Tuesday, April 27th
Today we finished up butterflies. We read Waiting for Wings, a wonderful book from the flowers perspective waiting for the butterflies to arrive. We reviewed that symmetry meant both sides being the same. Looked at many butterfly examples to make sure we really understood the concept and then moved onto our art project. A symmetry butterfly project.
The kids colored beautiful butterflies where they were very careful to make both sides the same. They worked independently of the teacher on this project with great success. :) If you have not had a chance to see this displayed in the room please come in and see. They are beautiful!
We had extra practices today with Ms. Bonnie for our graduation performance.
At lunch we read a Bug Encyclopedia and learned some more fun facts about insects.
Our day ended with bug patterns, insect lacing cards, puzzles, a very fun game of animal/color bingo and the story The Grouchy Lady Bug.
Wednesday, April 28th (Ms. Chrissie's Corner)
Today we started a unit on colors. As our friends arrived they were curious about a little 3 ring color circus going on at the table. There was a red ring, a yellow ring, and a blue ring all with a couple of objects matching the color near it and a spool of curling ribbon in the center. I told them I would tell them all about it a little later. We began our day by journaling to the following prompt: "Do you know this word? RED " Everyone then wrote the word in their journals.
As center time flew into full swing, I quietly began our project for morning meeting involving the color rings. I started with one student and gave him instructions to find one object in each color that is on the table in the rings, and put them in the bag. Then find a friend and tell them what to do, and give the bag to them. Since he was playing with colored blocks, it was the easiest task ever. One, Two, Three! In went a red, yellow and a blue block. Passing along the instructions was a little trickier. I had to coach the eye contact, the full instructions, etc. Just to be sure we had good info, I repeated it all, adding that no repeat objects could go in (i.e., if a red car was in the bag, no more cars!). And thus the game went on, until all 9 students had a chance to put different objects in the bag. We drew the line at taking off shirts, just so you know!! And yes, someone actually wanted to just so they could get back to their game! How funny our kids are at having their fun time interrupted with preschool WORK!!
At morning meeting, we took the rings and put them in the middle of our carpet. I introduced the lesson of colors and asked my friends to tell me what they saw. Red, Yellow, and Blue were the quick answers. I asked them what was special about these colors. Someone thought they were made up from other colors and that was close, but it was actually the opposite. So we learned the term: PRIMARY COLORS today and that these 3 colors create the secondary colors, but no other colors can make Red, Yellow, or Blue. One friend thought if we took a lot of pink and added more pink, and more pink, and more pink we would eventually get red. But I pointed out it would just get pinker, and that Red mixed with White is how we get Pink.
Then we pulled out the bag full of our primary colored objects. Everyone got a turn taking out 3 items of any color. We sorted them into the proper ring by color and the finder of the object claimed responsibility for his or her creative genius for finding it. This was a lot of fun for all. Putting their heads in the bag and rooting around pretending to look for objects was especially hilarious for everyone! After we all had a turn, we estimated which pile had the most items. Yellow was hands-down the pile everyone voted on. So we counted Red which had 9 items in it. Then Blue which had 11. Then we counted Yellow, which had 10. Oh! So close!!
Next we read Dog's Colorful Day. It was a cute story about a white dog with one black spot on his left ear. As he goes about his day, he gets dripped on, splashed, squirted, sploshed, even marked on with a marker! We counted and he had 10 different colored spots from things like jam, ice cream, grass, mud, paint, etc. Then he takes a bath and he's just Dog again, with one black spot on his left ear. Maddie was quite relieved and happy about that bath.
We started our own messy project!!! We painted with yarn! First everyone folded their paper in half. Then we dipped pieces of yarn into primary colored paint trays. We laid the yarn on our paper however we wanted to, making sure to follow the instructions to leave a piece sticking out of the edge. When we had each primary color on the paper, we folded the other side down, pressed and pulled out the yarn.
The kids then opened the paper and revealed their painting. WOW!! This was super exciting stuff!! Lauren was the first one done, and she exclaimed there were 2 ducks on hers! Everyone just had to see! This resulted in a flurry of activity as everyone hurried to finish their yarn painting to see what they would get. The results were so cool. I hope you took a minute to enjoy both how pretty they were and what everyone thought theirs looked like. It turned out to be Primary Color Rorschach's!
Everyone got a bracelet made from the curling ribbon that was in the rings at the beginning of the day. They all quickly announced to each other if they were on "Team Red" or "Team Blue" it was cute. I told them that the bracelets would be staying at school until we had a secondary color experiment when we met up with a friend who had another colored bracelet and found out what happens when we mixed our two colors. When we do that either tomorrow or next Wednesday, each child will get to add a new colored bracelet to their original primary colored one.
After recess we came inside and did work in our rhyming book on words ending in "-AP". This was followed by sound bag with our letter X items. Zaine brought in X-Rays of his teeth which were quite interesting and he explained all about them. Jack had a boX which we noticed had the ending of "-OX". With our snack we enjoyed reading The Alphabet Mystery! All the lower case letters are primary colors (plus some secondary colors) and it features the letter X quite heavily, so it was a must read for today! The entire class was glued to their seats waiting to find out how the mystery would end and how the letter X would be used 4 times in a sentence! Turns out the letters formed the words "I love you Mom" on a birthday cake, and then "xx xx!" for kisses. We learned X is the special letter used to represent kisses! And a few students also knew O stood for hugs!
XOXO! it's been a fantastic year! Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful children with us!
Thursday, April 29
WATER DAY, WATER DAY, WATER DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The kids were so excited. The anticipation leading up to our activities was almost too much. :)
Our day began with amazing writing of the word BLUE. The independence that all the kids show now in the classroom and in completing tasks is very impressive. Proves that they are all more then ready for KINDERGARTEN.
After reviewing our color knowledge from yesterday's lessons with Ms. Chrissie we read another Louis Ehlert book called Planting a Rainbow. “Every year Mom and I plant a rainbow...” We identified many of the flowers in the book as ones that butterflies love and had fun identifying ones that they had in their own back yard.
We were then off to embark on a Skittle color experiment. The kids did a great job following directions and were thrilled to see the colors swirl together and even a few S's float. Here is the link to this experiment if anyone wants to try it at home. http://prekinders.com/2008/05/exploring-with-colors-experiment/
After a short time of play in our centers it was a whirl wind lunch, a quick change into our suits and then out side for water day. Ms. Jane as usual had wonderful activities set up for us. Duck, duck squirt...relays into a sprinkler, sponge tag, etc, etc. We took a break and sunned in our towels while enjoying popsicles given to us by Ms. Tina and Ms. Sissie. Then it was off to play some more, change clothes, snack and pick up.
I'm sure the kids were wiped out when they got home. I know I was. :)
Have a great weekend.
Cari
No comments:
Post a Comment