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KinderFrogs |
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Pre-K Class |
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Mrs. Beth Bellamy, teacher Miss Brandy & Miss Jenny teacher-supported aides
Fall 2007: WOW!!! This first week zoomed by! The kids did GREAT adjusting to their new schedule and by the time nap came each day, they were more than ready for a rest! Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking your child to the potty each morning before coming in the room. Even though I am sure some of you may think I am crazy for starting pottying this early, it is imperative to take the kids each morning so they learn the routine and learn how to transition between school and home. This week our theme was Back to School! We learned our new routines including listening and waiting for our names before we lined up, washed hands, etc. We also had a Morning Circle Time, which is a new practice. During Morning Circle we sing several songs that help us to learn different concepts. One song is the Name Game where we go around and speak and/or sign our names and say hello to everyone. Another song we do everyday is the Days of the Week song (right now we are just mesmerized watching our silly teachers do all the motions!) Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we have a movement songs where we move and shake our bodies around. Tuesdays and Thursdays we sing the How Do You Feel song, where we tell our friends, (by speaking and/or signing) whether we are happy or sad. Our class has picked up so quickly on the songs and movements and they do a fantastic job of sitting and attending. Another new thing about the Pre-K class is outdoor play. Our goal is to get the kids out and moving around on the playground twice a day. This week we didnt quite make it due to the adjustment of our new schedule, but I am confident that as the year progresses we will be playing with the big kids in no time. Your kids are so eager to climb on all of the equipment outside and it is so great to watch what they can do! Next week our theme is the alphabet and we will be using all kinds of different approaches to learn our letters! September 7, 2007 I hope you all had a fabulous and restful Labor Day break!!! Even though it was a short week, we managed to get a lot done! This week we focused again on the letter M and our theme was My Five Senses. We read several books on the senses and talked about how you use your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands everyday! For Story Time we read My Five Senses and we used our eyes to see the pictures, we used our ears to hear the drum, we used our nose to smell some vanilla (we also would have liked to taste it, but that wasnt a choice), we used our hands to feel our soft gloves, and we used our mouths to taste some M&Ms. Obviously our FAVORITE sense is the sense of taste and we could have eaten the whole bag of M&Ms! For Cooking Time this week we made Marvelous Muffins. We used muffin mix, eggs, and butter to make our delicious snack. Everyone had a chance to help in some way, either by pouring, mixing, and everyone had the opportunity to taste! We really encourage the kids to at least try our Cooking Time snack. Not everyone is going to like it, but it is important to provide new and different textures. One of our favorite parts, (besides eating), was mixing the batter with our electric mixer. It was fun to listen to the sound it made and to feel the vibrations. Carol Symon started speech groups this week and worked on identifying different farm animals and the sounds that they make. Some of the goals we are going to work on includes: improving ability to follow one step directions w/o gestural cues, encourage choice-making (ex: would you like ______ or _______ for snack? Child can either verbalize or point), learn opposites (ex: hot/cold, yucky/yummy, etc) and many others. These are goals that can also be worked on at home and will help transition to school. September 14, 2007 During Speech groups, Carol worked with the children on identifying various instruments, the sounds they make, and choosing what instrument they wanted to play. This was an awesome activity and I heard so many sounds and words come from your childs mouth AND got to hear a lot of great music! For Cooking Time we made Dinosaur Treats (sometimes we have to great VERY creative in our recipes)! To make Dinosaur Treats you take a piece of romaine lettuce, put some ranch on top of it (we love our ranch!), put a slice of cheese on the very top and roll it up. I was SO proud of everyone because they all at least tried it. Some liked it more than others and some ate just the cheese, BUT it is extremely important to introduce new foods and textures. To help introduce new foods at home here are some toppings you can use: ketchup (a classroom favorite!), ranch, salsa, or pepper sauce (do not use too much!). Next week we will continue looking at the letter D and our theme will be DOGS!!!
September 27, 2007 We have had a pretty, playful P week! During snack time we had the opportunity to try unique P snacks such as pineapple, pretzels, and popcorn! We read a couple books that had different things that started with the letter P. We loved reading our book about Pigs A Plenty, Pigs Galore , where pigs invaded a mans house and ordered a bunch of pizza! Another one of our favorite books was Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? We identified several different animals and the sounds they made! For Center Time we played with playdough, used our dot dabbers to color the letter P, and read about 6 silly pigs. Cooking Time was so much fun this week because we made Little Pig House Sticks which involves cooking biscuits, rolling them in Rice Krispies, and sprinkling with parmesan cheese! YUMMY!!! In Speech groups we focused on the 5 Senses and the body parts we use. We used our ears to hear the shakers Carol was shaking, used our mouth to taste Goldfish crackers, used our eyes to see the lizard that was lounging around, used our nose to smell flowers, and put mittens on our hands! This game could be played at home as well. You can place different objects in a paper bag and talk about what senses/body parts you use. Kids love this game and love pulling the objects out of the bag! On Friday we had a PAJAMA and PIZZA PARTY!!! It was a blast and so much fun to see all of our friends and our goofy teachers dressed in their pajamas too! October 19, 2007 Let me start off by saying how proud I am of your kids!!! They are doing awesome during our Morning Circle Time and our Story Time. They are able to follow and remember the routine, they are able to answer questions such as, What letter are we looking at this week? and What does the letter say?, and they are sitting and attending for our group times, which can last up to 30 minutes! WOW! They are starting to sing along with our Days of the Week song and do the movements. I am able to ask each child what the day is and they can either speak it or sign it. They are also working on telling their friends how they feel, (right now we are just working on happy or sad). They have to speak or sign to their friends then place their name on the board under the picture that shows how they feel. Once we get the hang of happy/sad, we will add more emotions. This week we focused on the letter B. Our theme was BIG and little and we talked about and saw pictures of different items that are BIG and some that are little. One of our books we read was the Big and Little Book. I would point out the big object, such as a BIG dog and the little object, the little dog. Then I went around and would ask each child to point to BIG and little. They did great! This is an activity you could do at home as well by pointing out different objects and labeling them as either BIG or little.
November 9, 2007 This week we have been studying the letter T! Our theme is TRANSPORTATION and we learned everything we could about trucks, trains, planes, cars, bikes, etc.! In Morning Circle we have started working on patterns. Each day there is a pattern on our Morning Circle Mirror and we used the signs for each picture and each of the kids came up and either said the words, signed the words, or pointed to the words. They are catching on quickly! For Story time we have looked at many different books having to do with transportation. One of our favorite books was “Bear on a Bike”. The kids loved this story because each time the boy would ask, “Where are you going Bear? Please wait for me!” The kids started catching on that this was repeating throughout the story and they started saying it with me! Also during Storytime we have been learning about Traffic lights. Here is the song we sing, Twinkle, twinkle traffic light, Shining in the corner bright. Red means stop, Green means go, And yellow means you go real slow. Twinkle, twinkle traffic light, Shining in the corner bright. This is a fun song to sing that not only teaches colors, but what they mean on a traffic light. Our TCU teachers came this week and taught us about the sense of touch, where we had the chance to explore different textures and they taught us about the 4 seasons and what you wear for each season. Before we go to Centers we have been working on saying or signing the center each child wants to go to. This is an important skill to learn because it encourages choice-making. It is also something that you can do at home by asking questions like, “What do you want?” or “Would you like to play outside or with a puzzle?”
This week and next week we will be focusing on the letter W, with WINTER being our theme. Every day we practice our W sound by singing our song. We also practice our W sound by “woofing” like a dog and “wahhhing” like a baby. We’ve identified several words that start with the letter W like wet, water, Wednesday, week, winter, etc. During Story Time we have read several books that talk about winter time. One of our books, The Jacket I Wear in the Snow, helps us to identify what we wear when winter is here and it is cold outside. Although we haven’t really had winter weather, we talked about how you wear a jacket, a hat, gloves, pants, socks, and shoes when it is cold outside. Each child showed me their own winter weather clothes by pointing them out. One of the goals of the Pre-K class is to help develop your child’s adaptive skills. Having them pick out their own clothing is a part of the process. At home you can help by encouraging your child to pick out their clothes for the day. Give them choices (“You can wear your red shirt or your blue shirt. Which one?”) that are appropriate for the weather and explain to them why they need it (“You can wear your black jacket or your Kinderfrogs sweatshirt because it is cold outside.”) This is an easy and effective activity that will improve their skills and help them to make choices on their own.
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Last Modified: Friday February 22 2008
