On the Farm

This morning the kids used dry erase markers to write farm animals, find farm equipment in a picture and complete a fruit maze! During morning circle the kids practiced the days of the week and months of the year. We reviewed our "everyday words" and practiced Sounds Around Town. We reviewed the lip poppers, tip tappers, and throat scrappers. Our new sound brothers today were the lip coolers. To make the /f/ and /v/ the kids bit their bottom lip and pushed air over it to cool it off.

Our story today was "Farmer Dale's Red Pickup Truck" by Lisa Wheeler. Farmer Dale is hauling a load of hay into town when he meets some bossy barnyard animals looking for a lift. The kindly farmer lets them all squeeze in, but then his trusty truck breaks down. Everyone will have to pull together to get that old red truck moooooving again. After reading the story we started to make a chart about things we find on the farm. The three categories or animals, things that grow and places. We will add to the list as we learn more about the farm.

For art today the kids made a sheep. They followed 2 step directions to complete the activity. First they glued grass onto the paper because they like to spend time in the grass. Then they used soft cotton circles to make the sheep's body and head. Then they glued 4 legs and a mouth onto the sheep. The sheep are very soft!

Before lunch we worked on our writing centers. The kids wrote in their journals, practiced writing the letter "C" and used the iPad apps to practice writings words. The kids are starting to really get the hang of writing capital letters!

Today was a great start to learning about farm animals. When we come to school tomorrow it will be Octobers!

Where Do We Live?

This morning we played alphabet bingo. The kids took turned picking letters out of a bag. Then they had to find the letter on their bingo board and cover it with a chip. During morning circle we talked about the calendar and practiced counting to 30. We also did writing centers in the morning. The kids wrote in the journals, practiced writing the letter "O", used the writing apps on the iPad and made letters with the magnetic strips.

 Our story today was "Where Do I Live?" by Neil Chesanow.  The book helps explain exactly where we live. It starts with their room, in their home, in their neighborhood, in their town, their state, their country-then moves out to the planet earth, the solar system, and the Milky Way galaxy. From there, children trace their way home again. After reading the story we talked about where we lived and learned some new vocabulary words...Milky Way, Earth, World, North American, United States, and North Carolina.

For art they made a pictures of where we live. First we live in the world, then we live in the United States, then we live in North Carolina and then we live in Charlotte. The kids followed directions to glue the pieces together in the correct order and labeled all the different places.

Before lunch time we practiced Sounds Around Town. We worked on the lip poppers, tip tappers, and throat scrapers. We talked about words the start with each letters.

After we ate lunch Jack M. brought show and tell to share with the class, since he wasn't here last Friday. He brought his soccer trophy! He told us about his uniform and how he listens to his coach.

Have a great weekend. I can't believe October starts on Tuesday!

Who is Your Neighbor?

Today was a very busy day! During our morning circle we practiced counting to 30, and identifying the days of the week and months of the year. We talked about October being the next month on the calendar and things we like to do in October.

The kids were very excited for music class! We started by singing the hello song to our friends. Then we sang "What's Your Name." The first time we sang the song we shared our names with the group and then the next time she shared one of our friend's names. When we sang "What Do You Like" today we each shared a place we like to go. Dhruv likes the library, Austin likes the Amtrak station, Tripp likes the swimming pool, Jack M. likes restaurants and Jack D. likes the beach. Singing "Shake Your Sillies Out" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" got our bodies moving. Before singing the goodbye song they brought special instruments for us to use! Each kid had a colored hand bell and we used them to make the music to sing "It's a Small World." They loved being musicians!

Our story today was "Too Tall Houses" by Gianna Marino. Owl and Rabbit are good friends and live in two small houses next to each other. They are perfectly happy . . . until Rabbit's garden gets in the way of Owl's view. So Owl builds his house a little taller. Only that blocks the sun from Rabbit's vegetables. So Rabbit builds his house taller. And soon it's a house-building frenzy and the two now not-so-good friends have the two tallest houses in the world! All it takes is a gust of wind to remind them that maybe living smaller and together is a much better way to remain friends. After reading the story we defined neighbors. They are the people that live beside you. We want to be nice to our neighbors and wave hello, invite them to dinner and play with their kids. We compared different size houses. There are tall, short, big, and small houses....some look the same and others look different.

For art the kids made two houses that were neighbors. They followed specific directions on where to put the house, roof, door, windows, sun and tree. At the end we had two happy neighbors on our paper.

We ended the day with the kids favorite songs and we learned a new one about a house!

Animal Habitats

Today the touch and feel pool had legos insides. The kids used the legos to build different houses. Some built apartments that were tall and skinny and others built big wide houses. During morning circle we talked about the calendar and fall. The leaves are going to start to change colors!

Ms. Abby came to see us for the first time today! We started by stretching our bodies and sang "The kids in the class.." to the tune of the Wheels on the Bus. To help Ms. Abby learn our friends' names we said someones name and then tossed the ball to them. Next we had to jump with our legs open and together through an obstacle course and then jump over a hurtle. Our last activity helped us learn to throw and catch. The kids were partnered up and tossed a bean bag to each other. We counted to see how many times we could throw it before it hit the ground! We ended the class with a song and the whole class did a hand huddle!

Our story today was "Guess Where I Live" by Anni Axworthy. In the story each animal gave us clues about where they live. A monkey lives in the jungle, a camel lives in the desert, a crab lives in the ocean, a polar bear lives in the artic and an eagle lives in the mountains. After reading the story we matched different animals to their habitats. We learned that habitats are a place where something lives.

In science the kids independently had to match the animals with the correct habitat. A dog lives in a doghouse, a bird lives in a nest, a cow lives in a barn and a cat lives in a bed. They shared with their neighbors where other animals live.....horses live in barns and chickens live in a coop.

At the end of the day we finished talking about animal habitats and sang a song about where animals live.

Our Neighborhood

Today was our first Out and About. In the pool was all different kinds of transportation we may see on our community walk today. We sorted the buses, cars and trucks in different piles. During our morning circle we talked about the rules of our Out and About. We always listen to our teachers and hold the rope!

Ms. Michele came to visit us today! We first played with a parachute. We moved it up and down...fast and slow. The kids also each got a turn to run under the parachute while their friends held it up in the air. Next the kids jumped forward, backward, and sideways through a ladder on the ground. We didn't want to jump outside the squares or the alligators would get us! The last time on the ladder the kids bear walked. Ms. Michele brought 2 finger fun activities today! She brought magic water beads. They are wet and squishy...the kids loved rolling them in their hands. She also made play-doh towers. The kids had to push circles and paper clips through the stick on the tower. Everyone concentrated very hard and was very careful to not knock over the tower!

Before starting our walk we read the story "Around the Neighborhood." The kids visited different places in their neighborhood. They went to the park, a school, the post office, a grocery story and the library. After we made a list of things we were going to find on our walk. Some of the things we were going to look for were a dog, bike, a flag and flowers.

We loved the scavenger hunt during our community walk. On our walk we saw leaves, flowers, bugs, a bike, cars, a city bus, stop signs and a person walking a dog. Everyone followed the rules and listened to the teachers! The kids were very tired and hungry when we got back to school. It was a great first Out and About!!

City vs. Country

Today we started to talk about where we live. For morning work the kids used pattern blocks to make different shapes and pictures. After they completed their picture they tried to build a house with the blocks. Some of the houses were big and others were little.

During morning circle we talked about the calendar. We practiced the days of the week, months of the year and counting. We reviewed our everyday words as a group. We also practiced the sound brother pairs (lip poppers and tip tappers). We introduced a new sound brother pair...the throat scrappers. To make the /k/ and /g/ sound our tongue scrapes the back of our mouth.

Our story today was "Milly and Tilly" by Kate Summers. Milly lives in the country and Tilly lives in the city. Each mouse is curious to see where the other lives. But when Tilly visits Milly, she misses the city. And when Milly visits Tilly, she misses the country, and is terrified of the cat who lives in the house with Tilly. They agree to stay friends, but at their own houses. After ready the story we talked about things we find in the city and the country. In the city we have tall buildings and lots of traffic. In the country we have fields of flowers, farms and sheep.

To continue our conversation about the city and the country we made a venn diagram for science. The kids sorted the items by things we see in the country, in the city or in both the country and the city. In the country we find farms, cows and tractors. In the city we find walk signs, sky scrappers, and buses. We find people and cars in both the country and the city.

For our writing centers today the kids wrote in their journals, practiced the letter "H", and made letters with magnetic strips. Then it was time for lunch. Everyone was very hungry today!

Tomorrow we are going on our first Out and About....don't forget to wear your t-shirts!

Friendship Quilt

This morning we worked our finger muscles with molding clay. The kids pinched, pulled and rolled the clay into different shapes and animals. It is hard work moving the clay and was a great way to start off our day.

I decided to mix up our morning circle since we had so many wonderful adult helpers today. We start by talking about the calendar and practiced the days of the week, months of the year and counting. Then we moved to writing centers. We worked on our journals describing our favorite things we did this week at school, practiced writing our letters with our favorite writing apps on the iPad (iWriteWords and ABCs & 123s) and made letters with magnetic pieces.

Our story today was "Friends" by Helme Heine. Charlie Rooster, Johnny Mouse, and Percy the pig are the best of friends. They do everything together. They ride their bike together, play games together, and even do their chores together. Because that's what good friends do. When night falls, though, and it's time to go to bed, they learn that sometimes friends have to be apart. But that's okay, because true friends always find each other, even if it's just in their dreams. After reading the story we talked about the importance of friends and how we should treat our friends. We should not copy cat, be mean or not share...we need to play nice, take turns and have fun with our friends.

For art the kids made a friendship quilt. Each kid had a quilt square to create. They followed the pattern of square and triangle pieces to complete the quilt. Once everyone finished their own piece we put them all together to make a big friendship quilt to hang in our classroom.

We ended the day with "Sounds Around Town" and Show and Tell. We reviewed the sound brothers and brainstormed different words that started with the letters /p,b,t,d/. Then it was time for Show and Tell. The kids were sooo excited! Jack D. brought his brown bear, Austin brought a train, Dhruv brought a fire truck and Tripp brought a pirate hook.

This has been a great week learning about friends. Next week we will talk about where we live! Have a great weekend!