Pumpkin Patch and ABC Rock

Our Construction Zone has transformed into a pumpkin patch!


We have leaves to rake, scarecrows to pose, blocks to build hay wagons, and mini pumpkins to pick! We have been very busy in our pumpkin patch this week.


Unfortunately we didn't make it on our walking fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch this week because of the rain. We are going to try again on Tuesday!


Another exciting piece of news is our morning class ended up on the U-46 parent page because of the Llama Llama Day. Very neat! Click here to check it out. We have enjoyed picking the computer center this week and watching the Llama Llama Red Pajama videos of our class. 


Pictures of the afternoon class enjoying work time, especially the pumpkin patch (Somehow I didn't take any pictures in the morning?!?!)

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One of Circle Time jobs is mail helper. Our mail helper checks the mailbox to see if we have received any "letters". We talk about the letter of the week and what kinds of words start with that letter. We always amaze Miss Stephanie with what we come up with! Then the mailperson gets to choose which alphabet song we sing. The favorite lately has been ABC Rock! We recorded the AM class singing ABC rock and have been watching it during computer time too!


Here is our rendition of ABC Rock!

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Check out this video of the life cycle of a pumpkin. We have been reading several books about how pumpkins grow. Ask your child to tell you about each of the steps: seed, plant, flowers, pumpkin!

Another event this week was a Skype interview with author Tom Angleberger. Mrs. V one of the hearing itinerants set up the event for all of the deaf and hard of hearing students in the district at the library. Miss Stephanie went and it was really neat so see students of all ages from all over the district. And to meet the author on Skype! One of the characters in his books (for middle elementary aged students) is even deaf! Check out the post here!

5 Red Apples

Miss Stephanie keeps promising to post our 5 Red Apples videos and she keeps forgetting! So here they are...finally! 


This is the song we have been singing for the last 4 weeks. 


Words:
5 red apples on a tree.
Look very yummy to me. 
A crow came down to
get some lunch. 
He ate one apple with a 
crunch crunch crunch. 
Crunch, crunch, crunch, 
crunch, crunch, crunch.
He ate one apple with a
crunch, crunch, crunch.


4...3...2....1!



AM

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PM

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Llama Llama Red Pajama Day

Today we had our very special Llama Llama Red Pajama Day! We were very excited about this day because the Llama books are some of Miss Stephanie's very favorite books! Whenever she hears a new one is coming out, she orders it right away so she gets it the day it comes out! 


We love the llama books because they are about things we can relate to, they rhyme and are fun for us to read, and we think the llama is funny!


Our Llama Llama Red Pajama day was sponsored by the Pearson Read for the Record program.

In the AM class, we read our book two times. We were VERY excited about the llama stuffed animal we had to help us read the story. We tried to go on the website to read the book on the computer, but the website was down in the morning. In the AM, Mrs. Chris (our principal) stopped by in her red pajamas to bring us our very own copy of the book!

AM pictures:

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In the PM class, the website was working again. We enjoyed reading the book online and retelling the story ourselves. In the PM we had special guest stars come to read us the book! Dr. Susan Ali, the Coordinator of Literacy and Learning for U-46, came with representatives from Pearson and a reporter and photographer. Our class was chosen to be spotlighted for this special day. "Ms. Susan" read us the book and she also had a special PowerPoint to go along with it. It is the same one you can find on the We Give Books website! At the end, our special visitors gave all of us copies of the book to take home for ourselves! We were so excited! 

PM pictures:

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The website is here:

wegivebooks.org

Click here for the: Link directly to the llama llama red pajama book

Other Llama Books

Llama Llama Misses Mama

Llama Llama Mad at Mama

Llama Llama Holiday Drama

This is the same website that has been featured in our newsletter. It is a great opportunity to share picture books with your child and to expand your library without buying additional books. The website does not "read" the book for you, it is like reading a real picture book! If exploring the books with your child, you can read the books in the typical way. You can also have your child click through the pages and retell the story independently. In addition, when you read a digital book on the website, you can click "donate" at the end and it will donate books to schools in need. If you click on this link, the author will read the story to you!

We had a great day and feel very lucky to have the special visitors come to our class. We are excited to keep reading the books online at home and school.

To read along with the story with your very own llama book, you can watch the video of Miss Stephanie reading and signing here:

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To see the story in ASL (American Sign Language) click on this link, scroll down, and click on the video that looks like this:

To read along with the PM class and Dr. Ali "Ms. Susan", you can watch the video here:

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Other activities:

-You can visit the Llama Llama website and enjoy some fun games and other online activities. 

-Beyond the book activities that came home in backpacks today can be found here.


Description on the U-46 website.


If you click here, you can read the story to you child. For a neat interaction twist, you can click on the photo of the author and she will interact with you about what is happening on the page!
http://connectedreading.com/bk/00100/d973e6bf0f3e2cd405d8db8621b3230c2c20a34b

Making Applesauce on Tuesday

Today in class we made our own snack!

We were so excited to make our snack and then eat it!


We made applesauce. This is how we did it:


1. wash apples and hands
2. pick an apple (1 per person)
3. core apple and cut into tiny pieces
4. add apples to pot
5. add sugar, water, cinnamon
6. cook on stove on high until all mushy (at least 45 minutes for 12 apples)


Recipe
4 apples
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 t Cinnamon
Servings: 4
4 apples = 4 servings


Miss Stephanie promised us that she'd post about this on "our computers" today so we could make applesauce at home. If you make applesauce at home with your family, we'd LOVE to see a picture of it!


Check out our pictures:

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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


To comment, click on the comments button at the bottom.
You can comment anonymously, however, please leave your child's initials if you would like so I can respond personally to your comment. If you plan to comment more often (and I would LOVE if you did! What a great way to interact with other parents!) you can set up a free Google account.

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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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We had a fabulous first day of school! We spent our worktime learning how to play in the Construction Zone and the Pretend Palace.

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Back to School and Open House

Welcome Back and Welcome To Independence Center for Early Learning!

I am excited to begin another school year working with you and your family as part of your child's team. As I explained in my letter and most of us talked about at our visit, I use this blog as an opportunity to share with you what happens in our classroom. I will post weekly slideshows so you can see what we are up to. You can also share the address with your family members so they can see what your child is up to in preschool! In addition to the pictures, I will often post videos of songs and stories that relate to our unit. I often also post "homework" that you can do with your child that relates to our classroom theme. This gives you a chance to talk to your child about what he/she is doing in the classroom. This is great for developing language skills and making connections.

In addition to my posts, I also have links on the right side of the page. These are great resources for you. Some are websites for kids and others are resources for parents.

I look forward to sharing your child's preschool experience with you this year!

Below you can check out our first slideshow! I enjoyed seeing many of you at Open House. It was a great opportunity for kids and families to meet one another.

Sometimes the slideshow doesn't appear right away. If that happens, you can hit the F5 button on your keyboard and wait a few minutes. It should appear shortly. If you experience any difficulty, let me know!

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From Caterpillar to Chrysalis

Last week we watched an amazing transformation.

Our caterpillars went from crawling around their cup to hanging from the top as chrysalids (the plural of chrysalis).

We have also spent the week participating in other caterpillar activities such as: putting together life cycle of a caterpillar floor puzzles, looking at caterpillars through magnifying glasses, playing with insect puppets, making caterpillar art projects, reading caterpillar books, and playing with life cycle of a caterpillar plastic toys.

Things we learned about caterpillars this week:

-Caterpillars come out of an egg.

-Moths make a cocoon and butterflies make a chrysalis.

-Caterpillars come in all shapes and sizes.

-Birds and insects like to eat caterpillars.

-When caterpillars are ready to change, they crawl onto a leaf and their skin falls off. Their skin underneath turns into the hard shell.

-Inside the chrysalis an amazing change is happening.

Here are pictures we have of the caterpillars and their transformation so far:

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Check out an animation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Here is a retelling of the story in sign language:

Goodbye Pet Store and Hello Caterpillars

Here are some pictures from our week last week. We finished up our Pet Store Unit and started our Very Hungry Caterpillar Unit.

One of our final activities for our Pet Store Unit was to go on a "shopping trip". We each had a list with a specific animal on it. We walked around the school and found different "areas" of the Pet Store (accessories, toys, food, and homes). We had to find the items that went with our pet. We picked those items and then explained what they were for.

We have been really excited to watch the transformation of our caterpillars from caterpillars to chrysalis! Watch for those pictures this weekend!

Here is a video that contains signs for other animals you probably won't find at the pet store!

Here are the pictures from our week:

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Gobble Fingers

Here are 3 very important fingers:

These 3 fingers help kids with very important activities such as writing and other fine motor activities. Kids at this age need to be able to manipulate these fingers before they are able to use them effectively for writing.

Because we know this, we make sure to do a lot of activities in this class that require the use of these 3 fingers.

One of the things we do in class is to sing a snack song that incorporates the use of these 3 fingers by having the kids just use those 3 fingers to open and shut before the regular snack song.

We sing:

Gobble, Gobble

Crunch, Crunch

Gobble, Gobble

Crunch, Crunch

Open, shut them,

Open, shut them,

Give a little clap, clap clap.

Open, shut them,

Open, shut them,

Now it's time for snack, snack, snack.

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One way you can practice at home is to play a game during snack time. We sometimes do this during snack time at school. Play a game so that the whole family can only eat their snack (goldfish, popcorn, little crackers) if they pick it up with those 3 fingers.

In order to prepare for writing skills, this is one of the best ways to practice! Have fun with your "Gobble Fingers"!

Pet Store

We have changed our class into a Pet Store! We began the unit by talking about all of the different things you see in a pet store. We also talked about the various jobs of people in a pet store. Check out this video to see how to sign various sign language vocabulary:



Here are our pictures!

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Family Night Fun Fair

In March we had a blast at our TOTS Family Night Fun Fair! Check out some of the photos!

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Going on a Treasure Hunt!

We ended our Pirate unit right before spring break. We had a blast with it! We spent our last day on Friday dressed like pirates and going on a Pirate Treasure hunt! We had clues that we followed around the school that led us to the gym, Ms. Sarah's room, Ms. Kate's office, and the sinks where we wash our hands. There, we found our treasure: cheesy popcorn! Don't forget to fill out your Pirate Bookmarks and bring them back after Spring Break. It is a great way to remember to read every day!

Sign Language for "Pirate"

We had fun doing a Treasure Hunt song that is like "Going on a Bear Hunt" this week! We were so brave! Sing along with us here:

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You can watch a couple fun pirate song videos here: Here are the pictures of us being PIRATES!

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Here you can see pictures from playing like pirates and going on our treasure hunt!

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Argh Matey! and a Little Luck 'O the Irish!

We have spent the last 2 weeks turning our classroom into an adventurous pirate ship! We have been thoroughly enjoying going on a swashbuckling adventure to find treasure!

In our pirate ship we have:
-sides of the boat we painted
-a pirate flag with a Jolly Roger on it (skull and cross bones)
-a sail
-telescopes (made out of paper towel tubes)
-gold doubloons
-jewelry
-gems
-a treasure chest
-eye patches
-hooks
-hats

Though we have read stories about pirates that steal, we are nice, adventurous pirates when we play in class! We take care of our friends and we love to go on adventures together!

In the midst of our pirate fun this week, we also had an exciting visit from a little guy in a green suit!


We started talking about leprechauns and St. Patrick's Day this week. Many of us had stories about leprechauns coming to our houses and messing things up! We got so excited, we decided to come up with a way to trap a leprechaun, so we could get all of his gold! Ms. Stephanie was so proud of us! We (the PM class) came up with the idea for the trap all by ourselves! We got a bucket (that usually has our letter puppet in it) and propped it up with one of the wands from calendar. Then we got some gold jewelry from the treasure chest and put it underneath. We knew when the leprechaun came through in the middle of the night, he wouldn't be able to resist the jewelry and would knock the stick and get stuck!

Kind of like this (but not so fancy!):

When we came into class on Thursday and we couldn't believe what we saw! A leprechaun had messed up our room! Everything was crazy! Chairs were overturned, the calendar was all mixed up, there were shamrocks and leprechaun hair everywhere, the mailbox was on a tall shelf, and the milk was even green! Though naughty, he was obviously a nice leprechaun because he left us candy and glow in the dark bracelets! But the most surprising thing? There was something in our trap!

We all gathered around. Ms. Stephanie lifted up the bucket and we were supposed to grab the leprechaun....but he ran so fast....he got away! He flashed in front of our hours and we didn't even see him before he was out the door.

Unfortunately we didn't catch him, so we didn't get his gold. But we had a great day anyway!

Family Activity:
-One of the activities we did this week was go on a shamrock shape hunt. We found shamrocks in the hallway that had different shapes on them. Your job is to look around your house and write down and draw a picture of something you can find that matches these five shapes: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and oval.

You can watch this YouTube video that has a song we sing in class about pirates!

Here you can see a slideshow of our pirate and St. Patrick's day photos from the last two weeks.

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Farewell to the Ocean

We finished up our ocean unit this week. We are sad to say goodbye to the dolphins and fish, but excited to say hello to those pirates who are sailing in next week!

One of the activities we did this week was counting fish by color. We read the sentence "How many -red- fish are there?" and then counted all of the fish of that color. Once we knew how many fish were there, we picked out the matching numeral and clipped a clothespin onto it.

Here is a youtube flannel board color/counting fish activity. I encourage you to watch it with your child. You can count along with the fish.

You can learn how to count to 10 in sign language here:


Counting Activity


Family Activity
For your family activity this week, take a few minutes to watch this video of a huge fish tank with your child. Then you should ask your child to give you 10 sentences that describe something he/she saw in the video.

Examples:
I saw and orange and black fish swimming.
A yellow fish swam back and forth.
A big blue fish was my favorite.



Here are the pictures from the last 2 weeks of our ocean unit:

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Art Gallery Night

Thank you to all of the families who joined us at our Art Gallery Night hosted by TOTS.

It was a relaxing night where families explored the school looking at art created by our students, went on a scavenger hunt, got a tasty treat, and won a prize! It was also a great opportunity for families to mingle and the kids to see each other outside of school!

Check out our slideshow:

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Here are some other famous artists work:

Van Gogh

Mondrian

Monet


Jackson Pollock

You can click here to take you to a web page that will help you learn about other famous artists and see some of their paintings.

Under the Sea and Valentine's Day

Here is a slideshow from our last two weeks: setting up the ocean and celebrating Valentine's Day.

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Check out the Slippery Fish video for some ocean song fun!


You can also check out "An Octopus's Garden" on Sesame Street in this video!