Dates to remember

Tuesday is Hat day.  Have each child wear a hat please. 

 I don't want anyone to feel left out.

Wednesday is egg hunt and 

banana splits.

First week of April

Week 1

The Book

We will be reading Jennie’s Hat. We

will discuss how birds build nests, why

different types of hats are needed,

the “short i” sound, and the number

“17”. We will create paper plate hats,

make sun visors and newspaper hats,

and make bagel bird

feeders for our

feathered friends.

The Song

“Hats”

(Tune of "Frere Jacques")

H-A-T-S

H-A-T-S

That spells hats.

That spells hats.

Everybody wears them

Everybody wears them

When they're cold.

When they're cold.

*Sing again, replacing the last two lines with other reasons people wear hats

(to protect their heads, to shade their eyes, to keep them warm, etc.)

Printing Skills

Pre-Printing Skills Practice

Age Rating

All children develop as individuals.  Parents and caregivers should use the age ratings below as a general guideline, taking the abilities, temperament and interests of their children into account.  

• Ages 4-5   Good exercise for children just starting to print their letters. 
                   Gives a feeling of success to kindergarten students nervous about printing.
    
• Age 3      Straight, zig zag and curved lines are all appropriate to practice at Age 3. 
                  Encourage tracing from left to right.
    
• Age 2      Focus mainly on straight lines.
                  Encourage them to draw their line from left to right to mimic the process of printing from left to right.

http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/dynamic.htm

Easter Art

Egg Painting

A friend gave me some paper mache
Easter eggs.  The kids dipped
 them in paint and decorated
their paper. 

Literacy/Math

http://www.fuzzimo.com/free-hi-res-wooden-scrabble-letter-tiles/








Although the above looks like it may have taken a long time to do, in reality it took less than 15 minutes and all you need is some masking tape.  I taped these while my almost two year old played next to me.

How to use your new ABC floor circle. 

• Have child run around it.  Call out a letter (or letter sound, or a word and ask for beginning or ending letter of that word).  Child stops on letter called. This is a great way to burn energy on a rainy day.
• Pair with ABC bean bags (or foam letters or even ABC magnets if you don't have bean bags). Give child (or have him choose) a bean bag and have him match it to the letter on the floor.
• Pair phonetic objects (remember these two lessons?) for child to match beginning consonant sound to the correct floor letter. 
• At circle time (because, you now have a circle for circle time) have the child sit on a particular letter.  Practice sitting still on a letter.  Don't wiggle over to the next letter!

The ideas are from http://ourcountryroad.blogspot.com/2011/07/letter-e-preschool-and-kindergarten.html



I put some glitter paint into zip lock bags for Master 4 to practice writing his numbers. When teaching numbers I find children respond really well if they are able to touch and feel numbers and make numbers in different textures.


http://rhymetime4kids.blogspot.com/2010/08/easy-ways-to-teach-numbers-counting.html

What is on the farm?

We are reading the book Hattie and the Fox.

The kids drew a pictures about things on a farm.

 Don't you love Caroline's dinosaur.  It was so creative.

 Click on her picture and read the story.

They then told me about their picture.

ABC'S and 123'S

I borrowed this idea from www.TotallyTots.blogspot.com

Try this at home with your preschoolers

This letter sort “game,” as Juliette referred to it was a big hit.  Sorting the letters is a great way to talk about the letters and the sounds that they make while focusing on the shape of each letter and how it looks. 

To set up the activity I picked a few letters to focus on, in this example we were working with the first five letters of the alphabet.  Then I went to my bin of Magnetic Letters and took out all the letters we were going to work with and placed them in a little basket.  Then I wrote each letter on a piece of colored construction paper to create letter mats for Juliette to sort the Magnetic Letters onto.

Most little kids LOVES stickers.  They usually sit and makes pictures by sticking them onto the paper. Help them to show you things that are the same and play matching.  Try a matching activity with ABC stickers. 

First, make an Alphabet Grid with the letters from A-Z 

Next, pick out a set of ABC stickers and cut them apart so that you have 26 letter stickers.

You can have them just match the stickers up.  Also try making it more like a game. Kids love games.

 

"Juliette started by the grid and ran to the basket, picked a sticker and brought it back.  We talked about the letter and the sound that it made then she found it on the grid and covered it with the new colorful sticker."

Juliette loved being able to run to the letters, we counted 1,2,3 go and then she would run to get another sticker.  You could also have your child skip, hop or jump to get the stickers too. 

After about 6 letters she was tired and we took a break, then we did a few more later in the day at her request!

This activity ended up packing in a lot of great skills in a very fun way.  We practiced letter sounds, letter names, fine motor skills, gross motor skills and matching.

Little Hands-on ABC’s and 123’s is a bi-monthly feature that focuses on practical and simple ideas that you can do at home to help your tot develop their letter and number skills.

What is up for April?

Don't forget the Easter Egg Hunt is Wednesday April 4th. 
 Please send a dozen  filled plastic Easter Eggs.
Each child will need a basket to put eggs in.  If you 
don't have one let me know.


I have decided we are going to have banana splits that day.
I will provide the Ice Cream.
Please choose one of the following to send with your child.
Send me an email, so I will know what your child would like to bring.


Bananas  Jayden
Cherries - Kalel
Choc. Syrup - Ansaly
Crushed pineapple - Jett & Aralynn
Strawberries or topping - Rayne
Can whipped cream - Ansaly
Nuts - Landon
Styro - foam bowls - 


I do not know how many parents have looked around the playroom.  Here are a few things we are doing.

 We work on the calendar each day.  

We talk about the Month, day of the week and the day.

The kids will need to comprehend today,

 yesterday and tomorrow.

For example today was Wednesday, yesterday was Tuesday and tomorrow will be Thursday.

They don't have it down yet but  repetition is what works.

 We talk about the time and what time we do things.

 This is the alphabet we work with on a daily basis.

 They can feel the letter when they trace them.  

I am going to start sending some of 

these types of letters home; for the letters

we will be learning each month.

 We work on name recognition and printing their name.

These things are done during circle time.

This week we are reading Hattie and the Fox.   

Lesson plans for next week (April)
I added a few things from the curriculum so you can see what we are working on.



Books of the Month:
 Jennie’s Hat by Jack Ezra Keats
 Goggles by Jack Ezra Keats
 Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
 The Rain Came Down by David Shannon
Curriculum Content:
Letters: short i, short o, short u, review
Numbers: 17, 18
Shape: Oval
Color: Yellow
 Number 6



Good Morning Boogie

Hello Neighbor, what do you say?
(Children bow to each other)
It's going to be a happy day.
(Children clap hands together)
So greet your neighbor,
(Children give each other high fives)
And boogie on down.
(Children wiggle their hips)
Give 'em a bump,(Children bump their hips together)
and turn around.
(Children turn around)



Shared Reading - We do thing in "Circle Time"


Shared reading is a time for you to “share” a picture book with your children/class. During this time, the children will focus on the pictures in the book and they will actively listen to the story.


During Shared Reading Experiences
children learn...
 How to make predictions
 How to actively listen
 How to participate in discussions
 Many different concepts about print
(including the following terms: author,
illustrator, title, cover, back and spine of
the book, title page, etc.)
 New vocabulary words
 Sequencing the events of a story
 Story elements (including characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end)

Herriet and the Fox

We have been a little slow getting started this week.  

We are reading a book called

 "Harriet and the fox"

by Mem Fox.

We have been talking about the parts of the book.

The cover, the spine and the back.

We discuss the author and the illustrator.

The letter this week is Ee.

Today we used shaving cream, Acrylic paint, 

paper egg shapes and a squeegie to make

shaving cream eggs.

They love playing in the shaving cream.