What's A Neighbor?

After building with colored cubes this morning, we reviewed the calendar.  The kids are starting to sing along with the days of the week and the months of the year songs.  We changed the leaves on the tree to show how leaves look in our new season....fall. 

Thank goodness for sunshine today!  The kids were so happy to be able to play on the playground and not have to worry about getting wet.  There were still some puddles...and some of the sandbox toys were full of water....but other than that....it was a bright sunshiny day!

Ms. Gretchen and friends were here today for music.  We started with our Hello song and then moved into a funny song about Spaghetti and Meatballs.  Using the visual cues, the kids filled in the missing words and helped sing along.  We sang a song about things we like to eat, using the model, I Like To Eat Apples and Bananas.  The kids all took turns naming things they like to eat.  The responses ranged from green beans to goldfish to macaroni and cheese.  Next, the teachers passed out a large circle rope.  The kids held it while in a circle.  We pretended we were in a boat and sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat while "rowing" the rope.  We sang You Are My Sunshine with visual cues....but....with a little trick.  The visuals had some different feeling words mixed in....and some different colored skies!  For example, sometimes "you make me mad, when skies are green"!  The kids were giggling and laughing the whole time!  We are learning some sign language to go along with the Good-Bye song, which the kids really like.  What a fun-filled morning!

Today's story was Too Tall Houses by Gianna Marino.  Owl and Rabbit live side by side in two small huts. They are neighbors!  Rabbit tends to his vegetable garden and Owl perches on the roof, gazing at the forest. Trouble starts when Rabbit's plants grow too tall, blocking Owl's view. Angry Owl makes his house taller, Rabbit follows suit, and a construction race ensues. When the houses become impossibly sky-high,  looming over the earth, a strong wind blows them down. With their dwellings in pieces, the former friends wisely decide that it is much better to join forces and build one small house, where they settle in harmony.

 

The vocabulary word for the day was NEIGHBORS.  We talked what it means to be neighbors and all the things that neighbors do together.  Rabbit and Owl started out as good neighbors, but when they started arguing, they weren't being very nice.  We clapped out the syllables and drew a red house family who was NEIGHBORS with the blue house family.  For the rest of the day, the kids got a kick out of using their new "grown-up" word.

 

Art today was making neighbor, shape houses.  We had square walls, a triangle roof, two square windows, and a rectangle door.  It was fun to put all the shapes together to make houses.  As the kids started to compare houses, we talked about how houses can look very different....even neighbor houses sometimes look different.  Some of them even have different names, like apartments and condos. The important part about a house....no matter what it's called....is that it's where families live!

 

 

Next time we come to school....it will be October!  I can't believe how fast this first month of school has gone by!  You would be so proud of how the kids are doing....and all the things that they are learning!  See you next week!

 

Animals Have Houses Too....All About HABITATS!

 

The Touch and Feel today was full of Legos for building houses.  Some creations looked like tall towers.....or apartment buildings.....but some were very elaborate with many windows and doors!

 

After a short morning circle, we were off to meet Ms. Abby.  Usually we will see Ms. Abby outside where there is plenty of room to run, jump, throw, and catch.  But, today, the rain interrupted the plan.  Ms. Abby set up inside and we made the best of it!  We played a quick Name Game where we threw the ball around the circle calling out friends names so that they could catch it.  This helped Ms. Abby learn everyone's name.  Then we started some jumping activities. Each child took a turn jumping their legs in and out of circles.....then over a small hurdle.  Then we divided into two lines and practiced throwing bean bags to our partners across the line.  We ended with our most favorite Young Athletes thing.....the "all hands in" chant!  The kids didn't quite know what to expect this time, but I promise by the end of the year, it's a big hit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The playground was a whole new experience today....because it was raining!  In true TSGI fashion, we go outside everyday unless there is severe weather.  We aren't scared of a little wetness!  The kids loved it at first.  I mean what kid doesn't love to play in the rain and jump in the puddles?  But, after about 20 minutes.....there were many complaints about getting wet and dirty hands and water in eyes!  I promised them they wouldn't melt....but we set the timer and when it went off.....we only had to call them once!

 

The book today was Guess Where I Live by Anni Axworthy.  This is a story that describes different animals and the places they live.  The kids have to guess where they live before the page is turned.  Some of them were hard words like camels who live in the desert and polar bears who live in the artic.  The kids were very interested in the pictures and took turns helping with the animal names and sounds.

 

 

After the story, we did a language activity about habitats.  A habitat is where the animal lives.  We practiced saying that word over and over and over again....making sure we didn't forget any sounds or have them in the wrong order.  Then we made a simple chart on the board of some animals and their habitats. The kids took turns identifying the animals and naming their habitats.  Some of them could live in several different places.  For example, dogs can live inside people houses, in kennels, or in dog houses outside.  Easily our favorite....or at least the funniest....habitat was pigs.....who live in the MUD!

 

For art the kids all sorted their own animal pictures, matching them with the animal habitats. We could tell they had all been listening to the activity on the board....because for the most part they were pretty independent!  Now, if I'm completely honest....things get a little scary when we hand out the glue.  I'm not sure how....but it ends up EVERYWHERE!  We are working on keeping it on the paper!

 

 

 

 

 

We are praying for sunshine tomorrow.....not sure the kids can handle two rainy days in a row! They need the playground to get the wiggles out! 

 

 

Out and About in the Neighborhood

Today we started talking about Where We Live. The Touch and Feel pool was full of transportation items that you might see while out in the "neighborhood"....our new vocabulary word for the day!  The kids loved identifying the trains, buses, helicopters, ice cream trucks, and fire trucks.  We talked about where and why you might see each one in your neighborhood. 

During morning circle, we discussed our VERY busy day!  The kids were so excited about all that we had planned, but we had to talk about some rules for the day....and how important the rules were to keep us safe.  Following the rules is the only way that we can do all the fun things we have scheduled.

 

 

The first activity of the day....Ms. Michele! She brought a big parachute for us to play with first. 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. It was super hard to wait our turn, but everyone had fun peeking at their friends under the parachute!  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 pretend 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!

 

 

The playground was crowded today, but the kids are still enjoying the new sand in the sand box.  We also all really like to run to the fence and watch our TK friends having fun with Ms. Michele! The fall weather sure is nice!

 

Before starting our walk we read the story Around the Neighborhood by Katherine Mead.   The kids in the book visited different places in their neighborhood. They went to the park, a school, the post office, a grocery story,  and the library.

Before we headed out in the neighborhood, we had two things to do....first....review the rules.  We discussed how important it was to always be holding the rope.  The kids all practiced how to say "stop" if you needed the class to slow down for a lost shoe or a tripping friend.  We talked about using our ears to listen to the teachers, and our eyes to watch for bumps in the sidewalk and cars when crossing the road. 

The second thing before we headed outside was to explain a game we would be playing while on our walk.  We made a list of things we were going to look for on our walk. A scavenger hunt!  Some of the things we were going to look for were a dog, bike, a flag and flowers. Each teacher got a copy of the scavenger hunt pages and the kids had special instructions to yell out when they found something on the list.  We would mark it off and see how many we could find on our neighborhood walk.  On our walk we saw leaves, flowers, bugs, a bike, cars, a city bus, stop signs, and a person walking a dog. We heard some squirrels.....but couldn't actually find one with our eyes.  They are very sneaky! 

 

 

When we finally made it back to school, everyone was hungry and tired.  The kids had so much fun....and we excellent rule followers!  It was a wonderful first Out and About!

Talk Like A Pirate Day! Aargh.....

We started the day finding treasure in the Touch and Feel pool.  There were different shapes, different colors, sparkly and shiny.....it was a great exploration activity!

During morning circle, we introduced the theme for the day....Talk Like A Pirate!  The kids were all super excited to share some things they knew about pirates.  Our friend Jack was even dressed like a pirate today!

After a little time on the playground, we headed off the Music class.  We sang our favorite hello song, and the kids are starting to learn the words so they can sing along.  Next, we passed out those colored scarves and sang a song about colors.  Each child had to identify the color of their shirt, then they could take turns going to the middle of the circle and "wiggling" around!  We sang Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes....with a twist!  This song required special listening ears because sometimes they would try and trick us by saying other body parts like elbows and fingers!  Once everyone had a shaker, we sang You Are My Sunshine using some visual cues.  The kids really liked this song.  It was a great last song before we sang Good-bye. 

Our book for the day was Pirate Boy by Eve Bunting.  In this story a little boy sets off to be a pirate....but he wants to know exactly what will happen if he changes his mind.  His mother says that if she has to, she will ride a dolphin out in the ocean to get him.  The boy wonders what will happen if the pirates won't let him leave.  Mom says that she will use her magic spray and shrink them down to a very tiny size.  There are many questions to follow....but Mom insists that she will bring the boy home where he belongs!

 

 

Our language activity today was making a chart of all the things that we know about pirates.  Pirates wear eye patches, and special hats, and sail in pirate ships, and look for buried treasure.  In order to be real pirates, we gave everyone eye patches and special pirate names.  Now....unexpectedly....some of the children were not very excited about this whole eye patch thing.....and changing their name....not cool!  But....there were others of them, who wouldn't take the eye patch off even during lunch!  Let's just say that our classroom is one of diverse opinions!

 

 

 

For art we made pirate faces out of paper plates.  Every pirate had a bandana hat and an eye patch.  We gave him another eye and finished it off with a smile!  The kids were running around holding up their faces saying some of our favorite pirate phrases like "Aargh" and "Ahoy Matey"!

 





 

I know you're wondering how we connected this theme to speech....well that's easy.....we practiced "R" sounds all day!!  Even found a video to help....

 

 

What a great day!  I know that the kiddos went home tired today....being a pirate is a lot of work!  Enjoy the weekend....we have more super fun things planned for next week!

Mixing Colors!

Today we began the day with see-through, colored shapes in the Touch and Feel pool.  We didn't give the kids any instructions or directions....just wanted to see what their imaginations could come up with.  They immediately held them up to them eyes to see their world change colors.  They used them as noses and built houses.  We talked about the different colors and shapes.  It was a great activity to start the day.

The playground was a little chilly in the shade today.  The weather is definitely starting to turn more "fall like".  The new sand in the sand box is a huge hit!  Most of the kids spend the entire time in the sandbox building and dumping and digging. 

Our story today was Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni.  This book is about two friends, Little Blue and Little Yellow.  They do all kinds of fun things together because they are best friends.  One day, they are hugging each other so tightly that they turn GREEN!  Their families don't even recognize them.  They cry blue and yellow tears, which turns them back to their original colors.  The kids listened intently to see what was going to happen with these two friends!

 

After the book, we made a chart explaining the "magic" that happens when we mix colors....which the kids loved.  How fun is it to guess the colors that mix together to make a whole different color?  When we told the class that they were going to mix their own colors for art today....using paint....there were actual cheers!  We took blue in one corner, and yellow in the other corner, and mixed them together to make green at the bottom.  The kids were having so much fun painting.....and it was really messy....there might be leftover blue or yellow paint that you find later tonight.....on hands, in between fingers, or even on legs.....you never know!!

 

Tomorrow is a SUPER fun National Holiday that we can't wait to introduce to the kiddos!  They are going to love "Talk Like a Pirate Day"!  Can't wait....