Early Learners
It was a big week in the EL classroom because we have butterflies! All 10 of our butterflies emerged from their chrysalis successfully and are beautiful. The children were so excited to see them and we even got to watch one emerge from its chrysalis! We used coffee filters and orange, white, and black watercolors with droppers to create butterflies for our 3D tree.
On Thursday we released our class butterflies but before we did it we studied them a little closer and drew sketches, using colored pencils and books with pictures of different butterflies. We even got to use our own butterflies up close and personal. The children studied the parts of the butterflies such as wings, feet, and antennae and then drew them on their clipboards. Some friends even got to hold the butterflies!
We were sad to see them go but we knew it was time to release them into their own habitat.
We have been busy busy getting ready for our Art Show and Graduation. We can not believe the end of the year is right around the corner. Time flies when you're having FUN!!!
Pre-School 1
Hooray for true springtime! Preschool 1 kiddos have been outside enjoying the beautiful weather this week and having fun playing soccer, role playing games and practicing their hula hooping skills. Our OWL unit on Things That Grow has been a great way to talk about vegetables, gardening, nature and animals. One of our new favorite books is The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin. It’s a great story about a family that grows a different type of garden than their neighbors do. To make a text to text connection to the book, we paired it with Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Elhert. The children then practiced their fine motor skills by cutting (paper) carrots, celery and corn to add to other veggies and make their own pots of vegetable soup. The class had a great time playing a game with our mystery box where they had to pull out a food item and then tell the class if it was a fruit or a vegetable. This class is full of clever thinkers, so of course we had an interesting chat about the ones that are really a fruit, but we treat like veggies. Our caterpillars have changed into their cocoons and we are very excited to see how long it will be before we welcome our butterflies. The kids have worked hard on their scientific drawings, and are excited about finishing their butterfly life cycle books. It has been a very busy week full of prep for the upcoming art show, graduation practice and lots of preschool fun.
Pre-School 2
It finally happened! The butterflies came out of their chrysalis and the children were ecstatic. We observed the butterflies up close. We watched the butterflies open their wings, fly around the butterfly garden, and drink from the sugar water/ orange. After a couple days, we let them go so they could explore the world! The book of the week was The Little Butterfly That Could by Ross Burach. The book was very animated and at the end we learned that “No matter what you keep on trying”. For art, preschoolers did some squish painting. They made symmetrical butterfly art by folding a piece of paper with different colored paint inside.
We continued with the unit: Things That Grow. Our class had a sensory bin full of different bird seeds. After we discussed what birds eat, our class decided to create our own bird feeders. Preschoolers did this by spreading peanut butter on paper towel rolls, then rolled them in the seeds. We took the feeders outside and placed them on different tree branches. In a few days, we plan on revisiting them to see if the birds ate any of the seeds.
Preschoolers have been working hard to make different crafts. We had another perfect week and it’s starting to feel like summer. We’ve been enjoying learning and playing outside.
Pre-School 3
The Preschool 3 classroom has been buzzing with end of the year excitement. Between Field Day, the upcoming art show and preschool graduation on the horizon, the children are overflowing with anticipation. This week the preschoolers put the finishing touches on their art show pieces and were able to work on other fun projects like tie dying t-shirts. The children chose three different colors for their shirts and watched in amazement as the dye was applied. They were even more excited when they saw how the shirts came out. With the nice weather here, we have been able to spend a lot of time outside. The children really enjoy playing soccer, climbing the structures and using hula hoops but they have also enjoyed watching the birds, squirrels and chipmunks in the trees and woods. While talking about all of the animals, we decided to make bird feeders for them. The preschoolers made a mixture of coconut oil and birdseed then put the mixture into cookie cutters until it hardened. The animals really enjoyed the fun shaped bird feeders. This week we also focused a lot on math skills and beginning sounds. The children had to solve math equations using unifix cubes. They used number recognition and one to one correspondence skills to solve the problem. Then they used their writing skills to fill in the answer to complete the math sentence. Using beginning sound knowledge the children created "ap" and "op" words on the whiteboard. They are getting so good at writing! Happy Memorial Day! Enjoy your long weekend!
Pre-K1
Pre-K1 continues to do a lot of review as they countdown the days till summer vacation! This week they practiced their reading, worked on coming up with their own short vowel words, finished their May journals, and painted positivity rocks! To practice their reading they had to sound out a word, color the picture that went along with the word and then spell the word. It’s amazing how many students are reading now and how much they have grown from the first day of school. In phonics they took turns coming up to the board writing down short vowel words. They sounded out their words to work on their spelling. They did great! In writing they wrote about what they were looking forward to doing over summer vacation. Many said playing at the park, enjoying the warm weather outside and visiting beaches and pools. We ended the week taking a nature walk around the school to find rocks. We painted the rocks and brainstormed together positive sayings to write on the rocks. Each child chose their own saying. We plan on planting our rocks in our community to spread kindness and joy. The highlight of the week was field day. The children had so much fun spending time with their friends outside playing games. It was a much needed break for all. It was another great week and we were yet again blessed with beautiful weather!
Pre-K2
Pre- K 2 had a fun filled week. We are finishing up our special art projects for the art show!! They are all so proud of their creations.
We are still working on review this week and getting ready for graduation.
We played a fun rhyming game. Each child thought of a funny rhyming sentence all on their own. They love it. Some of their sentences were very silly. We also played a upper and lowercase fill in the blank alphabet game. They can’t wait to play that game again. We have been working in small groups reading little stories. It’s a great way to practice reading words and get a little help from each other while doing it.
For a great review of numbers we played "Guess the Number" I picked a number, then they had to write down the number that they thought I picked. When they were correct they would cheer with excitement!!!
We have been watching our caterpillars closely waiting for them to come out of their Chrysalis. Should be any day now.
The children worked really hard on their graduation invitation, I am so proud of their writing skills!! We are super excited about graduation and been practicing and can’t wait for all the families to watch our special show.
Pre-K 3
The children in the PK3 class have been very busy practicing for graduation this week. They are all doing a great job learning the songs and their special speaking parts. They have all been putting their best effort into decorating their own graduation backpacks and autographing their classmates' backpacks. They have also been working on a group project, as well as individual ones for the upcoming art show. Our "Things that Grow" activity this week was experimenting with dried beans. They were each given a couple of navy beans which they placed in a baggy with a damp paper towel. They are anxiously waiting for them to sprout. I am so proud of the way their reading skills are progressing! Each morning I write them a note on the whiteboard and they work together to read it and decipher the missing letters. We have also been using "Sight Word Readers" mini books to get used to reading familiar sight words in sentences. They use the pictures and letter sound knowledge to figure out any unfamiliar words. Some of them can already read many of these books on their own! Enjoy the three day weekend!!
