We had a fabulous first day of school! We spent our worktime learning how to play in the Construction Zone and the Pretend Palace.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
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!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
From Caterpillar to Chrysalis
Last week we watched an amazing transformation.
Here is a retelling of the story in sign language:
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:
Check out an animation of The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Here is a retelling of the story in sign language:
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
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.
Here are the pictures from our week:
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:
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.
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"!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
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!
Here are our pictures!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Family Night Fun Fair
In March we had a blast at our TOTS Family Night Fun Fair! Check out some of the photos! Saturday, April 2, 2011
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!
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:
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: You can watch a couple fun pirate song videos here: Here are the pictures of us being PIRATES!
Here you can see pictures from playing like pirates and going on our treasure hunt! Sunday, March 20, 2011
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!
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!):
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.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
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:
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:
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:
Here are some other famous artists work:
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.
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:
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.
Monday, February 21, 2011
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.
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!
You can also check out "An Octopus's Garden" on Sesame Street in this video!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Penguins Galore!
This is a Macaroni Penguin.We like to call them Macaroni and Cheese penguins in our class!
This week we wrapped up our penguin unit. We continued to fish in the discovery zone and build icebergs in the Construction Zone. Some friends had the idea to draw penguins by taking books from Circle Time to Literacy Lane and looking at the books for ideas.
We helped feed Emperor penguins during a small group. Our daddy Emperor penguins were staying home with their eggs and the moms were out fishing. We counted fish to feed to the daddy penguins. We practiced counting out a specified number of objects by counting out the number of fish that matched the numeral on our penguin. Then we ate the yummy fish!
Check out our pictures from this week and last!
You can enjoy a 5 Little Penguins Song in this YouTube Video.
Here is a song that teaches all about penguins!
Another Penguin Song
We helped feed Emperor penguins during a small group. Our daddy Emperor penguins were staying home with their eggs and the moms were out fishing. We counted fish to feed to the daddy penguins. We practiced counting out a specified number of objects by counting out the number of fish that matched the numeral on our penguin. Then we ate the yummy fish!
Check out our pictures from this week and last!
You can enjoy a 5 Little Penguins Song in this YouTube Video.
Here is a song that teaches all about penguins!
Another Penguin Song
Sunday, January 9, 2011
It's cold in here!
This week we transitioned back to school from winter break. We also began our new , very cold, unit! We are turning our classroom into the arctic!
Some of us wanted to build ice bergs for our arctic animals, so we cut apart white paper and wrapped it around blocks from our Construction Zone. Now we have chunks of ice to build ice bergs!
We also learned that Emperor Penguins are about the size of a preschooler. They are the biggest penguins! We traced a few of us on big white paper and turned our bodies into penguins and then painted them. We will put them in the Construction Zone and see how many blocks it takes to reach the height of an Emperor Penguin!
In the morning class we learned vocabulary for winter clothing. We did this by trying on Ms. Stephanie's jacket, boots, gloves, and scarf!
In our Discovery Zone, we are fishing because we learned that penguins eat fish as their food!
Some of us wanted to build ice bergs for our arctic animals, so we cut apart white paper and wrapped it around blocks from our Construction Zone. Now we have chunks of ice to build ice bergs!
We also learned that Emperor Penguins are about the size of a preschooler. They are the biggest penguins! We traced a few of us on big white paper and turned our bodies into penguins and then painted them. We will put them in the Construction Zone and see how many blocks it takes to reach the height of an Emperor Penguin!
In the morning class we learned vocabulary for winter clothing. We did this by trying on Ms. Stephanie's jacket, boots, gloves, and scarf!
In our Discovery Zone, we are fishing because we learned that penguins eat fish as their food!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Gingerbread Man Song
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Finishing Grocery Store and Thanksgiving Song
This week we finished up our Grocery Store unit and also talked a lot about Thanksgiving. We know that all families celebrate differently with their own customs, but we also talked about traditional Thanksgiving foods.
On Friday, some of the PM kids volunteered to work in the Grocery Store to turn it back into a house. We broke down the boxes and put them in recycling. We put the food back where it belongs. And now we have a house again! We are going to have a few days of house again before we turn it into our next project...a bakery!
Home/School Connection
Talk with your child about your family's Thanksgiving traditions (from large family gatherings to a normal day at home). Have your child tell you 5-10 sentences about what your family does on Thanksgiving and write them together. Then have your child draw a picture of those traditions. Please send them back when we get back on November 29th.
On Friday we sang our Thanksgiving song together and here are the videos!
On Thanksgiving-AM Class
On Thanksgiving-PM Class
Pictures from this week:
On Friday, some of the PM kids volunteered to work in the Grocery Store to turn it back into a house. We broke down the boxes and put them in recycling. We put the food back where it belongs. And now we have a house again! We are going to have a few days of house again before we turn it into our next project...a bakery!
Home/School Connection
Talk with your child about your family's Thanksgiving traditions (from large family gatherings to a normal day at home). Have your child tell you 5-10 sentences about what your family does on Thanksgiving and write them together. Then have your child draw a picture of those traditions. Please send them back when we get back on November 29th.
On Friday we sang our Thanksgiving song together and here are the videos!
On Thanksgiving-AM Class
On Thanksgiving-PM Class
Pictures from this week:
Friday, November 19, 2010
Royal Wedding Preschool Style
Here are some photos of hats that guests to the wedding wore:
Staff at school were invited to dress up and wear our own hats! In class, we let the kids decorate their own fancy hats to "wear" to the wedding! It also made for interesting discussion about where England is. WHAT England is. And that there are real life princes and princesses!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Scarecrow Song and Leaf Hunt
We have continued to run a grocery store from our classroom this week. Everyone is getting very skilled at checking out the groceries and also putting them back. I am amazed everyday by how the kids realize yogurt goes in the refrigerated section and hamburger buns go in the bread section.
I hope you have been able to spend some time with your child at the store pointing out the different sections and discussing what items belong in which section.
We also took advantage of the beautiful weather this week in the afternoon class to go on a Leaf Hunt with Miss Kate as part of our speech group. We partnered up and walked around the neighborhood to look for specific leaf colors. We had to coordinate looking at our checklist, finding the leaves, putting them in our bags, crossing them off the list and keeping track of what we still needed to find! We all found all of the colors!
Here are videos of us singing our fall-Scarecrow song!
AM Class
PM Class
Home/School Connection
This week I want you to pick out 4 items out of your cabinet/refrigerator at home (with your child), and have your child tell you the name, and what section it belongs in at the store and how they know. Please write down their answers and send them in to us at school. This is a good opportunity to get your child thinking and explaining his/her reasoning.
Check out our slideshow of pictures below!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
At The Grocery Store
We had a great week setting up and learning how to play in our Grocery Store!
We have turned our Pretend Palace into a Grocery Store. When we play in the Pretend Palace, we take turns being the cashier, bagger, and shoppers! We have a cart and some baskets and we walk around the store looking at all of the different sections. Then we put our items on the conveyor belt. Then the cashier rings us up on the cash register and tells us how much to pay. They groceries get bagged and we are sent on our merry way!
But that is not all. Then we have to go back and practice our categorizing skills by putting all of the groceries back in the right section.
Sections we have so far:
fruits
vegetables
meat
bread
breakfast
snack foods
meals
cereal
drinks
bakery (cookies, cake, muffins, sweets)
refrigerated section (cheese, butter, eggs, yogurt)
frozen section (ice cream)
We are getting really good at sorting the food!
We have turned our Pretend Palace into a Grocery Store. When we play in the Pretend Palace, we take turns being the cashier, bagger, and shoppers! We have a cart and some baskets and we walk around the store looking at all of the different sections. Then we put our items on the conveyor belt. Then the cashier rings us up on the cash register and tells us how much to pay. They groceries get bagged and we are sent on our merry way!
But that is not all. Then we have to go back and practice our categorizing skills by putting all of the groceries back in the right section.
Sections we have so far:
fruits
vegetables
meat
bread
breakfast
snack foods
meals
cereal
drinks
bakery (cookies, cake, muffins, sweets)
refrigerated section (cheese, butter, eggs, yogurt)
frozen section (ice cream)
We are getting really good at sorting the food!
Tips:
-While you are at the store this week with your child, point out the different sections of the store to help him/her make the connections between real life and what we are doing at school.
-Grocery Shopping is prime time for language development with your child. While you are at the store, make sure you are talking to your child the whole time. Point out the foods you see and talk about why you are picking certain items and not others. Talk about the options and the parts of the store. Point out the people working in the store. Ask your child questions about what he/she sees and thinks about what he/she sees.
Home/School Connection
On Friday your child came home with an ad from the newspaper. Just like we did at school this week, your homework is to go on a number hunt with your child. Cut out the number cards (0-9) and take turns picking them. Find all the numbers in the ad that match that number! Find the big ones and see if you can even find the teeny tiny ones! Make sure to send it in to school!
Here is a video of a lady teaching some grocery store signs. Some of the signs are a little different from what we do (such as cereal) but they are a great starting point.
American Sign Language: Grocery Shopping -- powered by eHow.com
Enjoy the pictures from this week:
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Video and Blog Award
Two posts in one week?!?
Crazy!
First:
On Friday, we enjoyed a special presentation of the book The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Ms. Jill's class. That is one of my VERY favorite books and we have been reading it the last couple weeks. We REALLY enjoyed the presentation.
You can enjoy it too at home with the video below (make sure to follow along with the movements!):
Also, I have been honored with a blog award for one of the best Pre-school blogs in the midwest region. I received an email with the following:
MissStephanie's Pre School Class, was determined to be one of the best Pre-K class blogs in your region!You can see other great teaching blogs in your region here at:www.teachersalaryinfo.com/top-teacher-blogs/top-pre-k-midwest/
Very exciting! I received a special badge to put on our blog:
Crazy!
First:
On Friday, we enjoyed a special presentation of the book The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Ms. Jill's class. That is one of my VERY favorite books and we have been reading it the last couple weeks. We REALLY enjoyed the presentation.
You can enjoy it too at home with the video below (make sure to follow along with the movements!):
Also, I have been honored with a blog award for one of the best Pre-school blogs in the midwest region. I received an email with the following:
MissStephanie's Pre School Class, was determined to be one of the best Pre-K class blogs in your region!You can see other great teaching blogs in your region here at:www.teachersalaryinfo.com/top-teacher-blogs/top-pre-k-midwest/
Very exciting! I received a special badge to put on our blog:
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