What sounds do we hear at school?

This week we discussed the sounds we hear at school and used our sense of hearing to guess the sounds we heard.  We teamed up with Ms. Suzanne's class and we went on a sound hunt around the school.  We heard the fans from the air conditioner running here.

We went into the kitchen and closed our eyes so that we could really hear the refrigerators running and the ice maker.

Then we came back to the pod and played Guess the Sound.  

Suzanne and I took turns making noise with something behind the screen and the kids had to guess what it was.  They had so much fun and were great at figuring out what they were hearing!

They were having so much fun and sitting so nicely that we decided to review emotions.  Suzanne showed them a picture of a child and they had to tell us how they were feeling.  We were very impressed with the cuties telling us the kids in the picture were bored, nervous, and scared!

We went back to the classroom and had each sweetie draw their happy face.  We have some great artists!

On Thursday we read A World of Families which discusses that while all families are different they also have things in common.  After we read the book we made a Venn Diagram of what things in the book we do just at home with our families, what we do only at school, and what we do both places.  Both classes were able to help us decide where each activity should go!

During our closing circle we did "Jumping and Counting."  In this song, when the music is playing we jump and when the music stops we count.  We start out by counting to three and each time it increases until we count to ten.  They love this song! 

Look at these cuties working together! 

This sweetie used the picture to make his own person on the magnet board all by himself!

Thanks for stopping by and check back soon because I'm uploading pictures of our visit from the Firemen in a few minutes!! 

~Beth

How do we make friends?

For the last two weeks we've been discussing how we make and keep friends.  We discussed sharing, taking turns, and asking to play with a friend.  Each child had the opportunity to decorate a piece of paper and write their name on it.  Then we glued them together into a chain to show that we're all linked together.  

During Circle Time we discussed what we like to do with our friends and then we went to the table to draw a picture of the activity.  

We've been reading The Gingerbread Man by Bonnie Dobkin.  In this version, the Gingerbread Man is mean and rude.  We discussed how this made the other characters in the story feel.  After talking about the Gingerbread Man for several days we made gingerbread cookies with the class next door.  

Then came the best part, getting to taste the cookies!  Most of the cuties really liked them.

In my last post, When do things happen at school, I showed you a picture of the morning class with the gingerbread people they decorated.  Here's the afternoon group with theirs.  

We read Crazy Pizza Day this week and the kids had to guess who would want the crazy toppings on their pizza.  They had silly things like a pizza order with nuts, bolts, and motor oil for a robot.  They had fun trying to figure out who each pizza was for!

We've had three birthdays in the last two weeks!  We celebrated this sweetie's birthday last week.

And these two cuties shared a birthday this week!  

 We ended this week with Grandparents/Special Persons Day!  It's always so much fun to see the kids with their visitors and for the visitors to see what the kids do at school.  Here are a few of our special guests!

 

 

And, last but not least, my mom made this adorable banner for our classroom!  I just put it up today and I'm excited for the kids to see it!  

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

~Beth

When do things happen at school?

Yikes!  The last two weeks have flown by and the weekends have been great, but jam-packed!  So, I'm going to do my best to catch you all up on what we've been doing the last few weeks.  We've been talking about clocks, why we have a schedule, and why we have routines.  To go along with this topic, we sang "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" and made a clock with a mouse on it.  The kids had to cut out the circles for the mouse and then assemble the clock and mouse.  It was a tricky project, but they really enjoyed making them!  

Of course, these had to go on our bulletin board!

A few weeks ago we started doing journals with the afternoon class on Thursdays.  Each cutie has a journal with their name on the front and they can draw or write whatever they would like in it.  They seem to enjoy journal day!

We've been reading The Gingerbread Man and starting to discuss how to be a friend.  During Center Time, we encouraged the cuties to draw a scene from the story or draw how they would have caught the Gingerbread Man.  

 We're really getting into our arrival routine.  We discuss who is at school that day and then hold hands and sing our hello song.  During the song we say hello to each person in the circle.  

After we talked about what a schedule is, we read Peany Butter Fudge.  In the story, Mom leaves a schedule for Nana to follow while she's gone.  Well, Nana doesn't follow the schedule, but they have lots of fun and end the day making peanut butter fudge!  

We also read Kevin and His Dad.  In this story, Kevin and his dad clean the house first and then go have fun.  After we read the story we talked about why we have to work before we play. 

The biggest hit of the week was when we played a rhyming game that the kids LOVED!! We started with my name, so I said, "Listen for your name, listen for your name, listen for the word that sounds like Jeth, Seth, Teth.  Who is it?  It's Beth!" Then we tried it with each cutie's name.  Like I said, they LOVED this game, they kept suggesting more names for us to try!  You should try it with your kids!  And, as an added bonus, it will be stuck in your head all day...guess what's running through my head right now.  :)

Handwriting Without Tears uses Mat Man to help teach the kids how to draw a person, so we introduced the Mat Man song and pieces that go with it.  The next time we make Mat Man, the kids will each have a turn to add a body part.  It's also a great way to work on identifying body parts!

We finished the week by guessing what was in the Feely Box.  Each sweetie had a turn to feel what was in the box and make a guess.  After everyone had a turn, I showed them what it was.

Their homework last week was to decorate a gingerbread person.  On Thursday each cutie told us about their person and who helped them decorate it.  We have some great artists!  

 We ended the week celebrating this cutie's birthday!  

A few weeks ago in my More with Learning Names post, I showed you the kids making their dot-art names.  Here's what they look like in the classroom.  

Okay, I think I'm all caught up...for the moment.  :)

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you're enjoying the beautiful fall weather!

~Beth