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

Sharing, the Library and Germs

Our week started off with loads of excitement which was having our very first "Friendly Frog of the Day!" It is a very important role as that person assists the teacher in turning on the "clean-up music," leading Circle Time, holding the flag for the "Pledge of Allegiance, having first choice for centers,  leading the class line and Sharing!

After sharing their special item with the class, their classmates are able to ask three questions about it. We have been learning the difference between a question and a statement and that questions begin with "Who," "What," "Why," "Where," "When" and "How." It is amazing how quickly they are catching on. You should try this at home! Next, they find their name on the sharing calendar and see whose name is "next door" before delivering the sharing bag to the child who will be sharing the next day.

"Working on the Team" is a phrase that you often hear in Alpha. The children are learning how important it us to work together on activities such as solving puzzles, building, collaborative art projects and cleaning up the classroom and playground. They get excited about being part of the team, and it is FUN!!!

Our first Fire Drill with the whole school was a success. The children walked quickly and quietly to the field joining the other classes as they practiced being safe!

Building with "People Blocks" often requires lots of balancing and patience, though the finished product is definitely worth waiting for.

Eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills are in motion as bright, colorful pom-poms are being transferred from a bowl to a muffin tin.

We have such a good time with Mrs. McIvor during Music Time. Learning the "Chicken Dance" was a popular activity for all.

Identifying numbers and taking turns with a friend to find a matching number is extra fun, because we discovered they are magnetic just like our shape blocks.

 The "ABC Song" is often heard as the childre fill the letters of the alphabet with water and watch them sink or empty them and watch them float.

On Wednesday we made our very first trip to the library to visit Mrs. Smay. She introduced us to "Mr. Clean Hand" and "Mr. Dirty Hand" who taught the children how to take care of books.

Then the boys and girls learned how to use "shopping cards" before checking out their library books.

After learning about the many different kinds of germs in the book, "Those Mean. Nasty, Dirty, Downright Disgusting but Invisible Germs" by Judith Rice, the children squeezed little dots of paint onto the center of their paper to create the beginnings of a germ.

After we folded the paper the children pushed the paint dots with their fingers as they watched the paint move across the folded paper. Then.... we opened it to find a perfectly symmetrical and beautiful GERM! Next they named their germs. These will be displayed on the large classroom bulletin board!

By the way it took lots of strength and both hands to squeeze those paint bottles. Pictures of the finished product to come!

On the playground some of us took a turn getting the hula hoops in motion, even double hula hoops.

Rub a dub dub, four in the tub!

On the balance buckets...."Look, I can do it myself, no teachers!"

Pedaling and steering those tricycles.....around the bike path!

On the Big Climber....

making new friends and keeping the old!

Some of the literature that we read this week included:

"You Get What You Get" by Julie Gassman
"Should I Share My Ice Cream?" by Mo Willems
"Is It My Turn?" by David Bedford
"Just Me and My Dad" by Mercer Mayer

Mystery Reader Dates (still available)
3/27, 4/10, 4/24, 5/8
Please let me know if you would like to be a mystery reader on one of those dates.

Family, Friends, Pets and Me!

The Friendly Frogs enjoy gathering each morning for Circle Time. We begin by talking about the day of the week and it's special color and identifying pictures on the calendar of the day's schedule. Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with our right hand on our hearts and singing "Flag of America" in both English and Spanish is a great beginning for the day ahead! What is most exciting is how quickly the children are learning the words.

Not only have the boys and girls been learning to identify their names in print on their cubbies and on their artwork, they now have their own name tape on the rug at Circle Time which is quite exciting!

Our little friend "Freddie the Frog" introduced us to the "Magic Basket" this week. Mrs. Mundell opened the basket and put on her magic hat before introducing us to "Big Line," "Little Line," "Big Curve," and "Little Curve!"

Next the children worked together with Mrs. Mundell to decide all of the necessaryparts of the body we would need to make our new friend, "Mat Man!"

WOW... how fun that two big curves can make the circle shape just like our heads!

It was delightful to see the children observing themselves in the mirror looking for all of those special parts just like "Mat Man!'

"What color are my eyes?" and "Is my hair brown or black?" were questions discussed while drawing self portraits and then of course choosing the perfect crayon color.

The little frogs have been busy making new friends and learning more about each other through playing collaboratively and sharing. Arthur's house has been a favorite!

We talk and share about our families while enjoying a BIG picnic ....

or enjoying a pizza dinner at the table!

We all thoroughly enjoyed exploring the color red by getting our hands messy in finger paint! What a fun feeling of wet, cold and ooey gooey!

Next we made red handprints and transfer prints by placing a piece of paper on top of our design and tickling it. Then we pulled the paper away and we had a beautiful print, just like magic!

Pincher fingers or tongs were used to transfer squishy red stars into ice trays.

Sorting colors and then identifying them in Spanish was a challenge!

Our fine motor skills have been at work as well as our creativity attaching nuts and bolts to make such things as airplanes and big scissors.

At the water table the boys and girls have been transferring water with cups, funnels, basters and pitchers.

Books read this week:

"The Story About Ping" by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wiese
"Mis Colores" by Rebecca Emberley
"Cookie's Week" by Cindy Ward and Tomie de Paola
"The Crayon Box That Talked" by Shane DeRolf
"Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown

Dates to Remember:
9/11 Picture Day
9/25 Field Trip to Crisp Park

P. S. The Friendly Frogs are SUPER resters!