Fall Fun!

Last week we welcomed fall to our classroom!  We made a beautiful leaf sun catcher for our windows using tissue paper and contact paper.  It was tricky picking up only one piece of tissue paper at a time!

 We used a stuffed squirrel to help us "sniff out" nuts and then matched the number on the acorn to the number in our pocket chart.

Students practiced spelling their names using magnetic letters on the easel.

Some friends enjoyed playing with our felt dolls and accessories.  

We continued our work in our Handwriting Without Tears books by scribbling in stars and fireworks.  This is such hard work for our hands!

We practiced making patterns with leaves to make a fun fall crown!  By the end of the year, we want students to be able to independently make A-B-A-B patterns.  

We made our very own acorn snack by putting a mini Nilla wafer on a Hershey Kiss using Nutella.  Yum!  

Miss Charlette shared the story of Stone Soup with us and we got to help her make our very own "Stone Soup" on the flannel board!

Another great week!  Don't forget to return your child's farm field trip permission slip as soon as you can!  Thanks!

Apples!

We had such a great week learning all about apples!  We began the week by learning a short poem that helped us learn the letters A, P, L, and E.  Students were able to use a pointer to point to each letter as they said it.

In dramatic play, we added an apple orchard!  Students were able to pick apples from the trees, take them to the market stand and pay for them.  The farmer "re-planted" the apples back on the trees for the next friend to pick.  

We worked on many fun apple craft projects this week including apple peel painting, apple stamping, and making sequin apples.

We used our fine motor skills to manipulate the glue bottle to make tiny dots of glue.  We also had to use our pincer grasp to pick up the tiny sequins and place them on the apple.  We practiced matching colors by placing the red sequins on the red part, green sequins on the green leaf, and gold sequins on the brown stem.  Using the little muscles (fine motor skills) in our hands makes our hands stronger so we are better able to color, write, cut, and draw!

Apple stamping was fun!  Students dipped half of an apple in paint and made a print on paper.

We practiced sorting apples this week as well!  We sorted by color, shape, and number of seeds.  By the end of the year, we hope that students will be able to sort by at least one attribute and explain how they sorted (by color, shape, size, etc.)

Miss Charlette (our practicum student) has been doing a fantastic job!  She will be teaching the class full-time for two weeks in November.

Students made their own apple counting books.  They placed the correct number of "apples" on the tree on each page.

 We also started work in our Handwriting Without Tears books.  We begin by getting our hands ready to write by "scribbling in" pictures, and will move on to trying to color in the lines in a few weeks.  Once our hands are nice and strong, we will begin to form letters!

We encourage students to use the proper crayon grip and also use their "helping hand" to help them hold their paper.

Our books take a lot of hard work, and sometimes you might see a smiley face on your child's hand for being a hard worker and making their muscles strong!

 Of course, apple week wouldn't be complete without eating some apples!  Students tried red, green, and yellow apples and then made a cut-out of their favorite kind and put it on the apple tree that matched.  Look in our hallway to see what your child's favorite kind of apple was!

 On Friday, we had an apple tasting celebration.  We made applesauce in class, and also tried apple cupcakes, apple juice, and apple flavored crackers!  Yum!

We had a great week!

Me & My Family

The past two weeks we have been talking about ourselves and our families.  We have been learning about ways that we are all the same and all different.  We have made graphs comparing the number of boys vs. girls in our class, eye color and hair color.  We made a class book called "Our Hands" in which we mixed a paint color that matched each individual child's skin color and used that paint to make our hand print.  The hand prints were then assembled into a book that students can read anytime at school.

Other projects we've been working on:

We've been learning to sort!  This week students learned how to sort by color.  Next week will will try to sort by color, shape and size!

We've been learning about circles, so we made a circle painting by dipping the rim of a cup in paint to make a circle stamp!

We've continued learning about our names.  Students traced their names with glue and then sprinkled Kool-Aid over the glue for a yummy-smelling project!

Students have also been busy during free choice!  The block center is always popular and many students have enjoyed making zoos this week.

We have been learning about concepts of print, including how to hold a book, gently turn the pages, look at the pictures, and look for letters and words we might know on the page.  Every day we have 5-10 minutes of "whisper reading" time where students may read books by themselves or with a friend.

Miss Charlette has played several fun group games with us during the past two weeks.  All of the kids really enjoyed learning how to play "Red Light, Green Light".

This week we will be learning about apples!  We have a great week planned and I can't wait to start!  To celebrate our learning, on Friday we will be having an "Apple Harvest Celebration".  We are looking for several families to share some apple-themed snacks with us on Friday.  Ideas might be apple muffins, apple crisp, apple pie, etc.  We will be making applesauce in class, so please do not bring that.  If you are interested in helping, please sign-up in our classroom.  There is a sign-up sheet on the cubbies near the Sign-In book.  If baking isn't your thing, we are also in need of plates, cups and napkins for the day.  Thank you!

Please see our newsletter this week for a list of upcoming events!

Have a great week!

First Week Fun!

What a great first week in P4J!  We spent most of the week learning about one another, the classroom, and the rules at school.  All of the kids are doing a GREAT job following the rules, adapting to school life, and making new friends.

A large part of our day is spent at station activities.  Students rotate through three activities each day.  Right now it takes us two days to complete a full rotation, but as the school year progresses and attention spans increase, we will work up to completing a rotation every day. 

Last week, our stations were crayon-resist watercolors, putting stickers on the first letter of our name, puzzles, and rainbow tracing our names. 

At the watercolor station, students learned how to correctly use watercolors.  We talked about how to clean our paint brush each time we change colors.  Prior to the activity, I wrote each child's name in white crayon on their paper, so it was fun so see each name "magically" appear when painted over with watercolors!

Students worked on making their first letter with stickers.  Not only is this a great letter recognition activity, but peeling stickers helps strengthen the muscles in our fingers and hands (fine motor skills).

 Students also worked hard practicing how to write their names.  Each student traced over their name with each color of the rainbow.   In P4J, we learn how to write our names in uppercase letters first, and then as students become ready, move on to printing in upper and lowercase.

We opened up our puzzle center this week!  Puzzles are great for learning problem-solving skills, matching, and persistence.  Students learned how to take a puzzle from the shelf, ask for help putting it together if necessary, and how to put it back in the correct place.  Puzzles are always a choice during free play time and they are frequently a "must-do" during stations.

 Miss Charlette (pictured above) is completing her practicum experience with us this fall!  She spent last spring in my classroom as well and is going to be a FANTASTIC teacher someday!  She is in our classroom every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning.

Students also learned how to use the block center and art center this week.  During free play, students have the option to choose one of many different centers in our classroom to work and play independently.

 The art center is always a popular place to play and create!  Watch for many masterpieces to come home this year :)

We even like to do art outside!  One of the students made a robot using sidewalk chalk outside.

This week, we will be learning "All About Me!".  We will talk about ways that we are all alike and different. We are focusing on name recognition and spelling, writing our names, and learning each other's names.  Each week we will focus on a color and/or shape.  This week, we are learning about RED.  Don't forget to send a red item to school with your child on Wednesday for sharing time!

Upcoming Events:

Friday, September 13 - Scholastic Book Orders Due

Tuesday, September 17 - Picture Day

Thursday & Friday, October 17 & 18 - No School - Conferences