KinderFrogs

Mrs. Ranella Franklin, teacher
Mrs. Tonda Palmer & Mrs. Nan Prodonovich, teacher-assistants

Rayna, Savannah, Nick, Brandy, & Jenny, teacher-supported aides

"In the teachable moments, doors open wide to new possibilities."

SPRING 2009

June 15-19: This was our last full week of school for the year --- so hard to believe! The children have really had fun with their friends this week in so many ways --- and 'Splash Day' was one of the biggest eventsJ Everyone loves the water --- splashing, sliding down into a pool, playing with beach balls, catching little fish, and so much more! We also enjoyed seeing all the dads and granddads on Friday during our special 'Donuts for Dad' timeJ On Thursday, the children had a great time with our morning snack 'Buffet.' It's always so exciting for the children to get to carry a tray, select the items they want, count those items, put them on the plate on their tray, and carry it all back to their table --- and then go back to the Buffet for more!!! Other fun activities for this week include making a sunshine painting with yellow and orange paint using eyedroppers and Q-tips, creating a sunshine collage by cutting on straight and curved lines on orange and yellow paper, drawing with big chalk on colored paper, tapping with dot painters, and putting little star stickers onto a bigger star for one-to-one correspondence. We have been working a lot during circle time on the concepts of 'boy' and 'girl' and many of the children can identify which they are and also tell which friends are boys and which are girls. This week's flowers were giant sunflowers brought by Parker --- they have been so pretty on the tables --- it's wonderful to see the children looking closely at the flowers, smelling them, and touching them gently with one fingerJ

June 8-12: The children had a lot of fun with various outdoor activities this week. They took the flying butterflies they made outside and ran around watching them fly like kites:) After doing some 'indoor' bird-watching, the children took their paper tube 'binoculars' outside and looked for birds and other things:) One of the concepts we are working on is 'boy' and 'girl' --- the children selected a picture of a girl/boy (depending on what they are) and cut it out and glued it on a little sack that they filled with other papers that they had cut. During circle time, the children decided which jar to put their name in --- a boy or a girl. We had a lot of fun on Wednesday with furry friends and show 'n tell --- each child took a turn to show their furry friend to the group and let everyone get a chance to gently 'pet' the little friend. We also did a special fun dance several times during the day with our furry friends and played with them during centers:) During our special ‘kid creation’ art time the children painted on big purple paper with bristle brushes. They enjoyed selecting paint colors from hot pink, chartreuse, and fluorescent greenJ On Friday we had another fun ‘Splash Day’ --- our children really love the water!!! Thank you to Jackson for bringing flowers for our class again this week --- the children are really learning how to enjoy the beauty and the scent of pretty flowers!

June 1-5: This week we have continued to enjoy learning about birds. The children practiced counting 1-10 as they put stickers onto eggs in a nest. They also created their own nest collage using a small, white bowl, an assortment of textures, a lot of glue, some pom-poms for eggs, and a bird picture of their choice --- these were quite cute and the children were very proud of their nests! The children played in a big bird nest of their own when we got out our texture tub and filled it with newspaper strips --- always a lot of fun! Our 'Cooks In The Kitchen' snack this week was a bird nest, too --- the children used Chow Mein noodles, raisins, and fruit chews to make a nest with eggsJ Other fine motor activities included lacing beads, working puzzles, drawing with chalk, painting with watercolors in and around shapes, using stamp pads, and cutting with scissors. During our special 'kid creation' art time, the children enjoyed painting on big, yellow paper using a fuzzy roller, a bristle brush, and a sponge tapper. On Friday we had our first 'Splash Day' of the summer --- some really wet and wild fun for everyoneJ Thank you to John Michael who brought flowers this week --- they were rainbow colors which really brightened up the tables!

May 26-May 28: We hope everyone enjoyed their extended weekend --- the children were happy to see their friends on Tuesday and enjoyed all the extra attention from the cameras and special people that came to visit us, but they were also quite tired by the end of the day --- Miss Meg said that she had never seen them sit quite so still for music! Some of our special activities this week included cutting out big and little shapes (triangles & circles) and gluing them together to make a 'bird,' painting on paper plates with fingertip brushes, lacing straw pieces onto pipe cleaners, and drawing from dot-to-dot. During our 'kid creation' art time, the children had fun selecting green, white, and black paint to paint onto big triangle and circle shapes. Wednesday 'sack lunch' picnic time continues to provide a great opportunity for socialization as we eat together on our little picnic tables outside:) Thank you to Jackson who brought our flowers this week --- our tables really look nice at snack and lunch times!

May 18-May 22: This week started out in the 'texture tub' --- the children had so much fun playing in the torn newspaper strips and scrunching and stuffing them into tubes and sacks! Bugs and butterflies have continued to be a focus this week --- the children made a bug picture by matching bug stickers that were the 'same' and practicing scissor skills to cut green grass fringe. They also cut on a curved line to make a butterfly with symmetrical wings and then decorated the wings by gluing on assorted papers --- we added yarn to make the butterflies 'fly':) Triangles have been a special shape focus, and the children have enjoyed sorting triangles and circles, decorating big triangles with dribble glue and Jell-o, and using crayons to connect dots and make their own triangles. We have even incorporated triangles into snack time using Bugles (chips) --- the children have made patterns with the Bugles and raisins, just for fun:) Some of our other fine motor activities have included lacing beads, working puzzles, playing with puffy stickers on Plexiglas, and golf ball painting! Wednesday picnics are going quite well, too --- this week the children colored on brown sacks on Tuesday and took them home to fill for their sack lunch on Wednesday --- they really do like their lunch in a sack and the 'togetherness' of our picnic tables!

May 11-May 15: Hurray for bugs! This week we have had fun matching big, plastic bugs, making a ladybug by cutting a red circle, coloring black spots, adding googly eyes, and pipe cleaners for antennae, using bee stickers around a hive for one-to-one correspondence, using bug and flower stamps on a stamp pad to make a picture, and even creating a ladybug English muffin for snack on Friday (red jelly, raisin spots, and pretzel antennae!). We have also been continuing our rain and umbrella activities --- very appropriate this week! This week's flowers were brought by Jack and Airiana --- they smelled so nice and looked so pretty --- Thank You --- little hands are learning to touch carefully! As we say our 'Umbrella' poem, it has been a lot of fun using the paper umbrellas we made. The children again enjoyed their Wednesday picnic lunch outside --- they are really learning how to look for their name on their sack lunch and also really have fun getting everything out of their sack when we get to the picnic tables:) Our 'Fun Food' on Friday afternoon was ice cream --- a perfect way to end the week!

Apr. 27-May 1: Happy Mother's Day to everyone! The children really had fun making their moms a basket of flowers --- first they painted on coffee filters using eyedroppers and then they cut green paper strips to make leaves for the flowers. We also 'planted' a picture of each child in their mother's basketJ This week we have been talking more about flowers and how the rain gives them a drink --- the rain comes from clouds and then after the rain we can sometimes see a rainbow! The children have been learning a 'raindrop' poem and have also eaten a special 'rainbow' snack (strawberries, cucumbers, blackberries, and Cheetos). Our fine motor activities have included cutting on curved lines to make clouds, matching colored stickers to the colors on a rainbow, painting on a mirror and then making a print using a white flower shape, and practicing one-to-one correspondence and counting to ten using flower stickers. The children also enjoyed drawing with crayons and painting over the drawing with watercolors, working puzzles, and using markers to draw from dot-to-dot. During our special art time, the children had four colors and bristle brushes to create their 'masterpiece' --- oh, so beautiful! We ate lunch outside again on Wednesday, which the children really enjoyed --- thank you, parents for sending sack lunches --- we are designating Wednesdays as ‘Sack Lunch’ day for the rest of the yearJ On Friday, we made ‘Cloud Cookies’ --- yum, yum! The children loved mixing the Cool Whip and cake mix and adding it to a beaten egg and then rolling a ball of ‘dough’ in powdered sugar that they had sifted and placing it on the baking sheet to go into the ovenJ Thank you to Brooke and her mom for sending such beautiful iris flowers for the class to enjoy this week!

KinderFrogs

Pre-K Class