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. 

Story:  The story I selected for today was The Night Worker by Georg Hallensleben.  Alex's dad works at night.  He is an engineer for a construction company.  One night, Alex's dad surprises him by taking him to work with him.  Alex gets to see all of the equipment on the job site.  He helps drive a loader and work the levers that move the bucket up and down. 

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
I was very impressed with the cutting skills that I observed this week.  While several children told me that they couldn't do it, they all persisted and did very well!

Large Group:  The children made lemonade using lemon presses (levers).  The children squeezed the lemon juice into a bowl.  We added the juice to a pitcher of water and added sugar.  After tasting it, we added more sugar until it was just about right.  I wanted to take pictures to share, but we were a little short staffed today, so I didn't have an empty hand.

Snacks:  The morning class had grapes, muffins, and juice brought by Angel.  The afternoon class had apples and milk brought by Charlie.  Thank you!

Group Meeting: We're looking at levers this week and have been trying to demonstrate as many as possible.

Story:  Our story for today was Whose Tool are These? by Sharon Katz Cooper.  In this book, the children look at the tools on the page to determine what kind of worker would use those tools.  For example, we saw a stethoscope for a doctor and a scissors and blow dryer for a hairdresser.

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 were given various examples of levers to experiment with.  They used tongs, clothes pins, a balance scale, and the Stomp Boards.  I've posted a few pictures below.

Snacks:  The morning class had french toast sticks, syrup and juice brought by Andon.  The afternoon class had oyster crackers, cheese sticks, and juice brought by Beckett.  Thank you!

Levers

Group Meeting:  We reviewed what we had learned about inclined planes last week.  This week at the art table, the children may choose to participate in an art project using an inclined plane.   The children will put paper into a cardboard box.  They will squirt small puddles on paint on the paper.  Then, they will add marbles.  The children will tip the box making an inclined plane.  This will cause the marbles to roll through the paint making a beautiful abstract painting.

Painting with inclined planes

Story:  Our story for today was Chicken Chickens by Valeri Gorbachev.  Two little chickens are visiting the park for the first time.  They wander around looking at all of the play equipment.  The other animal children invite them to join them, but they answer "we're just little chickens".  At the slide, two frogs invited them to go down the slide.  One frog says, "don't be chicken chickens".  A kind beaver tells them that it is okay to be frightened.  He helps them by sliding down the slide with them.  After the story, the children discussed that it was not polite to call people names such as "chicken".  They did think that the beaver was a very nice friend in offering to help them slide.  Ask your child to name the inclined plane in the story.  We also found a lever.  Can you guess what it was?

Small Groups:  The activities for this week are listed below along with the schedule for today.
Activity #1 (Red Group) The children used scissors to cut a circle.  Then, they followed the spiral on the circle to make a snake.   This is a good fine motor exercise.
Activity #2  (Yellow Group)  The children used primary colors of paint to explore mixing colors.  After they had mixed them, they added white and black to see what would happen.
Activity #3  (Green Group)  The children played a game with rhyming words.  They were given cards with four pictures.  Three of the four pictures rhymed, one did not.   They had to identify the picture that did not rhyme.

Large Group:  We are learning about levers.  I gave them a description of a lever along with a demonstration of a few levers.   We will explore levers all week.  The children used our Stomp Boards as levers to launch bean bags into the air.

Stomp Boards as levers

Snacks:  The morning class had graham crackers, frosting, and juice brought by Adde.  The afternoon class had cheese sticks, carrots, ranch dip, and juice brought by Ashlyn.  Thank you!

Group Meeting: We have had finger painting at the art table this week.  During group meeting time, we displayed some of the pictures and encouraged those who have not tried it to do so today.  Next week, we will try marble painting.

Story:  Our story for today was Roll, Slope and Slide by Michael Dahl.  This book describes the different kinds, uses, and benefits of inclined planes and ramps such as skateboard ramps, slides, ramps on animal trailers, ramps on the sidewalks, etc.  Ask your child to look in the bathroom for an inclined plane that helps the water run down the drain.

Small Groups:  Our small group activities are listed in Tuesday'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 workbook page for the letter S.  The Yellow Group brought items for Show and Tell.

Snacks:  The morning class had blueberry muffins and juice brought by Topher.  The afternoon class had Goldfish and juice brought by Addison.  Thank you!

Next week, we will be learning about levers!