Sunday, September 24, 2017

We are A-mazing!

This week, we worked on shapes and the letters H and A. The kids love to make projects, and the ones we did at centers this week had all kinds of important skills hidden in the process!

We read Press Here at circle time. If you don't know this book, check it out! The kids love how interactive it is, with each page giving directions (tap 3 times, tilt the book to the left, rub the blue circle, fix the pattern) that influence the illustration on the next page. At centers on Monday, we used assorted cups to stamp lots of black circles. The next day, we painted the circles, trying very hard to never cross the black line- the kids did so well! They concentrated putting their brushes exactly where they wanted them, and controlling them carefully to stay in the black line. Not only did this give them beautiful circle pictures, they had lots of fine motor practice needed for writing all those letters we're learning!                                          




 


After all that careful painting on Tuesday, we celebrated a special birthday!



Another wonderful book to check out is If I Built a House. It takes us through an imaginary house that has unique rooms- slides, rockets, car wash showers, etc. We used a wide variety of shape cut outs to design fun houses. The best part for me as a teacher was having each child tell me their favorite things about their creation. They have so many wonderful ideas! When a grown up takes the time to listen to their words, writes them down carefully, and reads them back to double check that we got everything they said, it shows the kids that what they think is interesting and important. It also naturally reinforces how writing helps us share ideas with others- and we have a lot to say!

 



Check out all the new houses in our neighborhood!






The rest of the week was devoted to the letter Aa and Apples! 


We had our first Let's Find Out magazine center this week, and it was all about apples. Check out our looking eyes on our fingers- we use our eyes and our fingers to look at the words! 

When we share a text in small groups, we are learning about all kinds of emergent print concepts such as titles, page numbers, concepts of letters and word, and directionality of text and pages. Those of us that are starting to recognize letters and/or words sometimes find some we know- which is very exciting! We look for letters, use pictures to help us guess what the words might say, and love talking about the animals in the photos. There are so many important literacy skills involved in sharing a book together- it doesn't matter whether a child knows 0 letters, or can read a 1000 words!






 

We gave out fingers a workout tearing paper into little pieces, then turned them into pretty apple trees. We also practiced carefully cutting paper on the line to make some chomping Aa alligators.

 


 


  


 

We had a taste test at snack one day with red, green, and yellow apples. Each of us added our name to the class graph, and we counted and compared our apple preferences using math words like
  more, less, bigger, smaller, and how many.


We finished up on Friday with some cooking! The first thing everyone saw coming in the door was our cooking table all set up for our little chefs. Not surprisingly, everyone wanted to pick an apple and try out the peeler machines. After peeling all the apples, we sprinkled on the topping and sent the trays off to the church oven with Mrs. Horton. An hour later, the wonderful smelling apple crisp was brought back for a delicious snack!


 

 


 


"I'm ready for seconds!" 
After reading 10 Apples Up on Top, we decided to give it a try ourselves! There were giggles and groans galore as we tried to balance those apples with no hands. We problem solved together, and agreed that placing the apple on either the top or the bottom worked better than laying it on our heads on its side. Also, taking a big step did not work at all, but 2 friends figured out sliding smooth steps made it possible. Smart thinking!










Our apple on top champion balanced her apple and slid backwards for 35 teeny tiny smooth steps-
  A-MAZING APPLE SKILLS!!











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