Taste Testing Apples

The most exciting part of our week this week was taste testing apple and voting on our favorite. We tried 3 varieties of apples: red, green, and yellow. We tried one slice of each, talked about our thoughts about the taste, and then voted on our favorite. We each had a post it with our name on it and when it was our turn, we walked up to the graph and had to choose the one that was our most favorite.


When we were done, we counted the number of votes for each color. We talked about more and less and figured out the one with the most votes was the biggest number.


The AM class liked RED best.

The PM class liked YELLOW (or mostly yellow) best.

This weekend talk about apple flavors with your family. Make a chart to show the favorite flavor of apple of most of your family members. If you have a chance, you can even go to the grocery store, get 3 types of apples and do your own taste test at home. Count the votes and talk about less and more. What a great way to tie in activities from school to home!


Our chart (click to view larger):

Check out this youtube video with your child about colors. The first one starts with a red apple!







 Here is a great clip of the "Way Up High in the Apple Tree" Song. This isn't the one we have done in class. But it is a popular favorite!
 






 If you want to learn how to do apple in sign language, check out the video here:




 Please consider leaving a comment this week, letting me know what you enjoy most/get the most use out of on this blog! Or anything else I can include to make it useful as a tool to use with your child.
 -slideshow of pictures
-activities to print out
-videos of songs or stories
-videos of signs
-links with related activities


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Recent news article regarding getting kids to love reading:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/28/opinion/patterson-kids-reading/index.html

Apple Letters

Apples! Apples! Everywhere!

This week we participated in some fun learning activities with apples. One day we picked apples off the apple tree and matched the uppercase letters with apples we picked from a basket. We talked about the names of the letters and matched the letters by looking at them. 

Kids learn to recognize letters at various speed of development. Developmentally, 3 year olds are expected to know 1-2 letters (usually the letters in their name come first), 4 year olds are expected to know at least 10 letters and 5 year olds (going to Kindergarten) are expected to know at least 32 letters. *There are 54 letters we assess kids on, upper and lower case as well as 2 g's (g/g) and 2 a's (a/a).* In our program we include letters in the environment, letter of the week, and daily activities. We sing 1 of our 4 alphabet songs every day. We do not do worksheets or use flashcards. Most kids learn letters when they are ready. Pointing out letters on signs while you are driving, in the grocery store, or pointing out letters on the cereal box while you eat breakfast are some of the best ways to introduce kids to letters. 


Click on this link to do an online letter jigsaw puzzle with your child:
http://www.first-school.ws/puzzlesonline/alphabet/a_apple.htm


Our letter this week was B! Click on this link to do an online coloring activity of a baker. Our alphabet puppet was a baker. We talked about different things a baker bakes and decided they all sounded yummy!
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/interactive-alphabet/letter-b/baker.html


Check out our slideshow of playing and then participating in our apple picking!

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Turtles and the Classroom

This week we had a surprise when Miss Sarah's class stopped by with some baby turtles they found on the playground. Almost every year a mommy turtle decides our playground would be a great place to lay her eggs. Miss Sarah's class was outside when they started hatching, so they rescued 9 baby turtles! We got a chance to see them crawling around, but we didn't touch them because Miss Stephanie said turtles can have diseases. 


We have been continuing to learn more about the various centers in our room and now almost all of the centers are open for us to explore during work time. The listening center will be the last center to open next week. We are learning that we can make choices about where to play during work time, but we have to follow the routine of picking a matching necklace for that center. If we want to play in the Construction Zone, we need an orange necklace. If we want to play in the Creation Station, we need a purple necklace. If there aren't any necklaces left for that center, it means we need to choose something else for now. Miss Stephanie often reminds us "Check your necklace" if we are in a different center than the necklace we are wearing. 


We also started play plans this week. Play plans are a way we can write and draw about where we want to play during work time. We did really well for our first time!


Check out our pictures from this week!

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First 2 Weeks of Preschool

I am here! Sorry about the last posting from the first two weeks of school. I had a bit of technical difficulty with my camera, but I am up and running now!


We have spent the last 2 weeks figuring out the classroom, learning about the various centers, and learning the rules of the room. We have also really enjoyed exploring the new SmartBoard in our room. 


Check out the slideshow below! If you have trouble viewing it, you can hit F5 and wait for the page to refresh. If you continue to have difficulty, let me know. Your child will enjoy watching this slideshow with you. It is a great opportunity to discuss your child's school day and a great time to elicit language and conversation from your child.

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