peeny butter fudge

Our focus question this week was,” When do things happen at school?” We used our visual schedule to see what happens during the day and even took some time to plan activities together. Routines are very important at this age and their inquiring minds enjoy discussing what we are doing next. One of the activities on our schedule is story time. The story for the day was Peeny Butter Fudge. In this book, when Mama leaves the kids with Nana, she also leaves a schedule and menu for the day on the fridge. But, when the door closes, all sorts of fun breaks loose. Then, Mom comes home, sees the house is a big mess and is temporarily annoyed until she sees that they've made peanut butter fudge.

We had our schedule planned for the day and who do you think showed up? Our very own Nana!

Nana knows how to take an ordinary day and make it extra special! She brought the recipe and all the ingredients to make peanut butter fudge. We read the recipe and discussed how important it was to follow the directions. If we missed a step, our fudge wouldn’t taste good. Knowledge of print and its uses includes understanding that print carries a message and that print is organized and read in particular ways. Each child was given a step from the recipe and couldn’t wait to help.

Marry Had a little lamb

We had a very special visitor come to our playground this week, Mary and her lamb. Everyone had a blast getting to pet the lamb named Tinkerbell and she truly made the children laugh and play!

We had a very successful first couples of weeks learning new names and building new relationships. During circle time, we are demonstrating phonological awareness by learning the nursery rhymes Humpty Dumpty, The Three Little Kittens, and Little Miss Muffet. Phonological awareness, or phonological sensitivity, is the ability to discern the sounds and patterns of spoken language. Phonological awareness is an important skill in learning to read. Children become phonologically aware through experiences such as reciting poems and nursery rhymes, singing, and clapping the syllables of chanted words.

Humpty Dumpty

The Three Little Kittens

Little Miss Muffet

Write The ROom

The children had so much fun walking around the room with clipboards looking for letters. When they found a letter they had to find it on their paper and trace it with a marker. The benefits of writing the room are: 1) it's not just another worksheet, 2) handwriting practice, and 3) letter recognition.

Roman Carnival

The children had a wonderful time at middle school's Roman Carnival. They played games, had their face painted, and had a frozen treat!

3D shapes

Children learn about shapes, beginning with 2 dimensional (flat) shapes (circles, squares, triangles, etc.). Then, once kids have a good grasp of 2 dimensional (2D) shapes, they can move on to learn about 3 dimensional (solid) shapes. Learning about 3 dimensional (3D) shapes opens up a new world to kids. They become aware that not all shapes are created equal. The boys and girls had fun exploring 3D shapes using magnatiles.

SPECIAL VISITOR

How does trash affect our community?

A special thank you to Jarod Miller and Larry Collins with Waste Management for giving us a WOW moment. Mr. Miller told us about the trash truck and we learned that our trash is taken to a landfill in Texarkana. He told us that it is important to recycle and help save the earth. Waste Management has a special section of the truck for items that can be recycled. We were thrilled to receive a trash truck and recycled pencils. What a wonderful day!

OCEAN SENSORY PLAY

As part of the recycling unit, we read The Adventures of Gary and Harry. It's about two sea turtles that are best friends and run into a problem with litter in the ocean. After reading the book, we decided to make our own ocean and talked about how we can do our part in keeping it clean.

Y IS FOR YARN

Working on our cutting skills, we cut pieces of yarn and glued them to our letter Y.

MIDDLE SCHOOL COLONIAL VILLAGE

We had a great time going back in time! The middle school kids did a fantastic job on their presentations. We learned what a general store was and got to buy candy there. We then saw some blacksmiths at work and sang Old MacDonald with farmers. After that, the children got to dye a candle and tried homemade bread.

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

We started our new study about reduce, reuse, and recycle. The boys and girls are excited! This study offers opportunities for children to explore a topic that not only interests them but allows them to become more aware of the world around them. Our class is exploring our community, learning new information, and proposing solutions to problems. We decided to make a recycling center of our own and they have enjoyed sorting and reusing the trash collected.

The Paper Bag Princess

One of the books that is part of the recycling unit is The Paper Bag Princess and we had so much fun acting it out. The story is about an unconventional princess named Elizabeth that happily prepares to marry Prince Ronald. Before they are able to marry, a dragon swoops down, burns down the castle and everything with it, and kidnaps Prince Ronald. Elizabeth puts on a paper bag and sets off to save Ronald. Elizabeth outwits the dragon by asking him to perform feats of strength until he passes out. When Ronald sees Elizabeth in a paper bag rather than beautiful princess clothes, he is disgusted. Ronald tells her to come back when she looks like a “real princess.” Elizabeth responds by telling the prince he’s a bum.

V is for Vinegar and Volcano

The kids had a blast making a volcano. We used a cup, play-doh, baking soda, and vinegar. This hands-on activity helps develop the children's concept knowledge, builds vocabulary, encourages them to make predictions, and they learn that the ingredients can be combined to make a chemical reaction.

The Butterfly Life Cycle

Our butterflies are in their chrysalis phase and the children can't wait to have butterflies next week! We read the book A Very Hungry Caterpillar and made a painting of the one from the book.