December 5th - December 16th

These weeks in class the children discussed the letters k and l.  We wrote letters in journals, on paper with paint, in snack foods on paper, and more.  We've spent a lot of time discussing weather and seasons.  The children learned about thunder and lightening, tornadoes (we made a tornado in a cylindrical jar), wind, clouds, and snow.  We talked about the water cycle and practiced flying kites in the "wind" (blowing on them).  We talked about dressing for weather and We worked on the numbers 5 and 6, counting groups and writing the numbers.

Of course we've discussed the holidays of Hanukkah and Christmas the past few weeks.  We practiced our Christmas program and spent a lot of time discussing the birth of Jesus and learning the order of events.  We made Christmas trees, picture frames, Christmas cards, stockings, and more. 




Birthday celebration



Kids making letters at snack









Preparing for performance



The kids have all improved so much with their fine hand coordination.  Everyone is holding pencils better and hands are getting stronger!  They children have also formed some great friendships and they all get along so well in a group together.  During this holiday season, I'm reminded how lucky we are to have such wonderful families here at Elm Park Preschool.  I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and look forward to a great 2012.



Ryder's Birthday



Kids practicing letters on our new white boards







November 28- December 2

This week in class we discussed seasons, dry and rainy weather, and the shape of the rectangle and the color orange.  We also focused on the letter j and the number 5.  The kids stamped the letter j, created it in play-doh, and created lists of j words. 

We used "money" (orange rectangles) to buy snack and discussed the concept of trading or  buying items.  The kids practiced counting out groups of 5 and the older children practiced writing the number 5.  They wrote 5s and colored orange in their journals too.

The children experimented by mixing yellow and red paint to create an orange leaf.  They also created flowers, a Christmas tree, rain art, and more.

We read books on weather and colored and practiced reading the book "He Has".  We read "A Perfectly Interesting Day" and used cue cards to follow along with the story.  The children created patterns with weather cards, and traced their shadows outside, coming back later to see the change in shadow shape.

Sorry, I didn't take pictures this week, I promise to post some next time!!

November 7- 10



Adam with the children

The kids "check" his helmet

This week in class we wrapped up the ocean unit by reviewing the themes and  concepts that have been our focus for the past several weeks.  We covered underwater life, the ocean, and boats/submarines/etc.  We also worked on the colors blue and purple, the numbers 3 & 4, many letters, and the shape of the triangle.  This week the letter i was the super star.  We will focus on i again next week as vowels get two weeks to shine!  The older children learned about -ip words (lip, hip, dip, sip, rip, tip, & zip).  They know the letter sounds and are learning to blend the sounds to sound out words (phonics).  Feel free to reinforce at home, they are quite impressive with their reading!

We talked a lot this week about Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving.  They learned about why we celebrate both holidays and we had an extra special treat on Thursday as Rowan's dad Adam paid Elm Park a visit in his uniform.  Adam is a marine and he come in a showed the children his gear and explained what everything does.  The children really loved seeing him and his stuff!  We taught the children to salute, and they saluted Adam and gave him a hand made flower.  It was about the cutest thing I've ever seen, I was too wrapped in the moment to take a picture, but you can just imagine!

October 31- November 4



Abby

Grady

Last week in class we continued to talk about the ocean.  In language arts the children continued to learn about the letter h.  The older children worked on sounding out -ad words.  In science the kids talked about floating and sinking.  We did an experiment testing which boats would float.  The kids added marbles until the boats sank and we guessed how many it would take.  The biggest boats carried almost 100 marbles!!  We also discussed the topography of the ocean floor and the kids made an ocean ridge out of blocks and took turns following the ridge with their eyes closed.  On a rainy day we guessed how much rain would fall then put out a rain gauge.  Over the course of the day we collected almost 1 cm of rain.  In math the children worked on sequencing patterns and counted during a fish game.  The children made a diving mask and fins and pretended to be looking for fish while diving.

Rowan, Sydney & Grady

Ryder in his mask & fins



Keitaro & Lia

October 24-28

Kids trick-or-treat at Father Gary's

Elm Park kids in their costumes

Halloween party

Last week we continued our exploration of sea life in class.  The students' studies revolved around the following sea creatures- sea sponge, seahorse, sea star, plankton, jellyfish, and sea turtles.  We read books about the creatures, created them out of art materials, and played with little models of the sea creatures.  The letter for the week was the letter g.  We practiced making the letter g and came up with a list of g words.  The kids found the letter g in a sentence.  We also worked on the number 4.  The kids groups items by 4s and practiced writing the number in their journals.  We discussed the concept of loving and gave examples.  Students then put a "loving feather" on the caring tree.

We studied the food chain in the ocean and made a book about it.  We put cards showing the food chain in the proper sequence.  The children finished making their shark and octopus crafts.  The students water colored a seahorse and played a math game where they counted the number of seahorse babies and then put them in the daddy seahorse's pouch.  The children played with dozens of sea creatures in water and rice sensory tables and created sea creatures from play doh.  We completed a reading comprehension activity around the story "Turtle Looks for Stars", the kids did a great job!

Of course we made Halloween crafts and talked about trick-or-treating and safety.  The students had a great time trick-or-treating on Friday on the school grounds.  They looked awesome in their costumes and enjoyed the party that followed.  Thanks to all that helped make our celebration a success!!

October 17th - 21st

Ryder and Abby making their f

Rowan, Sydney & Grady

Lia

Last week in class we focused on the letter f.  The children wrote the letter f, lined their snacks up on it, traced it, and made an f from playdoh.  They "read" the What Am I? book that was sent home with them.  They loved reading their very own book! 

On the whale day the students used triangle shapes to create a whale picture.  We discussed how the whale breathes and compared sea life that gets oxygen from the water and sea life that gets oxygen from the surface.  The kids created a whale with a spout and water coming out.  We began to discuss the food chain and talked about baleen whales.

On our octopus day the students got to taste salt water (a very small taste).  We read "How the Sea is Salty" A Philippine Folktale.  They started an octopus made from paper (to be finished next week), and experimented with suction cups- meant to simulate the suction on the legs of an octopus.  We talked about how an octopus escapes from a predator and played with ocean matching cards (similar to memory).

On the dolphin day we completed our What Am I? book.  We completed patterns with sea cards (a sea creature on each card).  I make a pattern for them that they need to finish and then they make a pattern for me that I need to finish.  They practiced jumping and spinning like spinner dolphins.  We discussed how smart dolphins are and practiced moving things with our noses like a dolphin does.  We started our "caring tree" (the coat rack) and discussed 'loving'.  Each child gave examples of how they show loving and hung a loving feather on the tree.  We will be discussing these themes off and on, next week we will discuss the concept of polite.

Shark day was fun as we talked about shark teeth and bodies.  The kids made a shark puppet and we observed and explored poky objects.  I brought in wild cucumber which has super poked seed pods that the kids got to feel.  We will finish up our sharks next week.  We read shark books and talked about how sharks will eat almost anything.

We are looking forward to our Halloween Parade tomorrow and I can't wait to see all the costumes!!

October 10-14



The Elm Park kids listening to the presentation

Rowan with Brownie

Ryder's fish scene

Makena and Ryder writing e

In the pumpkin patch

This week the children continued to learn about sea life.  The kids read books about fish, learned about the layers of the ocean, and learned to "crab walk".  They created a fish scene and a seahorse book.  We worked on learning the letter e (vowels get 2 weeks) and the number 3.  The shape for the month is the triangle so we hunted for triangles, made triangles, and defined triangles!  The kids learned about the many uses for kelp and we read books about 'Rainbow Fish'.  We visited the pumpkin patch on Tuesday which was great fun.  The kids learned about pumpkins and gourds, saw goats, rode on a tractor, got lost in a corn maze, and got to pick a pumpkin.

Week of October 3-7

Ryder drawing self portrait

Keitaro drawing

On the way to the mailbox

Abby and Ryder making the number 3

Sydney creating an e

Rowan creating an e

Rowan happy at snack

Grady's e

Lia on one of our new play structures

Makena drawing self portrait

 This week we discussed the letter E, the color blue, leaves and fall, and ocean creatures.  The kids created an “ocean tube” to observe the dynamics of waves.  We also dissected an apple, naming the parts, predicting the number of seeds, and tasting both apples and applesauce.  We then created an apple book with different textures inside.  We talked about healthy foods and decided what is healthy and unhealthy; we finished up by creating a plate collage with healthy foods.  The older children wrote postcards and we discussed how they are mailed.  We then created postcards for our families and mailed them in the mailbox.  We made nature art with leaves, sticks, and other outdoor stuff.  And finally, we created an itsy bitsy ocean book and created a sea star watercolor picture.

Week of September 26-30

The kids at chapel

The kids at chapel

Last week at Elm Park was a busy one!  We adopted a HUGE caterpillar plucked from my neighbor's garden.  We tried to care for it, hoping for a chrysalid, but he was looking unhealthy by the end of the week so we let him go.  We talked a lot about fall, leaves, pumpkins, and apples.  In addition to our monthly themes, we talked about taking care of the human body.  Specifically, we discussed washing hands, brushing teeth, and getting enough sleep.  These themes were carried into many activities from science to art!

The letter of the week was D.  As usual, we wrote the letter D in many mediums.  We thought of D words and searched for Ds in a sentence.  The M/W/F kids created a book that they practiced reading.  The whole group cut and glued D words.

In PE we continued soccer.  The kids are having fun with that and learning some soccer rules.  We worked on passing and dribbling (and trying not to touch the ball). 

In art we created a pants collage.  We also created a soap drawing with watercolor (after exploring the soap in a science themed lesson).

In science the kids had a "tea party".  We watched tea brew in a plastic bag as we guessed the outcome.  We charted our preferences for tea pants (to wear to a tea party). 

Friday the kids talked about sleep and created a pillow.  We also began measuring and created a chart with measurements of various objects.  They loved measuring!!

A BIG thank you goes out to everyone supporting our bake sale at the Oktoberfest.  We earned $120 towards our play structure and baked goods not sold have been frozen and will be sold after church the next few weeks.  Everyone was so supportive and I thank you all for that!!

Our pumpkin patch field trip is next Tuesday.  It should be a wonderful trip!

Hope you all have a great week,
Ms. Jen

"This Little Light of Mine..."

Children in circle time

Children in circle time

Week of September 19-23

Ryder and Britney after reading "Caps for Sale"

Last week we focused on the letter C.  We created play-doh Cs, rainbow wrote letter C, and wrote Cs in our journals, on white boards, and with goldfish and raisins.  We talked about shoes and laced up pretend tennis shoes, we played a game of memory with sock pictures.  The kids learned to sign the words shoe and touch.

We also talked about why people wear different hats (police, construction, royalty, baseball, etc).  We created a "match the hat" game, and read "Caps for Sale" then balanced "hats" on our head.  We also talked about shirts and the kids created their own shirt with buttons.  The children played an apple counting game and read great fall stories.  We talked about the importance of wearing protective gear while riding bikes & scooters.  They then made "brains" in a helmet and experimented with hitting the helmet and then checking the brains to see if they were safe.

We sang songs in chapel and the kids danced and jumped around.

Week of September 12th- 16th

Abby, Sydney and Rowan making letters.

 The kids enjoyed learning about the letter b this week.  They made the letter with goldfish and raisins, as seen in these pictures.  They also finger painted it in shaving cream!

Ryder's b.

Britney's b.

Makena's b.

Grady's b.

Grady, Makena, Britney and Ryder

Abby & Sydney

This week we focused on touch and textures.  The kids created their hand prints with several textures surrounding the prints.  We worked on patterns and discussed smells, too.  We attended chapel on Thursday and the children LOVED singing and dancing to Ms. Barbara's wonderful guitar playing.  We also started a physical education unit on soccer on Tuesday.  The children are settling into a nice routine and are making friends with each other.  On Friday, we created a dinosaur zoo.  We sorted out the carnivores from the herbivores and made sure that each had food and space.  The kids enjoyed our creative venture!

September 9th

Britney, Ryder & Makena

Rowan, Grady, Abby & Sydney

Abby & Sydney

Rowan & Grady

The children continued to learn about the body last week as we focused on the legs and eyes.  We began talking about the 5 senses and how we use our senses to gather information.  The kids used touch to try to discover a mystery object (a sock) and used words to describe it.  We played body bingo and sang songs and read books about the body.  They created a puppet, matched circles and made circle pictures, and learned a few Spanish words (ojo & zapatos).  They searched for a word objects in a rice sensory bucket.  All the monthly themes were continued in every activity (colors pink & brown, numbers 1 & 2, letters a-d, shape of circle, the amazing body and senses).

With the older children we focused on the proper formation of the letter a.  They wrote the letter, searched for it, and brainstormed words that start with a.  We are really working on strengthening their hand muscles to facilitate writing so we spend time drawing, writing, and cutting.  As the year moves along, they should be able to write more and more!

Hope you enjoyed the darkness last Thursday, my boys and I sure did!