3's-->Triangles

     We finished off our triangle unit by making triangle hats!  The kids loved cutting out their triangle pictures- pizza slice, sandwich, and pie!  We've been learning that a triangle has 3 sides and 3 points or corners.

3's-->Center Time

     Our 3's started their centers last week.  We talked about each center and what was expected of each of us during center time.  Center time is a chance to play with a new friend, work on new toys and skills, share with our friend, experiment and have fun.  I demonstrated each center and then set the kids up in their small groups (2-3 in a group).  Each center day, the groups will do a different center but stay with their same small group.  Once we get through all of our 2 week centers, the small groups will change.  This gives each child a chance to work with new kids and make closer friendships.  A few of us are shy and have a hard time reaching out to other classmates or different classmates.  It is my hope that through the small group centers, we'll become closer friends with everyone in our class.

We also have a Tangram Center.  This center is filled with picture cards.  Each picture is built with shapes.  Imagine making a robot with diamonds, squares, semi-circles and triangles?!  Our last center is our Chalk Center.  The kids get to be creative with their drawings and even practice writing their names, letters, and numbers.

Right now our Puzzle Center is working on our letters and numbers.  Some of the pieces are tricky because a "b" and "d" can be put backwards and they look like an upside down "p"!

Our Pom Pom center is all about imagination, fine motor skills, and math!  The kids can guess how many pom poms will fit in the ice cube trays or the bowls.  They can use the clips to pinch the pom poms and pick them up.  They can sort by color too!

Our Frog Jumping center is a lot of fun.  The kids work on getting their frogs in to the pond.  They can choose to toss the frogs in or pop them in with their fingers.  Some of us have a hard time popping them in but it's fun to watch the frogs flip in the air.

This is our stamp center.  There are capital and lower case letter stamps along with picture stamps.  Some of the kids chose to build their names, while others just experimented with the stamps and mixed colors.

3's-->Apple Painting

     During our apple unit, we used our apples to paint instead of paint brushes.  Some of us were hesitant to paint and get our fingers a little messy!  But once we realized it was fun, we didn't mind getting a little messy.  We talked about how colors can be combined to make new colors.  Some of us really mixed up our colors.

4's-->Glitter Shapes

     The 4's are pretty good at knowing and recognizing their shapes.  Right now, we're working on tracing and drawing the shapes.  By tracing the shapes with our glitter glue, we really had to work hard on keeping our hands steady and using our fine motor skills.  This will come in handy each time we write, string beads, and play!  Plus it was pretty cool to see our glittery shapes that we made all by ourselves!

3's--> Apple Taste Test

     We have been learning all about apples!  We've been singing a song about the parts of apples (skin, flesh, seeds, stem, and leaves).  We painted our own trees and added shiny apples to them.  We've read LOTS of books about apples, apple trees and things that are made from apples.  We even cut open apples and painted with the pieces.

     However, the yummiest part of our apple unit was our taste test.  We talked about the different types and colors of apples.  Then we got to try out a red, yellow and green apple.  Afterwards, we chose our favorite type of apple and graphed the Taste Test Favorites.  We learned about most and least by looking at our graph.

4's--> Yellow Day & Centers

     Last week, we started our centers!  The kids will be working in small groups to strengthen their skills, work on communication, practice sharing, and to also have some fun!  Each day that we have stations, the kids will move to a new center.  Center time lasts around 20 minutes.  I give a small explanation of each center at the beginning of the week.  But each child has the opportunity to try to use the center in their own way as well.  That's where imagination comes in!!

     We also had our Yellow Day yesterday!

3's-->Our Names & Letter E

     Each week, we practice writing our names and our letter of the week.  This week's letter was /Ee/.  We worked our fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and finger muscles by poking holes in the small circles of our letter /Ee/.  It was tricky at first but our fancy tooth picks made it fun!

     We got out our Do-a-Dot markers to make our names this week.  We needed to dot our letters slowly and do our best to stay on the lines.  They turned out great!