Letter S Week

Letter S Week was 

STUPENDOUS!

Here's a peek at our week!

Our themes this week included

Scarecrows, Sunflowers and Squirrels.

Our literacy center featured the book, The Little Scarecrow Boy.

The children wrote and illustrated a storyboard.

At the art center we created Silly Scarecrows.

Our discussion about sunflowers included the book,

This Is The Sunflower.

The children worked on nonfiction facts about sunflowers.

At the math center the children colored and constructed sunflowers.

During morning meeting the children acted out different verses about sunflowers.

Look at the beautiful sunflowers we created in our art center!

We also read the book, The Sunflower House.

Later in the week we moved on to one of my favorite topics!

SQUIRRELS!

So cute

and yet

So naughty!

(My husband and I battle squirrels all the time!  They are adorable 

until they get in your attic and fall down into the walls and you

have to cut a hole in your wall to get them out 

or when they chew up your brand new cushions on your deck...)

We read the book,

Nuts To You.

We had a blast turning into squirrels! 

We can be pretty "squirrely" for sure!

(Not sure that "squirrely" is a real word....but I think it should be!)

We fed squirrels nuts  in the math center!

They are hungry little critters!

We wrote nonfiction facts about squirrels.

We graphed Skittles.

And ATE Skittles!

How many Skittles do you think are in these jars?

All week long we bribbed...I mean passed out 

Smarties!

Why?  

Because!

We ARE SMART!

S Week was incredible.

We loved every SECOND of it!

We also went to the Fire Station this week.

I can't wait to tell you, I mean show you

all about the firefighters!

The Literacy Center

What is The Literacy Center?

The Literacy Center is one of the 

focal points of our classroom.

It consists of flannelboards,

puppets, books and supporting props

that help promote our units of study.

The Literacy Center changes weekly and sometimes daily

depending on how much stuff we have to share.

The children love this center and interact (okay, I mean PLAY)

with everything on a daily basis.

It's fun and engaging for our Kindies

and really helps reinforce our concepts for the week.

Typically, several books are featured at the Literacy Center.

These book are selected based on our personal assessments

and what we consider to be "classics".

We read these books to the class during circle time and

the children often work on a storyboard about the book we shared.

(A storyboard consists of questions that might include

character, setting, beginning, middle and ending, plot.)

The children dictate or write their responses and

provide illustrations to support their answers.

These storyboards are a 

great tool for assessing story comprehension.

We also use our puppets to act out

stories, songs and fingerplays.

The Kindies love it!

We think our Literacy Center is fabulous!

Next time you are in our classroom

be sure and check it out!


***For all my teachers friends***

I often get asked how I make all the puppets and shapes,
what the sticks are for,
and where I "purchase" everything.

I buy a lot of "kits" at Hobby Lobby
and Michael's.  The kits consist of
foam and felt shapes that need to be assembled.
I order things from Oriental Trading and I go to Dollar Tree often!
I also use our local Teacher's Center and cut shapes out
of fun foam using the die cut machine.
I also have a huge selection of personal dies.
All the felt and foam shapes have Velcro on the back of them.
The reason for this is to provide versatility.
The shapes can be used on a flannelboard or attached to a stick.
The stick puppets are then used as manipulatives.

I have worked for several years gathering all these materials.
It's really fun and let me tell you....
once you get started
 every trip to the craft store becomes
a hunting expedition.

Hope this answers your questions.
Thanks for all the thoughtful comments!
Big Hug!
Nancy

Letter P Week

Letter P Week has been PERFECT!

This week our primary theme was Pumpkins.

We love PUMPKINS!

Our literacy center featured pumpkins and gourds.

We read the book, Pumpkin Pumpkin.

We discussed the life cycle of a pumpkin and learned

a lot of interesting things about pumpkins.

We graphed our pumpkins

and sorted our pumpkins.

We measured our pumpkins

and weighed our pumpkins.

Look at our Pumpkin Patch Math Book!

We wrote describing words

about  pumpkins

and colored pictures of pumpkins.

We created some beautiful pumpkins in the art center.

We even made a "scratch and sniff" pumpkin pie!

(We added spices to make it smell just like a real pie!)

We love the texture of collage!  Isn't this pumpkin cool?

(Did you know that pumpkins make great chairs?)

We explored the inside of a pumpkin.

We used our senses to discover even more about pumpkins.

We tasted different parts of pumpkins.

We made pumpkin pudding!

We guessed how many pumpkins were in the jar!

We played with pumpkins in the sensory table.

During Morning Meeting we acted out 

"The Five Little Pumpkins".

I just love my job!

Last but not least,

we are now observing a pumpkin as it decays!

Wow!  What a week!

P week was perfectly perfect!