Our week consisted of role playing with Ms. Ginny and Ms. Saba. We took situations we are seeing in the hippo room to role play (i.e. turn-taking with a toy, asking a friend to play, giving personal space, standing in line, and using our words when we want something). Every time we witnessed a hippo being a good friend, we added a cube into our hippo jar. We counted up the cubes from the past 2 weeks to show all the acts of kindness we saw. We counted 96 cubes!!
During circle time we built a large structure out of blocks as a class. Each child received 2 blocks that they added to the structure. Each child named what they thought it represented.
We also discussed feelings we all experience and showed the children "feeling faces". The students named the feeling and picked an appropriate feeling face based on scenarios we read in class. We also watched a video about the different feelings we can experience. In addition, the hippos answered the question, "how do you feel today?" as they signed in for the day. This gave us the opportunity to count, recognize numbers, and compare using more, less, and equal. (fine motor, participating as a member of a group, answering questions)
Another skill we introduced was the concept of personal space. Ms. Ginny and Ms. Saba modeled what personal space meant using hoola hoops and ways to protect our personal space and avoid getting into someone else's personal space. The book we read and the videos we watched talked about a space bubble and staying in your space bubble. We tied this concept to respect, in that we all want to respect others' personal space, especially when lining up. Center time activities included popping bubble wrap with our fingers and jumping on larger bubble wrap, making space bubbles out of paint and paper towel rolls and stepping in space circles. (fine and gross motor)
To go along with our acts of kindness, the students drew names and made a bracelet out of beads and pipe cleaners. The students placed the finished product in a bag. The students gave them to each other during circle time. (fine motor, confident behavior, being respectful, participating as a member of a group, using manners)
We made an entry in our journal. The question was,"What friend do you play with?" (working on drawing a self portrait, fine motor). We also played a game in which the students turned classmates names/pictures over and named them. It was a great way to practice learning the names of our friends! Center activities spinning a sit and spin with a friend, making feeling faces out of paint, matching feeling face cards, counting feeling faces and finding the correct number, putting together feeling bear puzzles, playing with playdoh and feeling faces and playing with connectors, tinker toys, zoo animals, tools, doll house etc. (developing relationships, resolving conflict if it occurs, being respectful to our friends)
We also discussed feelings we all experience and showed the children "feeling faces". The students named the feeling and picked an appropriate feeling face based on scenarios we read in class. We also watched a video about the different feelings we can experience. In addition, the hippos answered the question, "how do you feel today?" as they signed in for the day. This gave us the opportunity to count, recognize numbers, and compare using more, less, and equal. (fine motor, participating as a member of a group, answering questions)
Another skill we introduced was the concept of personal space. Ms. Ginny and Ms. Saba modeled what personal space meant using hoola hoops and ways to protect our personal space and avoid getting into someone else's personal space. The book we read and the videos we watched talked about a space bubble and staying in your space bubble. We tied this concept to respect, in that we all want to respect others' personal space, especially when lining up. Center time activities included popping bubble wrap with our fingers and jumping on larger bubble wrap, making space bubbles out of paint and paper towel rolls and stepping in space circles. (fine and gross motor)
To go along with our acts of kindness, the students drew names and made a bracelet out of beads and pipe cleaners. The students placed the finished product in a bag. The students gave them to each other during circle time. (fine motor, confident behavior, being respectful, participating as a member of a group, using manners)
We made an entry in our journal. The question was,"What friend do you play with?" (working on drawing a self portrait, fine motor). We also played a game in which the students turned classmates names/pictures over and named them. It was a great way to practice learning the names of our friends! Center activities spinning a sit and spin with a friend, making feeling faces out of paint, matching feeling face cards, counting feeling faces and finding the correct number, putting together feeling bear puzzles, playing with playdoh and feeling faces and playing with connectors, tinker toys, zoo animals, tools, doll house etc. (developing relationships, resolving conflict if it occurs, being respectful to our friends)
We enjoyed reading the Rainbow Fish and how he shared his sparkly scales with other fish. During center time, we used paint daubers and a sparkly scale sticker to make a fish. We sorted goldfish by color then counted and compared the numbers. It was fun to fish for numbers on the carpet and match them on the board. (goals: counting, matching numbers, comparing numbers, sorting, fine motor, answering questions)
In the hippo room, we encourage self help skills. It begins by following the morning routine when entering the classroom. When the children need help we ask that they try it first themselves. When packing up to go home, we have the hippos put their backpacks on the floor, load their papers by folding or rolling them, zip their backpacks, put their backpacks on by themselves and line up.
Books We Read:
The Rainbow Fish
Our letter of the week was E. We talked about things that begin with the letter E. We practiced making an E with the big line first and the 3 littles lines next! Our 2nd Steps lesson focused on self-talk to remember directions.
Books We Read:
The Rainbow Fish
Can You Tell How Somebody Feels?
Feelings (social story about naming feelings)
Personal Space (social story/video)
Questions to Ask Your Child:
What did we do with our friendship cubes we earned for being a good friend? (we put them all together in a long line)
What are the different feelings we have? ( happy, sad, mad, scared, surprised, etc.)
What did you make for a friend this week? (A friendship bracelet)
Feelings (social story about naming feelings)
Personal Space (social story/video)
Questions to Ask Your Child:
What did we do with our friendship cubes we earned for being a good friend? (we put them all together in a long line)
What are the different feelings we have? ( happy, sad, mad, scared, surprised, etc.)
What did you make for a friend this week? (A friendship bracelet)
What was your favorite job this week?
Things to Practice at Home
When reading books, discuss the feelings of the characters and why they may feel a certain way. Talk about feelings with your family.
Next Week: Apples!
Things to Practice at Home
When reading books, discuss the feelings of the characters and why they may feel a certain way. Talk about feelings with your family.
Next Week: Apples!
Dates to Remember:
Parent Teacher Conferences-Monday, Oct. 19th and Tuesday, Oct. 20th in the afternoon-Sign ups to come soon.
Theis Pumpkin Farm field trip Oct. 21st from 9:30-11:30- more information coming soon-an adult must accompany your child
Below are our pictures showing all of our exploring, learning and fun we had this week!
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| We played with hole punchers and scissors at art class. |
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| We painted circles during art class. |
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| Writing Center |
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| We added a picture of ourselves and a hippo showing personal space. |
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| We practiced saying thank you as we gave each other a friendship bracelet. Each child made one for another person in our class. |
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| Show and Tell |
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| Show and Tell |
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| Show and Tell |
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| We worked on making friends in our journals. |
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| We popped bubble wrap with our fingers. This is a good fine motor strengthening activity. |
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| Stepping in personal space bubbles. |
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| Everyone loved jumping on large bubble wrap. |
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| We made personal space bubbles and made sure not to make them overlap so as not to get into someone's personal space. |
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| Music Fun |
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| Each child helped connect our friendship cubes. |
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| Cars and long tubes |
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| We practiced recognizing our names to sign in on how we felt. |
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| Garden Fun |
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| We turned over a friend card and made a bracelet for that friend. |
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| We used feelings faces in the playdoh. |
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| We matched feeling faces. |
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| We also put together bear feeling puzzles. |
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| The hippos loved naming their friends as they turned their pictures over. They did a great job! |
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| We named the different feelings and picked which feeling went with the scenario. |
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| The hippos counted the feeling faces and found the number. |
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| The students used teamwork to make a structure. |
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| Here we sorted, counted and compared the columns. |
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| We matched numbers when we went fishing. |
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| We used our fingers to make the frogs jump! |
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| It was fun to make our own rainbow fish with a sparkly sticker. |
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| Here is our class structure we worked on together. |
