Where the Wild Things Are

Theme: Final Play Preparations & Review

Choosing Time: MarbleWorks, Puzzles, Foam Block Puzzles

Snack: Thank you Jake & Raeanna for a yummy treat of pretzels & chocolate chips!

Art: Wild Things

We had a fun time trying on our costumes and rehearsing for our play. I honestly don't know where the time went today! We just had a lot of fun and the time whizzed by. We are all looking forward to Tuesday. :)

Mini Class

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Thank you for all being so prompt to pick up today! I really appreciate it and I know my daughter did as well. THANKS!

Theme: Butterflies
Choosing Time: Puppets, MarbleWorks, Tinker Toys, Bug Game

Snack: Popcorn

Music: Popcorn Popping, P-O-P-C-O-R-N

Movement: Sang a song about a tiny seed growing into a flower and acted it out. We also flitted around as butterflies.

Lesson: I presented the life cycle of a butterfly with a hand puppet in story form (based on the book, The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle). We enjoyed helping our caterpillar eat and then watching him change into a butterfly. We learned that flowers are important to butterflies for food. We used flower finger puppets to attract a butterfly.

Book: In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming

Art: Butterfly Puppets

Letter "Z"

Theme: Letter "Z"

Choosing Time: Zoo Animals, ABC Puzzles, Eric Carle ABC Game

Snack: Thank you Mitch for yummy Cheez-it crackers & apple slices!

Lesson: Letter "Z" is Zany! While it is the last letter in the alphabet, we still need it. Some of the words that start with "Z" are zipper, zigzag, zero, zany, zip code, zinnia, zucchini & zoo. There are 2 "Z's" in one of our favorite foods: Pizza! We pretended to be different zoo animals.

Book: The Baby BeeBee Bird by Steven Kellogg
We had a wonderful discussion while reading this book. The baby bird is new to the zoo and keeps the animals up all night long until they come up with a plan. Cute story and all of the kiddos enjoyed it and had lots of ideas for how the ending should be.

Activity: Play Practice :)

Letter "Y"

Theme: Letter "Y"

Choosing Time: Little People Village & Animals

Snack: Thank you Grayce for bringing fruit snacks & pretzels! Yum!

Movement: Duck, Duck, Goose & Wild Rumpus

Lesson: We made Letter "Y" Sounds and practiced several different ways of making a "Y" shape. I acted out some fun "Y" words and was pleasantly surprised when the kids guessed them all. Only one of us was wearing yellow. He chose a moving way around our circle while we sang a "Yellow Hurray" song. Everyone else wanted a turn & so I asked each one to tell me something that is yellow or starts with a "Y". Each child picked something and then acted it out in a moving way around our circle. We had a lot of fun!

Book: Lemons are not Red by Laura Vaccaro

Art: Yarn Painting
Activity: Play Practice--I am getting super excited! The children are doing great & we are all having a good time with our preparations.

Mini Class

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Theme: Farm Animals

Choosing Time: Farm Animal Puppets, Animals, Little People Farm, Puzzles

Snack: ABC Crackers and cheese. It was cute that everyone wanted the first letter of their names.

Music & Movement: Dance Like Various Farm Animals, Farmer In the Dell, Old MacDonald, A Cow Says...

Lesson: I had a large bucket of various animals. I drew one out and asked, "Does this belong in a farm?" If it did, we put it in a farm and then made its sound. The animals that didn't belong in a farm went to the zoo. A couple of children wanted to know where those animals come from. We had a great discussion about jungle, arctic, or desert animals.

Craft: Barn Animals

Letter "X"

Theme: Letter "X"

Choosing Time: Tic-Tac-Toe, Potato Head, Make a Boat, Duplos, Dragons, Ponies, Masks

Snack: Thank you Jackson for a yummy snack of cereal bars today!

Movement: Criss Cross Applesauce, Moving like "X's", Wild Thing "Rumpus"

Lesson: Letter "X" makes a fun sound. It sort of has a sound in the word "kiss," and maybe that is why it is a symbol for kisses. We practiced making "X's". We listed words that start with an "X", end with an "X", or have the "X" sound in the middle of the word.

Game: I Spy!

Activity: We spent some time rehearsing our play: becoming familiar with some of our parts, actions, and places. We are getting more excited every day!

Fun Surprises!

Theme: Mothers

Choosing Time: Little People Village, Bugs, Worms, Books

Science: We were happy to see some of our worms have dug tunnels through the dirt. One child noticed that the strawberry has disappeared. We all noticed that the worm farm stinks!

Snack: Thank you Spencer for the carrots, pears, & cookies! Some kids voted it as, "The best snack ever!"

Special Surprise: We had a fun time making chocolate covered pretzels for our mothers today. I wish you could all have seen how much care and thought went into this simple gift. Each child carefully chose the sprinkles he/she thought mom would like best. It was fun to cook together!

Movement: We danced a "wild thing" rumpus.

Lesson: We had an insightful discussion about mothers. We all shared ideas about what a mother does to help us and to play with us. I shared my ideas of the "best thing my kids can do for me" so that I have time to play more with them. Some of our sharing included, "I help my mom make my bed," "My mom cooks for me," "My mom plays with me, but then she died" (I'm assuming this must be some electronic game :), "My mom buys me toys," "My mom cleans up a lot." To help branch out I asked questions such as, "Who goes to the park with their moms?" "Who goes on walks with mom?" "Who reads books with mom?" "Who likes to help mom in the garden?" All of you mothers are wonderful!

Book: Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too? by Eric Carle
I love this book. The moral is: Mothers love their babies no matter what.

Art: Mother's Day Cards & Color "Wild Thing" Masks

Mini Class

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Theme: Mothers

Choosing Time: Babies, Cars, Trucks, Worms

Snack: ABC Crackers

Movement: See Me Run, Oh, What A Miracle, & Sally Goes Round the Sun

Music: Skidamarinkydinkydink

Lesson: Mothers love us. They help us. They cook for us. They clean our clothes & dishes. Mothers hug us. They play with us. They tuck us in bed. They love all their children no matter what.

Activity: We made Mother's Day Treats & Cards. It was fun for me to see how carefully the children choose the sprinkles they thought you'd like. We also made a treat for us to eat too! Notice, we ate ours already :)
Books: Do Kangaroos Have a Mother Too? by Eric Carle, Who is your Favorite Monster, Mama? by Barbara Hazen, & Digger Man by Andrea Zimmerman

Letter "W"

Theme: Letter "W"

Choosing Time: WHEELS: cars & gears

Snack: Thank you Daniel for a yummy snack today! We love cheese & crackers!

Book: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Music & Movement: "...wiggle those waggles away...," Move Like "Wild Things" to drum beats

Art: Melt Wax Crayon Shavings (What Will they become?)
Lesson: We played a game called, "What Will You Find to Put in the Wagon?" Each child had a turn to take my mini wagon around the room to find a picture or object that begins with "W". We had a lot of fun with this! We also practiced making "W's" and making the "W" sound. A fun thing about "W" is that when it is upside down it becomes an "M." We also signed "W" and learned the sign for water.

Science: Today we made a Worm Farm. We were able to touch & handle live earthworms. We put them in an observation tank with some dirt, left-over strawberries, eggshells, cracker crumbs, lettuce, and onion peel. Worms like to eat some of the things we throw away. We sprayed some water on top. We will watch what happens. Worms like the dark so they are sleeping in our toy closet until we peek at them on Thursday.

Language: Having the opportunity to hold worms allowed us to use some very good descriptive words. Some of the words I remember are, "wiggly, cold, squishy, slippery, oozey, gooey, slimy, and wet." Describing something in detail is a very good skill to develop and will help with writing skills.

California Pizza Kitchen

Choosing Time: Books & Games

Activity: Field-Trip to The California Pizza Kitchen
We had a wonderful visit to the CPK today! I can't believe I forgot my camera!!! Ugggh! We were greeted then seated to color while we awaited our pizza dough. Our server, Miss Jenn, gave us each a dollop of pizza sauce on our mini pizzas and then we were able to choose which toppings we wanted. It was fun to see everyone's choices and how carefully the toppings were placed :) There was cheese, fresh pineapple, sausage, pepperoni, olives, & ham to choose from. While our pizzas cooked we were given a tour of the restaurant. All of the kids thought it was super cool to be the only customers in the restaurant. We felt really important. We learned how the waiters keep track of the tables and all the orders. We saw the special soda fountain that stops before the soda spills all over. We saw the fancy french bread slicer and were given a slice to taste. Being a sourdough loaf, some didn't care for it, but it was a great opportunity to try something new. We saw a giant dishwasher, fridge, and freezer. Miss Jenn gave each child a lift up to see the pizza oven. It is a really large brick dome. It was fun to see the fire blazing inside and to watch the chef pull out our pizzas with a very long-handled spatula. We were then seated and served our pizzas and strawberry lemonade. It was a fun and tasty excursion. Thank you to Mrs. Fromm for coming with us! You were a tremendous help!

Lesson: We talked about some good manners: 1) waiting for everyone to be served before eating and 2) remembering to say please and thank you. All of the children were so respectful and good! We all had a delightful time!

Mini Class

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Theme: Mmm Vegetables!

Choosing Time: Trains, Vet/Pet Pretend Play, Beauty Shop, Voice Recordings (I invited each child to answer a few questions such as "What is your favorite color?." I recorded the responses and then we listened to the recording. It was fun to hear our own voices and our answers!
Snack: Thank you Grace for a yummy & healthy snack. We ate cheese, graham crackers, Cheez-Its, & Frozen Carrots & Peas. FYI: The frozen veggies were a HUGE HIT! Everyone wanted seconds!
Books: How Are You Peeling? Foods With Moods by Saxton Freymann (This book is so creative! We had fun trying to mimic the expressions we saw on the fruits and vegetables. I should have taken pictures! It was a hoot!)
Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes by Mary Englebreit

Lesson: We identified many pictures of healthy foods. We decided if a food was a fruit or a vegetable. We shared which vegetables we like the best. The kids were so cute! If I showed a picture of a vegetable they didn't like someone would say, "My dad/mom likes those...." It was so wonderful to hear such optimistic expressions instead of hearing, "YUCK! I hate those!" :)

Music & Movement: See Me Run, Oh, What A Miracle, & Red Light Green Light

Art: What 5 Vegetables would you like to plant in your garden?

Letter "V"

Theme: The Letter "V"

Choosing Time: Pretending to be a Vet, Mr. Potato Head, Duplos, Patterns

Snack: Fish Crackers & Raisins

Music & Movement: Making a "V" many different ways with our bodies, See Me Run, & Exercises in Tens

Lesson: Letter "V" makes a fun sound. We talked about many things that start with "V" such as van, violin, vacuum, violet, vegetables, & voice. I showed many pictures of a variety of vegetables. We voted on which vegetables we like.

Game: I took each child out of the room and asked a series of questions such as, "What do you like to do?" I recorded their responses. We all sat in a circle and listened to the recordings. We guessed whose voice we were listening to.

Science: Volcano Eruption: This probably was the highlight for many today. We loved watching the volcano explode. The pretend "lava" was impressive and we were all thankful it was pretend so that no one was hurt :) We talked about chemical reactions. The 2 things that mixed together to make the lava were baking soda & vinegar. Combining these causes a chemical reaction that bubbles up and then flows down.
Art & Writing: We practiced making "V's." We chose pictures of the vegetables we would like to grow in a garden.

Book: Bark, George! by Jules Feiffer

Earth Day

Theme: Let's Help Keep Our Earth Clean!

Choosing Time: Play-doh, Dinosaurs, Foam Puzzle Blocks, & Puppets
Game: "Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cake!" Thank you Jake for adding a fun twist to the traditional Duck, Duck, Goose game :)

Snack: Thank you Jake for sharing a GIANT bag of Pretzels with us!

Lesson: We had a "Pond" filled with all kinds of fish. I had several items of trash that ended up in our pond. When the pond was filled with garbage there wasn't any more room for the fish. We cleaned up our pond. We sorted the garbage into trash & recycle piles. We were happy to make room for the fish to come back. It was fun to think of some ideas on how to use trash. For example, we can make puppets from empty toilet paper tubes...We learned that many people just throw their trash on the ground because it is easy. This makes our earth ugly. We love our earth and want to keep it clean.

Music & Movement: Pick Up Litter!, 5 Little Speckled Frogs, 5 Little Monkeys, 5 Fat Sausages, Fire Truck, Tiny Tim, Twinkle Twinkle, ABC's, Baby Shark

Poem: Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out by Shel Silverstein

Art: Recycled Trash Stamping

Mini Class

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Theme: Earth Day!

Choosing time: Play-doh, Foam Puzzle Blocks, Dinosaurs, & Beauty Shop

Snack: Thank you Noah for yummy Cheeze-its and Grapes!
Music & Movement: See Me Run, Oh What A Miracle, & Wiggle In My Toe

Lesson: We had a mini "Ocean" bucket in our class today filled with many animals that live in water. I had a bag full of garbage. I took one piece of trash out at a time and threw it into our ocean. Each time I did this, one of our fish friends had to leave the water. Trash kills our friends that live in water. We need to throw our trash away into trash cans. We then had fun cleaning up the trash and throwing it away. Each child chose a fish to put back into the water. I also suggested some fun ways to recycle trash. Sometimes we can even wash our trash and make a craft with it.

Art: Recycled Shakers

Letter "U"

Theme: Letter "U"

Choosing Time: Little People Village, Foam Puzzle Blocks, & Drawing Under the Table Upside Down
Snack: Animal Crackers & Spring Marshmallows

Reading/Writing: We read our Spring Poem and learned how to spell "up."

Music & Movement:

1. "Hokey-Ukey" : Instead of the traditional Hokey-Pokey, we put our right hand UP...
   
2. "Here We Go Round the Umbrella" : We each took turns adding pictures of items that begin with "U" inside our umbrella. Then each child would run, skip, gallop, walk around the circle.
3. "How can you move Under the Umbrella?": I held out a closed umbrella for the children to take turns choosing a moving way to get under the umbrella. We finished by either having to slither on our tummies, or slide on our backs. :)
4. Make an upside down "U" with our bodies. This was a very popular activity! We had a lot of fun trying to make a perfect "U".

Lesson: Practiced writing the letter "U". We also had a fun time making the two "U" sounds. We also had a discussion about one "U" word: UGLY. We read The Ugly Duckling. We thought about how the duckling felt and how we would feel. We learned that sometimes things might be ugly on the outside, but beautiful on the inside. We need to look inside a person's heart. We all expressed to each other how we have beautiful hearts :)

Art: "Hiding Behind An Umbrella" Pictures

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Books:

• Lunch by Denise Fleming
• The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
• 5 Ugly Monsters Jumping on the Bed by Ted Arnold
  

Teddy Bear Picnic

Theme: Teddy Bear Picnic

Choosing Time: Teddy Bears, Tea/Picnic Set, Pooh Bear Color Pages, Duploes, Teeter-Totter, Stacking Cups

Lesson: A short instruction on field trip safety.

Music: 5 Little Ducks & The ABC Song

Field Trip: We had a wonderful excursion to the BYU Botany Pond. It was a lovely day for a picnic! We counted 13 ducklings with one mama duck. We stood very still to observe a turtle emerge from the water and climb up onto the bank. We ate yummy cheese & crackers, oranges, cupcakes, and juice boxes. We read "It's The Bear!" by Jez Alborough. We explored the surrounding area hoping to find some duck eggs. We climbed to the top of the stairs and back. We had races around a tree. We were so tempted by the water, but were so good to stay out of it :) Thank you to all who sent food! A special thanks to Mary Nevers for coming with us! An extra pair of eyes & hands were so needed and appreciated!

Our turtle friend. We noticed many things about this little guy: long pointy claws, yellow & black shell underneath, red eyes, quick swimmer...

Taking time to smell the flowers...

At the top of the stairs...We counted them and I can't remember how many? More than 50!

We were heading towards the grass when a Duck came swooping towards us, barely missing our heads, and then skimmed across the pond before it happily settled on the water.

Spencer is saying, "Wow! Cool!"
YUM!