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.

Group Meeting:  I brought a recycle bag today to show some items that can be reused or recycled.  We talked about reusing grocery bags and taking cloth bags to the store.

Story:  We watched another installment of "The Lorax".  We should be able to finish it tomorrow.  We have had some great discussions every day with this movie.  Be sure to take a few minutes to ask your child about how the characters were feeling at the end today.

Small Groups:  We went to the Outdoor Classroom.  We needed a little time to run around :)  It's fun to watch them run and scream with smiles on their faces.

Large Group:  The children used the wet, dry, try boards to make the letter Z.

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

A New Study

Group Meeting:  This week, we will be starting a study on Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.  The children have a note in their backpacks today to explain our goals.

Story:  Yesterday and today, the children have been watching the movie "The Lorax".  This is an adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book.  It has the same theme, but a lot has been added to the movie.  We are watching this because it leads into a good discussion about caring for our environment. We will continue it tomorrow and may not finish until Thursday.

Small Groups:  Instead of small groups, we looked at a Let's Find Out magazine about garbage.  We watched a video about how garbage is collected and taken to the landfill.  Then, we learned about how we can recycle some of those items so that we don't fill up the landfill so quickly.

Large Group:  "The Lorax" took up most of our large group time today.  If the weather is better tomorrow, we will head outside.  Please send jackets if the weather is cool.

Snacks:  The morning class had pretzels, applesauce, and milk brought by Cael.  The afternoon class had cheese, watermelon, and milk brought by Holden.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  Tonight will be the Art Show.  We talked about what would be happening tonight and what the children will get to do with their families.

Story:  Our story for today was Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss.  This is a book of tongue twisters that Mr. Fox is trying to get Mr. Knox to say.  Tonight at the Art Show, the children will be invited to decorate a sock to hang on Mr. Fox's clothesline.

Small Groups:  The children completed a Let's Find Out Magazine about the parts of a plant. 

Large Group:  The children completed the workbook page for letter Y.  The Yellow Group brought items for Show and Tell.

Snacks:  The morning class had cheese sticks, bananas, and juice brought by Ben.  The afternoon class had strawberry shortcake and milk brought by Ella.  Thank you!

Group Meeting:  We have had a few students bring in Dr. Seuss books from home.   We are happy to read them when we can.  Dr. Seuss wrote over 60 books in his life time.  That's a lot of books!

Story:  The story for today was I Wish That I Had Duck Feet by Dr. Seuss.  In this story, a boy wonders what it would be like to have duck feet, deer antlers, a whale spout, a tiger's tail, etc.  There are good things and bad things about each of those.  In the end, he finds that it's just best to be himself.

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:  Following the story, we listed to a musical selection by Hap Palmer titled "Sammy".  The story in the music matched the Dr. Seuss story that we had just heard.  Sammy is asked to go to the store to buy bread.   He wishes that he were a bird so that he could fly, fish so that he could swim, a bunny so that he could hop, and a bug so that he could crawl.  He discovers at the end that he's glad to be himself walking to the store.  As we played the music again, the children acted out the animal movements.

Snacks:  The morning class had pancakes, watermelon and juice brought by Angel.  The afternoon class had bagels, berry cream cheese, and juice brought by Charlie.  Thank you!