Week 3 Day 2

Week 3 Day 2 of Mrs. Horn’s Class

We are into week 3 of school and 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 you 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.  We also talked about a boy at our school J.J. Hollwood, JJ is in second grade and fell on Monday in gym class and broke his leg.  He had broken this same leg this past winter and was wheelchair and walker bound for a few months.  He was just given the release to do Gym class two weeks ago.  So during our center time today we made a special get-well sign for him.  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.   During our center time we painted a picture of Grover that silly little monster from Sesame Street.  Some of my friends didn’t know who Grover was so we had to find a book to show them who he was and what funny things he does. 

Music and Movement:  We had a lot of fun during this time of the day.  We sang Wheels on The Bus, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Five Days Old.  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 Play 

Today we listened to another collaboration of classical music during free choice time.  I find having soothing music playing at the beginning of our day helps us have a smoother day and makes some of our friends feel a little more welcomed and adjusted as we begin our day.  I enjoy exposing the children to a wide range of music and feel that this is a great way to do it. My music selection varies from children movie soundtracks (which I am always amazed how quickly they are able to tell me what movie and what part of the movie it is from), classical music, christian music, piano music, jazz and easy listening.  

Sensory Play 

This is such a huge part of our classroom and I encourage the students to touch and feel and experience new and different things through out the day.  Play dough is something that is offered almost every day and it helps work on strengthening our hand and finger muscles. Our sensory table is also something that is usually open at free choice time in the morning.  Currently we have sand in our table I have tried to encourage all of my friends to come and check it out.  We have had fun pouring, scooping and feeling the sand.  The sensory table is something that gets changed out every month or two.  It is a great way for us to feel and experience different textures and objects.   

Painting

Today we painted a picture of our one of friendly lovable friend from Sesame Street Grover.  Painting is something we will do most class times.  It is a great way for us to work on holding a writing tool and to work on learning our colors.  As the year progress' we will work on just painting the picture and not the entire paper.  We have some pretty great looking Grover's be sure and check them out in the hallway next week.

Art Easel 

This is another area of the room that is open every morning and is highly encouraged to be used.  This area allows us to work on our pre-writing skills, pre-reading skills not to mention color recognition, arm strength and creativity. 

Kate was practicing writing the first letters of each of her family members name.  I would say the letter and then its sound and then write the letter for her and then she would"write" the letter herself.  

Imaginative Play 

I highly encourage Imaginative Play with all my friends.  In this age of digital and electronics many of my friends come to my class not knowing how to play with toys.  So we work a lot on using our imagination and to mimic things we see our family, friends and teachers do. Cooking, sleeping, working, shopping etc.  We do a lot of play in our room and that is a job for our little friends and one I want to fully be sure they are able to do.  

Isaiah was deciding which kind of beverage his little Paw Patrol friend wanted for breakfast.  If I am not mistaken he chose the chocolate milk.  

Working together, sharing and cooperation are main themes in playing in our classroom all year long.  These are important skills that all of my friends need to succeed in school.  

The letter mat is a popular place to play.  It is helping foster that love for letters and becoming familiar with how the letters look and working on our problem soloving skills as we have to figure out hwere each letter and number belongs.  

Kate was off to see the doctor while doing a little shopping.  There was lots of shopping going on in our classroom today. 

Isaiah playing with the zoo animals. 

Will enjoying the Thomas Trains.  

Ella was great helper as she got the little broom and dust pan out to help clean up all the sand that fell on the floor from the sand table.   It truly is Blessed to serve and I love when my friends help out around the classroom.  

Morning Meeting 

We always start out with a Good Morning Happy (Whatever day of the week) Wednesday!  

We then move on a sing our Morning Welcome song to learn our friends names and to see who is here and who is not.  

Calendar time is a great way for us to be exposed to the months, days and date of the year.  As well as color, pattern, shapes, identification and numbers.  We are also working on our counting skills during this time.   It is all about exposing the students to what Calendar Time is there is no expectation that they know what the Month and Date is.  

Mr. Weather frog makes aware of what the weather is like outside what kind of clothing we need to wear and gives us the opportunity to talk about what season it is.  

A review of our number shape and color for the month of August.  

Our Blue Color Board.  Our color board is a great way to work on identification of objects and learning new words and sounds.  Today we had some things that were the same but they were still different, they were the same object but they were a different size it allowed for us to talk about big and small same and different.  

We have spent the month of August reading books about being at school. This Cool Dog just wanted to be at school with his friend so he went got in trouble but made it all better and became the cool dog who was always welcomed at school.  It was a great way for us to talk about the things the children did in the book and what we do at school.

Transition & Snack Time 

Today we lined up by telling Mrs. Horn what we had on that was blue and we made a chart of all the blue we had on in our classroom.  Standing in a line is something we practice all year long.  

Wow!  Look at all the Blue:)

Snack Time

Remember to pack something for your child that they will enjoy having at snack time as well as something that they can eat on their own.  

Jesus Time

We do not have a smart board in PDO, so we have to use my laptop on the days we want to use media.  So today we watched the story of creation that came right from our Bible we use through out the year in our classroom.  

Transition 

When we got ready to line up to go outside we had to wait for our name to be called and then we had to tell Mrs. Horn how old we are.  This is a great way for us to work on getting to know ourselves and our friends.  While standing in line waiting we work on self regulation activites such as touch your nose, touch your knees, clap your hands, touch your tummy these are all things to help identify different body parts and to work on our listening skills.  

Outside Time 

Circle Time

After we come back in wash our hands and faces off we have a circle time where we read a book and as the year progress' we will work on flannel board stories and finger plays.  

Center Time

I also play music during center time to keep us calm collected and in the mode for learning and fun.  During center time today I played music from the soundtrack RIO 1 & 2.  I had lots of friends listening to the music and moving to the beat!  

Get Well Poster for our Zion Friend

Zion is Family so when someone in our family is not feeling well or is hurt we do our best to cheer them up for my little friends the way we do this best is by making cards and posters. Today we made a poster to help JJ Hollowood feel better.  We used our "boy" stickers and Superhero Stickers to decorate our poster.  Using stickers helps us to work on our fine motor skills as we are peeling the stickers off of the paper and transferring it to the sign.  It can be tricky at this age and sometimes takes some practice.  It is also a good sensory practice as some friends may not like how the stickers feel because they are sticky.  

I think they did a fabulous job and I am so proud of them and their hard work.  

I love to see "readers" in my class.  Right before I snapped this picture Reese had the book turned around like she was reading to the class.  

ONE SCOOP OF ICE CREAM PLEASE!  

We used our water color paints today to paint an ice cream cone.  That had only 1 scoop of Ice Cream on it.  These will be displayed in our hallway next week as well be sure and find your child's yummy Ice Cream Cone.  

I love the concentration and time it took Ella to complete her ice cream cone!  

Bingo Daubers

This is something we will do a lot through out the year.  Bingo Daubers are a great way to work on self control with a writing tool, as well as working in a smaller space.  Today we did bingo daubers to decorate a race car that was wearing the number 1.  

Sometimes we just like to see how things smell!

Music and Movement

We did not do as much Music and Movement today due to the fact that we played outside longer today and that is ok.  We will have days where Music and Movement may be a little shorter but we will always try and get one or two songs in.   

Our last story of the day was by the author Rosemary Wells she is the creator of Max and Ruby.  This book was all about being read to.  We talked about our parents and grandparents reading to us and how much we enjoy having books read to us.  Reading to your child is so important studies say you should read to your child 20 minutes every day not only are you introducing them to a wonderful world of reading but you are exposing them to so many words that will have a profound effect on their language and vocabulary skills.  

We had a great lunch time and a great pick up!  An all in all great day with my Wednesday friends.  I hope you have a wonderful evening and are able to enjoy this beautiful weather we are having.