With Christmas approaching we have many fun and meaningful activities planned
within the pre-k department. Adding to all the Christmas festivities,
including our Christmas program on December 17 at 10:00 in the Fellowship
Hall, we are beginning a new literacy unit entitled “Watch Me Change”. Your
children will be hearing stories and doing projects about how people and
animals grow and change.
Everyday Mathematics for the next several weeks will concentrate on counting
objects, actions, or sounds from 1-10. The children will be grouping
objects, matching correct numbers to groups of 0 to 10 objects, comparing
groups of objects to determine more, less, or same/equal to, extending
patterns, and identifying and describing 2-dimensional shapes. We will also
continue to reinforce earlier learned math concepts.
November 30-December 4
The story for the week is entitled “A House for Hermit Crab” by Eric Carle.
A hermit crab decorates his shell so that he thinks his home is perfect.
Then, when he outgrows his shell, he doesn’t want to leave his friends. We
are learning about some ways in which animals and people grow and change, as
they get older. We are learning that every story has events that happen in
the beginning, middle and end. The book shows us that we can make our lives
better if we are open to new ideas and suggestions that come from our friends
and our families. Our amazing words are: crab, shell, decorate, inside,
empty, and outgrown. The children will decorate their own homes with
household items, and trace, cut, decorate, measure and graph their own foot
shapes for a math activity. They will do a “Three Bears” sorting activity
and make a Band-aide picture for the letter B. They will also make a “String
of Christmas Lights” number activity and lace their own stockings, which
strengthens their fine motor skills.
December 7-11
The story for the week is entitled “See How They Grow: Owl” by Mary Ling.
The barn owl chick first hatches from his shell. Then he goes through stages
of development until he is ready to find his own food and can leave the nest.
Our amazing words are: chick, eggshell, down, feathers, owl, and tasty. The
children will create their own owl pictures and practice their letter writing
skills. They will also create an owl sequence picture showing the stages of
owl growth and write their numbers from 1-12 (that is the number of weeks it
takes an owl to develop to adulthood). They will also make a feathery paper
plate owl. Our letter this week is N and we will be creating a bird in his
nest. We will look for the letter in the words in books, and on our Songs
and Rhymes Chart. Help your child find the letter N in newspapers, magazines
or books.
December 14-18
This week we will take a break from our literacy and math programs to
celebrate Christmas. We will make a nativity picture, baby Jesus in a
manger, and prepare for our Christmas program on Thursday December 17th at
10:00 in the Fellowship Hall. We want to wish all of you a very Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year and will see you back at school on Tuesday
January 5th 2010!
January 5-8 *School is Closed Monday January 4th
We continue our study of the unit “Watch Me Change” with a story
entitled “Whatever the Weather” by Karen Wallace. In our book, a boy named
William is looking out his window and sees snowy, rainy, and windy days. The
book explores thunder and lightning in a rainstorm and hailstones in a
hailstorm. We will learn how the weather changes and how to compare things
by telling how things are alike and different. The children will make a
snowman picture, snowflakes, and a snowy tree picture using their visual
discrimination skills. Our amazing words are: weather, storm, cold, warm,
snow, and bending. Our letter this week is R. We will make a “Red Racer on
a Rough Road”, using sandpaper for the road, and practice number sequencing
by building a “Number Rocket”. As we study weather and seasonal changes we
will continue to document the changes we are seeing in our class trees. How
have the trees and plants in your yards changed in the last several months?
January 11-15
Our reading selection this week is entitled “Somebody Stole My Smile!” by
Carmen Tafolla, and is all about how things grow and change. The girl in the
story is growing up. She lost her first tooth. We will learn about how we
can help each other and about other people’s feelings as well as our own. We
will be studying the United States map and mark the states that we or our
friends and family members may have been to. We will discuss the months of
the year and graph the months of our classmate’s birthdays. This week’s
amazing words are: new, old, changes, grow, mirror, and supper. Our letter
is D and we will make a dinosaur story and practice matching numbers to items
in a doghouse book.
January 19-22 *School Closed Monday January 18th
This week’s story is entitled “Growing Like Me” by Anne Rockwell. We will
learn about specific animals and how they change. Our book shows us the many
different ways that things in nature, such as blossoms, robin’s eggs,
caterpillars, pollywogs, ducklings, fish eggs, and acorns grow. Our amazing
words are: blossoms, growing, hatch, pollywog, caterpillar, and pond. The
children will make coffee filter butterflies, pom-pom caterpillars, and
kazoos for the letter of the week-K. We will create growing animal pictures
and the children will dictate stories to go along with their pictures. We
will also do a math project, matching babies to adults, and do a measuring
exercise to document how our own bodies are growing and changing
Miss Lynne, Miss Maggie and Miss Susie
