Week One

I am loving all of your sweet kiddos! We've had lots of fun this week! Here are a few highlights:

Theme: Welcome to Your School

Letter: M with Monkey Mike

Choosing Time: Duplos, Little Kid Village, Kitchen Play, Monkeys, Disney Friends, "M" Memory Game, Upper & Lower Alphabet Matching Game, Mitten Game, Marbles, & Magnets
Books:

• Dooby, Dooby, Moo! by Doreen Cronin
• How Do Dinosaurs Go To School? by Jane Yolen
• M book
• What A Day It Was At School by Jack Prelutsky

Games:

• Who is Hiding Under the Blanket?
• Mousy, Mousy, Where's My Cheese?

Movement:

• Hokey-Pokey
• Shake the Sillies Out
  
• Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
• 5 Exercises
• Ring Around the Roses
• 5 Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed

Music:

• Snack Song
• It's Time to Wash Our Hands
• Clean-up
• Monkeys Swinging In a Tree
• Hello Everybody
• ABC's

Snacks:

• Mac & Cheese
• Muffins, Melons, M & M's, & Mints
• Peaches & Cheese Sticks
• Bunny Cheese Crackers

Math:
We made a graph to show how we came to school each day this week. We counted out the results. We added the totals and checked to see if the number matched how many kids are in our class. Most of the children came to school in cars.

Science:
We explored mud. We mixed dirt with water. We had fun pouring the dirt and water into buckets. We had fun making really runny mud and then thickening it up again with more dirt. We liked the mud the best when it was like play-doh. We made mud balls. We had fun stepping on the mud. Mud is cool to the touch. When it dries on our skin it is itchy. We made a large mud brick together. We learned that some people make their houses out of mud bricks.
Writing:
We practiced letter "M" & "m"
Reading:
We practiced reading the words on our word wall. We also practiced, "me." We also are reading "Our Class Rules" together.
Art:

• Monkey Mike Pictures
• Macaroni M's
• Magic Color by Letter Mm
  

Cute Moment:
I was reading a book to the class. One of the words in the book was, "Chop-O-Matic." One of the children said, "Oh, Miss Jodi, I think that's a really bad word!" We learned that in this case, a chop-o-matic is a machine to cut up vegetables :)

Birthday:
Asher brought the cutest Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies to share. We had fun playing Follow the Leader during our Birthday Music.

Welcome Back!

I hope all of you have had a wonderful summer! I am looking forward to starting tomorrow and I hope all of your kiddos are too! I just want to remind all of you of a few things....
1. Please have your kiddos go to the bathroom before they come to school.
2. Have them eat before they come.
3. We will begin show and tell next week.
4. I will not be combining the snack schedule with birthday treats. If it is your child's birthday and you'd like to bring something to share, we would love it. (So, in other words, if it is your child's b-day and someone else has snack that day, it's ok, you may still bring a treat to share and we'll still have snack)
5. Please keep toys at home.
6. I have a trampoline. If you DO NOT want your child to jump on it please let me know.
7. We are in the middle of doing a major repair in our backyard. I had hoped we'd be done, but we're not. I am not sure I will have the kids play in the backyard until we're done. So please don't get their hopes up too soon...Sooo sorry!
8. If I have not received your info. please make sure you pick up the forms and get them filled out. I NEED your contact info ASAP.
9. Some children and mommies have a hard time separating. A good book to read together might be, The Kissing Hand. If the mommies are brave and positive, chances are the children will not be hesitant nor fearful :)
10. We will have a lot of fun! See you all soon!

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"