Back to School!

Back to School!

We have done so much to get to know each other, feel comfortable with everything new and different, and establish a rhythm as a group.  Our theme for the beginning of September has been "All About Me," including family and friendship.  Here's some of the fun that I am happy to share :)

 Literacy

• "My Name" theme - each child decorated his/her name, written in lowercase, with dots from a hole puncher.  This took a few days, and really helped with lowercase recognition and becoming familiar with how each name looks.  It took patience and fine motor control.
• Alphabet Soup - We stirred up some "soup" and used spoons to carefully find and take out letters to make names!
• Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom - Of course, a must read book for back to school!  We enjoyed the old, familiar story, and then made our own trees with letter stickers.

Math

• We focused on one-to-one correspondence and recognition of numbers 1-10.  We played games with dice, spinners, and cards, reading the number and putting that many dots on a poster board with paint dotters.  These games were fun, and also great practice going around the table and taking turns with something.  Together, each group filled pages and pages with paint dots, one turn at a time!
• Family Glyphs- Our first graph of the year! The children followed the key and graphed their family members.  Parents job- figure out which house is yours!

Science

• Are any two fingerprints alike? We made our prints and studied them, and our friends', with our first science tool of the year-  magnifying glasses!
• YOUR germs are YOURS, MY germs are MINE! One thing we really don't want to share.  We practiced hand washing techniques with a big bucket of water and some bottles of soap.  Good practice following directions to complete a multi-step process.

Art

• Mirror, Mirror, on the wall - Look who joined our class this Fall!  The kiddos made self portraits, looking in a mirror and describing themselves out loud to their small group friends, then drawing their reflection.  Such a cute final product to match a very good process.

Show and Tell - All About Me backpacks!  Everyone went home with a paper bag "backpack" to fill with any free choice item(s) as an introduction to Show and Tell.  What awesome speakers we have already!

 

This year is off to a great start.  Be ready for more awesome stuff to come :)