Week three 2008

Week three at Happy Day! Pre-K: We were so happy to see Marko back from Europe on Friday and have him join our class! Welcome, Marko! Also, on Tuesday we celebrated Desiree’s birthday. Caleb’s birthday was in the summer and he celebrated with us on Thursday. He gave everyone a book and some stickers…thanks, Caleb! We are a third of the way through our beginning of the year assessments of the class. We will keep these results for comparison at the end of the year. Also, it is a great tool to help us as teachers know what needs to be taught. At the end of the year we give the parents very detailed and extensive information about each student’s skills and strengths as well as areas that could use some more attention. Since these initial assessments have a different purpose we will not specifically distribute the results at this time. Theme: On the Farm Sound of the week: Aa Sight word: and Classical composer: Bach Table Activities: Farm animals and mats, sorting produce and animal manipulatives, nesting and sorting eggs, playing with the farm-o-rama (our version of a diorama--see photo). Music: Up and down the treble and bass scales. We used arrows to point up or down and then had fun with bean bags and marked baskets that showed the notes going up or down the treble or bass scale. If the children heard low notes going up, they knew to put their bean bag in the basket marked with a bass clef and notes going up. etc. We will keep working on reinforcing these skills. Be sure to talk to your kids about music when you hear the distinct low (bass) notes and high (treble) notes or when you hear notes going up or down. We pressed pea seeds into brown Play-doh using “rainbow fingers”, which are important in playing the piano and other instruments. Activity Songs: “Alligator Pie”, “Shake Your Sillies Out”, “10 Peas in a Peapod Pressed”, “Skip to My Lou”, “If all the Raindrops were Lemon Drops and Gumdrops”, “Mama cow had a calf” to the tune of Old MacDonald and pairing baby animal names with the adult.Handwriting: HWT stroke names and wood pieces review, “Tap, Tap, Tap Big Lines“ song, and using wood pieces to create capital letters, (M used four big lines, L uses one big line and one small line, C uses one big curve, etc.) Art: Miss Cristina introduced the concept of lines connecting two dots and reinforced using dots to make shapes and pictures. The kids began decorating their portfolios with dots and lines as directed by Miss Cristina using dot paints, crayons, and markers (see video).Theme: This week focused on the farm, specifically focusing on horses, cows and chickens: We created cow masks, nested and sorted eggs (see photos), created a farm-o-rama, planted pea seeds in the “dirt” (brown salt dough), Farm flash cards Storybooks: Clip Clop Clippity Clop, Clancy, the Courageous Cow, Moo, Who?, Cock-A-Doodle-Moo, Big Egg, The Perfect Nest Math: Graphing names by number of letters and making comparisons. We cut weighted pieces of yarn to the same height as each student and compared our height to several points around the schoolroom and also to each other.Reading: /a/ (short) sound, “Alligator Pie”, sorting short /a/ pictures (apple, ant, alligator, Anna) into the alligator’s mouth, word with sight words: me, and, the and following directions (“put a line through the “me”, put an X on “and”, circle “the”). Free-Play Fun: Lots of fun with the plastic farm animals, bowling and cheering on our friends (see video), looking at books, magnetic fish and fishing poles, puzzles, cardboard tubes with balls. Social Skills: We now have assigned seating most of the time. During lunch we will stay in our seat until everyone is finished with lunch. This additional structure has been very helpful thus far in resolving some of the challenges we’ve encountered with the class…new year, new class, new challenges! Yee Haw! The students have noticed and asked about the change, but have accepted it and are benefiting from it. Particularly, we had not been able to do some of the fun things we’d prepared because of the length of time spent trying to give and follow instructions. We introduced the book, It’s a Great Day When We Follow the Rules! written and illustrated by Miss Cameron and Miss Tracy. We had fun reading and talking with the kids about the rules and noticed a big change in all three areas of treating our friends with kindness, sitting up quietly in our place, and following directions. We will have take home versions of the book ready to come home soon. Please read and re-read this with your child to reinforce our school rules and help everyone have a great day at school! Off to week four and a close look at pigs, sheep and farm equipment…..should be a great time!