Ms. Carlie's Little Learners Preschool: {january: week two}

Friday, January 14, 2011

{january: week two}

We started out this week chatting about how to politely keep our germs to ourselves. We all practiced sneezing into our elbows and by the end of the story every child had requested a tissue. Everyone suddenly had a runny nose. :)

We love this book Achoo: Good Manners Can Be Contagious, but maybe because at home we love its counterpart Have You Seen My Potty?

Alphabet Letter O

We played a few fun games focusing on hearing the sound and recognizing the letter O.

Begins Like Octopus

This idea was taken from the Education Center's Circle Time from A to Z. Each student received an octopus page and had some time to color it. We used hole reinforcement labels and each student added an "O" to their picture each time Ms. Carlie said a word that began like Octopus. Students reinforced the letter shape with their mouths as they repeated the word to check if it began with the letter O.

Open Wide!

This idea was taken from the Education Center's Circle Time from A to Z We talked about how at the doctor's office the doctor often has to look at your throat and how s/he usually uses a tongue depressor. The students really wanted to use the craft sticks to give a little exam, so Ms. Carlie had to keep them focused throughout this activity. Each stick was labeled with the letter O. If a student chose a stick labeled with an O altogether the class said, "Open Wide!" If it wasn't labeled with an O, then we set the stick aside.

Sounds Like . . .

This idea was taken from the Education Center's Circle Time from A to Z Each child had a turn removing a picture card from the box. If it had the medial {middle} sounds /o/, then the card could be placed in the pocket chart.

Our traditional Wikki Os.

Handwriting Practice

We learned how to form a letter O and practiced writing it on our chart. We practiced on our handwriting sheet, too.

We had a lot of fun painting with watercolors. We are still working on our Brown Bear, Brown Bear book. This is our black sheep. My little sweetie must have had a little itch on her nose. :)

Story Time
This little rhyme was the highlight of the week. Each student built her own snowman and then I read the poem. Each student, in turn, "melted" her snowman. We did this a couple times and it will come back next week. Since I made the pieces, I have included them for you to use in your own classroom or home. I found the poem online, but changed it because I didn't like one of the lines. I just drew on faces and then laminated the pieces. Draw a face on the sun if you wish, and color the scarves.

We each created a winter scene on blue paper with w a white crayon. After, we painted our pictures with Epsom salts dissolved in water {1:1}. I got a little overzealous thinking that if I added more salty water, they would look even better. I was wrong. Sorry! If you give your art one good coat, it will crystallize and look just the way it should. Ours got a little dry and just plain salty. :)

Word Study: Words Their Way

Sort #9b - Rhyming Picture Sorts {pink/drink, brown/crown, white/kite, tan/man, green/bean, blue/shoe}

The literature that went along with this word sort and last week's, too, is called One Sun: A Book of Terse Verse. It is out of print, but my library had it. I will try to make my own version by taking pictures as they come up in our lives here at home. {Such as sand hand, wet pet, small ball, etc.}