I am so excited to write about our new school year starting this September as we resume our the letter of the week. Friends were looking forward to this too. They love their letters and are so passionate to learn about them, checking them around the environment (print knowledge), brainstorming words that begin with that letter, and getting super excited when there is a friend in class whose name begins with the letter of the week. Letter F week was fabulous and fantastic.
We read some fictional stories and talked about the fiction vs non fiction during lunch time almost everyday.
We made our own frog game where the frog has to reach the lily pad. After we made the game, we soon realized that we did not have dice to play and so made our own...
Making the game and talking about how horizontal and vertical lines together make blocks and how to divide the paper in four equal halves...
Rolling the dice to count the numbers and move the frog that many steps...
Moving ahead counting one to one without missing a beat...well there were other friends around to check if somebody skipped a number ;) and they were just too good with keeping track ;)
Reaching the lily pad...and we played it over and over again...
Counting the dice dots to know how many steps they need to move on the game...
Just fun, fun, and fun...
We later got involved in making our own fish out of driftwood. We spoke about the driftwood and it was interesting that they thought it was either a log or a rock. We also spoke about the different parts of the fish and the use of those parts as well...
P got a fun book from the library which gave us a better insight on the topic of fish!
S choosing her fishy colors and painting her driftwood...
P choosing his driftwood and coloring his soon 'to be' fish :)
After adding all the eyes and gills and fins and tails....tada! Pretty, pretty, pretty!
During the week we also worked with our letter F collages and chose feathers to go on them...
We brushed glue...
We dripped glue...
And we collaged feathers!
While some friends really thought out of the box and used the materials in a very open ended way to create their masterpieces...
D making a feather fan using feathers and popsicle stick. She also made a collage using the materials at the table...
P making a fan with popsicle sticks as spokes...
FRIENDSHIP FRUIT SALAD...
Sharing about all the different fruit we bought to make our salad and talking about how hard would it be for one person to carry all the fruit - the reasons why we called it the friendship fruit salad, because we each contributed our share!
We also compared and contrasted all the fruit in regard to shape, color, fruit that have seeds inside and outside, fruit that can be eaten with peels, fruit that does not need to be cut and can be eaten right away after washing and much more.
A talking about her blueberries.
Friends had no idea if a cantaloupe had seeds in it or not. So we decided to go abra ka dabra and check it out...
Whoooo...a moment where we truly appreciated nature and its beauty! They all screamed, "Wow!" Some friends said that it looks like a pair of eyes. How neat!
Exploring a peach...
Working to put the salad together...
Slicing strawberries...
Tossing all the fruit into a big bowl...
The last touches with D adding raisins and cranberries...
Later during lunch we thoroughly enjoyed this desert and some friends decided to make it even smaller by recutting the big chunks with their personal knives and placemats. A great skill in action, where they held the fruit with one hand and used the other to saw through the fruit :)
MAKING FISH TANKS/AQUARIUMS...
Brushing the base of the prospective ocean with glue...
Adding colored sand to the ocean floor...
Adding other things that we had discussed at circle time- shells, seaweed, shiny pebbles, rocks, glitter, coral, and sea plants...
We will continue to work on this project and add more elements as the children come up with their creative ideas!
TEAM WORK CONTINUES WITH PUZZLES!!!
It was exciting to try the ocean puzzle since it was a new one...so there you see the team in action...
That last piece and the honor of placing it to finish the project...these friends decided to stay in class while the rest went outdoors during outside time, just because they were so dedicated to finishing it!
RAIN, RAIN COME AGAIN!
The sudden rain last week was a moment to cherish and no soul could sit still when they saw rain out the windows. They all requested "Can we pleeeeease go outside?" which was out of our regular schedule. And there we are with our feet set out to feel the nature showers!
Friends did everything they could in the 10 minutes that we decided to stay out.
Tasting rain...
We pretended to squeeze shampoo and bathed...
We cupped our ears and got pin drop silent to hear the musical rain...
L walked on a puddle and saw her shoe prints behind, and said that they looked like a fish with scales!
Checking out more shoe prints...
L making footprints to measure how long they were...
A finding a dry spot to make her footprints to measure...she said she wanted to make a twin footprint :)
We ended our 10 minutes expedition ;) by pretending to be pirates looking for a rainbow treasure and hit our sand ship..."Ahoy!" everyone exclaimed.
What a perfect way to end the week!
A GLANCE AT PRE-K
Pre-k friends helped me cut out pictures to finish the library cards to use next week for letter L
Making our chart of the fruit salad we made a day prior...and adding their favorite salad fruit to the bowl...
A dedicated to finish her worksheet page...
Friends in Purple Room are busy and working hard toward the auction that will begin either the first or second week of October. We as a preschool unit are looking forward to this event. Please get your pockets filled with pennies and quarters and nickels and dimes. Your auctioneers will soon get involved in marketing and working to empty your pockets ;)
Will keep seeing you'll around,
Hugs,
Teacher Rashida
