Wednesday September 29, 2010

Happy Birthday, Grandma Cindy!


Today we are reviewing apples and the letter A, while also doing circle time with our hot and cold.


 Ernie and the apple tree:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_B6OlK7_34


A great one for apple cider:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLiQ3wDnADI


By the way, I just love watching these "old" episodes of Sesame St! 

Tuesday September 28, 2010

Opposites! I figured a good month (or one of) to talk about hot and cold is September.

The kids are making a book with hot on one page and cold on the other. In addition we are discussing things that are hot and cold and feeling them (within a safe range of course). We also talk about hot weather and cold weather. We watched these short Sesame Street clips: http://www.onlinemathlearning.com/hot-and-cold.html


We did circle time, but added the Pease Porridge rhyme to it. The children are taking a copy home with pictures to help them tell the rhyme themselves.

We are having a great Tuesday! 

Monday September 27, 2010

Today we did circle time with the same songs as the previous weeks. This helps the children become familiar with the tunes and lyrics, building their confidence and making it more fun for them.

We caught up for the weekend on the calendar and counted all of the days. We focused again on the letter "C" and colored a cross and talked about the word Christian. I keep things pretty simple and said that a cross is a symbol of God and Jesus' love for us. I told them a Christian is a name for people who love God.

It felt so much colder today. If it was March, it would have felt warm, but it felt cold after the heat of this summer! We did have some good outside time though.

We're looking forward to the rest of the week :)

Friday September 24, 2010

Friday, Friday!
Today we are focusing on the color green. We will be doing a project of cutting and pasting all kinds of green things onto paper. We also find things all over the house and yard which are green.
Additionally, we are learning about being a teacher. I am teaching the kids about different careers they can have when they grow up. I figured September was a great month for teachers!

We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!




Green Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OefqQbwb72c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS7ogha_meY

A small sampling of a teacher's job: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAc8jy0pEzw&feature=related

Thursday September 23, 2010

Happy Thursday!

Today we are making a cookie craft. The cookie makes a circle, but with a bite out of it, makes a "C". Cookies starts with C and that's good enough for me, by Cookie Monster (see link below) was the inspiration for this craft. We are finding things around the house today that begin with C and our colors of red and green. We will play the same ball game that we played yesterday.

Circle time will be the usual for this week. We also discuss how c-c-c-calendar starts with c. I am focusing on the hard c sound because it's just less confusing to these preschoolers. The most important thing is that they are engaged and learning to socialize and follow directions, not that they memorize anything. However, they tend to memorize some of it anyway, so that's just a bonus!

If there's anything I've learned throughout the many years of childcare is that if a child is being naughty by being all over the place and kind of "wild" acting, a good solution is to engage the child. This can be coloring, a game together, a "new" toy (hide some toys so that you can trade now and again bringing fresh toys to the scene), letting them cut scrap paper or coupons (only when they can do it safely), going outdoors for free play or on a walk or bike ride, etc.  Kids usually act this way out of boredom and boredom is usually an indication of a need for attention or direction. Be aware that television and other screen time should be used sparingly, since this actually has an adverse affect and may be one of the main culprits in the rise of ADD and ADHD.

P.S. If you don't have any interesting coloring books, check out the Internet. Ask your child what they would like to color and I can almost guarantee you'll find it. If the answer is "dinosaurs" just Google "dinosaur coloring pages" and you can print them out right there. Make sure to follow directions because somethings you have to click something before it will print out properly. I also sometimes copy and paste it to a Word document if it doesn't want to print out correctly.

C is for Cookie, by Cookie monster (it correlates w/ our craft today!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BovQyphS8kA

 Word World Clip for cake- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWx8AlvEAB4

Some other C links- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sajer1cV-U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzlDxNt1Wck&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEuy-HsvF2o&feature=related

The Alphabubblies alphabet song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6NybKhBLrY&feature=channel

Wednesday September 22, 2010

Happy 3rd Birthday, Branden! We had fun celebrating with balloons and cupcakes (thank you Angela!). I can't believe how much these kids are growing.... sigh. It's all so much fun though, when I see them learning and growing.

Today we did a review of some things we have been learning. The kids read books for awhile today and then outside we played a ball game. We sit in a circle and I take turns rolling the ball to each child. I say something that starts with "A" and roll the ball. They either repeat it back (younger kids) or think of something new (older kids) and roll it. We did this for A, B, and C. We then found things all over that are red, then green, then circles. The kids think this is a great game and can be a good car game.

We also had our daily circle time with the same songs and the calendar. We say the month, the days of the week, and count the days. Branden picked out a birthday picture to put on the calendar for today and we sang Happy Birthday.

The weather was beautiful, we had a birthday, we had fun and learned a lot; what a great day!

Tuesday September 21, 2010

Hello! Today we are learning all about circles. I have a sheet of various sized circles for the children to trace (some with a little help) and become familiar with a circle shape. I also have a sheet of many things which contain circles such as: balls, wheels, donuts, clocks, snowmen, etc. Look around the house, the neighborhood, or the store for circles. We also continue our circle time today with all of the same songs as yesterday, emphasizing drawing the circle during the hand motions of our "Love Grows" song. I will post some links we watched and a demo of the song so you have a better idea of what the tune and hand motions are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmE2OBNunfM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjwnxy3RsVA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtMsyF1_EoE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrqooKyxqoA&feature=related

In this next link from Sesame Street about circles, take note of the woman actress. She is  Loretta Long from Paw Paw, Michigan! She is also a children's author.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FClGhto1vIg&feature=related

Monday September 20, 2010

Hello! Today we introduced the letter "C". We began by watching some Sesame St. clips. The kids and I particularly loved the one by Cookie Monster with a song, so we sang our song during circle time. At circle time, we went over the calendar (which begins with c!). We discussed the month, the day, and the numbers. I let each child put up a number on the calendar, since we had the weekend to make up for. We counted all the numbers to 20 (today). We then sang the "Days of the Week" song, the "Cookie is for C" song, "Love Grows" (circle) song, and the "Baby Bumblebee" song (from last week). We then colored some pictures of the letter C, discussed things beginning with C in the room (crayons, coloring, chair, curtains, etc.). This is a good game to play at home, in the car, at the park, or anywhere. 

So there's a tidbit from our day...

Please take a look at the following links! 

http://castroller.com/podcasts/SesameStreetPodcast/1654907-Sesame%20Street%20Celebrate%20the%20letter%20C!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAOPib0DDCY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLwlcrcQ9EE&feature=related