vocabulary of simple machines.
Small Groups: The children made pizza for a snack. They used English muffins, pizza sauce, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. We baked them in the oven for 14 minutes.
Large Group: The children completed the G page in their workbooks. The red group brought items for show and tell.
Snacks: The children had pizza, juice, and birthday brownies.
We will not have preschool classes on Monday due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Group Meeting: Since the first day of school, we have been adding a sticker to a 10 frame chart to help us count how many days we have been in school. We count by ones and by tens. Today, we reached day 64. The year is flying by!
Story: Our story for today was The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza retold by Philomen Sturges. In this variation of the story we had yesterday, the Little Red Hen is making a pizza. Again, she asks her friends for help in buying the ingredients and assembling the pizza, but no one will help her. When the pizza is finished, everyone wants a slice. Will the Little Red Hen share? What did the friends do for the Little Red Hen at the end of the story? Ask your child to tell you.
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 played "Jump the River". We placed two jump ropes on the floor parallel to each other. We pretended that in between the ropes was a raging river. The children had to run and jump over the river and not get their feet wet. We started with a small stream and moved up to a wide river. When the river got too wide, we added stepping stones and a bridge. We had lots of running, leaping, and balancing going on!
Snacks: The morning class had cottage cheese and juice brought by Owen. The afternoon class had pumpkin bread and milk brought by Simon. Thank you!
Story: Our story for today was The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza retold by Philomen Sturges. In this variation of the story we had yesterday, the Little Red Hen is making a pizza. Again, she asks her friends for help in buying the ingredients and assembling the pizza, but no one will help her. When the pizza is finished, everyone wants a slice. Will the Little Red Hen share? What did the friends do for the Little Red Hen at the end of the story? Ask your child to tell you.
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 played "Jump the River". We placed two jump ropes on the floor parallel to each other. We pretended that in between the ropes was a raging river. The children had to run and jump over the river and not get their feet wet. We started with a small stream and moved up to a wide river. When the river got too wide, we added stepping stones and a bridge. We had lots of running, leaping, and balancing going on!
Snacks: The morning class had cottage cheese and juice brought by Owen. The afternoon class had pumpkin bread and milk brought by Simon. Thank you!
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Group Meeting: We reviewed the simple machines that we discussed yesterday. The children have a note in their backpacks about this study.
Story: Today, I read the Little Red Hen, retold by Bonnie Dobkin. This is the classic story about a little red hen that lives with a cat, a dog, and a goose. The red hen finds a bag of wheat seeds. Will her friends help her plant the wheat so that they can make bread? Will they help her cut the wheat, take it to the miller, and use the flour to make bread? Will they want to eat the bread? Ask your child to tell you how it ends. Also, ask your child to tell you what reasons each animal gives for not wanting to help her.
Small Groups: The activities for small groups 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: After reading the story, the children used masks to retell the story. The masks will be placed in the story area tomorrow so that they can retell it again, if they'd like.
Snacks: The morning class had yogurt and juice brought by Mason. The afternoon class had strawberries and juice brought by Elliott. Thank you!
Story: Today, I read the Little Red Hen, retold by Bonnie Dobkin. This is the classic story about a little red hen that lives with a cat, a dog, and a goose. The red hen finds a bag of wheat seeds. Will her friends help her plant the wheat so that they can make bread? Will they help her cut the wheat, take it to the miller, and use the flour to make bread? Will they want to eat the bread? Ask your child to tell you how it ends. Also, ask your child to tell you what reasons each animal gives for not wanting to help her.
Small Groups: The activities for small groups 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: After reading the story, the children used masks to retell the story. The masks will be placed in the story area tomorrow so that they can retell it again, if they'd like.
Snacks: The morning class had yogurt and juice brought by Mason. The afternoon class had strawberries and juice brought by Elliott. Thank you!
Monday, January 9, 2017
A New Study
Group Meeting: We are going to be starting a new study this week. We will be learning about simple machines. A note will be going home with the children tomorrow explaining what the study will be about and how you can help.
Story: Our story for today was Tap, Tap, Bang, Bang by Emma Garcia. This is a picture book of tools and the sounds that they make. The tools were working together to make something. Ask your child to tell you what it was.
Small Groups: The groups are back! These are the activities and the schedule for this week.
Activity #1 (red group) The children were introduced to 3 dimensional shapes. They passed around a sphere, cube, cylinder, pyramid, and cone. After they identified them all, we used a game on the Promethean board to sort items according to their 3 dimensional shape.
Activity #2 (yellow group) The children took a scoop of buttons, guessed how many were in the scoop, and counted how many after dumping them on a tray. They compared how many were in each scoop.
Activity #3 (green group) The children played a game called "Oh No!". The children took turns reaching into a surprise box to pull out a capital letter card. They were asked to identify the letter and it's sound. They kept the card until they pulled out a card that said "oh no!" Then they had to return all of their letter cards.
Large Group: I introduced the new study of Simple Machines. We defined a machine as something that does work. A simple machine needs a person to provide the power. We looked a various items that I had that are considered simple machines such as a scissors, tongs, screwdriver, pizza cutter, nutcracker, pliers, etc.
Snacks: The morning class had cheese, crackers, pepperoni, and juice brought by Kolsyn. The afternoon class had blueberries, granola cereal, and milk brought by Paxton. Thank you!
Story: Our story for today was Tap, Tap, Bang, Bang by Emma Garcia. This is a picture book of tools and the sounds that they make. The tools were working together to make something. Ask your child to tell you what it was.
Small Groups: The groups are back! These are the activities and the schedule for this week.
Activity #1 (red group) The children were introduced to 3 dimensional shapes. They passed around a sphere, cube, cylinder, pyramid, and cone. After they identified them all, we used a game on the Promethean board to sort items according to their 3 dimensional shape.
Activity #2 (yellow group) The children took a scoop of buttons, guessed how many were in the scoop, and counted how many after dumping them on a tray. They compared how many were in each scoop.
Activity #3 (green group) The children played a game called "Oh No!". The children took turns reaching into a surprise box to pull out a capital letter card. They were asked to identify the letter and it's sound. They kept the card until they pulled out a card that said "oh no!" Then they had to return all of their letter cards.
Large Group: I introduced the new study of Simple Machines. We defined a machine as something that does work. A simple machine needs a person to provide the power. We looked a various items that I had that are considered simple machines such as a scissors, tongs, screwdriver, pizza cutter, nutcracker, pliers, etc.
Snacks: The morning class had cheese, crackers, pepperoni, and juice brought by Kolsyn. The afternoon class had blueberries, granola cereal, and milk brought by Paxton. Thank you!
Thursday, January 5, 2017
Group Meeting: During group meeting, I read the story The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. It is the story of Peter who discovers that while he was sleeping it has been snowing. He puts on his snow suit and heads outside to play. Following the story, we looked at the pictures that Keats created for this story. During small group, the children took blue paper and chalk to create their own snow pictures.
Story: At story time, I read Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Bruhner. A boy notices that the snowman he built yesterday looks a little different today. His hat is slipping and his arms are drooping. He wonders what has happened. He imagines that the snowman comes alive at night and ventures to the park to play with other snowmen. Ask your child to tell you some of the things that the snow people do in the park.
Small Groups: See Group Meeting
Large Group: The children experimented with ice. At the beginning of school, I filled little paper cups with water. We placed the cups outside. At the end of the day, we brought them in to discover that the water had turned to ice. We tore off the paper cups so that we could experiment with the ice. First, we dropped two colors of liquid watercolor on the ice. Then we sprinkled the ice with salt. We watched to see what would happen. Ask your child to tell you about the colors and textures of the ice.
Snacks: Because I was gone for two days, I'm going to list the snack people and their snacks for the whole week.
Tuesday-AM Jaxson brought grapes, crackers, and juice, PM Libby brought Nutrigrain bars and milk
Wednesday- AM Jocelyn brought Goldfish and juice, PM Mia brought crackers, peanut butter, raisins, and milk
Thursday-AM Kai brought granola bars and juice, PM Nora brought Scooby snacks and juice
Thank you, all!
Story: At story time, I read Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Bruhner. A boy notices that the snowman he built yesterday looks a little different today. His hat is slipping and his arms are drooping. He wonders what has happened. He imagines that the snowman comes alive at night and ventures to the park to play with other snowmen. Ask your child to tell you some of the things that the snow people do in the park.
Small Groups: See Group Meeting
Large Group: The children experimented with ice. At the beginning of school, I filled little paper cups with water. We placed the cups outside. At the end of the day, we brought them in to discover that the water had turned to ice. We tore off the paper cups so that we could experiment with the ice. First, we dropped two colors of liquid watercolor on the ice. Then we sprinkled the ice with salt. We watched to see what would happen. Ask your child to tell you about the colors and textures of the ice.
Snacks: Because I was gone for two days, I'm going to list the snack people and their snacks for the whole week.
Tuesday-AM Jaxson brought grapes, crackers, and juice, PM Libby brought Nutrigrain bars and milk
Wednesday- AM Jocelyn brought Goldfish and juice, PM Mia brought crackers, peanut butter, raisins, and milk
Thursday-AM Kai brought granola bars and juice, PM Nora brought Scooby snacks and juice
Thank you, all!
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Snowmen
While my daughter's surgery went very well yesterday, she ended up staying in the hospital overnight for observation. So, Mrs. Hoogheem will be leading the class for one more day. I'm glad that I could take these days off for Renee, I really miss the kids and am anxious to get back. I'm posting the plans for today.
Group Meeting: The children are starting new journals today. You may have noticed in December that the directions were getting a little more complex on some of the pages. I will be giving a few more "helps" this month for anyone who needs a little more direction.
Story: The story for today is Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. In this story, a family is making snow people in the yard and are decorating them with items from around the house. It is fun to look at the pictures to see all of the different items that they use.
Small Groups: The children will be learning about how animals adapt to the winter weather using the Lets Find Out magazine.
Large Group: Following the story, the children will glue 3 paper snowballs onto a blue piece of paper. They will take it home to decorate with help from their family.
Snacks: I'll have to update the snacks tomorrow.
Group Meeting: The children are starting new journals today. You may have noticed in December that the directions were getting a little more complex on some of the pages. I will be giving a few more "helps" this month for anyone who needs a little more direction.
Story: The story for today is Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. In this story, a family is making snow people in the yard and are decorating them with items from around the house. It is fun to look at the pictures to see all of the different items that they use.
Small Groups: The children will be learning about how animals adapt to the winter weather using the Lets Find Out magazine.
Large Group: Following the story, the children will glue 3 paper snowballs onto a blue piece of paper. They will take it home to decorate with help from their family.
Snacks: I'll have to update the snacks tomorrow.
Monday, January 2, 2017
Back to school!
I am writing this blog a day ahead of time. I will be absent from school on the first day back from Christmas vacation, Jan. 3rd. My daughter is having neck surgery tomorrow in Iowa City. If all goes as expected, I will be back on Wednesday, Jan. 4th. So, I am posting the plans for tomorrow. Mrs. Hoogheem will be in charge, so I'm sure everything will go just as planned.
Group Meeting: The children will be given a chance to share stories from the holidays. This will lead to our small group activity for the day.
Story: The story for today was Sadie and the Snowman, by Allen Morgan. For a whole winter, Sadie builds and rebuilds a snowman who becomes her very special friend, but it always melts. At the end of the winter, she manages to save just a little bit of her snowman for next year.
Small Groups: This week, we will be doing small groups together. Today, the children will draw pictures of what they remember about Christmas in their journals. The teachers will help them print words if they would like to add narration.
Large Group: In today's story, Sadie's snowman's face is made from various food items; crackers for eyes, a banana for the mouth, an apple for the nose, etc. Animals come along and steal these items to eat. Because we know that animals have a hard time finding food during the winter, the children will be making bird feeders using pipe cleaners and Cheerios.
Snacks: I'll have to add the snacks on Tuesday. The snack children are Jaxson and Libby.
Group Meeting: The children will be given a chance to share stories from the holidays. This will lead to our small group activity for the day.
Story: The story for today was Sadie and the Snowman, by Allen Morgan. For a whole winter, Sadie builds and rebuilds a snowman who becomes her very special friend, but it always melts. At the end of the winter, she manages to save just a little bit of her snowman for next year.
Small Groups: This week, we will be doing small groups together. Today, the children will draw pictures of what they remember about Christmas in their journals. The teachers will help them print words if they would like to add narration.
Large Group: In today's story, Sadie's snowman's face is made from various food items; crackers for eyes, a banana for the mouth, an apple for the nose, etc. Animals come along and steal these items to eat. Because we know that animals have a hard time finding food during the winter, the children will be making bird feeders using pipe cleaners and Cheerios.
Snacks: I'll have to add the snacks on Tuesday. The snack children are Jaxson and Libby.
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