Review…Review…Review…

We only have a few weeks left before school is out {tears…}, So last week I did some assessment of the kids to see what areas they needed that last little push of knowledge in before school is over on the 26th.

One of the things I noticed through my assessment is that most of the kiddos write their whole name in uppercase letters, so today we practiced writing it in lowercase letters. Habits are a little hard to break, so it has been a little challenging for them to change the way they have done it all year, but they are all doing so well with it, and catching on so quickly!

     

After they completed the name worksheet, it was more review…

Online there are so many resources. I combined two worksheets, the first one they could associate the letter A with apple, alligator, and angel. Then they practiced properly writing the letter A in uppercase and lowercase letters. This was done as a final review of the letters A,B,C,D,E,F,and G.

     

For my Parents: Please continue to work with them on the lowercase b, and d. These are a little confusing for some, and they write them backwards.

There was  a lot of busy work for the kids. And so we had to take a few breaks… 1 was snack. Thanks Emma for the wonderful go-gurts. They were the perfect treat.

Another break was for puzzle time…

     

Each student was given 4 letter puzzle pieces. I like this because they had to work together to create something wonderful. After some great teamwork they were able to put the Alphabet Train together. It is over 10feet long. They were very excited and proud of themselves when it was all finished. What an accomplishment.

We also watched a little bit of our site words movie. The kids were acting out what the letters were doing… I thought it was just too cute not to include.

Here they are stirring the magic potion…with the word “his.”

Here they are being little pigs in a mud bath…with the little “on” pig

For my parents: I sent home with your children a registration form for the Summer Preschool Program. It needs returned with the $25.00 registration fee before Sunday May 15, 2011, if you are interested in enrolling them in the summer program. Thanks for all you do!

Arbor Day

First off, we want to Welcome Grace to class today. We are so glad you could join us today!

So since Friday (April 9, 2011) was Arbor Day I had to do something with planting! The weather wasn’t very good, so we couldn’t do our first project outside,  but we improvised and made it work.

I didn’t tell them what they were painting these cups for. Just told them to make them as pretty as fun as they could…

They did just that…

     

All of them so concentrated on the project. Makes me smile looking at those pictures. We had to make the cups first before we did anything else, so they had time to dry before we needed to fill them later that day.

After cups were all decorated, it was on to our morning routine; the months of the year song, days of the week song, and the Pledge of Allegiance. A review of yesterday, tomorrow and today, and of course the date and weather.

Today we also wrote and reviewed some of the site words we have learned. I am so impressed with the way they are learning them. I am so so proud of them all!!!

     

Deegan had snack today, and he brought mini pancakes! They were a HUGE hit with all of the kids. Look at those smiles.

Oh the temptation of blowing bubbles when you have milk and a straw was just tooooooo big…the girls just couldn’t resist. It was a contest to see who could make the biggest bubble mountain!

 

After we were done with snack it was on to celebrating Arbor Day. Generally Each state's Arbor Day celebration date initiates the signing of an Arbor Day proclamation by local officials and Arbor Day activities related to trees and tree planting. Celebrations are held as early as January and February in some southern states and as late as May in more northern locations. National Arbor Day is observed on the last Friday in April. Because we couldn’t plant trees, I decided it would be fun to plan flowers in the cups the kiddos just decorated!

I am happy to report that after about a week, our flowers began to sprout. Makes me smile! The kids loved to play in the dirt!

A few minuets before class was over Bridger & Addisyn wanted to show and tell about the newest member of the family…”Hop.”

These 3 loved him so much.

  

Another wonderful day, with the most wonderful kids in the world! I am one lucky teacher.

April is National Frog Month…

Did you know April is National Frog Month. In honor of the little amphibians, I decided it would be good to take a moment to learn more about them. Did you know that they are one of the earth’s oldest living creatures.

Before we learned and honored our little amphibian friends, we did some rhyming, and phonics.

    

I taught them “5Little Speckled Frogs.” I had to take pictures of them doing the actions. Especially “yum, yum.” They all smiled big when it was time to sing that.

“5 little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log…”

“eating the most delicious bugs. Yum, Yum”

“one jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool…”

We read a cute little story about Fredrick the Frog. He is a very handsome amphibian who lived in Lily Pad Pond. He liked to to be noticed, so he would fill his throat with air until it looked like a balloon and make the deepest, froggiest croak of all of the male frogs.  We learned that he is a vertebrate because he has a backbone. We learned about the life cycle of a frog, and how they go through many changes called metamorphosis. They start out as an egg, then become a tadpole. At this point they grow legs, and loose the tail. Then they are a Frog. We also learned that Frederick hibernated in Lily Pad Pond for the winter, and will wake in the spring. A sure sign that spring has sprung is when we hear the croaking of the frogs. It was a very cute little story.

Look how cute they all turned out…

    

Then it was upstairs for a treat. Little Miss Emma had snack today, and she brought Capri Sun’s, and a bad full of all sorts of goodies. Everyone really enjoyed them. THANKS Emma.

While they ate, we did our site word flash cards. The current words we are working on are; are, as, but, go, had, here, his, like, my, on, see, she, they, was, we and with. I am so impressed with these 5 kids. They truly make my heart smile. I am so proud of them and there desire to learn. Makes my job so much easier.

TO MY PARENTS: I am sending home the remainder of your flash cards. Please continue to review the words with your kids. I am confident that with your help, they will know over 40 words before preschool is over.

ALSO, if weather permits us to, we will have a field trip to MD Nursery on Thursday. Arbor Day is Friday, so I wanted to explore trees with them. Please dress them appropriately. If the weather is yuck that day, then we will reschedule the field trip.