Hello! I will endeavor in the coming weeks to increase communication in this method. If nothing else, your kids are all adorable, so I often times (or you know, most of the time) am enjoying helping them learn and listening to their great stories so I forget to take pictures.
We're working our way through our stick letters in the alphabet. I always enjoy seeing what great things your kids come up with for their letter bags, especially when they're things I didn't even think of. I know the kids always enjoy sharing them with their friends too!
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| Sharing our V letter bags as a class. |
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| Crazy Hair on Wacky Wednesday (gosh this was a while ago...) |
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| Building cities with our Bristle Blocks. |
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| Bristle Block Bell Tower |
Every day, you see our arrival activities. I know Wednesdays are a lot of kids favorites because it's our day of manipulative toys. They notice see the toy aspect, but we try to have things that increase their manual dexterity. Amy and I have both seen huge improvements in their penmanship in just the couple of months we've been in class!
Every week, during two of our centers we do worksheets. I know your kids say they just play, but we do learn! We also have a "fun" learning activity after they complete the worksheets for both writing and math. This week, for example we are practicing letters with shaving cream and working on number association with candy corn (Like this, if you're curious). While our fall assessments will not include recognition of number words, it's nice practice in phonics/reading for things they know (for example, one student was able to identify the word "four" as opposed to "five" because she knew both had an "f" sound at the beginning, but four didn't have a "v" sound in the middle)
We also do a sensory activity and/or a fine motor activity during centers. Those our things like our moon sand (Recipe Available here) or our cutting crafts, as well as our days of creation book. The whole world craft that went home last week was a combination experience for getting their hands in paint (sensory), plus dying those coffee filters using medicine droppers.
On most Thursdays we have Enrichment, where we work on universal skills improvement (Cutting skills, letter recognition, reading/writing their own names), or skill-level specific activities. This allows us to work with your student at a level where they are not too comfortable, but not frustrated with the level of difficulty. This allows those students who are ready to add to start learning that skill, while those who are still working on counting to work on that skill. Everyone succeeds and improves his or her confidence in his or her schoolwork!
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| Cutting and pasting names in the correct order |
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| Bus Craft: cutting on the lines |
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| Finding letters in the news paper |
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| More Letter finds in the news paper |
We also try to read stories as often as we can. First, I love to share books I loved as a child with your children. As an avid reader myself, I know that fostering a love of reading starts early. I hope many of you are participating in the Book-it program that went home at the beginning of the month. It's also a great bridge to literacy in early grades.
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| Listening to "My Mouth is a Volcano." If your kids have been discussing that they are volcanos, this is why. |
If your kid is there in the afternoon, it runs much like the morning with either large group activities, like the bird nest craft below, or center-based activities in shapes, math, writing and fine motor skills.
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| Marble Painting for Birds Nests |
As always, thank you for letting us teach your children. Have a wonderful weekend!
P.S. Fun quotes from your kids that made me laugh
-Why can't I see? "Because you're wearing a hat!"
-You seem very happy today! "That's because I love coming to school!"
-"Ms. Rachel, I moo'ed at that cow and it went [he nods slowly]."
- (Before starting our lesson in Chapel) "Can I read this book?" <Do you know what book it is?> The Bible. I don't have any at home. (For the record, I know this was not true, so I laughed for a good three minutes)
