St. Patrick's Day Party

Theme: St. Patrick's Day Party

Choosing Time: Little People Village, Beads, Face/Hand Painting

Snack: Lucky Charms

Surprise: I had carefully placed a special treat for our party in a black pot last night. When I went into the classroom all of the treats were gone and the room was a disaster. A Leprechaun left us a note promising to return our treats if we helped collect his gold. We were excited to go outside to find the gold. We put it into the pot and left it in the preschool room. When we came back inside, the gold was gone, but yummy gold wrapped candy was left in its place. That Leprechaun was super sneaky!
Book: Jaime O'Rourke and the Big Potato by Tomie de Paola
What would you rather have: gold or a seed?

Art: Color a Leprechaun by ABC

Music & Movement: Dancing Leprechauns, G-R-E-E-N, & Who is wearing green today?

Letter "R"

Theme: Letter "R"

Choosing Time: Little People Village, Floor Puzzles, Paint a Rainbow

Snack: Thank you Rae for a surprise snack! The Kudo bars and carrots were tasty!

Music & Movement: See Me Run!

Lesson/Game/Music/Movement/Art/Science: I taped numbered raindrops to an umbrella. Each child took a turn to choose a raindrop. We then did an activity that corresponded to the number. Here are some of the things we did:

1. Sang "Rain is Falling"
2. Traced letter "R" and guessed some words that begin with "R." Some children believed that my cute picture of a rabbit to be a bunny. They insisted that I turn the picture over to show them the word. Seeing the word "rabbit" was a disappointment. :)
3. Danced like Robots.
4. Read a book called What Makes A Rainbow by Betty Schwartz. We identified the 3 things we need to have a rainbow: water, sun, and colors.
   
5. Sang "Peter Rabbit"
6. Sang "Little House"
7. Sang "I Can Sing a Rainbow"--I have issues with the original song...so we sang it with the 6 colors of a rainbow in order.
8. Danced a Rainbow
9. Made a Rainbow Picture
10. Read The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Brown Wise

Mini Class

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Theme: Green

Choosing Time: Duplo Blocks, Mr. Potato Heads, Ponies, & animals

Science: We painted Shamrocks using Blue & Yellow paint. We had fun watching the 2 colors blend to make Green.

Snack: Thank you Hyrum for being a super snack helper today! We all enjoyed the popcorn, apples, & raisins. We had a wonderful discussion about foods that are crunchy and foods that are squishy.

Music & Movement: Oh, What a Miracle!

Books: Spring Green by Valrie M. Selkowe & Runaway Bunny by Margaret Brown

Lesson: What things are green? Some of our answers were, "Alligators, frogs, string, balloons, leaves, grass, & jello." Shamrocks/Clover & Leprechauns are also green. Blue & Yellow make Green.

Art: Leprechaun Wands

Shamrocks & Leprechauns

Theme: Shamrocks & Leprechauns

Choosing Time: Marble-Works & Puzzles
Jake & Spencer felt very proud to have mastered a giant floor puzzle all on their own!
I had built a few marble tracks, but many children wanted to build their own today. It wasn't too fun when they couldn't figure out why the marbles were falling out at all the wrong places :) I tried to explain....but most of them just wanted me to fix it:)

Snack: Thank you to Daniel for bringing the snack today! Especially since you were not able to share it with us. Popcorn & cheese are always successful treats!
FYI--If you can't come to school and it is your snack turn Please Do Not worry about it! I always have something in the pantry! :)

Science: Blue & Yellow make Green
We used blue & yellow paint to decorate shamrocks. We watched as the colors blended to make green. There are many different shades of green.

Lesson: What is a Leprechaun? Are they real or make believe? If you catch one, what do you get? What is a shamrock? Who is St. Patrick? What did he do?

Movement: The Hokey-Pokey & 7 Dancing Leprechauns

Music: "G-R-E-E-N"

Poetry: Leprechaun Stew & Little Leprechaun

Art: Magic Leprechaun Wands

Show 'N Tell Day

Theme: Show And Tell

Choosing Time: Play-doh & Puzzles

Game: Duck, Duck, Goose

Snack: Thank you Spencer for a yummy snack today! We all enjoyed the animal crackers, apple slices, & juice boxes.
Music & Movement: We are practicing our listening skills by trying to follow the movement instructions on a CD. The songs we moved to were: Oh, What A Miracle, Jumping Song, Slowly & Fast, Got a Wiggle in My Toe

Slow Motion:

Jumping Song:

Circle Time: We each took a turn to share our special items with the class. We practiced being a considerate audience.
Outside Play: Chalk Drawing

Art: Self-Portraits
In Kindergarten drawing self-portraits is an important skill. We are preparing ourselves for K by talking about what parts of our bodies are on our head and then trying to draw them.
Book: 26 Princesses by Horowitz

Mini Class

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Theme: Pajama & Pancake Party!

Choosing Time: Trains & Dig for the Queen's Jewels, Read a Story with teacher: 26 Princesses by Dave Horowitz
Cooking: We all enjoyed helping to make the pancake batter. We practiced counting to four. We made up a little song about mixing pancake batter. Sneaking some licks of sugar was fun too.
Snack: Pancakes with syrup & whipped cream in a can! Everyone wanted a heart-shaped pancake loaded with yummy toppings! We ate & ate. Yum!
Music & Movement: Listening to music with instructions & then following them.
The songs we listened & danced to: Oh, What a Miracle!, See Me Run, I Like to Jump

Book: We snuggled on a cozy quilt to read Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell

Art: Stickers & Markers Masterpieces

Letter "Q"

Theme: Letter "Q"

Choosing Time: Search for the Queen's Treasure, Decorate a "Quilt" Block, & Little People Village

Snack: Thank you Jackson for the tasty cheese sticks! It was the BEST cheese stick I've ever eaten. Yum!

Music & Movement: The Jumping Song, Move Quietly & Quickly, & Move Like Q (Wave like a queen, throw a ball like a quarterback, Run quickly, quack like a duck, & tiptoe quietly.)

Lesson: Letter "Q" makes a funny sound. It is always "married" to the letter "U." Letter "U" does not need to always be with Q though. We posted our "Quilt" Blocks on our class bulletin board. We call it our friendship quilt. We looked at a quilt and counted all of the many different colors are on it. We noticed that a quilt can be made from many different shapes and colors. We looked at different kinds of quilt designs. Each quilt is a work of art.

Books: We sat on a quilt to read Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell & The Quiltmaker's Journey by Jeff Brumbeau

Art & Writing: A Letter "Q" Collage with quarters, quilt squares, q-tips, & question marks.