All About Me-3 Day Class

 Hello Hippo Families!

This week we had a wonderful time learning about ourselves and our families!  After reading the book We Are The Same/ We Are Different, the students figured out how our 2 stuffed hippos were the same and how they were different. We then figured out how Ms. Ginny and Ms. Saba were alike and how they were different. 

Throughout our week we shared each child's family page.  It was fun to see all the family members and pets and learn about each others' family traditions. They all loved sharing about their families!  This activity targeted language, confident behavior in front of a group, voice volume, and respecting others by listening to their friends.

On Wednesday we listened to the Mat Man song from our Handwriting Without Tears program.  The song told us how to build our friend, Mat, by using strips. We also read some books about Mat Man.  During center time the children drew a self portrait for their collage using Mat Man. They are so cute!! They also built Mat Man during center time on the carpet!

During class we signed in to the question, "What color is your hair?"  This activity worked on recognizing names, one to one counting, and recognizing and comparing numbers.  Center activities included the sensory table filled with cups and moon sand, playdoh with bear family cookie cutters and materials to make a face (fine motor), counting the number of members in their family and letters in their names (meaningful counting and recognizing numbers), sorting and weighing bears, using a variety of materials to fill in face cards (making decisions independently), building houses with magnets shapes, legos and blocks (fine and gross motor), singing the Hokey Pokey song (gross motor, listening), dressing wooden people with magnetic clothes (fine motor, making decisions, taking turns), answering questions about our stories, making the alphabet letters into robots (fine motor, recognizing letters), and playing with trains, cars, tools, paw patrols, colored pipes and real pipes with connectors, the doll house, etc. (taking turns, resolving conflict if it arises, being respectful, appropriate voice volume, developing friendships with peers)

The hippos have been doing a great job with the morning routine, schedule, and classroom transitions.  We are encouraging teamwork as we clean our room each day. Everyone is participating in centers. Some are led by us, and others involve the children working together to create, pretend, and take turns.  

Our 2nd Steps lesson went over paying attention using an attent-o-scope.  We make this with our hands and place them on our eyes resembling binoculars.  An attent-o-scope helps us focus our attention on the teacher and others we want to listen to. In addition, we have a new program at LECC called Heggerty which involves learning rhyming words and sounds. At this age, it is just exposure. 

Books we read:
Mat Man Shapes

We are Alike / We are Different
Sylvie

Things to Practice At Home:
Self help skills: Continue to practice getting backpack on by themselves/ zipping backpacks/ practice getting shoes on by themselves.

Same/different concept: How are we alike and how are we different?  How are toys/objects alike and how are they different.

Questions to Ask:
1. Have 2 family members stand next to each other and ask your child what is the same and what is different about them.
2. What job did you do this week?
3. Count how many letters are in your name.
4. How many people are in your family?
5. Tell me about Mat Man. What body parts are on Mat Man? (he has one head, one nose, two ears, etc.)

6. What color did Sylvie the flamingo turn? (all colors)

Reminders:

9/11  School Pictures-Wednesday

9/17 Tuesday... Please send to school 5 apples, preferably different colors for sorting

9/18 Parent Open House 

9/25 Hearing screening at school

10/14 Parent Teacher Conference week-Conferences Monday and Tuesday the 14th and 16th-Sign up genius coming soon

10/30 Theis Pumpkin Patch. We will meet there and a parent must accompany you child. More details to

 come.

Next Week:

Friendship

Enjoy the pictures!

We made our family out of noodles and buttons.

Fun with stampers.

Our first journal entry....What is your favorite toy?
We write down what the students say and then they 
draw a picture with help.

Family dollhouse people and blocks.

Look at my shirt!

We practiced our body parts and following directions while we
sang the Hokey Pokey.

Fun in art with watercolors.

Each child came up to pick one item out of the bag and decide where it
belonged in the hippo room.

After building Mat Man with the song, the students built him
on the carpet.

We connected colored pipes and real pipes.

We built our house using shapes.

We dressed people with our magnet clothes.

Busy hippos!

During circle time, we decided which body parts had one and which had two.
We then counted them and compared the number.

What color is your hair? First, we found our names and placed them 
in the correct column.

We counted the number of people in our family
and the number of letters in our name.

We weighed and matched little bear families.

Look at the faces we made with a variety of materials!

Everyone loved the doll house.

We made our face out of sticker eyes and markers.

Each child came up and we read their family traditions 
and named some members of their family.

Our first library session.

We practice tracing our names.

Princesses, unicorns and blocks!

It was fun to build with tools!