Here are a few of the things we have been doing:
We started out the year just getting to know everyone better and playing some friendship games. Our first day of school we read the book The Kissing Hand. This is a book about a little raccoon that is nervous to go to school because he is going to miss his mommy. She teaches him the secret of the kissing hand and that he can always remember how much his mom loves him no matter where he is. We played some math games to go along with this story and start working on number recognition. The kids also played some matching games with colors. They got a special little treat that day to take home and share with their moms.
They also traced their own hand this day and added a heart sticker to the hand. They colored a face to describe how they felt about going to school. I am sorry if anyone got a sad face. We had just finished reading the book and I think a few were a little home sick. ;) They have all really enjoyed being in class.
We started practicing tracing our names and have been practicing writing our letters of our names each time we come to class. It is very important when practicing at home that you teach your child to write the lowercase letters in their names even if they are "harder". They will be all ready for Kindergarten if they can master this now.
I love teaching kids to learn in a fun way that they don't realize they are learning. I have found all sorts of "Toys" on amazon that help kids learn their shapes, colors, numbers and letters in a fun way that they feel like they are playing. If you ever are interested in any of them let me know. I can always send you links and they make great birthday and Christmas presents. Some of my favorites are from Learning Resources.
Color Sorting
Cupcake Shape matching game
Fine motor skills, colors and shapes
Shape and color puzzles
Shape matching with tanagrams
Bear color sorting into bear houses
This pie game is an absolute favorite game!
Red Day
We sang our color red song. I will include all the songs on here if you want to keep practicing them at home. :) The kids learned how to start cutting and gluing with "baby dots". Pete the cat joined us today and read us some of his favorite books. The kids love the cd's that go with these books. We practiced our letter by playing an apple game and hiding a little worm behind each apple. They had to say what letter they thought he was hiding under. The kids also made their own apples and we taste tested a red, green, and yellow apple. Yellow and Red were their favorites.
Click below for the link to the Red Song
Blue Day
We had a lot of fun on this day. We estimated how many blue objects were in Mrs. Julie's jar. We counted it and then played a game where I would take away one object and they had to tell me what was missing. We made letter B Blue Bugs. We looked for the little blue bug that was hiding under the letters that make the word blue. We also practiced hopping forwards, backwards and on one leg. They measured themselves to see how many blue lines tall they were. We got out my parachute this day and flipped blue balloons on it.
Click below to here the blue song
Yellow Day
Some games we played were freeze dance but when the music stopped they had to find something in the room that was yellow to touch. We learned the song called, Mr. Sun. The kids painted a plate yellow and we added yellow triangles and glitter to make a shiny sun. During snack time we tried different foods that might be Yucky or Yummy. We were working on letter Y this day. Some of the foods they tried were lemons, lemon heads, butter mints, tortilla chips, banana and yellow powered. They liked all but the lemon. We also learned the story about Scat the Cat this day. I hope you enjoyed practicing it at home.
We went on a number hunt this day too and colored each number yellow. I have some fun little rhymes you can practice with your kids if they are having trouble learning their numbers. We have been practicing them at class.
Click below for the Yellow Song
Pink Day
P is for Pink and Pigs. We acted out the story of the Three little Pigs this day. They got to make a letter P pig for a craft. We learned that pink is made by mixing white with red. On this day we also played a game with a little mouse and his house. We were working on rhyming words to go along with our colors.
Click below for Pink Song
Our field trip to the fire station was so much fun! We enjoyed seeing all the firefighter gear and trucks as well as learning about fire safety The weather was great for a play date at the park afterwards.
Green Day
We made green turtles this day and worked on Letter T and finding it in different words. We played red light, green light. We hid a little turtle under bowls that spelled out green to work on finding him under different letters. We played a animal game using green numbers. It is played like musical chairs and when they landed on the number I picked they got to pick an animal for us to act like. Mrs. Chelise came this day as well and did Yoga with the kids.
Uh Oh, Mrs. Julie ran out of green paint! How do we make our own green paint? We mixed blue and yellow together of course. :)
Click below for green song
I didn't get many pictures this day. But I will try and get more of the kids doing yoga next month. They love when Mrs. Chelise comes.
We have a few more color days this month.
Oct. 3-4 Purple Day
Oct. 5-6 Orange Day but also picture day so you don't need to wear orange. :)
October 10-11 Black, White and Brown day
