We had a two week unit
on ocean animals that was lots of fun! We started out by reading the book In
the Sea by David Elliot. This book goes through many different animals that
live in the ocean. During centers the students did their final drawing of Mat
Man! It was so cool to compare their first drawing to their last, so much improvement!
We had a new center this week, a grocery store! This was a huge hit with the
students!
We also had a shell and
gem counting center.
On Tuesday we read the
book Number Find: Ocean by Charles Reasoner. We went through and had to
find and count different ocean animals on each page. After reading, I had the
students play an ocean animal counting game on the ipad. During centers the
students got to make an ocean animal counting book for themselves!
We had the grocery
store again as well.
Wednesday we studied
dolphins! We read the book Dolphins by Carol K. Lindeen. We learned a
new vocabulary word that day, blowhole. During centers the students made a
beautiful dolphin by using a paint bag. I put a paper dolphin cut out in a bag
and then squirted blue and pink paint inside. The students used their hands to
spread the paint around and color the dolphin. They turned out to be so pretty!
We had another new
center this week, an ocean sensory bin! This center was so fun for the kids!
Thursday morning we had
a parent bring in a turtle to school. Of course the kids loved this!
During our lesson we
read the book Whales by Carol K. Lindeen. We discussed the difference
between whales and fish. I then gave each of the students a picture and they
had to sort them as either a fish or a whale. During centers we played a
describing sea shells game. I game each student a board containing pictures of
different seashells. I would describe a shell and the students would have to
find it on their board.
Friday we learned about
sharks! We read the book Sharks by Carol K. Lindeen. After reading, we
discussed some new vocabulary words: school of fish, gills, and fin. During
centers we played a Fish 1:1 matching game. The students would roll a dice, say
the number, and then place that many goldfish crackers on their boards.
We had a special
visitor that day, my mom! It was fun having her come see my own classroom after
me coming to visit her in her preschool classroom all of these years!
Since Sunday was
mothers day we made a special gift for all of our moms!
Someone had some great
naptime hair this week. Couldn’t resist taking a picture!
This was week number two of our Farm Animal unit! We focused on non-fiction books this week. Monday we learned about chickens! During our lesson I read the book See How They Grow by Angela Royston. After reading, we talked about the life cycle of a chicken and discussed our new vocabulary words (hen, rooster, chick, and wattle). We added new words to our vocabulary chart every day this week.
During centers, the students go to make their own life cycle of a chicken. They turned out to be really cute!
One student drew a chicken at the whiteboard center!
Tuesday we read the book Goats by JoAnn Macken. After reading, we discussed our two new vocabulary words: kid and herd. I then showed the students some funny goat videos using my ipad. I showed them one of some kid goats playing around and one of some goats screaming like humans. They thought these were hilarious! We watched them a few times throughout the week. During centers I had the students practice writing their names. In another center I made some word card with pictures so the students would practice spelling simple words. I made some new cards this week that pertained to our farm unit.
During another center we had number beading. The student had to put the correct number of beads on each pipe cleaner number.
Thursday morning we did some paper tearing to work on fine motor skills. Of course the students loved this!
During our lesson we learned about horses. I read the book Animals on the Farm: Horses by Aaron Car. After reading we discussed our new vocabulary words: mammal, mane, and foal. During centers the students got to make a horse mask! This was a huge hit and they turned out to fit their faces great! The kids of course went around “neighing” the rest of the day haha.
During another center we had our missing number heart game. The students had cards of three consecutive numbers with the middle number missing. They had to find the missing number and put it in the blank space. Our American Reads tutor helped out in this center.
We also had our vet and animal groomer center again. The students love taking care of those animals!
I also made some horses for the kids to play with.
Friday we read the book Science Kids Life Cycles: Cows by Aaron Car. We discussed our vocabulary word for the day, calf. The kids have learned so many new words this week!
After reviewing our words, I told the student we had a special activity planned. We were going to milk a cow! A fake cow that is. One of the other preschool teachers had made a cow out of a small table and let us use it! We poured some milk into a medical glove to use as the utter and attached it to the bottom of the cow (table). I then had the kids line up and I poked a small hole in the top of one of the fingers. Each child got a turn to “milk” the cow. They LOVE this!
During centers we made a cow out of a paper plate!
We had some more horse riders!
After lunch, we had our bible lesson of the week. This week we learned about baby Moses! After reading the story, we did a little science experiment about floating and sinking. I gave each student an object and they had to decide if they thought it would sink or float in the bucket of water. Here were our results!
This week we have been learning some beginning reading skills! I have been so impressed with these kids! I have a Hooked On Phonics app that we have been using and the kids love it! It starts out with them learning the essential word “at” and then building off of that. We built our own words using magnetic words one day. Another day we had a letter sound race! I put three letters up on the board and the students had to figure out what I spelled. I then called two students up to the front and said a letter sound. They then had to race to find the letter that matched the sound from a tray of magnetic letters and then bring it back to the front. They did a great job with this and had so much fun cheering their classmates on!
