Group Meeting:  The children are starting to bring their Valentines to school.  Throughout the week, they will take turns putting them into the mailboxes that they have decorated.

Story:  The book that I read today was My Neighbors and Their Simple Machines by Erin Seagraves and Heather Baker.   Ama likes to visit her neighbors to see what kind of work they are doing and what kind of simple machines they are using.  For example,  Mrs. D'Angelo is making bread and cutting it with a knife.  A knife is a wedge.  Mr.Salgado is washing windows.  He is using a pulley to raise and lower himself to reach the windows up above. 
While reading this book, I was pleasantly surprised at the vocabulary words that the children remembered such as inclined plane and fulcrum. 

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 played a game called "Throw the Beanbag to Your Partner".  While the music plays, the children must listen for the words "1, 2, 3, throw the beanbag" before they can throw the beanbag to their partner.  This game is good practice for listening skills and self-regulation skills.

Snacks:  The morning class had cheese sticks, pretzels, and juice brought by Isla.  The afternoon class had muffins and milk brought by Lani.  Thank you!

Tomorrow is Pajama Day!!!

Getting ready for Valentines Day

Group Meeting:  We will be celebrating Valentines Day next Tuesday.  I  like to have the children help plan the party activities so that they have a say in what we eat for snack and play for games.  Today, the children made a list of snack choices and game ideas.  I will be sending home a note asking for a few items that we will need.

Story:  The story for today was Will You Be My Valentine? by Steven Kroll.  At Thomas' preschool, the children select one child for which to make a Valentine.  Thomas has selected Gretchen, and he is happy about that.  Thomas likes everything about Gretchen.  However, Gretchen doesn't like Thomas.  Thomas' mother thinks a play date would be a good way for Gretchen to get to know Thomas.  Ask your child to tell you what Gretchen and Thomas do together to discover that they can be good friends.

Small Groups:  The activities for this week and schedule for today are listed below.
 Activity #1 (Red Group) The children are using paper hearts to measure various Valentine pictures.  They are recording their answers on a corresponding paper that they will be bringing home to share.
Activity #2 (Yellow Group)  The children are making Valentine hearts with paper and liquid watercolor.  The hearts will be taken to Senior Star to give to the residents.
Activity #3  (Green Group)  The children are graphing candy hearts by color.   They are creating a bar graph.

Large Group:  This week, we will be learning about a few more simple machines.  Today, we learned about a pulley.  We discovered that our window shades use a pulley to raise and lower the shade.

Snacks:  The morning class had Chex-mix and juice brought by Hollie.  The afternoon class had Nutrigrain bars, Veggie Straws, and juice brought by Kullen.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  Today is Groundhog Day.  We talked about the legend of the groundhog coming out of his burrow to see his shadow.

Story:  The story for today was Who Will See Their Shadow? by Jerry Pallotta.  The animals are waiting for the groundhog to come out and announce that Spring is coming.  While they wait, they wonder what would happen if they saw their shadow.  The chicken sees her shadow, and it rains.  The polar bear sees his shadow, and it begins to sleet.  The story continues as each animal's shadow brings a different kind of weather.

Small Groups:  The children watched a video about groundhogs.  They learned that groundhogs live in a burrow.  They whistle to each other when they see a predator.  The children looked at the Let's Find Out Magazine about groundhogs.

Large Group:  The children completed the D page in their workbooks.  The Red Group brought show and tell items.

Snacks:  The morning class had graham crackers, cheese sticks, and juice brought by Gus.  The afternoon class had Wheat Thins, grapes, and milk brought by Kennedy.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  I have brought to school a log from our wood pile at home along with some roofing nails and screws.  The children have been having fun with it.  We want to thank Mason's mom for providing the safety goggles.

Story:  The story for today was Lola Loves Stories by Anna McQuinn.  Lola loves to go to the library to borrow books for her parents to read to her.  After hearing the story, Lola likes to pretend that she is like the characters in the books.  After reading this story, the children told us the names of their favorite story books that they liked to hear over and over again. 

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

Large Group:  The children flattened play dough onto the table.  They made impressions of the nails, screws, and bolts that we have in our collection.  They enjoyed it so much that we are going to add this activity to the art table using clay that dries so that they may take it home.

Snacks:  The morning class had graham crackers, cheese sticks, and juice brought by Colin.  The afternoon class had granola bars and juice brought by Journey.  Thank you!

Story:  The story for today was Owen by Kevin Henkes.  Owen has a blanket that he has had since he was a baby.  He takes it everywhere.  His mother and father wonder if he should give up the blanket.  The neighbor next door gives them advice on how to get rid of the blanket.  This makes Owen sad and a little anxious.  With school starting soon, will Owen be able to attend school without his blanket?  Mother has an idea.  Ask your child to tell you what she does to help Owen take his blanket to school. 

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed below.  The schedule for today was:
Activity #1 Yellow Group
Activity #2 Green Group
Activity #3 Red Group

Large Group:  The children got into groups of four children each.  Each group was given a large stretch band.  As I showed the children a picture of a shape, they had figure out a way to make the stretch band into that same shape.  They made a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and rhombus. 

Snacks:  The morning class had football shaped pretzels, carrots, ranch dip, and juice brought by Cael.  The afternoon class had Veggie straws and milk brought by Holden.  Thank you!

Screws are Simple Machines

Group Meeting:  This week we will be learning about screws as simple machines as well as bolts and nails.  We will also learn about the tools that you use with screws and nails.

Story:  Our story for today was Drew the Screw by Mattia Cerato.   Drew is a screw that lives in the workshop.  His friends are tools.  A boy is in the workshop using the tools to build a tree house.  What job will Drew the Screw have?  Ask your child to tell you.

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed below as well as the schedule for today.
Activity #1  (Red Group)The children played a board game in which they had to roll the dice and count the number of squares to move around the board.  If there was a star on the square that they landed on, the picked a dinosaur counter from the box.  When the box was empty, the children counted how many dinosaurs that they had to determine the winner.  
Activity #2 (Yellow Group)  The children cut out monster pictures to place on a picture of a jar using the correct positional words such as above, in and beside.
Activity #3 (Green Group)  The children played the game "Jelly Bean Jump Up".  They took turns pulling lower case alphabet cards out of a box to identify.  If they pulled out a card with a picture of jelly beans on it, they had to shake the jar of jelly beans and say "Jelly Bean Jump Up".  After the game, everyone enjoyed a jelly bean. 

Large Group:  I had screws, bolts, and nails for the children to observe and manipulate.  We learned different ways that screws can be simple machines.  For example, a jar lid and the bottom of a light bulb are screws.

Snacks:  The morning class had waffles, peanut butter, and milk brought by Brogan.  The afternoon class had Goldfish and juice brought by Ellie.  Thank you!

Story:  For our story today, I did a re-read of Dinosaur Woods by George McClements.  We first read this book on Jan. 17th.  The children really liked it, so we read it again.  Perhaps you've found that your children like to read the same books over and over again.  This is good for beginning reading skills.  I hope you find time to read to your child every day.

Small Groups:  The children learned about animals that live in the Arctic with our "Let's Find Out" magazines.  Scholastic provides videos to enrich this learning activity.  We watched a few of them to learn about polar bears and walrus. 

Large Group:  The children completed the workbook page for the letter J.  The Green Group brought items for show and tell.

Snacks:  The morning class had cheese sticks, crackers, and juice brought by Ben.  The afternoon class had Bagel Bites and milk brought by Ella.  Thank you!

Next week, we will be learning about screws, bolts, nuts, and nails as our study of simple machines continues.