Oceans, Part 1

Today we started learning about the ocean and some animals that live in it.

Book: Angel Fish
This is a fun interactive book which allows the children to lift up a flap and see what's under it! It's main focus is an angel fish, however it has other animals in it as well.

Math-Fish Sizes: I have 4 pictures of the same fish yet each are a different size. I first set it out in the right order and teach them the different sizes. Then I have the children try to set it up in the correct order.

Gross Motor-Johnny Jump Up: I have a picture of a stick-figure jumping. I can use this with a lot of activities. This time I mixed up some pictures of animals (a couple of them live in the ocean). Then I would stick Johnny Jump-Up inside the stack. They would tell me if the animal lives in the ocean or not and when we got to Johnny, they would have to jump up.

Story-Rainbow Fish:
I have Popsicle puppets of the story Rainbow Fish. I told them the story (a great one to teach sharing and friendship). With older kids, you can have them participate and be a fish.

Art Activity: Crab
I mixed red paint, karo syrup (makes it shiny), and sugar (makes it rough, like sand). The kids painted their crabs with it. You can either glue googly eyes on it once it's dried or just draw them on.

Coming Up: Tomorrow we will continue learning about the Ocean! Lot's of fun activities and sharks coming up!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I also tied in Emotions/Feelings with the topic since most of Valentine's Day is about LOVE!

Book:
Today I Feel Silly
by: Jamie Lee Curtis
Such a cute book with 'busy' illustrations, enough to keep a kid looking at it for a long time!

Social: What Makes You Feel...?
I have some Jack-O-Lanterns (I know, wrong season, but the kids don't care)! They have different emotions on them, happy, sad, angry, surprised. As I showed them the face I asked them to make a similar face and then to tell me what makes the feel that way.

Cognitive: Emotions Bingo
I have 9 different 'faces', each with a different emotion. I asked the children to find a specific emotion and place a marker on it, once the page was filled, they could eat their candy!

Book: Kisses
This is also a really good goodnight book...it being about a goodnight kiss.

Math: Heart Patterns
I had 3 different colors of hearts (red,pink, white). I first used red and white since it is easy to tell the difference. I then introduced what a pattern is, I said that each color 'takes a turn'. I laid down 4 hearts (white, red, white, red), then asked the kids what color comes next (which colors turn is it?). It took them a couple tries to understand what I was asking but eventually they got it and told me white! We finished that pattern, then I switched the colors and Pink and Red and they got it all right that time too!

Gross Motor: Heart Jump
I laid down 5 different color hearts (any color). Then told the kids to either jump, tip toe, run, etc. to a specific color heart.

Art Activity: We made Valentines. I let the kids use the glue by themselves and they glued smaller hearts onto a big white one, then painted and colored them.

Coming up: Next we we will be learning about the Ocean and the animals that live there. I love this topic so we will be doing 2 lesson on it, so watch for 2 posts!

Manners...and Families

I didn't have enough for just Manners, so I tied Families into it as well!

Book:
Please Say Please
by: Donald McCullough

This is a cute book on manners. It follows a group of animals to Penguin's house for dinner. Each animal has a bad manner and then fixes it with the good manner. I try to get the children to tell me what the good manner is before I read it to them.

Good/Bad Manner Pictures: I have some pictures of kids doing good and bad manners and we talk about them individually.

Family pictures: Talk about who is in their family. Include grandparents and aunts and uncles. Discuss ways the children can have good manners with them (doing nice things for them).

Art Activity: Draw Family

Our Bodies

To start out preschool we always sing a welcome song, the ABC song and then count to 10. Don't worry if they get it wrong, just continue to sing and they will follow along. Soon they will be singing and counting the right way.

Math: Body Part Count-I asked the boys how many eyes they had, how many arms they had, etc: focusing on the number 2.

We then talked about ways to keep our bodies healthy, eating vegetables, exercising, brushing our teeth and hair.

Book:
Aaron's Hair by Robert Munsch
This is a cute book about a boy who doesn't like his hair so it jumps off his head and runs away! Not so much about grooming and taking care of your hair, but you can still tie it in.

Game: Body Part Bingo
Cognitive: Body Part Riddles-I gave them clues and they had to guess which body part I was referring to. For example: I smell the beautiful flowers. What am I?
Gross Motor: Body Poses-I have pictures of different body poses (balancing on one leg, stretching arms up high, leaning to one side).

Art Activity: Body Traces-I traced each child on big, white paper. I had facial body parts already cut out and they children glued them on their faces. (with older kids you can do a unit on the inside of the body and talk about their organs and they can glue pix of organs where they think they go, tuns out rally cute!)

Skills we worked on: math (#2), gross motor, cognitive (thinking), fine motor (glueing pieces on face)

Coming Up: Wednesday we will be discussing the types of clothes we wear and when.

Review!

Today we did a quick review of our basic concepts: colors, shapes, numbers, and letters.

We started out reviewing our shapes. I have foam cut-out shapes and I first ask what shape it is (anyone can answer), then lay them out on the floor for all to see. I then ask specific children, one-by-one, to give me a specific shape. (I usually ask them for a shape I know they don't know to help them remember). Most of the time they will be able to grab or point to the shape once you say the name, but are not able to TELL you the name just yet.

Book: Chicka Chicka 1 2 3
by Bill Martin Jr., Michael Sampson, Lois Ehlert
Cute book, but a little advanced for my 3 year olds (it goes up to 100).
After the book, I laid out apple clip-art with a number on them, 1-10. Using the same method as with the shapes, we reviewed our numbers.

Book: What Color is Your Underwear?
by Sam Lloyd
The kids absolutely love this book! It's a flip-up and so much fun!
I then looked around the room and asked them their colors.

Book: Alphabet Adventure
by Audrey Wood, Bruce Wood
Such a cute book, a great way to review all the letters but also focus on the lower-case i.

Art Activity: I divided a piece of paper into 6 squares, then wrote in each square a specific number with a color. You can do any color, but I recommend going in number order for your younger ones. For example, mine read 1Brown (written in brown), 2 Green (written in green), 3 Pink (written in Pink), etc.
Each child had scraps of each color and some scissors. They were able to cut pieces out from the scraps and then glue the correct number of pieces to the corresponding square.

SKILLS WORKED ON: shapes, numbers, colors, letters, fine motor (scissors) one-to-one correspondence.

Fun side note: As I was running an errand with my little boy (who does preschool with me) he was looking out the window and said, "Look Mommy, a crescent!" (He saw the moon and sure enough it was the shape of a crescent!) I love these little moments that tell me they truely are soaking in every word I say to them!!! Happy teaching!

Safety-Stranger Danger

Looking ahead to Halloween, we will be learning about Safety. Today we will talk about Stranger Danger. It is very important for children to understand who strangers are, especially the nice-looking ones. They may look nice, but we don't know them.

Two books: Lost
Never Talk to Strangers
There are many things to teach children about strangers, here are some important ones..
1. Who is a Stranger?
I cut some pictures out of magazines of random people, all looking like normal people. I will talk to them about who a stranger is, show each picture and ask them if they are a stranger. More than likely they will say, "No". Try to explain to them that even though they look nice, they are still strangers. You can add pictures of people they know so they can better understand.

2. 'Good Strangers'
We will also talk about who to find if you are lost. It is important for the children to know what to do if they get separated from their parents. Teach them to look for a 'good stranger,' a grandma, a mother with children or a police officer. These grown-ups are typically the safest for them to find.

3. Kidnapping
Another important lesson is what to do if someone tries to take them. We teach that if someone grabs them and starts pulling them away, they are to yell, "HE/SHE ISN'T MY DADDY/MOMMY," as loud as they can. Teach them to kick and scream and yell and if they get away to run as fast as they can to someone/somewhere familiar, or to a 'good stranger.'

4. Adults Don't Need Help From Kids
Teach them that if adults need help, they will ask another adult. Tell them to never go up to a car they don't know. Never take anything from anyone or pet an animal they are not familiar with.

5. Personal Information
Make sure they know their first and last name. It'll be difficult for younger kids to remember their parent's names, but keep trying. Their phone number and address are important as well.

Good luck and be sure to keep it simple and not frighten them!

Seasons and Weather-Spring/Summer

We will be using this song the whole week, only substituting what the weather is...
Rain (leaves, snow) is falling all around (wiggle fingers like rain)
On the housetops, On the ground (touch fingers to make roof of house, point to ground)
Rain (leaves, snow) is falling on my nose, (touch nose)
On my head and hands and toes! (touch head, hands, toes)

Introduce new song to sing every day...What's the Weather?
What's the weather, what's the weather, what's the weather like today?
Is it raining, is it snowing, is it windy or is there sun?

Book: Splish, Splash, Spring by Jan Carr (and if time and boys are interested, The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle)
After the book, we will count raindrops. We will work on one-to-one correspondence (touching each raindrop and saying one number and counting in order). We will try going up to 10.
Then we will learn a new word, evaporation. I have a pix I got off the internet that shows the evaporation process and will explain it. More than likely they won't remember much, but later on when they hear the word again, something will click in their brain and they will understand it better.
For a gross motor activity, we will do a puddle hop. I made 'puddles' with numbers on them. I will tell the boys which number to jump to.

Fine Motor: They will make an umbrella. I will have the bottom part cut, but have them cut the top, sloping part. This will give them a new experience in cutting.

For our art activity we will make a sun mask out of a paper plate. Cut the circle part out, then cut triangles out from it. Staple/glue the triangles onto the outside of the circle. The boys will color with yellow, orange and red crayons (been awhile since we've used them).

For our snack we will make a smoothie. We will make a lot so we can make them into popsicles.

Transportation-Land

WOW! What a week it has been! We are finally back home and semi-settled.
Now on to preschool!

Song: Down by the Station
Down by the station, early in the morning
See the little puffer bellies all in a row.
See the station master, ring the little handle.
Chug, Chug, Choo Choo, off we go!
(I have a train whistle I like to blow at the end)
*Also, if you'd like, I walk around the classroom (staying close at first) then at the end of the song you can call out..."All aboard (child's name)" and they can attach themselves to the 'train' (you). You would continue this until the last child is called.

Book: The Very Bumpy Bus Ride (a childhood favorite). Please see Learning Through Literature post to learn more about this book.
Cognitive Activity: We will play a license plate matching game. All I did was write down numbers and letters on a 3x5 card (two cards each). I did 3 letter/number ones for my kids because they are younger, but older kids can do tougher ones.
Gross Motor: Red Light, Green Light
Science: Ramp Racing: Have two blocks the same size. Set one up so it is at a steep slant and set the other one up so it is lower. Ask the kids which one will make the car go faster?
Fine Motor: Stop Sign cut-out. For my kids, I've cut out half of the sign already, they will then follow the lines and finish cutting it out. For older kids, they can practice doing it all.

Art Activity: Painting with cars! Have them drive their cars in paint then drive them on the paper. Then they can glue paper cars on and stop signs.

Snack: Bus Twinkies! See Fun Food Friday at the end of this week for more details! (Normally I would do healthy snacks, but every now and then I might sneak in something just for fun!)

Food-Healthy vs. Unhealthy

The book we will be reading is called, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

We will then discuss which food is healthy and which ones are not. We will sort food with healthy and non-healthy categories. We have pictures we will be using but plastic food would work great as well!

The kids will take turns finding food that have been hidden around the classroom. Once they find one they will say if it is healthy or unhealthy then they will toss it in the correct basket (tossing helps with their eye-hand coordination).

For snack today we will be making our own pretzels! We will use Rhodes bread dough. Each child will get a thawed ball of dough, they will be able to roll it and shape it any way. Then we will bake it and after it's baked they can spread butter on the tops and enjoy it! (To better keep track of who's pretzel is who's, place tin foil on the cookie sheet and write each child's names on it with a permanent marker then place their pretzel next to their names).

For art today we will be painting a fish. We will use karo syrup, sugar and food coloring mixed together. These combined will give the fish a shiny, scaley texture!

Food-All Kinds

First we will sing a song to get their attention: 5 Little Hot Dogs in a Frying Pan

5 Little hot dogs (hold up 5 fingers)

frying in a pan (rub hands together)

1 got hot (hold up 1 finger)

and it went BAM! ( clap your hands together)

(continue down through 1)

No little hot dogs frying in a pan (make an O with your hand)

the pan got hot (rub your hands together)

and it went BAM! (clap your hands)

The book we will read is, Bread and Jam for Francis by Russell Hoban (Please see Learning Through Literature for more information on this book)

We will then discuss trying new food and how yummy different food can be!

Activity: Sort Food Groups-discuss different kinds of food (we have a bunch of plastic food we will be using but pictures work just as well)

I am so excited to do a science project, today's is called 'Raisin Rising' (Put clear carbonated water in a clear jar. Place 4-5 raisins in the jar. Watch how the air bubbles make raisins rise and fall!)

Gross Motor: The kids will do an action to a fruit, meat, veggie, etc. “Jump to a fruit”

Table Time: For our fine motor activity we will be making carrots. I have cut out the top and main parts of a carrot (the orange part and the green 'leafy' part) and glued them together. However with the green part I did not make it 'leafy'. I drew a line toward the bottom for the kids to practice cutting and stopping at a specific spot. (Please see picture)

For our fun art activity I've mixed shaving cream, glue and food coloring together. On a piece of paper I have glued on a brown triangle for the ice cream cone. The kids will then finger paint with the shaving cream mixture and make the ice cream. They will then be able to sprinkle on some sprinkles (you can use real or confetti).

Taking Care of Our Bodies & Assessments

Today we will be finishing up assessments so again, the lesson will be just a review!

Book: Even More Parts (See Learning Through Literature)

We will talk about the best ways to keep our bodies healthy. I have some clues about each body and they will guess which part it is and the best way to take care of it.

We'll do some exercises together and briefly talk about healthy food. (We will focus more on this next Thursday)

I needed something that would interest the children while I worked one-on-one through the assessments so for art we will be using frosting and fruit loops and 'gluing' them on to a card stock rainbow. Each row is a different color and they need to match the fruit loops to the right color!

Physical Bodies & Assessments

This week we are focusing on the Assessments! I like tot est them in the beginning of the school year so I know what they need to work on, then in January to see how they've improved and what to continue to work on and last at the end of the school year to see how well we did and what I need to improve on as a teacher. I assess the 'whole child' which means; social, personal data, gross motor, fine motor, math, cognitive, etc.
So for these next two lessons on the body, will be mostly for review!

Song: Beanbag Body Song. Even if you don't have the song, you can easily do this. Just tell the children where to put the beanbag and then balance it!

Book: Parts by: Tedd Arnold (See Learning Through Literature post)

We will review the parts of our body and the put a body together!

For our gross motor activity I have a bunch of pictures of kids doing different poses, we will copy them.

For art we will be decorating a cutout of a body with various material! (From last Thursday's lesson).

I am Unique/Cultures

On Thursday we are learning more about each other and how great it is to be unique. We are also talking a little bit on the different cultures around us!

The first book we will read is titled: Tacky the Penguin (please see learning through literature post to learn more about this book). We will then have each child come up and I will describe them and we will compare and contrast each other and learn that it is good to like the same things but it is also good to like different things.

We will then read The Colors of Us and learn more about other cultures. The kids will then make their own Multi-cultural Book by cutting and gluing various pictures of people out of magazines. They may also dictate what they see if they desire (be sure to write it down next to the picture, it's fun for the parents to know what they were thinking).

At Table Time they will be making another book, this time it's a My favorites Book. They will draw pictures of their favorite toy, food, color, etc. They will also get to decorate cut-out bodies with a variety of craft supplies.

All About Me!

*Please remember that this is not the complete list of activities we have planned. If you'd like a full lesson plan, please feel free to leave a comment and your email address and I will be happy to send you a copy!*

Today was our first day and the kids were so excited! We had so much fun and can't wait until Thursday!

This week we are learning about each other and how fun it is to be different. We are learning a new word: UNIQUE
Tuesday we will be introducing ourselves...

We will sing Willaby Wallaby Woo (one of my favorites)
"Willaby Wallaby Woo, and Elephant sat on You!
Willaby Wallaby Wee, an Elephant sat on me!
Willaby Wallaby Wiam, an Elephant sat on Lliam!"
You continue this with all of the kids. It's fun to have the kids listen and guess who the elephant will sit on next. I like to have a stuffed elephant and touch their heads with it as I sing.

For a transition we will work on shapes. Before naming them they should be able to match the same shapes together!

We will read the book Chrysanthemum then have each child come up and say their name and 1 thing about themselves. Then we will play a game I made called Photo Concentration (each child's picture will be on a juice lid and they will have to find the matches!)

*On a side note, juice lids are magnetic and can be used to make many different games!*

Then on to Table Time where we will practice tracing straight lines (this helps the children gain control over their hands and prepares them for writing).
We will also be putting stickers on our names (this helps with Hand Strength and improves their Fine Motor skills). We will also have fun making our place mats for the year!