Painting, Sorting, and Learning....Oh My!

We sure stayed busy this week in P4J!  We spent time talking about our families and sharing our family pictures with one another.  We discussed how every family is different and the same. 

We also began work in our Second Step curriculum.  Second Step is a program that build social and emotional skills that will stay with children throughout their lifetime.  This week, we worked on the skill of "welcoming" and practiced welcoming a new friend, Paul, to our classroom.  You should have received a packet of information about Second Step in your child's FROG book this week, along with some activities to try at home.  Watch for these weekly!

Hi, Paul!  We are so glad you joined our class!

Some of the small group activities we did this week:

Play-doh!  Working with play-doh builds the muscles in the hands and arms, leading to better fine motor skills and more legible writing.  Play-doh is always a choice during free choice and we use several different kinds of play-doh throughout the year (next week - apple play-doh!).  

Math Movement Game - students chose a card with a movement on it (touch toes, clap hands, rub tummy, etc.).  Students then rolled a die and did the movement the number of times indicated.  We are working on counting, one-to-one correspondence, and following directions!

Students were also introduced to our "wood pieces" this week.  Wood pieces are a part of the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum and are used to build letters throughout the year, but this week we just wanted to take some time to explore.  We used pieces of cloth to polish and shine our wood pieces, and later, some friends wanted to learn how to make letters and spell out their names!  Awesome!

The sensory table is always a popular activity!  This week, we had little plastic pellets and bears in the table.  Students were asked to use large plastic tweezers to remove the bears from the beads, place them in a bowl, and then count how many they found.  Another great fine motor activity!

 We also drew pictures of our families this week.  Students drew their families and Miss Briann helped students write a sentence about what they drew. 

We've been learning all about the color red, and students were able to make a red collage using different materials.  Glitter was especially popular :) 

 We ended the week working on a circle painting activity.  Students dipped the rim of a cup in to paint, and stamped the circles on the their paper.  We used the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow to experiment with color mixing as well. 

 Finally, we worked on our sorting skills by sorting objects by color. Students were given a pile of red, blue, and yellow objects and asked to glue them in the correct column.  Watch for this to come home early next week!

We've gotten off to a great start this year!  Right now, we are really working on following directions the first time, and using our words with our friends.  Please take time to reinforce these skills at home when you are able :)

Next week, we will learn all about apples!