Today

Today we read 10 black dots. The children enjoyed using their imagination to create pictures with dots.

Today’s book and project

Today we read 10 black dots. The story talks about how they turn black dots into different pictures so the children used their imagination to create pictures using black dots. They picked how many dots they wanted and how they were going to use them in their pictures. I think they all did a fabulous job.

Vote and book

Not everyone liked this book, but everyone gave a response as to why they voted they way they did.   I found it as a read aloud on you tube so we watched it on the projector. The children also liked seeing that we had a hard copy to look it with special pages. They are starting to notice how some pictures are made up of different shapes like in this book.

Some reasons they liked or didn't like the books was about shapes or it being a dinosaurs.

Ask you child what they thought.

I picked a winner

Everyone liked this book. I found it as a read aloud on you tube so we watched it on the projector. The children also liked seeing that we had a hard copy to look it with special pages. They are starting to notice how some pictures are made up of different shapes like in this book.

Book vote

Here is our vote for the book

We learned a new word today - hide.

The children used it in a sentence-
I hide the microphone from my sister
I play hide and seek with my brother

Book and vote

Cookies

To go along with our cookie story today we played who stole the cookies from the cookie jar? Ask your child who it was today?

Book and vote

The class enjoyed this book about sharing cookies. A mom made a plate of cookies for her two children to share. The children thought the cookies were just like their grandma's cookies. The children started with 12 cookies to share between them but the doorbell rang and they would share their cookies until everybody ended with one cookie.....UNTIL the door bell and grandma came with more delicious cookies.

Science

Use the shape magnifying glasses to find the correct shape in the book or picture cards.

Ball toss

Try to catch the ball in the jug

Magnet wall

Marble run on the magnet wall

Bean bag fun

Match the colors. Throw bean bag at correct color ball

Work together

Work alone or with a friend to try to get the ball in the hole.

Block area

Wrecking ball and marble run

Dress up area

The bowling alley

Feb Fun - what are we doing this month

 

February News Blast

Well, here we are already into February!  The weather is getting colder and we have had a few days of inside recess – which is a nice change for the children.  Inside recess looks different every time sometimes we get to put on music dance, watch a short video or song on what we are learning about, read books, do puzzles, chat with our friends until we go home.  We use the Accuweather app to determine if we are inside or not - Remember if it “Feels Like” 10 or below then we stay in.  On occasion if the playground is too icy or not safe to be on, we have stayed in as well.  

 

This is a short month – just three weeks for us to learn about balls and shapes, but so far, the children have LOVED everything that is out to play with.  We will discuss balls – what are they made of, why do we use them, etc.  We will also talk about basic shapes like circle, square, triangle, and rectangle along with 3D shapes like sphere, cube, cone and more.

Here are a few of the things we have going on in the classroom –

**Reading different books at circle time, watching short videos to go along with our topic – of course Letter City on Thursdays!

** Art projects include painting with cotton balls, creating pictures with different shapes, ball painting, cookie cutter shape stamping, and more.

**Dramatic play area right now is a Bowling Alley – with a concession stand of course!  They love using the bowling shoes and are learning how to set up the pins and roll the ball down the lane.

**Block area is a very exciting place to be with a wrecking ball to knock down stacking cups, foam blocks, or bowling pins – it changes each day.  The rule is you can knock down what you built.  It also has a very fun marble maze on the wall.  I also have a small ramp with a few cars, and of course blocks to build with.

** Exploring the magnetic marble run on the magnet wall.  The children can create their own maze or use the examples on the cards.  This has been a big hit so far!  They love getting ideas from the cards and using some of that along with designing their own runs and watching the marbles for through.  This is great for trial and error – they go back and tweak it and try again until it works!! 

** Working alone or with a partner to hold a box cover and have a ball go through a hole in the middle of the box.

** Sensory – different shape cookie cutters with playdough, packing peanuts and tools, sand with ping pong balls and tubes and funnels, also water beads.  Snow was a big hit so we will probably do that again with all this wonderful new snow that came!

** Science table – Shape magnifying glasses and shape picture cards.  There are two shapes a day and they change often.  They look at the pictures through the magnifying glass to see if it is the same shape.

**Toys on the rug include magnet tiles, k’nex, magic beads, train set, play sticks, small legos, and much more…there are four bins each day that are on a three-day rotation.

** Bean bag toss game – Ms. Tammy created a box with colored tubes to match colored balls.  The children throw the matching-colored bean bag at the colored ball.  They have enjoyed the challenging of knocking off the correct color ball with the same-colored bean bag.

**There are a variety of puzzles for shapes, balls, alphabet and more. Several of the children like to work together to do the accomplish different floor puzzles as well. 

I will post a few pictures this week of some of these activities.

Book and vote

Here is today's book and vote. We noticed that all three columns had three so when we did math hands we had to make three a different way each time.

We learned that bounce means to move quickly up and down. They noticed it was similar to jumping.

Here are a few sentences that the class came up with....

I can bounce on my trampoline
I can bounce on the grass
I can bounce on the stairs.

Book and vote

Today we read this book to start off our ball theme for the month. Our new vocabulary word this week was bounce! A fun word to describe moving quickly up and down like " jumping".
Here are a few sentences the children came up with using the word Bounce.

I'll show you how to bounce
Bounce a ball
Bounce bunny