1-2-3 Come Learn With Me!: 2012

Our Christmas Party and Program

Daily Question: Are you excited for Christmas? (No all of the children were excited for Christmas!?)
Toys: Ornaments for our tree and Puzzles

Snack: Apple slices and grapes

Program:
We Wish You a Merry Christmas!
Dashing Through the Snow

Play Performance (by students)--Who is Coming to Our House?
(Based on the book by Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff)

Spiders: Arron and Eva
Goose: Savannah
Cow: Olivia
Horse: Ellie
Mary and Joseph: Susie and Hugh
Extras: Fireman Jack and Spiderman Seth

Student File Review with Parents and Presents

Refreshments:Gingerbread Boy Cookies, Peppermint Taffy, Gingersnaps, and fruit

Each student should have taken home their painted ornaments, a small present from me, and a present for Mom and Dad (handprint wall hanging).

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

(See you in January 2013!)

0 comments |

Our Secret Elves Workshop!

Secret Elves Workshop!

Legendary Reptiles (Post-poned for our secret workshop today!)

Daily Question: Do you like lizards or lollipops?

Toys: FP Village, Potato Heads and Dress Ups.

Snack: Apple slices, Cheese Sticks, and Goldfish crackers.

Deep Thoughts during snack time--(snatches of a conversation overheard by teacher)...
Seth: "My mom is named 'Mom.'"
Hugh: "My cousin's dad is named 'Dad.' His name is Andrew and he is coming to my house!"

Seasonal Songs We Know and Like: (Student Suggestions)
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
Jingle Bells
Away in a Manger
Joy to the World
The 12 Days of Christmas

Activities: We worked together to sort, compile, and prepare our student profiles A-K. We also worked on painting beautiful ornaments and on a present for our parents!

0 comments |

Knowledge About Our Bodies

Daily Question: Do you know what your cranium is? The cranium is your skull (bone that contains your brain).

Toys: Puppet Theater (Boy and Girl Puppets), Operation Game and Skee-ball

Snack: Carrot sticks and fruit snacks

Nutrition Discussion: Do you know what snacks are healthy for your bodies? Students suggest: carrots, grapes,

Show N' Teach: K words (or sounds)
Savannah: Caterpillar named Rainbow, Eli: Thor's hammer, Mjölnir, to "knock" out opponents. Eli also suggested a key to a shed at Grandpa's ranch. Ellie: Snowman's body. She also suggested kites begin with K. Hugh: brought in a monster named Kick.

Other "K" words we thought of as a class: kitty, Karate, kids, kicks, kiwi fruit, Kindergarten, etc. (We talked about how K is a tricky letter because it can sound like copycat C in some cases.)

K the Kicking Kangaroo Art Activity:
We worked on our Kicking Kangaroos art project. K is a Kangaroo who practices Karate and says "k-k-k" while kicking. This was a fun letter to work on because it used a brad and had moveable parts!

*Parents, please help your students practice cutting (with confidence) with scissors.

Books About Our Bodies:
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle
Hooray for Hands! (Begin Smart)Books for Smart Babies Fm Eighteen Months - Two Yrs
The Hair Book by Graham Tether, Ill. by Roy McKie
The Eye Book by Dr. Seuss (Theo LeSieg), Ill. by Joe Mathieu
The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss
The Tooth Book by Theo LeSieg (Dr. Seuss), Ill. by Joe Mathieu
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins, ill. by Eric Gurney
The Shape of Me and Other Stuff by Dr. Seuss
Giggle Belly (A Rookie Reader) by Page Sakelaris, Ill. by Richard L. Torrey
Dr. Frankensteins Human Body Book: The Monstrous Truth About How Your Body Works (DK)
Parts by Tedd Arnold
Even More Parts by Tedd Arnold
All About You (With Inspector McQ from World Craft--Childcraft)
Wonderful You! by Linda and Alan Parry
Ouch! How Your Body Makes it Through a Very Bad Day (DK--CD Rom)
The Human Body (Reader's Digest, Pathfinders, Large book).

Other Books:
Froggy's Best Christmas by Jonathan London and Frank Ramkiewicz

0 comments |

Jamming with Sea Animals

Daily Question: Do you remember what a vowel is? A vowel is Aa, Ee, Ii, Oo, Uu, and sometimes Yy that helps link consonants together. The "glue" in the middle of a word.

Toys: ABSeas Game (Capitol Letter/ Lower case letter review)
FP Village

Snack: Cheese and Breadsticks, "Jelly" Beans and Chocolate Chip Cookies

J the Jelly-Fish Activity:

Books Read:
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
Giving

Painting Ornaments:

0 comments |

Giggles with Mother Goose

Daily Question: Do you have a favorite Mother Goose Rhyme?
See how out names are coming along? (Some of the students did not know they really have heard Mother Goose Rhymes before!)

Toys: Spaghetti Doll Village, Mega Blocks Race track, Bead-it, and Train table.

Snack: Grapes and Granola bars.

Mother Goose Time: We had a good time remembering the many Mother Goose Rhymes* (that we thought we didn't know, but did!). We read Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Wee Willie Winkie, Jack be Nimble, Little Miss Muffet, Do You Know the Muffin Man?, Baa Baa Black Sheep, etc.

*Extension Activity: Parents, one of the Kindergarten skills is to know how to Rhyme. We have been working at this in class but if your child seems to struggle with rhyming--check out a library book on Mother Goose and read a few of your favorites outloud to your child. Point out the rhyming words: Humpty Dumpty, Jill/hill, muffet/tuffet, etc.

We talked about G and how it is a funny letter because it can make the Ga sound like "gap" and the Ja sound like in "Gym."

This lesson ties into the Amazing Action Alphabet Song about G the Goose giggles at a goat who ate a gorilla made of gumdrops. She holds her stomach and says "g g g" as she giggles.

Math Activity: we enjoyed learning about a basic Math Graph with gumdrops--which reviewed colors, and numbers, and counting, and coloring. Whew! (This proved difficult for some and easy for others--but all were patient and helped each other out as we learned. It is fun to see the class come together and care for one another.)

Thanksgiving Turkeys (Gumdrop Apples): what to do with all those gumdrops? Make Gumdrop Turkeys, of course! Thank you for your patience with me, moms and dads. I am sorry our class ran a little late today and thanks to the moms who stepped in to lend a helping hand to help our turkeys come about this afternoon. (Wish I could have gotten a picture of each, unigue turkey!)

Mother Goose Books:
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (Golden Books)* I Spy and Counting Game
Barney's Favorite Mother Goose Rhymes Vol. 1 &2 by Stephen White and Mary Grace Eubank
Jack and Jill by Daniel Kirk
Hey Diddle Diddle & Other Mother Goose Rhymes by Tomie DePaola
Michael Foreman's Mother Goose
The Real Mother Goose Ill. by Blanche Fisher Wright, Checkerboard Press, N.Y.
The Mother Goose Word Book (A Golden Sturdy Book) by Ann Schweninger

0 comments |

Autumn Time

It's Autumn Time!

Just in time for our lesson on Autumn--the first snow fall! (Students were sad that it melted away so fast but it did make our class feel cozy today).

Daily Question: Do you like Autumn?

Toys: Dress Ups, Puzzle Table, Magnet Princess/Prince Playset,

Littlest Pet Shops

Snacks:

Circle Time: Hugh showed us pictures of the pumpkins that they grew and harvested and the fun Pumpkin Soup they ate.

Finger Painting Pumpkins:
We had a quick lesson on Primary Colors...Parents, do you remember the song, "Our Primary colors are 1, 2, 3, red, yellow and blue!" We talked about Mouse Paint and how when we mix two colors it makes a new color, for example, red + yellow = orange!

Eva demonstrated that both colors together make a rather muddy brown!

We colored our Five Little Pumpkins Song (Poem) to take home. Did your student sing it for you?

Autumn Harvest Books :
I See a Leaf (Scholastic Reader, 1) by Grace Maccarone, Ill. by Laura Freeman
Sam the Scarecrow (A First Start Easy Reader) Troll
October Smiled Back by Lisa Westerberg Peters, Ill. by Ed Young (Months)
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams,Megan Lloyd*
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
What Happens in the Autumn ; Books for Young Explorers, The National Geographic Society.