In like a Lion, Out like a ?

March has gone so quickly, but we have done so much these last couple of weeks.  We started out the month by predicting whether March would come in like a lion (fierce) or a lamb (nice).  The class was evenly split on our predictions and the students who guessed lion were correct for March 1.  We have kept track of each day this month and so far have had more “lamb” days than “lion.”  We are very grateful for such beautiful days, however we come inside very wet from all the melting snow.

We also took time to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday and read as many of his books as we could.  We made a Dr. Seuss hat and watched two movies that narrated his books.  We also tried green eggs.  Some of us were a little afraid to try something new, but everyone that tried them, loved them!

We also spent the last week learning about the alphabet.  We have read many alphabet books, and did an alphabet search of things around our room that start with those letters.  We were also able to name an animal for each letter of the alphabet.  Our final task was to create each letter with our bodies.  I took pictures and we made a class book.

This next week, we will be focusing on numbers and counting.  We will work on writing our numbers and counting as high as we can.  We have lots of number games we get to play.  The next couple weeks, we will be learning more about farms and farm animals and then spring.

Later Days!

It looked like spilt milk

Again, another month has slipped away and it took me forever to post to the blog.  Last week, we learned about penguins.  We read several books about penguins and made a penguin finger puppet.  I was also able to send home some origami penguin patterns for the families to do together.  We weren't able to complete all of the penguin ideas I had wanted to do because of some personal events, but the students seemed to really love the activities we did complete. 

This last week, we read the book "It Looked Like Spilt Milk". It's a book about white shapes that look like many things, such as a mitten or spilt milk.  The end of the book reveals that it is the clouds that make such great shapes.  One activity we did was to put white paint on a blue sheet of paper and fold it in half.  The students used their imaginations to guess what their shape looked like when we opened it back up.  Some of the images the students saw included a cake, reindeer, two people, and a bow.  These are on display in our hallway.  We also made blue jello to resemble the sky.  We then ate our tasty treat with cool whip clouds.

As Valentine's Day quickly approaches, we will be doing many heart activities this next week.  We also have a parent/child activity planned for Valentine's Day as well as a Teddy Bear show and tell day on Feb. 17.

Later Days!

Parent/Teacher Conferences

I want to start off by thanking all of the parents who were able to make it to parent/teacher conferences.  I know it may not seem like there is much to talk about, but it's nice for me to be able to spend some one on one time with the parents and check in.  It's great to go beyond the usual "hi" and "bye" and have an adult conversation once in awhile :)  Our students have made some great progress over the last couple of months and it was so much fun to show the parents some of their work from the beginning of the year to now.  We also had the majority of our students register for Kindergarten.  It's hard to believe we only have 4 months of school left.

The last two weeks were spent learning about snow, snowflakes, and snowmen.  We painted with ice cubes, cut snowflakes out of coffee filters, made snowflakes with q-tips and glitter, and read some great snowflake books.  The rest of this week will be spent learning more about one of my favorite books, "The Mitten" by Jan Brett.  We will be cutting out our own animals and mitten and the students will be able to retell the story themselves.  We will also take turns acting out the story.  Next week we have lots of great penguin activities.

Later days!

We're Back!

After a week and a half gone for break, we started back today.  It was so exciting to see the students again.  They seemed pretty excited to be back also.  I swear they all grew by feet over the break!

We started out the week today with our unit on snow.  Luckily, we have plenty of snow to study.  I layed out cotton balls, q-tips and cotton circles with glue and asked the students to come up with a snow scene.  I told them if they needed anything, just ask and we'll figure it out.  I was AMAZED at what they came up with.  Some students spent 20 or more minutes placing a drop of glue randomly on the paper, then arranging a collection of cotton materials.  It doesn't look like anything specific, but they were intent on where and how they placed everything on the paper.  Others created a snowman and asked for more paper to make a hat and markers to draw extra detail.  I had also asked them to write their names on the back before they started, like with every project, and every single one of them had improved on writing their own name.  After pointing out an extra "i" in one students name, the student replied with "I know it doesn't belong in my name, I just like to write "i's".  I really did miss those students!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

This last week, I took the students' suggestion and we learned more about the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  The class I share with another teacher had done this lesson previously and the students wanted to learn more also.  We had a lot of fun learning more about the letters.  We made our own Chicka Chicka tree and added what letters we already knew.  We also read the book several times and sang along to the Chicka Chicka song. 

Now comes my favorite time of the year: the Holiday Season!  We have so many different crafts to complete, I don't know if we will have enough time!  This next week, we are learning about gingerbread men.  We will make gingerbread ornaments, cinnamon ornaments, and decorate our own paperbag gingerbread man.  Our room is going to smell great!

Later days!

Too Busy to Post, I guess.

I cannot believe it is already the end of November.  We have been so busy that time has slipped away from me and blogging has been set aside. 

We have been very active.  We completed a unit called, My Body, Myself.  We learned about different things are body can do.  We saw pictures with skeletons and blood vessels.  We also used a stethoscope to hear our heart beating.  We made our own book about our five senses and learned the name of some of our trickier body parts, like our elbows and neck.  We also did a unit on sharing and what it means to be a good friend.  We dyed daisies a color of our choice, then added them to one large bouquet.  We read several books about sharing also.

This last week we read a story called "I know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Pie."  We also read other stories about an "Old Lady" who swallowed a fly, the sea and a star.  The students colored and cut out their own "Old Lady" and food pieces.  After laminating them, the students were able to retell the story themselves.  We also talked about what might happen if you eat too much and wrote a story together about "I know an ___________ who swallowed a ____________."  The students could fill in the blank and we came up with very creative story sentences.

As we approach the holiday season, we will only continue to be busy.  We will be learning more about the book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" and gingerbread men.  We will also do a whole unit on trains.

Later Days!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Everywhere

The week started out ok for us.  We took a vote on what shapes we wanted to carve into our pumpkin.  We chose round eyes, triangle nose and a happy grin with triangle teeth.  For some students, this was the first time they were able to help clean out a pumpkin.  AND IT WAS A HUGE PUMPKIN!  It took all of us to get it cleaned out.  We also learned a song about "5 Little Pumpkins" and colored our own book to take home.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be in class on Tuesday or Wednesday due to a miserable stomach flu.  Several students were home sick with it also this week and even Miss Kirstie, the class's assistant, was home sick on Thursday.  Luckily, Miss Jessica and Miss Kasey from the owl class were able to help our students out.

Thursday we were able to have a Parent/Child activity day.  We invited the parents to join our class as we painted our own pumpkin and also glued shapes onto a construction paper pumpkin.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.

Next week, we will hopefully all be back to 100% health and start our unit on "My Body, Myself".

Later days!