My Five Senses

Hi Mom!
This week was our second week talking about our bodies. We focused this week on the Five Senses that we have. We can name them all by using a hand to point them out on our faces!
1- shake the hand you're pointing with (touch)
2- point to your eyes (sight)
3- point to your ears (hearing)
4- point to your nose (smell)
5- point to your mouth (taste)
We read A Surprise for Miguel (my take home book) and then made popcorn together, just like Miguel's dad did to surprise him. We used our 5 senses to experience the popcorn, just like Miguel did too! The best part was "tasting" the popcorn for our snack.

We did some counting activities with popcorn to practice number recognition and one to one correspondence. We worked a lot with numbers this week. I'm getting so good at recognizing each one and being able to count that many things out.

We talked about how our 5 senses help us to experience the world around us. But what would happen if we didn't have one of our senses? Ms. Marianne put blindfolds over our eyes and asked us to use our other 4 senses to try and figure out what each thing she handed us was. There was a pickle (bumpy), a tomato (squishy and smooth), a teaspoon of peanut butter (soft and tasty), some chocolate chips ("sharp" on one end and flat on the other) and a lemon (juicy and sour). The lemon was a surprise, and I didn't like the pickle much, but I loved the chocolate and the peanut butter!

We read (and got to act out!) Eric Carle's From Head to Toe and even participated in reading it with Ms. Marianne... "Can you do it? I can do it!" I love to hear the different voices that the animals have in that book when we read it. To continue being active, we got big drinks and then went for a walk to use our senses to experience the outdoors.

I drew things that I saw and things that I heard as we walked to the park and back. It was a windy day, and I heard wind chimes tinkling, the birds chirping and an airplane overhead. I saw a truck drive by and clouds racing by in the sky. I loved playing at the park for a few minutes before we headed back to talk about what we'd seen and heard.

 

On Thursday, we worked more with our Letter of the Week (Pp). We read Don Freeman's A Pocket for Corduroy and retold the story together with puzzle pieces of different scenes from the book. We talked about first, next, then, and last and putting things in order.

Then, because "pizza starts with /p/, we made paper pizzas where we counted out various "toppings" that corresponded to the number written on that slice of the pizza. I don't think I'd like to eat a pizza made of paper and beans, pasta and other small manipulatives, but I know I loved making the REAL pizzas later on!
We talked about the recipe we'd need to follow, and put the steps in sequential order to make sure we didn't do it wrong. Then it was time to spread the sauce, sprinkle the toppings and cheese, "bake" them in the microwave and then dig in! I'm glad pizza starts with P!

Next week is all about Cc- Caterpillars and the life cycle of a butterfly! We're also going to finish up our unit on the body by talking about how to take Care of them with eating a healthy diet and getting lots of exercise. It's going to be fun! 

Love,

Your Child

and

Ms. Marianne

The Human Body

Hi Mom!

What a week we've had- all about the human body! We started with reading The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle. The poor chameleon was so concerned with being like everyone else that he missed how neat he was all by himself! We worked as a class to tell the story with the felt board pictures as we learned what the various animals could do and as the chameleon got more and more mixed up!

After we talked about how each of us is special and can do special things, we talked about how we all look different too. Ms. Marianne had us lay down on paper and she traced the outline of our bodies and cut them out. I got to draw what I look like on the front of my life-sized Me doll! I made sure that I chose the right crayon color for my eyes and then Ms. Marianne helped me to make my hair from yarn. I even got to glue the buttons on my shirt- one for every year old I am.

Next, we learned about what makes our bodies special on the inside. We talked about our brains, our hearts & circulatory systems, our digestive system (I loved learning where my food goes and what happens to it!), our lungs and our skeletal system too. Ask me where the largest and smallest bones are in my body- I might even remember what they're called! Oh, and have me show you what would happen to my body if I didn't have any bones. Once we read our take home book (My Body), we put a body together on the felt board and showed where all the systems are inside the body. Then we drew them on our Me dolls. Ask me to show you which is which.

Finally, on Thursday, we discussed again how everyone looks different, but we're all special and unique. We read Elmer, by David McKee, and created a patchwork Elmer the Elephant collage to show that we are special just how we are! My favorite part of today was following a recipe to make Body Cookies (like gingerbread men). I got to measure and mix ingredients (ask me about a 1/2 cup!), roll out the chilled dough, cut out the bodies, bake them and decorate them. I decorated my cookies just how I wanted to and they were not like anyone else's- just like me! Of course, I loved eating my lemon flavored Body Cookies. I got to decorate some more to take home to my family too. Yumm!
One final thing we talked about with the Body was symmetry. Did you know our bodies are nearly identical on both sides? We cut some of our Body Cookies straight down the middle to see this and then compared it to our own bodies. We have two eyes, ears, hands, feet, arms and legs... one of each on the right and on the left. So neat!
Next week is more about our bodies and what they can do. I'm excited!
Love,

Your Child

and

Ms. Marianne

 

All About Me

Hi Mom!
This week in preschool we learned all about me and my other preschool friends. We even learned about Ms. Marianne! Each of us had a special day this week where we brought in our All About Me information sheets and shared what makes us special. I even brought in my favorite food as snack on my day. One friend brought cheese pizza! Yummmm
As we shared our special characteristics and favorite things, we graphed and charted each one. We now have a whole wall in our room that tells all about our preschool friends- from their favorite thing to do, their favorite book and their special things all the way to who is in their family and what their birthday is. I learned that we are all special and unique.

We read two great books called Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes, and Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name, by Tedd Arnold, to talk more about our names. I loved these books! They showed me that my name is special and I should be proud of it. We did lots of activities with our names this week- we traced them in glue and sprinkled salt over the glue so that we could use our touch sense to learn the letters in our names. Ms. Marianne helped me to make a book that has one page for each letter of my name that has a picture of a thing starting with that letter. I can read it to you, if you ask me to! I really enjoy tracing my laminated name card that I brought home this week, and putting my name puzzle together too! The more I practice, the better I'll get a recognizing and writing my name.
My favorite story and activity from this week was Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom! By Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. All of the letters were trying to get into the coconut tree, but it didn't work out very well! Here is a video that we can watch together where the book is animated and put to music. We listened to it a lot while we worked this week, and I just kept asking to hear it more!
http://www.schooltube.com/video/2490bb8cd9848c3af3ec/ After we read the book, we made coconut trees and tried to see if there was enough room to fit all the letters of our name in them! I made all the letters of my name fit!
Our Letter of the Week was Mm this week. We made macaroni Mm's and Mouse Puppets who eat /m/ words and we practiced writing Mm's all week. My favorite Mm activity was M & M Graphing. It was so cool to get my own little bag of candies to sort and graph. Ask me which color I had the most of. I even had some colors that had the same number of candies in my bag. The best part was eating them when we were done!

Next week, we are beginning our Body Unit to continue our understanding of how special we are. I can't wait!

Love,

Your Child

and

Ms. Marianne

Bee-utiful Beginnings

Hi Mom!

This week in preschool was such a fun beginning to the year we're going to have with Ms. Marianne!

 

We read two books that I thought were funny. They are called The Crayon Box that Talked and David Goes to School. Maybe the next time we go to the library we can pick them up and read them at home too!

 

Didn't you just love the puzzle I made for you after we read The Kissing Hand? I hope you always feel my love when you put your kissing hand next to your cheek! Let's put the puzzle together now so I can tell you all about the fun things we did in the first week of school.

 

We played musical instruments and practiced keeping a steady beat, especially when singing. Today we learned a song about my name. We will be singing it a lot in the next few weeks as I learn to recognize, spell and eventually write my name. I want to be able to write my name by the end of this preschool year! The song is sung to the tune of Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping) and celebrates my name!

My name is special,

My name is special!

Say it once,

You will see!

(spell name to tune) x 2

(say name to tune( x 2

 

Next week, we will talk a lot more about me and how special I am. I need to fill out the All About Me paper and bring it with me to preschool on Tuesday along with anything I want to share (favorite food/ special toy /favorite book, etc.) so we can begin our All About Me unit.

 

Our letter this week was 's'. Since it was a short week, we only learned one letter, but we will revisit it next week and will also be focusing on other letters- a / m / r. You can help me practice the sounds that these letters make at home. Whenever we come across the letters in a book or say something that begins with that letter, we can stop and say : ______________ starts with /s/ (sound) and then say the name of the letter too. It'll help me recognize them in print and in spoken language.

 

This was a great week and I can't wait for next week!

 

Love,

Your Child

and

Ms. Marianne