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Sunday, January 24, 2016

Learning about the Arctic

 Reading is fun when you can read inside an igloo!  We learned to take turns so everyone got to "live" in the igloo.

Thursdays class has worked on skills such as shape recognition and fine motor skills, whether using a crayon or glue stick


Learning is intense! : )

Proud to have sorted by colors!
There's team work going on during clean up time.
Some learn to make up their stories while spending time with books (a beginning stage to reading), while others have started learning to read with one-on-one instruction.

Reading, learning to stand in line or sitting in circle time are things that are preparing children for Kindergarten!
  
And making new friends
                                                                         is the BEST!




Friday, January 15, 2016

We're Having 'SNOW' Much Fun!

This week letters were P, S, A   Our snowman letters have been put in order over and over again.  Some spelled their name too.

Penguin play and Penguin letter matching.

The snowballs were a hit. When we throw them in the bucket, they light up!  
Winter Session Begins with learning about snow and the arctic weather.  We worked on vocabulary with words from WINTER:  cold, shiver, iceberg and many more.  It's great to hear them using the words and expanding their vocabulary!


The children have done great getting back to the routine and they made some new friends too.
Science this week was learning how long it takes a bottle of ice to melt.  Some decided it would be anywhere from 400 Trillion minutes or until the end of class.  : ) They brought up comments like " it has to get warm",  "ice turns into water",  "the ice keeps the water cold".  Great thinking!

Thursday class has many new students and made many new friends as they checked out the learning centers.   We learned how to pattern at the manipulative table and did some problem solving while playing in our arctic playset.

We began learning letter and sounds with our zoo friends.  Zoo Phonic program teaches the letter, sound and a movement all at once instead of separately.  This not only is faster, but the child makes the connection of a sound as they learn the letter.

During quiet reading time, the children took off with an idea.  The wanted to tell stories to each other, so they lined up the chairs and each had a book.  They stood up one at a time to "read" their story to the class.  This was TOTALLY child directed and I stood back and observed.  Isn't it amazing what they can do?!  This showed critical thinking, problem solving and creativity!   We welcomed Miss Debbie, Mcqueens' new Preschool teacher as she 'shadowed' me for the morning.
Friday class was fun with celebrating Jon's birthday, making snowy pictures and of course, Gym Class!



Parachute time - we had to work as a team to make the ball bounce!

The easels  were out to draw and write some vocabulary words.  Great snowman!

Enjoy your long weekend and see you next Wednesday!


Saturday, January 2, 2016

Happy New Year!

I hope all of you had a great family holiday and many blessing for the New Year!    I had a wonderful time with my kids as they came home from Tennessee for the holidays.  Seems it wasn't too long ago they were all living here and now the house was full with six adults!   Time sure flies as we mark each year of our children's lives by events.  I am blessed to have wonderful successful children.  During the holidays we celebrated Ciara's graduation from ASU in Business.  She begins a new career with TEK Solutions Co., a company that finds IT employees for major companies like Sony, Google, Honeywell, Target and others.  She will be a hiring placement recruiter.
A really big thank you to all of you who gave me gift cards and other gifts for the holiday.  I cherish my kids and families and feel blessed to be able to teach your children.  We will begin our Winter Session with learning about the Arctic.  Fun surprises, new things to learn and lots of science coming!


A few last pictures for 2015 from the Polar Express Jammie Day!



The trip on our "pretend" train was a big hit.  I still can't hear the bell : (