Weeek 3 Of Mrs. Horn's Class

Week 3 of Mrs. Horn’s Class

We are into week 3 of school and we are starting to find our groove! We are learning our boundaries and what we can and cannot do in the classroom.  Our program is designed to give your child that “peek” into what it will be like when they go to preschool.  We have the same rules as they do in preschool and use a lot of love and logic in our classroom.  I encourage to check out the love and logic website, I use it with my own children at home and find it quite effective and helpful.  www.loveandlogic.com.  We are finishing up the month of August reviewing our color, shape, number and Jesus time.  We have not done a lot in terms of centers this month as we move into September and going forward we will be having more centers and doing a lot more in the classroom.  We have spent August adjusting to being at school and becoming familiar with the routine and the classroom.   

Jesus Time:  Today we practiced singing our Bible song that we start Jesus Time with and did an “overlook” of the story of creation.  We watched a short video on my laptop about Creation.  Next week we will begin our study of the story of Creation and will break it down by days.  After we watched our video we practiced singing Jesus Loves Me and doing the hand motions along with it.  Our prayer for this week is…

Dear God, Thank you for the beautiful world you created.   Amen.   

Number:  We reviewed the number one.   During morning meeting we practiced holding up one finger, counting one, clapping our hands one time, stomping our feet one time, jumping up and down one time.  We had fun patting our knees, rubbing our tummies one time.  During center time we water colored an ice cream scoop that we are going to glue onto a piece of blue paper later in the week to help us remember about the number 1. 

Shape: We reviewed the shape of the square. We counted that a square has four equal sides. We also looked around the room for the shape of the square and found quite a few. 

Letter:  Today we practiced singing our ABC's and when we were getting ready to line up for snack, lunch and outside time we had to listen for our name and what the first letter in our name was.

Color:  We reviewed color blue for the month of August.  During our morning meeting we identified different blue objects and when we got ready to line up we had to tell Mrs. Horn what we had on that was blue.  We had a lot of blue on today can’t wait to see more blue later in the week.  We charted what we had on and it will be displayed in our room.    

Music and Movement:  We had a lot of fun during this time of the day.  We sang Shake your Body Down, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Silly Dance Contest and The Washing Machine Song.  A lot of the songs we do in our class work on self regulation and listening. 

Outside Time:  Could we ask for better weather in the month of August in ST Louis!  We took full advantage of this gorgeous weather God has graced us with and we played outside almost for a full hour.  Outside play is so important at this age.   Play in general is so very important in early childhood and we do lots and lots of playing.  

Enjoy looking at what your child did in the pictures below.  I pray that all your children had a great time today.

Free Choice Time

Today we listened to a variation of classical music during our free choice time.  I feel music is a great way to keep a calm and collected classroom and at the same time allow my friends to listen to music they may not always here and to be exposed to different types of music.  Free Choice Time is a the time of day where we explore the entire classroom and have the opportunity to try new and different things as well as play in the sensory table and toys.  This will be the last week for the current toys in the classroom next week we will have a whole new batch of toys to explore and play with.  

Mrs. Wegener and Emma working on her cutting skills as she works on cutting play dough with scissors.  Play dough is a great way for us to work on our fine motor skills and to work on strengthening our hand and finger muscles.  Play dough is offered almost every morning and usually in the color we are currently studying.  

We currently still have sand in our sensory table. This will be the last week for the sand to be in our table.  Next month will be something new and different to explore and play with.  This is a great way to work on how things feel, look and move.  

 Imaginative Play 

This happens every day in our classroom and is so important in early childhood more than ever.  With all the electronics children have access to now a days our children are not being given that opportunity to work on their imaginative play.  We highly encourage it in our classroom and as the year progress I see more and more of it happen.  

Carson sat up in the rocking chair with his "soda" and said he was just sitting on the porch swinging!  

Amelia was busy typing away on a play computer.  

Joseph was having a delicious snack that he had cooked up for himself in the kitchen 

Creativity 

I strongly encourage my friends to draw, write and color on the easel.  This is such a great way for children to work on their pre-writing skills as well as hand eye coordination and arm strength.  I love to see what they are making and hearing what it is.  Emma said it was the Zoo, she had been to the zoo yesterday so that was her picture of what the Zoo looked like 

We also work on sharing our spaces with others this is something we work on all year.  

Morning Meeting

Happy Tuesday!  After we all come together after our cleanup time we Say the day of the week to help us with familiarity of the calendar and then we sing our morning song to see who is at school today.  

We then do the calendar.  Ariel was our Disney character today and we talked about how she lives in the ocean where the water is blue! 

Mr. Weather Frog is ready for an awesome day at ZION! 

Our review of the number 1, color blue and shape of a square is taking place this week in our classroom 

Our blue color board with all the different objects we identified today.  This is also a great way for us to learn and say new words. 

We are finishing up the month of August with more books about coming to school.  Today we say that Clifford loved to go to school with his friend Emily Elizabeth.  

When we got ready to line up today for hand washing and snack I asked each friend what they had on that was blue.  We had a good turn out of what everyone had on blue!

Transition and Snack

We are doing pretty good at standing on a Mickey Mouse and waiting to go and wash hands this is something that we will work on all year long to help us get ready for preschool.  

Jesus Time

Today we watch a video on Creation to help us get ready to learn about how God Created the world in Seven Days.  These videos that we watch come from the Bible we use in our classroom.  We do not have a smart board so we just use my laptop to watch the videos.  This is a great interactive teaching tool and helps us really get to understand the Bible Story we are learning about.  This is also a good way for us to work on sitting criss cross applesauce spoons in our bowl and staying on our bottoms so all of our friends can see.  

Transition Time

When we got ready to line up to go outside today we had to wait for our name to be called and when it was we had to tell Mrs. Horn how old we are.  I would say, Julija Juilja how old are you?  Julija then would reply with how old she was and then she would walk to a Mickey Mouse and wait for the rest of her friends to join her.  

Outside Play 

Circle Time

We read this book about opposites today.  We were able to talk about some of the things that were opposite such as up and down, front to back and left to right.   A hard concept to get and just a very brief introduction to this skill.  

Center Time

One Ice Cream Scoop

Today we painted a scoop of ice cream cone with water color paint.  We had fun talking about our favorite type of ice cream and if we like it in a cone or in a bowl.  

Learning how to play with friends 

Bingo Daubers

 This was a new skill that some of my friends have not done these before.  For my returning friends it was a day of review of how we use these.  We need to go up and down and splatter the bingo dauber everywhere.  This is an activity that we will do all year long, this helps us with our fine motor skills, pre-writing skills we are able to work on self control and using a writing tool.  We worked on making a race car with the number 1 on it.  

Coloring 

We colored the cone to our ice cream scoop that we will glue on later in the week to make a delicious ice cream cone.  

 Music and Movement

This class loves to dance and sing.  We had a lot of fun singing and dancing we didn't get to do quite as much as we wanted to we had a hard time cleaning up after center time so it cut into our music and movement.  Cleaning up when it is time too is a big big part of our class as well as in preschool. All the students are asked and expected to clean up.  To help foster this job you can have them help you at home clean up around the house from time to time. 

Our final book for the day had our favorite friend Mickey Mouse in it.  It was great end to our day before lunch.  

We are doing well for the third week of school.  I look forward to seeing all my lovely friends later in the week and hope you have a blessed evening.