Future Vets

Lots of fun was had in our cooperative learning center this week! We had a box of vet gear- stethoscopes, bandages, cotton balls, thermometers, shots (medicine syringes), X-rays (dog and cat skeletons printed on transparencies) and, of course, lots of stuffed animals needing care and medical treatment. It was definitely the favorite center of the week, so we had it open every day. Tuesday, Dr. Mahany is coming to show us how the real veterinarians take care of our pets!

blood pressure seems normal

checking the "x-rays" on the light table

Doctor, I need some help with this!

In other centers, we worked a bit in our practice workbooks on writing letters. We made a little book on  pet safety, which we read as a class. This was a good chance to talk about some book characteristics such as covers, page numbers, and left to right directionality for reading/ page turning. Clothespins were clipped on cards and wheels for counting practice. We practiced writing numbers and our new letter Dd in corn meal trays. We also had fun stamping with pet stamps, and even painting with dog bones!

Handwriting Helpers

    We spent a lot of time working on our writing the past few days. While we always try to write our names on our morning work, some of the letters are very tricky to get on a paper. Every day we do some kind of fine motor prewriting or writing practice with crayons, markers or pencils. Sometimes we just need to put the paper away and try something a little different! Trays of cornmeal made for a fun and new way to form letters. We used our "pencil finger" to work on forming our focus letters Aa and Mm, as well as letters in our names. It took some hand over hand practice with the teacher, and a bit of "erasing" (lightly shaking trays to get a new smooth surface), but everyone wrote some letters to be proud of! After showing Ms. Heather some beautiful letters, we also drew pictures to go with the letter sounds.

      Check out our new classroom rug in the picture below! The designated center on the rug was lego building, but it was also fun to line up our blocks on the letters and trace them with our fingers, not to mention hopping on letters in our name. Another new handwriting helper was playing Letter School on Ms. Heather's iPad. This app ONLY lets students form letters the correct way, from the starting point at the top all the way to the end. But it engages the kids' attention so completely that they don't seem to mind at all the 10 tries it might take to get it just right. Fun graphics such as moving trains on letter tracks or light shows were a well deserved reward for carefully forming a letter perfectly. Ms. Heather was also extremely impressed with how well the children did waiting for each other patiently, encouraging each other to keep at it, and following the iPad rules (1 finger gentle touch, always stays flat on the table)!

S-- is working hard to get the tricky capital M!

Q-- made an astronaut because it starts with A!

E.B-- loves the fun texture while working on letters!

I-- is proud of his beautiful "I"!

Our beautiful new classroom rug has all the letters-> fun to play on and fun to trace over with our fingers.