Welcome to the First Thursday in March

Thursday March 05, 2015

Welcome to the month of March.  It sure does not feel like March outside with the temperature.   It is hard to believe in 3 short months our school year will be over and many of my friends will be off to the big school to join new friends in preschool.  Even though that time is coming we have so much to learn, explore and play with before we go. 

With the beginning of a new month meant lots of changes in our classroom, new toys for one it was exciting to see all my friends come in today and see what they were going to play with.  We had so much fun playing and were so engaged in the classroom that our free choice went on for almost an hour and 40 minutes.  That is OK we need to have days where they play and do there thing they did so well on Tuesday and again today that I just didn’t have the heart to say clean up at 9:15 so we just kept on playing and it was wonderful!

During our Morning Meeting we were introduced to a new month (MARCH), a new number (8) a new shape (rectangle), a new color (Yellow) a new Jesus story (Jesus Calms the Storm) a new pattern (shamrocks and Hat’s) and new letters (k &L).  We also started to learn about the holiday St. Patrick’s Day and learned some new words today. 

Enjoy reading about our day and viewing the pictures.  Lots to learn and do today. 

March Calendars came home today or on Tuesday.  We have a busy month planned ahead and I hope all my students stay well and are here to enjoy this exciting time together. 

Enjoy reading about our day!

Jesus Time: This week's Bible story comes from Mark 4:35-41 Jesus Calms the Storm

Jesus and His followers got into a boat and set out across the lake.  Jesus was so tired that he fell asleep.  Soon a strong wind began to blow.  Waves came over the side of the boat.  Everyone was frightened. They woke Jesus. “Help us, or we’ll drown!”  Jesus commanded the wind and waves to be still.  The wind stopped, and there were no more waves coming into the boat.  The lake became calm. 

Number:  We were introduced to the number 8 today.  We looked at the number 8 and how it looks like to circles on top of each other.  We counted our 8 fingers and then we counted 8 Shamrocks

During our center time we glued 8 different colored shamrocks onto a pot of gold.  The shamrocks were labeled 1-8 and we had to put them in the right order.  This activity was great because we were able to work on our numbers and colors.  These are displayed in our room so be sure and check them out.

Shape:  an introduction the shape of a rectangle was done during morning meeting.  We talked about how the door to our classroom is the shape of a rectangle. 

Color: Yellow is the color we will be learning about in the month of March.  We were introduced to lots of different things on our yellow board today.  Ask your child what they saw on our color board today. 

During our center time we colored an umbrella yellow and glued it on a blue piece of paper that more will be added to it in the next week or so.  As the children came over the center I would ask them what the object was and when they would use it.  All of my little friends knew it was an umbrella and did a fairly good job at saying this tricky word.  They also were able to tell me what they used it for.   We were able to tie in our bible story to this activity as well.  As the student began to paint their umbrella they were asked what color they were using.  Most were able to respond with the color YELLOW!

Music and Movement: We sang Jesus Loves Me, and our ABC’s; we did lots and lots of dancing today.  We did the Silly Dance Contest, The Washing Machine Song, Five Days Old, Jumping and Counting, Hand are for clapping, Shake our Body Down, Bringing home a Baby Bumble Bee the Animal Action Song.

Outside Time: Since we played so well during Free Choice time we did not go to the commons today.  Instead we did a lot of Music and Movement, played with some balls and had a cool tunnel to play with in our classroom.  We had a lot of fun playing with something different and doing something different.  It is OK for us to break from our normal routine and try and do things different and fun. Pray for good weather next week!  We may actually be able to get outside and play for a little while!

Patterning:  We were introduced to a new pattern of Shamrock and Leprechaun Hats today during morning meeting.   Two new words for us to learn and become familiar with during the month of March

We are continuing along our letter journey today we learned about the letter K and L and We painted our hands this week to continue our alphabet book that will becoming home in May!

We also worked on the first letter of our name by writing the first letter in glue on a green shamrock that will be displayed in our classroom.   We also did our first letter on our pot of gold to go along with our rainbow shamrocks. We will work on becoming familiar with our name over the next couple of months. 

Sensory and Science led us to talk about the weather today and what we need when it would rain outside.  We also talked about the wind Jesus and his followers experienced in their boat on water.  We also had the opportunity to play with new yellow play dough and make all types of fun things with it.

We are did lots of exploring, learning and discovering all types of things through out the day in our classroom.  Everyday is an adventure and everyday is different.  Our imaginations were hard at work today.

Enjoy the pictures from our day!

FYI LOTS OF PICTURES AGAIN TODAY!!!

Free Choice Play

We listened again to a variety of classical music to set a nice calm mood to our classroom today and I have to say it worked we were super engaged in what we were doing today!  

Puzzles 

Many of our friends enjoyed doing a variety of puzzles this morning.  

.Landry loved doing this number puzzle and he was super excited when he saw the number 5 with Donuts on it!   This puzzle is great to work on numbers counting them, see pictures to go with each number and just being familiar with what the numbers look like.  it was exciting to watch Landry do this puzzle and him recognize some of the pictures or numbers. 

.  Ella really enjoyed doing this animal puzzle as she did the puzzle I hear her imitating some of the noises these animals make.  She did ask Mrs. Wegner what type of noise a giraffe makes and Mrs. Wegner and I decided a munching noise when they are eating leaves off of the trees.  Another exciting time to watch how far some of our friends have come that have been with us since last school year! 

 Nicholas enjoyed doing these different shape puzzles.  

.Mrs. Wegner and Carson worked together to put this farm puzzle together that was a little more difficult.  Carson did complete the puzzle and was pretty proud of himself and I was proud of how well he sat there and finished it. 

 Julija tried her hand at the number puzzle and was rattling off the different numbers and pictures she saw. 

 Carson and Nicholas decided to work together and complete the farm puzzle.  

.  Emma gave it a go with the different shape puzzles as well and did a variety of different ones.

.  Reese and Mrs. Wegner sat together and named the different shapes they saw on this puzzle and Reese was excited to show me the star puzzle piece she had found.  

.  Little People Car wash and Town

We had lots of imaginative play happening with the Little People Town.  

 Mr. Potato Heads 

Have invaded our room and we have had so much fun inventing and making silly faces on them.  This activity is a great way for us to work on identifying different body parts and what they are called. 

Foam Blocks

We have had the opportunity to work with many different types of blocks this year and currently we have a big tub of foam blocks that we are building with.  We have made some pretty neat creations this past week. 

 Sarah and Sophia were very busy building house and castles for their My Little Ponies.  They did a great job working together to make some really neat houses.  Blocks are a great way to work on spatial awareness, color and counting skills and sharing skills. 

.  Cars

We have some new and different cars to play with this month and everyone really enjoyed playing with them at some point today.  

.  Imaginative Play 

We had some new bigger toys in our classroom to play with and explore.  This little kitchen set got its work out today. 

.  The boys trying to get as many Oreo cookies they could stuff in the little refrigerator. 

.  Taking a ride on the horse 

.  Early Writing and Reading. 

.  Reese enjoyed coloring on the wipe off board and wiping it off and drawing it again.  A great way to work on our pre writing and drawing skills. 

.  Sarah had fun on the magnetic board with the letters and St. Patrick's Day magnets.  She was very proud of the "words" she made and wanted me to take a picture of them. 

 Morning Meeting 

.  Happy Thursday and what is there not be happy about with this picture!  The sun is shining and all my friends had just had an awesome clean up and play time! 

.  March is here and we practiced counting the 5 days we had at school today and we discovered our number 5 today was the same color as Mrs. Wegner's shirt. 

.  Hopefully Mr. Weather Frog will be able to ditch the boots, hat and gloves sometime next week.   

.  Our number, shape and counting board.  Ask your child if they remember what we counted 8 of today?

.  Our Yellow board ask your child what they saw on our yellow board today.

.  Jesus Calms the Storm 

.  Our pattern of shamrocks and hats. 

.  A great book for our class to read all about sharing with our Friends and family 

.  Transiston & Snack Time 

today we had to put a leprechaun up on on our name board to help us with our listening skills and following directions skills.  We also worked on identifying what color our leprechauns were and worked on recognizing the letters in our name.  

.  One great looking board of dancing Leprechaun's! 

.  Circle Time/ Music & Movement Part 1

We started this circle time off with a little finger exercised to Beethovens' 5th Symphony 

.  We then did a little jumping 

.  OK a lot of jumping and dancing!!

.  Kicking up our legs 

.  We read this book about Doc McStuffin's Dragon being braved.  We also sang our ABC's and talked about the letter K and L

Transition to Center Time

We had to wait for our name to be called and then when it was our turn we had to crawl through the tunnel and then go and find something to play with in the classroom.  

.  Center Time

The tunnels stayed up during center time and we had a great time exploring and climbing in out of them.  It was so fun to watch our little friends play and use their imaginations I heard the word tiger, rain forest and jungle animals while they were playing with the tunnels. 

.  Shamrock Letters

.  Painting a Yellow Umbrella

Not all my friends did this today.  Some of them did this on Tuesday and this is a step process project we will be adding to them next week and then hanging them up in the hallway.  

.  Working on the letter K and L for our Alphabet Books coming home in May! 

.  Rainbow Shamrocks and Pots of Gold 

They turned out great and our little friends are really starting to learn their colors and numbers! 

.  Painting a St. Patrick's Day Picture

.  Play Dough 

I did not get out play dough during free choice play today and during center time they asked to get out.  They love to play with play dough and they asked so nicely that I just couldn't say no.  I really am a firm believer that children of this age are little sponges and the more you expose them and let them experience the more they will want to learn and explore.  

.  Tunnel Fun!  

We had so much fun with the tunnels and it was a great change of pace for us today.  

.  Music and Movement Part 2
The Silly Dance Contest, Jumping and Counting and the Washing Machine were on the list of the fun songs we did today.  We had so much fun doing our music and movement to hear the giggles, laughs and to see the fun faces and smiles on their faces just truly make my day!

.  We read one final book today about how we should treat our friends and how it is not nice to be mean to our friends.  

.  Transition & Lunch Time

We ended our circle time before lunch with the Superman Prayer and finding our Leprechaun to take of the name board.  We all ate a delicious lunch and as we packed up to head home we got a sticker for doing such a great job at cleaning up after Free Choice Play and Center Time. 

.  We had a very busy fun filled day with a few different things added and subtracted from our day.  It was a nice change of pace and for me it was a great opportunity to really watch my friends play and interact with each other.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend it looks like a small warm up is on the way!  Enjoy your time with family and friends and take time to worship our Lord and Savior.  We would love to have you join us at our worship services if you do not have a church home. We have services on Saturday at 5:00 and Sunday at 8:00 9:30 and 11:00 I am usually at the 9:30 services with my family and would love to see you!  Blessings on a beautiful weekend and I look forward to seeing you all next week!!