Kinder-Tots Preschool: September 2010

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Friday September 24th

We had our number 2 day. I started the day with a “T” practice on the table downstairs. This will be our activity every Friday. It is another way to practice the letter during the week.
During open play, I also practiced the number of the day with each child individually. Just like the letter of the week on Monday, I will be doing the number with each child by themselves on Friday.
We practiced our numbers in the air with my numeral song and learned two in Spanish- “dos”. We worked with our leaf manipulatives again. This time counting them and doing simple addition and subtraction with the leaves. When you are counting at home, please let your child touch each item while they are counting. It helps them not to count ahead and to make a one on one reference to each thing.
We finished our number 2 worksheets for our binders and we did a tossing game to practice our letters we have learned so far. The kids had three bean bags each and I asked them to toss the bags to the correct letter- either the big or little ones (capital or lower case) for H, B and T. I want to have the kids remember what we have already learned and to continue to use those letters even though they are not the focus letters of the week. Ask your child what the sounds are for the letters and the sign for them as well. It will help with the continuation of learning and making those concepts more concrete.

Boys playing with the little legos

Students playing with the play food

Students at Circle time- Campbell is leading the class

During our wiggle time songs

Thursday September 23rd

This was our weather day. We read a story about weather and listened to a weather song that teaches how to spell each kind of weather. We also made our own weather wheel and talked about the different types of clothes we wear in different types of weather. We painted our letter “A” sheet for our binders. They were so colorful!!
We played with the food and blocks today.

Wednesday September 22nd

We talked about plants in the forest- ferns, moss and where is grows (not here), vines and berry bushes. I also talked about not eating berries on bushes because you never know if they could hurt you and make you sick. We read the story “We planted a tree”.
Because it was the first day of fall, we painted a fall leaves art project. Hope you enjoyed those. They liked painting them. I also worked with them with leaf manipulatives. We sorted by colors and counting each group.
We played with tinkertoys and puzzles this day.

Tuesday September 21st

We practiced the number 1. Each number we talk about will have a rhyme about a Kitten and her jar. We see what is in her jar and then we practice the number & we put stickers in the jar on our worksheets. These sheets will be placed in the binder at the end of the year for practice. When we do the number 2 and following numbers, I will be taking each child out of our play time to work on the number individually. There is no way that I can control 6 three year olds in teaching them the proper way to write the numbers. I will also do a small practice of the letters. My goal though this year is not that they can print each letter but to recognize them. Next year when their fine motor skills are strengthen then we will practice more of the letter printing.
We all introduced our first letter- “A”. We sang a song each day to practice the two sounds of “A”- short and long. We also learned the sign of the letter. We will be learning these each week. Ask your child what sound the letter makes and what the sign is. More practice out of class will only strengthen their skills. We read our “A” story about the adventures of Abby Alligator. We will read a story each Tuesday of the letter that we are learning.

Monday September 20th

During open play, I took each child individually to practice the letter “T”. I will do this each week. We started our theme about the forest. We discussed trees in the forest and what trees give to us. We also did a story about the forest and all the things we can find there. We colored a worksheet with trees in shapes of triangles. While we did that, we listened to C is for conifers- a song from They Might Be Giants CD- Here comes the ABCs (I love this CD!) Trees and triangles worked into our letter of the week.
The letter “T” was also introduced. We met Timmy Tiger and how he was tired. He had this toothbrush and toothpaste ready to go to bed. He also likes to watch TV- this is the same for all my sweeties too! We learned the sound as we tapped on our rectangles. We also read the story about Tina Turtle who came for tea. We also finished the “T” practice page that will go into the binders.
Campbell was our star for the week. We played with thistle blocks, links and puzzles today.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

"B" Friday- Sept 17

We were missing two of our friends- Benjamin & Jackson so it was quieter with just the four friends with us. I had made blue play dough that the kids brought home and we played Mr. Potato Head..again because it is a favorite! The boys like the Star Wars potatoes that I have in my collection.
We started the day by practicing printing our letter B again. Our theme was the number 1- we will be having number Fridays for the next few months. We learned that one in Spanish is uno. We also practiced printing it which was really easy. N
We also had a few activities with the letter B. We made our “B” belt with B words on it- they didn’t like those too much. I sent home the “Buttons can be circles” worksheet and Benny Bear button search worksheet for the students to do in their free time. They were tired of coloring this morning. Each child brought a ball of blue play dough home for at home use- hope they enjoy it!

Play dough & play time- Sept 16

Red day- finger painting-Sept 16

Finger painting with my sweet three year olds was quite the adventure!
It was really interesting how they went about painting- some went all for it while others took their time and were very particular on how they wanted it to look.
You can also see some red lips- we had red punch for our snack.

Thursday the 16th was RED day! We all wore red (thank you!) and had a few activities with the color of the day! Each child was given a red play dough ball to take home for at home use. We also played with them in class. We had a red finger paint activity where we painted an apple red. These will be their binders at the end of the year. Each child also made a red book that they brought home.

Dexter

Shiann

Tyler

Claire

Garrett

Audrey

"B" week-beads & blocks- Sept 15, 2010

Wednesday the 15th we talked about family and friends. We showed our pictures of our families and discussed who is in our families. We also read a story about family and one about friends. We read a poem on friends and their emotions. For the letter B, we practiced printing the letter. This page is kept for our binders to practice at the end of the year.

Tyler as the star & bead necklaces-Sept 14, 2010

Tuesday the 14th we practiced our hand washing skills. We wet our hands, got soap on them and sang a little song…”Top and bottom, top and bottom, in between, in between. Put them all together, put them all together, now they’re clean, now they’re clean.” Sung to the tune of Frere Jacques. We rinsed and dried with a paper towel- always remembering to throw the paper towel again.

Happy Birthday Benjamin-party & legos-Sept 13, 2010

Monday the 13th we practiced our hand washing skills. We wet our hands, got soap on them and sang a little song…”Top and bottom, top and bottom, in between, in between. Put them all together, put them all together, now they’re clean, now they’re clean.” Sung to the tune of Frere Jacques. We rinsed and dried with a paper towel- always remembering to throw the paper towel again.
We also discussed opposites- clean and dirty with our clean & dirty dog page.
We read Bubble Bear for our letter of the week: B. The kids also got a bottle of bubbles!

Food time & "H" headband- Sept 10, 2010

Food time & my listening ears-Sept 9, 2010

This is a double of this picture but I thought it was too cute!

Our lessons this week were on getting used to preschool and going over our classroom rules & getting to know you.
The rules are:
Eat politely, Share, Listen, Put things away, cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, take turns, keep your hands to yourself (I call this one the octopus rule), raise your hand, help each other, and say please and thank you. There are posters on my wall for each rule to help them remember..I know it is hard sometimes to remember 

I also told them about my special ears- I have manner ears- they only hear manners. If they are asking for something, I ask them “what?” or “I didn’t quite hear you.” – hopefully prompting them that they need to use their manners if they need something. They usually catch on quickly and their friends help them out if they forget.

Playtime-4 year olds- Sept 8, 2010

Our lessons this week were on getting used to preschool and going over our classroom rules & getting to know you.
The rules are:
Eat politely, Share, Listen, Put things away, cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, take turns, keep your hands to yourself (I call this one the octopus rule), raise your hand, help each other, and say please and thank you. There are posters on my wall for each rule to help them remember..I know it is hard sometimes to remember

I also told them about my special ears- I have manner ears- they only hear manners. If they are asking for something, I ask them “what?” or “I didn’t quite hear you.” – hopefully prompting them that they need to use their manners if they need something. They usually catch on quickly and their friends help them out if they forget.

We got to know each other with a small questionnaire about their senses. I had each child come up and we discussed the answer of what they gave. It was fun to find similarities with the students- they were so excited that they were alike.