Down on the Farm and Our First Field Trip

"Duck and Goose" by Tad Hills is a book about a duck and a goose that work hard at getting along. They both want the egg they each claim to be his. As the two tend to their egg, they begin to appreciate one another's strengths. Through discussion generated from the sharing of literature, the children often see themselves in like situations of the characters. Often they reiterate the book's message while at play.

Working together as a team has become a priority. When it is clean-up time everyone pitches in to get the job done!

Construction was underway this week on the farm with waffle blocks. After the road was made, a red and yellow barn was built for all of the farm animals.

At a nearby farms all of the animals were being fed and cared for. Some of the animals had babies, and the children learned that many animal babies have different names such as a cow and it's calf.

While observing and comparing the farm animals while at play, the boys and girls identified certain characteristics of each animal. During these observations, questions arose and great discussions took place about each animal's uniqueness, similarities and differences.

We love books!!! Many of the little frogs spend time in the book center pouring over books or listening to a book on tape. Often they choose books from the shelves that the teacher has previously read to the class. As they read from the pictures, it is so exciting to hear the inflection in their voices as they retell the story aloud.

In Music, Mrs. McIvor introduced the children to a new instrument, the bells. They learned how the mallet is used to make the beautiful bells sound while singing the song, "Pizza Night!"

Before departing for our field trip to Crisp Park, the children  enjoyed the book,"Gus the Bus," by Olga Cossi. Gus looks much like our cute little Shorecrest bus, and the children could hardly contain their excitement as they got on board! Once there, we were greeted by several parents that came to join us.

The Friendly Frogs were hopping all about! They used their strength on the monkey bars,

 slid down the tube,

and raced down the slides!

Thank you parents for helping us make it an extra special first field trip!!

A little red and a little orange, and what color does that make? During Exploring on Friday the boys and girls experimented with color mixing. Using droppers, they squeezed a little bit of red water and then a little bit of yellow water, and then combined both into one bowl to make ORANGE!!

Then the children practiced their pouring skills, by transferring the orange water from pitcher to pitcher.

Long droppers were used to transfer the orange mixture from test tube to test tube.

Then the children were able to mix red and yellow with their hands!

Horse tails and funky sponges were used to create beautiful banners in many shades of orange.

Some of us made orange play-dough.

Everyone enjoyed mixing yellow and red sprinkles in their yogurt snack!

Some other books enjoyed this week:
"The Letters Are Lost" by Lisa Campbell Ernst
"I Can Say Please" by Teddy Slater
"I Heard Said the Bird" by Polly Berrien Berends

Upcoming dates:

10/4 Conference Day
10/5 No Exploring
10/12 School Closed, Professional Day
10/19 Exploring
10/31 Exploring

Circles, Pets and our first Exploring

The boys and girls enjoy playing with their new friends on the playground everyday. After the children climb on top of the yellow tube, using the circular holes on the sides, they have definitely met with success! Once aboard, they pretend to be on a choo-choo train, an airplane or even in a spaceship. Some have discovered that the entrance to the tube is circular in shape.

Sliding down the big yellow slide.....what fun, but you have to wait for your turn!

After the boys and girls used Handwriting Without Tears lines and curves to create themselves and we discovered markers in the magic basket, we drew marker self-portraits.

In Music class the children were introduced to rhythm sticks and kept the beat to songs such as "The Wheels on the Bus."

This week we enjoyed watching ourselves in action on a slideshow,

building creative structures for pets and

working with number pegs. Here the children are practicing number recognition and one to one correspondence.

Others enjoyed reading and role playing, "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" by Eileen Christelow,

tracing stencils with crayons

or helping a friend with their smock!

Recently when the boys and girls come to work with the teacher on a special project, they are asked to identify their names on a class list and then draw a line through it. They are beginning to recognize not only their own name, but the names of their classmates, as well.
After talking about the various sizes of circles and ordering them from smallest to largest and largest to smallest, they glued circles on circles.

On Friday we had our very first Exploring. The activities were planned around our current theme of pets, circles and the colors red and yellow. We began with a short assembly in the Exploratorium where the children learned about  all of the exciting activities. Then the doors were opened between all three rooms, and the excitement began!

One of the children's favorite things was making their puppy or kitty hats, decorating them with stampers and crayons and then getting their little noses!

What fun to try and eat from the bowl, just like cats and dogs!

Trees were constructed of large foam blocks to prepare homes for the animals and pets.

Birdhouses were built just like the one "Flappydoodle" has in JK!

Funnels, cups, wheels, caps and toilet paper rolls were used as printing tools to make circles on a circle.

It was a treat to make stamp prints of kitty cats, dogs, fish, horses and birds.

Hanging monkeys on the branches of a tree and

making animal footprints in play-dough were among the exciting activities enjoyed by Alpha students.

What a fantastic first Exploring!

 Some literature read this week:
"Silly Sally" by Audrey Wood
"Skippy John Jones in the Dog House" by Judy Schachner
"The Peace Book" by Todd Parr
"Dogzilla" by Dav Pilkey

Upcoming Dates:
9/25 Field Trip to Crisp Park (9:30-11:00)
9/28 Exploring
10/4 Conference Day
10/12 School Closed - Professional Day

Friendship, Dancing and the Vet Center

New friendships are budding each day as the children learn more about each other through engaging in different classroom activities. A lot of smiles and laughter are observed when the children are busy dressing up and role playing in the dramatic play area.

During Circle Time each day The Friendly Frogs enjoy singing songs, reciting finger plays, reading books and engaging in sharing activities where they are able to express themselves among their classmates. Rolling the ball to a friend and greeting them by saying, "My new friend is..." was a popular group sharing activity this week. Recently the boys and girls learned a new song entitled, "Driving in My Car." While singing we pretend to drive in our cars, put our sunglasses on, wrap scarves around our neck and place hats on our heads! The children enjoy singing this song with friends in dramatic play.

One of the responsibilities for the frog of the day is to count the number of days we have been in school and then add the number for that day on the wall. When sequencing numerals 1-20 in a large floor puzzle, the children remembered our number chain and used it as a reference to order their numbers. What a great connection!

The boys and girls look forward to Tuesdays when Mrs. Gootson comes to share a book with us and sing songs.

Those pincher fingers are busy again lacing string through holes, as they make their way around the edges of a circle.

Circles are popping up everywhere, even at snack!

"Little dots of glue, whew," was chanted as each child made their very own friendship collage. We first learned how to make little dots of glue on the paper and turn the glue bottle back over before attaching each friends's picture to their collage. It was a treat to see the smiles on their faces as they recognized their friends.

Inviting a partner to dance in Music was very exciting. The children used nice manners when asking and waited patiently for their turn.

The children sang "What's a Friend For?" while dancing about with their partners. Some of us might be ready for "Dancing With the Stars" real soon!!

 In P.E., Coach Every, Coach Pope and Coach Wolfrath have been working on balance and personal space with Alpha students.

The doctors and nurses in the new veterinary office in the Exploratorium have been busy seeing dogs, cats, fish and many other animals. Taking the animal's temperature is one important job.

Scheduling upcoming appointments,

using a stethoscope to hear the animal's heartbeat,

bandaging a wound and

reading x-rays are keeping the veterinarians quite busy!

There is excitement in the water table where the children are exploring many types of insects and spiders.

Soon after reading the book, "The Teeny Weeny Tadpole" by Sheridan Cain, the children made a fascinating observation. Two of the large tadpoles in our Exploratorium aquarium had new little legs!

It was fun to meet our new Middle Division friends who came to play with us after rest time. We look forward to their next visit!











Some books read this week:

"Dog and Bear" by Laura Seeger
"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Eric Carle and Bill Martin, Jr.
"Clifford's Book of Manners" by Norman Bridwell

Dates to remember:
9/21 1st Exploring
9/25 Field Trip to Crisp Park