Inspired by Dr. Seuss!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

• At Large Group: 
• We read stories by Dr. Seuss for the last two weeks in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday. The kiddos have really been enjoying the rhymes and silliness in his stories! 

• We have been talking a lot about opposite words and rhyming words in our question of the day. We often play rhyming and/or opposite word games with the kiddos. They enjoy playing guessing games where they have to use describing words as well.
• We put different sizes and shapes of fish cutouts around the room and the kiddos went on a fish scavenger hunt. Once they each found two fish they brought them back to the carpet. 

The kiddos sorted by color first and then by size.

• We had an indoor snowball fight with our number and shape snowballs. 
• We have been doing a lot of music and movement at large group. We’ve been playing with our bean bags and scarves & following directions to “Listen and Move”. 
• We took a vote to see which Dr. Seuss books the kiddos liked best and made a graph. Cat in the Hat won with six votes, but Green Eggs and Ham came in a close second with four votes.
• Our letters of the week were: A, E, F, H, I, & K. We identify the letter, the sound it makes, brainstorm other words that start with the letter, and work on finding the upper case and lower case letters in our letter poem books. We also practice writing the letter during  planning or recall time.
• At Small Group: 
• We worked on our rhyming using familiar words from our Dr. Seuss books. 
• Miss Kendra’s friends created books all about their five senses. They were excited to be the author and the illustrator of their own books!
• Miss Katelynn’s friends have been learning their color songs and hunting for things that are blue and green. 
• If you would like to learn our color songs they can be found here.
• We traced our feet and then measured them with rulers. Then we used our feet to measure different things around the room (rugs, tables, each other, etc).

The kiddos continued with the measuring activity at choice time in the toys and games area with our feet and inchworm manipulatives.

• Miss Katelynn’s group played Dr. Seuss Bingo. 
• Miss Kendra’s group traced their shoes and turned them into all different kinds of fish. The kiddos decided they wanted to name their fish "like in the Dr. Seuss book."
• We really enjoyed getting messy while making oobleck (corn starch and water). Here is a recipe. The kiddos were amazed at how it was both liquid and solid at the same time. 

 

• At Choice Time: 

•  The kiddos have been busy creating and building over the past two weeks. It often looks like a tornado has gone through our classroom by the end of the day, but they have been using their imagination and adding a lot more detail to their creations. They are also planning more of their artwork out in advance. 

They love building with these magnatiles.

They've been creating lots of zoos, cages, and homes for the animals.

• All these Dr. Seuss books have renewed their interest in our listening area. They have also been enjoying “reading” the Dr. Seuss books to friends. They have also been heading to the writing area to create their own books to take home and read to their families. 

• The kiddos have been doing a lot of pretend play in the dramatic play area. They have been taking care of their babies, playing superheroes, cooking food, doing hair and nails, pretending to be kitties, and planning out birthday parties for various stuffed animals. 

The entire month of February!

The month of February was kind of crazy with all the snow/cold days. So this blog will be all about what we were up to in class throughout February.

•  At Large Group: 

• We read stories about mail carriers, Valentine’s Day, teeth, dental health,  visiting the dentist, and our five senses.

• We did a bunch of fun movement games: the “shadow” game where you pretend you are someone’s shadow, a musical hearts gross motor game where you do whatever movement is written on the heart, & the valentine version of the “Someone’s in the Middle” game. 
• We pretended we were groundhogs & acted out the story “10 Grouchy Groundhogs”. 

 

• We used our five senses to explore sweethearts candies. 

 

• We went on a heart scavenger hunt and then brought the hearts back to the carpet to sort them by size. 
• We worked on our gross motor movements while singing the song “We’re Going to the Dentist So They Can Check Our Teeth”. Each time we sing the song someone suggested a new way to move while “going to the dentist”, e.g. hopping, skipping, stomping, etc.
• We talked about foods that are healthy/unhealthy for your teeth. Each kiddo had two pictures of food items and they had to decide if they were healthy or unhealthy. 

• We did a taste test of bitter (dark chocolate), sweet (vanilla mini marshmallows), sour (lemon wedges), and salty (pretzels). Seeing the kiddos reactions to some of the tastes were hilarious! 

 

  

• We played a five senses game where we showed the kiddos pictures and had them show us which sense they could use by pointing to that body part.
• At Small Group: 
• We did a science experiment with milk, food coloring, and liquid soap. Here is a link if you want to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ5_2OykNrk  

• We worked on our rhyming words with a matching game. 
• We used clothespins and pictures cards to clip the number of syllables. 
• We worked on letter identification using an egg matching game (upper case on one side, lower case on the other). 

• We practiced our letter sounds using our paint stick matching game. The kiddos match the pictures to the letter sound they start with. 

• We played a “Simon Says” game with blocks to work on our positional words (in front, behind, next to, between, etc.). 
• We created valentine’s for our families. 

 

• We worked in teams to put together floor puzzles. 
• We used Sweetheart candies to pattern, sort, estimate and count how many, create letters, shapes, and numbers. They also enjoyed pointing out the letters and numbers written on the candies.

•  We used chairs as props and took turns giving directions to practice our positional words, for example: walk around the chair, crawl under the chair, sit on the chair, stand behind/in front of the chair, etc. 

• We made up stories with our storytelling dice. 

 

We have several dice with different settings and characters that the kiddos roll & use to make up stories.

• We used name puzzles to create our names. 
• We used buttons to sort by shape/color and to create patterns. 

•  We used Lego blocks to “build” how many sounds/syllables we heard in words. 

• We drew pictures with our eyes open and then again with our eyes closed. The kiddos thought this was very funny and we’re all about anything that gets them writing!
• We used craft sticks to create letters, shapes, numbers, and more!
• Our letters of the day this month were: O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, & Z. We identified the letter, the sound it makes, brainstormed other words that start with the letter, and finished up our "I Have That Letter in My Name" book. We often practice writing the letter during planning or recall time.
• At Choice Time: 
• We added a beauty/hair salon element to our dramatic play area this month. We have real shampoo and conditioner bottles, gel & mousse containers, pretend braids, accessories, hair dryers, straighteners, appointment books, and even a real pump up chair. The kiddos enjoy “washing” hair in the sink. Some of the days we also had a "nail salon" open where the kiddos could paint their nails with watercolors. 

 

• In the art area we have been creating a lot of interesting things: surfboards (for surf and hula dancing contests at the carpet), pet worms, valentines, bracelets, and more! 

Surfboards

She's been really into making lists lately.

• We added a marble run to the block area and they have been figuring out new ways to build it every day. 

• We added a post office element to our writing area this month. They have been doing a lot of writing, using “stamps”, and mailing letters in the mailboxes. 

• We also had several birthday parties for stuffed animals this week. They even created presents, sang "Happy Birthday!", and made birthday cards. 

• We put out some tunnels for the kiddos to crawl through. 

• We borrowed hollow blocks from the other classroom and created bridges and tunnels to help us avoid stepping in the “lava”.  They enjoyed coming up with different ways to rearrange the blocks to create new pathways. This was an excellent opportunity for teamwork and problem solving.

• The kiddos enjoyed both the block area and toys & games.

She was the momma animal taking care of her babies.

She put her babies to sleep.

• Color Me Healthy continued through the month of February. Each time she visited, Miss Tina brought us a new snack to try, read us a book, played a game, and exercised with us. The kiddos really enjoyed their time with Miss Tina.

Eat all the colors of the rainbow!