Week Thirteen

My apologies. I have had some camera/computer dilemmas this week and was unable to take more pictures.

Theme: Dinosaurs
Our field trip to the Museum of Paleontology at BYU was a lot of fun! ALL of the children were extremely well behaved!!! And, although the museum is small, I learned something new each time I went. We discovered the shark "poop fossils" on our third outing. We all giggled over that. We talked about meat eating dinosaurs & plant (vegetable & fruit) eating dinosaurs. We are all happy that dinosaurs are extinct. Many of the children are dinosaur aficionados and taught us all something new!

Letter: D
Digging for "D" things: We took turns digging in a box of pinto beans for "D" things. We met "Daisy Dog." We learned the sign language for "D". The sign can help us remember what direction lower-case "d" goes.

Choosing Time: Dinosaurs, Dolls, Dress-ups, Duplos, Dinosaur Puzzle....

Snacks:

• Popcorn
• Popcorn & Go-gurts
• Dinosaur Fruit Snacks & Cheez-its
• Dinosaur Turkey Sandwiches & Dinosaur Eggs (Cucumbers)
• Donuts
• Donut Holes & Peaches
• Juice Boxes, Popcorn, Clementines

Music & Movement:

• Sweetly Sings the Donkey
• Dinosaur Stomp!
• 5 Big Doughnuts In the Bakery Shop
• 5 Little Ducks
• Bubble Gum
  

Books:

• Dinosaurs by Gail Gibbons
• What Santa Can't Do by Douglas Wood (about a Dinosaur Santa)
• Day Out With Daddy by Stephan Cook (a favorite that I had to read twice)
• Bark George! by Jules Feiffer

Games:

• Domino Tracks
• Dinosaur Roar
• Dinosaur Tracks
• Disney Dominoes

Art: Dinosaur Silhouette on Sponge Painted Sunset/Volcano

Writing: Practiced Letter "D"

Cutting & Math: Advent Calendar

Reading: We spent some time reading rhyming words with "dog". Our other words we practiced include: dress, door, do, dad, & dragon.

Science: We compared our feet to a Dinosaur's footprint. We learned two ideas of how dinosaurs became extinct.

Some cute moments:

• As I was reading, Day out with Daddy, one of the lines reads, "The wildest (animal) is my daddy," and one of the children quickly said, "My dad is the wildest." Another child said, "My dad is silly." "My dad is crazy." And, on and on it went :)
• "Miss Jodi, are you sure these dinosaurs are dead?"
• I learned that one of you has a big pool in your backyard that used to have a shark in it.
• "Miss Jodi, why are you doing that?" "Doing what?" "Making that (a spiral out of Dominoes)?" "For Fun." "Oh."
  

Week Twelve

Theme: Thanksgiving

Letter: B

Choosing Time: Dress-Ups, Dragons, Bendaroos, Blocks,.....

Music & Movement:

• Flight of the Bumblebee
• Bubble Gum
• Hello Mr. Turkey
• Little Indian Boy
• 5 Pilgrims
• Row, Row, Row the Mayflower
• I'm A Nut

Snacks:

• Fruit Snacks
• Bananas, Blueberries, Brownies, & Blue Kool-Aid
• Banana Bread & Orange Slices

Science: We watched some video clips of real turkeys to hear their noises. We compared the similarities between turkeys and my chickens.

Writing: We practiced our letter "B's"

Art: We made "pumpkin turkeys."
Books:

• The Best Thanksgiving Ever! by Teddy Slater
• Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes

Games:

• Pin the Hat on the Turkey
• I'm Going to Grandma's for Thanksgiving....
  

Week Eleven

Choosing Time: Big Brick Blocks, Babies, Baby Animals...







Theme: Thanksgiving
We are enjoying sharing those things which we are grateful for. We love singing songs and doing finger-plays that involve turkeys, Pilgrims, & Indians.

Letter: B
We have enjoyed "B"! We Bobby Bear who introduced us to some Buck B Words such as Bus, Blue, Black, Brown, Bear, Bee, & Bed. Our "B" Show & Tell included items such as Barbie, Books, Bee Back-pack, Beach Ball, Bears, Boys, Babies, Bionicle, Bike....

Snacks:

• Banana Bread & Oranges
• Cheese Nips & Hershey Nuggets
• Bananas, Fruit Snacks, & Pretzels
• Pilgrim Hat Brownies
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins & Fruit Leather
• Pirate Booty & Graham Crackers
• Turkey Cookies

Books:

• The Berenstain "B" Book by Stan & Jan Berenstain (This is one of my personal all time favorites! Nearly every word in the book begins with "b".
• Turk & Runt: A Thanksgiving Comedy by Lisa Wheeler
• The Big Smelly Bear by Britta Teckentrup
• The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, And The Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood

Music & Movement:

• Row, Row, Row The Mayflower
• I Am A Little Indian Boy
• Two Little Blackbirds
• Hello, Mr. Turkey
• Bubble Gum
• Bringing Home A Baby Bumblebee
• Our "B" Dance (First, we laid down on the floor, closed our eyes, and listened to Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. I asked the kiddos to tell me why this song might have been named after bees. I then asked them to imagine what a bee might do all day. We talked about different "Bee" Moving Ways. I played the music again and we danced with our Bees/B's as a Bumblebee might.)
• I'm A Nut
• Going On A Bear Hunt
• Turkey Trot

Science: We identified the parts of a Bee. We counted the legs, antennae, stinger, eyes, & wings. We noticed the stripes on a bee's back. Most bees do not want to sting people because when they do they die. We love honeybees because we love honey.

Math: We practiced sequencing with Big, Bigger, Biggest.

Games: Honeybee Hive & "B" Matching Memory

Art:

• Thankful Trees (I'm sure you're all wondering how many projects we can do that include our corn cob painting!) Each of the children had an opportunity to write what he/she is thankful for on three leaves. Some of the children would have loved to write more leaves and I suggested they could make more at home :) I am thankful to be a teacher to amazing children with amazing parents!
• Beehives with "B's"

Reading: There are so many wonderful "B" words that short and easy to identify. The easiest being, "be." We loved reading the words baby, ball, banana, bus, but, be, & bee. I challenged all the children to read a book with their parents and to point out the words be, no, & me.

Week Ten

Theme: Pilgrims & Blessings
There were people who lived in Europe who were not allowed to believe the way they wanted to. They boarded a ship called the Mayflower and sailed to America. Even though many died and they all suffered cold & hunger no one wanted to leave America. The people were called Pilgrims. They met some Native Americans who taught them many things. They all worked together. To celebrate a successful harvest, the Pilgrims planned a huge feast that lasted many days. They invited their new friends to come. We call this the First Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were able to believe what they wanted. This was a big blessing. We have many blessings too: family, friends, homes, clothes, food,....

Letter: N
Many of us are excited to now write "N". Some observed that when "N" lays down it becomes a "Z".
Music & Movement:

• I'm A Nut
• Row, Row, Row the Mayflower
• 5 Pilgrims & 5 Indians
• I'm A Little Indian Boy
• Hello, Mr. Turkey
• The Turkey
• Turkey Trot
• Nine Excercises
• Oh, What A Miracle
• Let's Pretend

Math: We practiced counting 1-10 with an emphasis on Nine. We counted each finger on one hand and then another. All of our fingers together make ten. This may seem simple, but one class was engrossed in this concept. We wrote out the math on our board and talked about the plus and equal symbols. We counted out Nine stickers to put on our Nine writing worksheet.

Art: We did "Corn Cob" painting. We turned the paintings into turkey feathers for our Turkey & Pilgrim pictures. We also used the paintings as a back-drop for a Turkey & Pilgrim picture for one class. This allowed those children to practice their cutting skills :) We also used the paintings to show off our writing for what we are grateful for.

Writing: We spent a lot of time practicing writing our Names this week. We also wrote what we are thankful for. If writing is new to your child, I am just working on using the capital letters for right now. They are a bit easier and more identifiable.

Game: Name Bingo

Snacks:

• Nutter Butter Cookies & Bananas
• Go-Gurts & Graham Crackers
  
• Peanuts, Wheat Crackers, & Fruit Leather
• Cheese Sticks & Bunny Crackers
• Nachos
• Marshmallows, Juice Boxes, & Crackers
• Fig Newtons & Peanuts

Books:

• The First Thanksgiving by Jean Craighead George
  
• We Are Thankful by
• I'm Thankful Each Day by P.K. Hallinan
• Chipmunk Song by Joanne Ryder