Week Two

Week Two - we are becoming a class!  We are starting traditions - marching to the gym singing "The Ants Go Marching", finding our favorite songs (Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Old McDonald, One Elephant), our favorite activities (anything water), and our favorite books (Miss Mary Mack, Who Hops, Caps for Sale...)  This class loves to gather round for a song or a story! 

Cars continue to be popular...

so does the house area...

 

These cylinders for the Scrap Box have become "robot arms" which makes me wonder what the children know about robots...

Hammers - and saws - add the the din of the classroom!

Friendships are beginning...

 We're practicing our fine motor skills for writing and cutting later on. These girls are opening different containers to find jewels...

 and it turned into a math activity - sorting!

For about 3 minutes most days, we dabble in letters and sounds in the Rainbow Room.  There is no pressure to learn them, we have much more important things to learn, like social skills, but at the same time many children are interested!  I also begin  teaching the formation of letters using the Handwriting Without Tears big lines, little lines, big curves, and little curves.   I do this so that when children do start writing they start out with good habits.  If you want to know more about Handwriting Without Tears, the website has a link at the bottom of the page!

We talked a little about F this week - we read F the Freezing Flamingo from The Amazing Action Alphabet and made F with a "big line down, little line across, little line across."  We are also learning some "yoga-ish" poses to go along with our letters - ask you child to be a flamingo of a frog!

Here are our wood pieces and mats... 

We also have opportunities to talk about letters all over - and for singing the ABC song which if this picture had sound, you would hear!

Our practical life skill this week focused on pouring water...and wiping it up!

We also learned to use eye droppers...and wipe up more spills!

At the art table, we used those small finger muscles again - you might have received a bracelet this week!

We finger painted again - this time mixing red and yellow - and discovering that it made orange!

Smelly markers at the writing table...

Dry erase markers at the easel... 

We celebrated a birthday with muffins this week!