March 19-23

This week at Elm Park Preschool we focused on the letter U and the number 9.  We will continue on the themes of colors purple & green, dinosaurs, the shape oval, and forgiveness through the end of next week.  After spring break (first week of April) we will start a new unit. 

The kids wrote the letter U and number 9 on white boards, in rainbow colors, and in the air.  They searched for the letter U in sentences and brainstormed U words (not easy).  We continued to discuss using our imaginations while reading the story "I Was Going To Clean My Room".  We also participated in an interactive story called "Digging Up Bones".  Many stories read in class focused on Dinosaurs, both fiction and non-fiction. 

The kids counted to 9 every day, counting steps, claps, toys, etc.  The also completed a parrot math sheet, beginning the concept of adding.  The children completed a class interest chart about dinosaurs, answering yes and no and counting responses to questions.

We finished our dinosaur craft and made a pterodactlus.  They also created a drawing of a dinosaur scene.

Tomorrow we will discuss dinosaur footprints and climate change.  They will create dino feet to stomp around in!

Britney turned 5 this week so we celebrated her birthday on Tuesday.  She is acting very responsible these days, even asking to be class helper to help the other children.  It's so fun watching them grow up!

Britney says, "I'm five!"

Grady builds a tower.

Britney's party

Makena makes a dino picture.

Britney shows her art project.

March 5th-16th

Here is our weekly blog (this entry including TWO weeks)...

The past few weeks,  the children continued with our monthly themes of dinosaurs, dinosaur eggs, the numbers 7 and 8, the letters s and t, the colors green and purple, the shape oval, and the social concept of forgiveness.

For reading and language arts, the children practiced writing the letters and numbers of the weeks.  The older children read the books, "Out" and "Who Are You?"  The children wrote in their journals completing a page on each of the themes.  We created a storyboard story with the topic of "Out My Window".  In this project the children would chose a word to finish sentences creating their own story.  We read a story called "In My Attic" and the children created an imaginary situation in their own attics, accompanied by an illustration.  We've started talking a lot about the first letter of a word, working on both identifying what beginning sounds are, and also trying to figure out the first letter of each word.

In math, the children spent a lot of time measuring things around the room (and on their bodies).  They brought home the "I Can Step ______ Inches" and were each given a flexible yard stick.  They loved measuring and counting and identifying the numbers.  We worked on patterns and counting with many objects.

For arts and crafts the children created several dinosaur projects.  They made a pet dinosaur and an egg with a dino baby in it. 

We talked about the meaning of St. Patrick's Day and found Ireland on the globe.  The children created a shamrock/gold game to take home and play.  They also made shamrock cookies that Ms. Barbara made.  Thanks, Ms. Barbara!!

Sorry I don't have more pictures to share, I've been forgetting about the camera lately.  Look for some fresh pictures next week!!

Have a wonderful week,
Ms. Jen

February 27th- March 2nd

Last week at Elm Park Preschool we began learning about dinosaurs.  The students learned about paleontologists and practiced "field observations" with their paleontologist journals.  They also got to excavate dino bones hidden in sand and assemble a dinosaur.  We continued the theme making bone prints on paper.  We listened to dinosaur music and began learning the names of many dinosaurs.  They created dinosaur themes as we discussed plant and meat eaters and learned to distinguish between the two.  The students also made fossil prints in a flour/water mixture with toy dinosaurs.  The kiddos felt a rock in the mystery tin which we compared to our teeth and teeth of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. 

The letter for the week was r, the new shape for the month is oval and the colors are purple and green. The number this week is 6.

Below are pictures of our dinosaur excavation teams.

Ryder

Britney and Makena

Grady, Abby, and Sydney

Keitaro, Lia, and Rowan

Our Paleontologists are finished!

Mission accomplished!