Last Hurrah!

What an adventure we had today!

First of all, thank you to The Sweetest Tooth Fairy for a most entertaining, informative, hands-on, super tasty tour of her commissary! We enjoyed seeing how to make a cupcake milkshake and then tasting them too! YUM! We were astonished at the HUGE Mixing Machines filled with batter and the Enormous Assortment of Sprinkles. All the kiddos loved having a turn at cutting out a cake bite and then adding sprinkles to it after it received a "hug" in chocolate. The most exciting part was wearing hair nets :) THANK YOU for a GREAT Time!!!

We then traveled to Kangaroo Zoo. One of the kiddos in my Blue Bus asked if we would see real Kangaroos, or any real animals at all. When I said, "Sadly, No," this cute little kiddo said, "Well, why is it called a zoo then?" I responded that we are the zoo. No one asked me any more questions :) We had a wonderful time jumping, climbing, sliding, & running together. It was a wonderful time and a wonderful way to end a fabulous year. Thank you to all the parents who came with us!
Love to all!
Miss Jodi

Goin' To the Zoo!

Theme: Letter "Z"

Choosing Time: Zoo Puppets & Little People Village

Music: Little Zacky Had a Zoo (I made it up), 3 Little Zebras, & ABC's Backwards

Movement: Goin' To The Zoo! I have several Zoo Movement Songs that we danced to: pretending to be a variety of zoo animals.

Book: The View at the Zoo by Kathleen Long Bostrom

AM Snack: Strawberries, Apples, Animal Crackers, & Goldfish Crackers

PM Snack: Giant Marshmallows & Graham Crackers

Art: Zoo Zebras
It was fun to cut paper using "zig-zag" scissors. We liked tracing our feet for our zebra heads and then cutting them out.

Lesson & Writing: We practiced the Letter "Z" sound. We learned how to write and spell zoo. We had fun saying "Z" words like Zinnia, Zest, Zip, Zig-Zag, & Zach.

Yummy or Yucky?

Theme: Letter "Y"

Choosing Time: Dolls, Dress-up, Star Wars, Bugs, Fisher Price

Music: Yo, Bubble Gum & ABC's

AM Snack: Strawberries, Kool-Aid, Cookies

PM Snack: Popcorn & Frosted Animal Cookies

Lesson: We made "Y's" with our bodies. We practiced the "Y" sound. We discussed some things that start with "Y" such as Yes, Yellow, Yak, You, Yolk, Yum, Yuck, Yogurt....

Science/Math: We graphed our votes about whether we think certain foods are yummy or yucky. We compared our results. We thought of some yellow foods to graph such as bananas & pineapple.

Books: Day Out With Daddy by Stephen Cook & Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth

Game: I Spy Something Yellow

Movement: Oh, What A Miracle & See Me Run

Art: Yellow "Y" Collages

Writing: Practiced our "V's," "W's," "X's, & "Y's"

Picnicking Indoors

Theme: Teddy Bear Picnic
Choosing Time: Teddy Bear Puzzles, Duplos, Trio Blocks, Puppets, Teddy Bears

Music & Movement: Going On A Bear Hunt, Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around, Winnie the Pooh, Donut Shop, Tiny Turtle, ABC's

Picnic: We spread out a large Winnie the Pooh Picnic Blanket. We had a fun time eating on the floor of the classroom. Everyone enjoyed showing what he/she brought for his/her "lunch." It was really cute! We ate with our Bears (or other soft toy). While we ate, I read some books. We talked about picnics and came up with some good ideas for picnic activities. I was worried some kiddos would be sad about not going to the Botany Pond, but no one even mentioned it :) I feel like we had a lovely indoor picnic in both classes.
Books: Where's My Teddy?, It's the Bear!, & My Friend Bear by Jez Alborough
A trilogy about a boy, Eddie, his teddy, Freddy, a Bear, and his Teddy. Super fun to read and some good lessons on friendship.

Game: Teddy Bear Parade
Art: Teddy Bear Punches & Stamping
Craft: Teddy Bear Masks

X Marks the Spot

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Theme: Letter X

Choosing Time: Cars, Boxes, Foam Puzzles, Dress-Ups, Kitchen Play

AM Snack: Orange Juice, Strawberries, Popcorn

PM Snack: Granola Bars, Cheese Sticks, Raisins

Music & Movement: Criss-Cross Applesauce, X Marks the Spot, Oh, What A Miracle

Science: We looked at some Dental X-Rays. X-Rays are pictures of what the insides of our bodies look like. X-Rays can help Doctors know if our bodies are healthy and how to help them if they aren't.

Science EXperiment: What does salt do to slugs?

Recess: We enjoyed the lovely sunshine!

Lesson: Letter "X" likes to borrow letter "Z's" sound sometimes. Letter "X" is shy about his sound and so it usually comes at the end of or in the middle of words. We thought of some rhyming "X" words such as fox & box and mix & fix.

Art: "X-Ray" Painting

Writing: Practiced our "X's"

Wishing for Warm Water fun

Theme: Letter "W"

Choosing Time: Cars, Tinker-Toys, Kitchen Play

AM Snack: Fruit Snacks & Donuts

PM Snack: Winnie-the-Pooh Crackers & Oranges

Music & Movement: Oh What A Miracle, Got A Wiggle, What's the Weather?, & It's A Small World

Books: Let's Walk Up The Wall by Ryerson Johnson & The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

Art: Wagon Wheel Necklaces & Watercolor Painting

Writing: Practiced our "W's" in our workbooks.

Lesson: Wow! "W" has so many options! We had a wonderful time brainstorming "W" words. We had fun hearing or seeing clues and then guessing some "W" words. We loved using our magic "wands" and turning our "W" into a "M". We decided that "M" looks like mountains while "W" looks like waves.

Ole!

Theme: Cinco de Mayo

Choosing Time AM: Little People Village

Recess: We enjoyed playing outside today! I hope Spring is here to stay!

AM Snack: Chips & Salsa and a yummy Mexican drink called Horchata
PM Snack: Frozen Go-Gurts & Popcorn

Art: Mother's Day Hand-Print Card: I hope you enjoyed the nice things your children said about you. I thought they were so sweet!

Language: We had fun learning some Spanish words today: Ole! Fiesta, hola, adios, uno, dos, tres...

Music: I Love My Mother & Que Linda Manito

Movement: Mexican Hat Dance

Books: Does A Kangaroo Have A Mother Too? by Eric Carle, I'll Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch, & Say Hola to Spanish, Otra Vez by Susan Middleton Elya

Planting Vegetables in Violet Cups

Theme: Letter "V"

Choosing Time: Dinosaurs, Trains, Dinosaur puzzle with a Volcano, Dress-Ups

AM Snack: Watermelon Wedges (V-shaped) & Ritz Crackers

PM Snack: Cheez-It crackers, Cheese, & Grapes

Movement: See Me Run, Criss Cross Volcano Sauce, Make a Letter "V" Shape
Lesson: "V" is for Van (and van), volcano, vacuum, violet, visit, vacation, vision, vegetable, vine, and violin. I "played" a violin for the kiddos. They laughed and laughed. We talked about what kind of vegetables we like/dislike to eat. We also talked about what kinds of things grow on a vine and how a vine has tendrils that grab hold of things.

Science: We had fun with a volcano. We talked about magma and pressure. We learned that there are places in Utah where we can go that has magma underground building up pressure and starting to crack the earth.
Art: Vegetable Tags: We either drew or glued a picture of the vegetable we chose to grow. Hopefully, everyone will have a good experience watching something grow! We had fun planting the seeds!