All About... Our Homes, Our Names, and Choice Time!

Second Week of School

Our theme this week was All About Me. We worked on learning our friends' names using this rhyme: "Hickety, Pickety Bumblebee, Can you say your name for me?" We encourage our friends to use names when they are talking to someone. We shared our All About Me pages with the class and talked a little about who makes up our family. We also talked about what our homes look like.  

We talked about how not all homes look alike.

We had the kids tell us what was happening in each picture. Then we decided which room in the house we do those things in.

We had the kids decide whether or not they could live in these places. Then we read the book "A House for Hermit Crab" by Eric Carle.

We put our activities up on our board when we were done. The kids really enjoyed seeing their "work" up on the bulletin board. We overheard many conversations about different kinds of houses this week. Our friends also built many kinds of houses in the block area.

We practiced writing our names this week using our writing folders. At this point in the school year we are only focusing on our first names.

The folders also have alphabet and number tracing. They can also practice writing their shapes. The lines are good for pre-writing practice. They were excited to see the "magic" when the marker wiped right off.

In our newsletter we gave several suggestions for how to practice name writing at home (using a yellow highlighter to write their name and then having them trace over it). We also gave a tip on how to encourage proper pencil grip by holding a cotton ball with your ring and pinky finger.

Art

We introduced water color painting this week. We talked about how the paint needs water to work and that we needed to share the paints and water. They are great at sharing!

They filled up the whole drying rack with their MANY paintings this week. I was very happy that my homemade watercolor paints worked. Especially since they are going through them so fast. A few parents asked for the recipe for the paints. You can find it here! Gel food color works best!

We made backgrounds to mount their artwork on. :)

They choose what they want to put on the wall and what they want to take home.

 Toys & Games

Creating flowers.

Building "Monster Trucks"

How high can I stack them?

 Library

Our library area was made up of all Eric Carle books this week. We read at least two every day and the kids were able to help us read using picture clues. This is a great way to encourage early reading. We have also been talking about concepts of print (what does the author do, what do the illustrator do).

 Discovery

The discovery area is our way to encourage a love for science.

This week the kids really enjoyed weighing things with our scale. They tried really hard to get it even.

Writing

He was narrating his picture as he drew. He made mom, dad, and brother.

The chalk board was a big hit this week.

 Blocks

Our friends really enjoy making things with these waffle blocks. They often use them to make train tracks.

Working together to build a tower.

 Dramatic Play

I LOVED seeing the boys playing with the baby dolls today. We do a lot in class to encourage breaking those gender stereotyped roles (ie. boys can play with dolls, girls can be doctors/firefighters).

They made a lot of cookies for our friends this week!

Our resident doctor.