This week we also learned about cardinal birds. We began by showing pictures of real cardinals and Fredbird, of course. We also learned the red cardinal is a boy and the brown cardinal is a girl. During centers we made a bird feeder for home and tore paper to make a cardinal's nest for our birds on our bulletin board. The students loved making our cardinal bird sing!
During our week we signed in by asking, "Do you wear mittens or gloves?" We counted and compared the numbers. We learned a finger play called MITTENS and spelled the word several times, which worked on letter identification. The hippos also listened to a book in which animals hid in a mitten. They had to guess which animal it was based on a part of each animal (i.e. a tail was sticking out of the mitten and the students guessed it was a mouse). After reading this book, we hid different items in a mitten and gave clues as to what it was. Everyone enjoyed guessing the objects! We later wrote in our journal what we would hide in our mitten. The hippos worked their hand muscles by hanging wet mittens (foam mittens) on a clothesline with clothespins! Our letter this week was the letter P. We made the sound and thought of objects that begin with the letter P. We also built it with wooden strips.
Other centers included matching letters to a giant mitten on the easel, patterning snow pictures, decorating small snowflakes, practicing positional concepts with a real mitten and a partner, making a snow globe, pretending to dry mittens by shaking a box, matching them, using a sit and spin as a pretend dryer spinning the mittens dry, dot painting a mitten, dancing to the Freeze Dance by Jack Hartman, and making matching mittens by using a spoon to paint then folding the paper and opening it to see the matching mittens. During gym we had our snowball fight with cotton balls!
Our 2nd Steps lesson involved steps to do when we have uncomfortable feelings. First, we place our hands on our tummy, then say stop. We learned the third thing to do, which is to name our feeling. Our character word for the month is being GENEROUS! We read a book about this and the students talked about ways they are generous.
All of our learning activities focused on the following learning goals: fine and gross motor, letter and numbers, counting, sequencing, making predictions, building hand strength, name writing, contributing to a group, following 2 step directions, positional concepts, comparing numbers, drawing representational pictures, answering questions about our stories, sensory, safe behaviors, asking to take turns, using language, confident behaviors, voice volume, and respectful and responsible behavior!
Questions to ask your child:
1. What do you do to be generous?
2. What job did you have this week?
3. In The Missing Mystery Mitten book, did they find the mitten in the snow or was it the heart of the snowman? (it was the heart of the snowman, as it melted they could see the missing mitten) Why did the snow man melt?
4. What would you hide in a mitten?
5. What color is the boy cardinal? What color is the girl cardinal?
6. What is your last name?
Things To Do At Home:
As mentioned above, we hid a few classroom objects inside a giant mitten, described the object, and asked if students could guess what it was. It would be great practice if you could hide an object and describe it with your child at home. Take turns and have them try and describe what they are hiding.
Next week:
Questions to ask your child:
1. What do you do to be generous?
2. What job did you have this week?
3. In The Missing Mystery Mitten book, did they find the mitten in the snow or was it the heart of the snowman? (it was the heart of the snowman, as it melted they could see the missing mitten) Why did the snow man melt?
4. What would you hide in a mitten?
5. What color is the boy cardinal? What color is the girl cardinal?
6. What is your last name?
Books
The Missing Mystery Mitten
The Mitten
The Wish
Things To Do At Home:
As mentioned above, we hid a few classroom objects inside a giant mitten, described the object, and asked if students could guess what it was. It would be great practice if you could hide an object and describe it with your child at home. Take turns and have them try and describe what they are hiding.
Next week:
Penguins
Reminders:
Reminders:
Tuesday, February 3rd -please send in a shoe box for your child to decorate and collect their class
valentines in.
Thursday, February 13th-Valentine party at 11:00. All are invited, just like our winter party!
Enjoy the pictures!
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| Painting mittens with spoons then folding the paper, rubbing it, then opening it to discover the matching mitten. |
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| We froze bears in ice cubes. The students loved getting them our with golf tees and hammers. |
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| We made hot coco cups in art. |
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| We had a snowball fight with cotton balls in the gym! |
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| We finally got to go outside and play!! |
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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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| Sensory-beans, cups, tongs and pretend marshmallows. |
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| We strengthened our finger muscles by using clothespins to hang mittens on a clothesline. |
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| Snap bots! |
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| We decorated snowflakes for our bulletin board. |
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| It was fun to paint real snow with watercolors! |
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| Mittens and grabbers. |
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| What do you wear? |
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| Happy birthday, Jack! |
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| Music fun! |
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| We patterned winter pictures. |
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| We rolled pinecones in bird seed to make our bird feeder. |
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| Our hippos play so nicely with each other. |
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| Can I take your coffee order? |
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| We matched ABC letters on this big mitten. |
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| We also made our own snow out of corn starch and hair conditioner. |
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| We practiced strengthening our finger muscles by ripping paper. We made a birds nest out of paper to hold our cardinal bird on our bulletin board. |
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| We played a matching letter mitten game. The students listened to the letter song and looked to see if they had the same letter. |
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| We counted the stars and matched mittens with the correct number. |
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| Journal-What would you hide in your mitten? |
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| We danced to Go Noodle since we could not go outside! |
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| We ice skated in music class! |
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| Here we practiced positional concepts with a mitten and a friend. |
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| We also laced mittens! |
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| After reading a book about a snow globe, we made our own snow globe. We drew a picture of ourselves in the globe, then made snow using a q-tip and paint. |
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| The hippos loved matching Frozen cards. |
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| Everyone played hockey! |
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| Each student had a piece of white paper with a letter on it. We named the letter and crumbled it up to represent a snowball. |
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| We practiced skating and skiing with carpet slides! |
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| Happy Birthday, Ella. |
