Hello! This week and next week we are "Under Construction!" Our centers have been filled with many opportunities for our students to construct, build, create, share, and pretend! It has been fun to build with different types of materials in our classroom. As our week began, we brainstormed what construction workers build and named some construction trucks. We discussed and showed pictures of real construction trucks. The hippos shared their knowledge of what they already knew about these trucks and their purpose. The next day we asked the hippos what tools carpenters and builders need to construct. All of us talked about what these tools are used for and how they work. Ms. Ginny brought in her drill and drilled a hole into a wooden block. She then showed us the difference between and a flat head and Phillips head screw driver. In addition, we learned that architects make blueprints before a house or building can be built. (goals:contributing as a member of a group, answering questions, respectful behaviors, listening skills)
Our dramatic play area was turned into a hardware store and construction zone. The students enjoyed shopping and restocking the shelves. Our sensory table was filled with little pebbles, scoopers and construction trucks. Other activities included making houses, cutting orange fencing and caution tape, measuring different tape length with blocks and counting them, drawing blueprints, playing with construction trucks on the floor, using rulers to draw plans, rolling a dice and placing that many blocks to make a building, doing construction yoga, sorting and weighing bolts, sanding blocks, using trucks, pebbles and blocks with playdough, lacing trucks and much more. In addition, we made buildings with paint and legos. We then named our city and drew pictures in our city. Wednesday, we signed in to what we would want to build.....a house, a road, a park or something else. (goals: fine and gross motor, counting, participating as a member of a group, taking turns, using language, comparing, sequencing, making predictions, making representational pictures)
During our 2nd Steps lesson, we discussed another step to help us calm down. Step one, we place our hands on our tummy. Step two, we say stop. Step three, we name the feeling. Step four, we take deep breaths. We practiced doing this with different scenarios. Our letter of the week was the letter R....R for Rowan, Rylie and Rylan!
The hippos enjoyed watching a video about different types of bridges. During center time we were able to explore by making our own bridges and discovering which materials make a strong bridge and which materials make a weak bridge.
Books We Read
Might, Mighty Construction Site
Building A House
If I Build A House
Dig, Dig, Dogs Dig
Alphabet Construction
Video-What Makes Bridges So Strong?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVOnRPefcno
Questions to Ask
1. What items were sold at the Hippo Hardware store?
2. What do you like to build?
3. The construction trucks worked together in our book, Mighty, Mighty Construction Site. What does teamwork mean?
4. What is your favorite constructions truck?
5. What did you enjoy building with at school? (blocks, legos, pipes, bridges, magnatiles)
6. Do workers build first or draw the plans first?
Reminders
***Send in a shoe box by Monday the 5th for our valentines.
***Send Valentines in by Monday, February 12th to school. Please sign your child's name on each card. Please do NOT write who it is going to. This will help tremendously when passing out the cards to others. Also, please do not send food with your valentine cards.
2/14 Friendship Party-Wednesday at 11:00 All are invited
2/19 No School Presidents Day
Next Week
More Construction!!
What to practice at home
Build with different objects such as blocks, boxes, legos, anything you can think of. As your child what he/she has built.
Enjoy the pictures!
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| Construction workers putting on their gloves! |
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After painting a picture of a city with legos,
then students drew pictures on their city paintings. |
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| Some students made signs for our store. |
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It was fun to put these little construction puzzles together!
Lots of problem solving and fine motor involved with puzzles. |
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| She is making candy in her Candy City. |
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| We hung up signs for our hardware store. |
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| They both love bunnies! |
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| Tracing lines, using a ruler, then painting our blue prints of this house. |
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| Plumbers connecting real pipes! |
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| Our cutting tub contained CAUTION tape and orange fencing. |
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| The students contributed to these questions. |
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| Teamwork putting this big construction puzzle together! |
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| We worked on sequencing pictures in the correct order to tell a story. |
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| Little legos are good fine motor practice! |
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Which would you like to build? Here, we counted, recognized
numbers and compared numbers. |
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| It was fun to bring out the big chalk on the playground! |
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Is this bridge sturdy enough for more bears?
(trial and error, making predictions) |
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We noticed that placing the bases closer together
made it a stronger bridge. |
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| Great fine motor practice twisting these on. |
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| Playdoh and pretend saws! |
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| This bridge is stronger! |
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| We counted the bears on all of the bridges that the hippos made! |
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| Double decker bridge! |
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Different types of bridges from our
video. The link is up above if you would like to
view it with your child. |
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| We rolled the dice and counted that many blocks to add to our structure. |
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| Shaving cream and constructions trucks were a fun sensory experience. |
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| We used both sides of the legos to make our buildings. |
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| We constructed our letters! |
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| We were finally able to go to the garden!! |
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| My drill! |
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| We passed around a real hammer and the different screw drivers. |
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| We used roads to construct shapes! |
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| Plumbers connecting pipes for a house! |
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| Playdoh with blocks, trucks, pebbles and screws. |
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The hippos enjoyed watercoloring the different tools
construction workers use! |
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| We weighed and sorted a variety of bolts, nails and screws. |
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Our Construction Zone! Proceed with CAUTION!
Great way to practice sharing, being respectful
and being responsible when it is time to clean up! |
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Our sensory table contained pebbles and
construction trucks. |
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| We did it!! |
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After reading Alphabet Construction,
each student put pieces together to make letters. |
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| Music fun!!! |
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We measured different tape lengths using unifix cubes,
which worked on counting and recognizing numbers. |
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| We also laced construction trucks. |
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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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| Construction Truck Yoga-Cement Mixer |
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Types of bridges and lists of tools, trucks and things to build.
The students brainstormed these. |
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| During gym, we pretended to be moving construction trucks! |
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| Yoga bulldozer! |
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| Yoga cement truck mixing concrete! |
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| During art class, we painted crowns! |
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| We constructed letters! |
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| Lincoln logs are a fan favorite! |
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The hippos practiced their cutting skills as they cut
paint swatches and glued them on the house.
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Happy 4 1/2 b-day Julia! We celebrate all our summer bdays
during the year or in May! |
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| We made our own patterns by hammering golf tees in egg cartons. |
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| We also followed a pattern. |
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| Moon sand and construction trucks. |
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| The hippos love to draw pictures in art class! |
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| Making hearts in art class! |
