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**** Upcoming Dates****

  • April 5 and April 9 No Early Childhood
  • April 23-- No Early Childhood Session
  • April 23- Big Wheels 5-7PM
  • May 17- Last Day of Early Childhood

Monday, February 27, 2012

February 27-March 1 Read Aloud


Target Concepts: 
  • Rote Counting to 20 (when Lulu is waiting for the monkeys to hide)
  • Finding Details in the illustrations (looking for the hidden monkeys on the page)
  • Using concept vocabulary (under, in, behind, beside, etc) to describe to friends where the hidden monkey is at)
  • Prediction- Where will the monkeys hide next?
  • Rhyming- I will point out rhyming words in the sentences as I read. 

Monkey-ing Around!

I love the 5 Little Monkeys!  They remind me of my little friends :}  This week we will have some fun continuing our "author" unit.  We will be reading books by Eileen Christelow this week and maybe next! 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Read Alouds 2/21-2/23

We read this story in November but are bringing it back for the week.  We are talking about the author (the person who wrote the words" this week.  We will be looking at how Eric Carle books are similar. 

This is a new story for the group.  The text is very similar to that of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See" in many ways.  However, there are really unique animals in this book that we will learn about. 

Target Vocabulary: (It seems like a lot but some animals have been introduced before)
Panda Bear, Water Buffalo, Bald Eagle, Spider Monkey, Sea Turtle, Macaroni Penguin, Sea Lion, Red Wolf, Whooping Crane, Black Panther

We are also reviewing the sense of sight this week. 

We Love Eric Carle

This week we will be reading stories by Eric Carle and talking about how they are the same. 

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Pancakes Read Alouds


We will start reading books about pancakes for the next week.  Since we do not have school Wednesday we will begin the 4 day read alouds tomorrow.  We will read about Curious George making pancakes, the pig that was given a pancake and wanted more and more and more, and a fun story that does not have any words-just pictures. 


This is a really fun book!  It has only pictures.  The children get to look at the pictures and help me write the words to go with them.  I can't wait to see what they come up with... it is always fun!   :}

Pancakes.  Hmmmm...  I wonder if there is a cooking experience in the plan for next week... 

Pancakes, Pancakes, Pancakes!


My afternoon crew is so sweet and creative!  They helped me organize our "pancake" counter area.  We have a mixing bowl, measuring cups, griddle, fruit, and pancakes marked with the letter P!  There are even some burnt ones in the pan.  My little friends reminded me that we needed "syrup" for the pancakes.  OOPS!  I need to find a few empty boxes of pancake mix and empty syrup bottles to add to this center.  Guess what my family is going to have for dinner tonight!  :}

Tip:  Children love pretend play!  Don't be afraid to put a tablecloth on the table, some bowls and spoons, mixing cups, and empty boxes.  I bet they would play for a really long time! 

Sharks Galore!


We have finished our shark unit for this year.  The children had a lot of fun with it and learned lots!  :}

I talked to the PM group today about sharks and it was so fun to listen to the things that they knew about sharks.  It was also really fun to hear both groups using words like "pretend" "fake" or "real" to describe the books that we were reading.  We will continue to work on the vocabulary of "fiction and nonfiction" in the upcoming weeks. 


Fun With Math!


This is a really fun math activity that our preschoolers have a lot of fun with.  I have made this game from a cute notepad/shaped post it notes.  I put numbers on the fish sheets then laminated them so they last (lots of little fingers wear them out fast!).  I have a bucket of ocean animals to put on these fish shapes.  Children learn to recognize the written number, count objects to that number, and learn that a number means something.  Oh!!  The most important part...  it is FUN :)

I have several of these games.  I find a lot of the little pieces at the dollar store or Walmart/Target clearance.  One of the favorites here is putting mice (rats from Halloween) on a chunk of cheese (a piece of yellow paper cut into the shape of cheese). You can make some of these at home using buttons or beads(be careful of choking), plastic spoons, pennies, etc.  Anything can be used for this.  


It is really easy to do this at home as well!

Friday, February 3, 2012

February 6-9 Read Alouds

We are going to be reading 2 very different books again this week.  We will have one book that is fiction and one that is non-fiction.  We will continue talking about how these books are different and that we can learn a lot of really fun things when we read non-fiction books!






Afternoon Group Learned About Sharks

The afternoon group brainstormed things they thought they knew about sharks. 

1) Big Mouth
2) They have a thing that goes on top of its head
3) eat fish
4) eat people
5) has a tail
6) grow babies
7) they have teeth
8) they live in the ocean
9) they have cheeks and can eat piggies
10) they bite so fast.

We have only met twice so I will report on things that they have learned next week...  Stay tuned :)

Measuring


We measured how long sharks can grow to be.  We found out that girl sharks are usually bigger than boy sharks and that they can both be really big!!!

Morning Group Learned About Sharks!

Before we read our "Amazing Sharks" book this week we brainstormed what we thought we knew about sharks.  Here is what the children said:

1) Eat fish
2) they splash in the water
3) sharks have long teeth
4) bears get mad at sharks
5) they eat fish with their sharp teeth
6) they can swim in the water

At the end of the week, this is what the children said:
1) they can eat fish when they are hungry
2) sharks can eat pups (NOTE: baby sharks are called pups.. sometimes sharks will eat pups)
3) they eat fish and sea lions and get big and strong
4)they are predators-they hunt
5) they are as long as my dad's truck
6) if you throw things in the ocean sharks can die.  (we talked about littering, recycling, etc.)
7) shark babies are called pups. 

It is so fun to see the learning that takes place over a week! 

Sharks!

This week we read 2 books about sharks.  One book was pretend or "fiction" and the other was about real sharks "nonfiction"

We talked about the differences about the books during the week and learned that we can usually tell a book is pretend if it has animals wearing clothes or doing things that people do.  We found out that we can learn things from non fiction books.