Letter "C"

September 17, 2009

Theme- Letter "C"

Choosing Time-Trains, Foam block puzzles, Foam Blocks, Balls

I was so amazed at Raeanna's ability to make this castle--it is harder than it looks. Some of these puzzles are simple, while others are difficult. This one only had a shadow of a castle. Rae had to figure out what shapes to put together to make this work. Way to go!

Even though the quality of this photo is poor, I just love the way we are all playing together so nicely!

Art- Fuzzy Caterpillars--It was fun to see how a few children chose to make a pattern with their pom-poms. We talked about different types of patterns. There were also fun choices in how the leaves were decorated. You have very creative kids!
Mitch made sure to draw some peaches on his leaf for his caterpillar to eat. How thoughtful!

Science- Introduced the children to our ladybug habitat. We counted their 6 legs & talked about how long & skinny the ladybug larvae are. We observed that they look like teeny alligators with black & yellow stripes. We will watch to see how they change.
For some cool pictures of ladybug larvae go to this blog & scroll down....
http://chikblog.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

I gave our Balloon experiment another go...and this time succeeded! Hooray! We saw that the power of air is amazing and can even propel a balloon up-hill.

Music & Movement- "My hands upon my head...", "5 Little Cookies", "C is for Cookie" "Happy Birthday" (which was sung twice :) )

Lesson- I showed a letter "C". We saw pictures of many different things that start with the letter "C". We sang a "C" song and practiced drawing a "C" in the air with our fingers. We made the ASL "C". I noticed that an ASL "O" is similar to a "C". I showed them how an "O" opens its "mouth" and becomes a "C". We giggled. I enthusiastically encouraged how easy writing "C's" can be :)

Puppet Story- The children helped me to tell the story of The Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. They enjoyed it more than I had anticipated. Ask them about it--they thought it was sheer magic.

Snack- Today we celebrated Raeanna & Jake's Birthday! They brought fun Caramel Marshmallow Popcorn Balls to share :) Thank you both for a super fun treat! We wish you a very happy birthday!
During Snack time we had a fun discussion about twins. Rae & Jake are twins. FYI-- I told the children that in order to be a twin, 2 babies have to be inside the mommy at the same time. There can be 2 girls, 2 boys, or a boy & a girl, but they have to be inside the mommy at the same time. We talked about how some twins look exactly alike and others do not. I am not sure that some children believed what I was telling them :)

Recess- While some children were playing a few of us walked around my pumpkin patches. We counted some of the pumpkins and looked at the variety in sizes and shapes.
Leo proudly conquered the most challenging swing!

Books- Bubblegum Delicious--a book of poetry. It was fun to read some silly poems to the children. Sometimes I would leave off the end rhyming word and the kids all would shout out the missing word. They are so smart!

Writing- We practiced writing the letter "C". Today everyone was happy and finished quickly. We observed how nice it is when the little & big "C" only differ in size :) Letter "C" is Cool!