Seasons and Weather

Recently we have been learning about season and the weather.  We have read books on different weather types and the season and done several seasons related activities.  Below are some season activities we completed with a description of the activity.

These bulletin boards show the seasons display we created.  We took 4 days to explore each season.  We read about the season, did shared writing projects on the season, a journal writing and created a symbol for the season.  Students made squirrels for fall, snowmen for winter, flowers for spring, and popsicle for summer.  The fine arts activity helped them to practice their fine motor skills in the form of drawing shapes and cutting, as well as shape recognition, and we talked about colors as we worked as well.  The students are very proud of their work, as am I.

Below is an activity we did with the book It Looked Like Spilt Milk.  There is another post that goes into detail about this activity.

We also learned about weather.  After reading about the seasons we talked about all the types of weather that we have during the seasons and students created weather charts.  They picked 4 types of weather and then students pointed the pointer at the weather they liked the best.

Clouds

We are learning about weather.  We read about clouds today, both fiction and nonfiction.  The fiction book we read was It Looked Like Spilt Milk and the nonfiction book was Clouds!.  We talked about how we lay on the ground and look at the sky and sometimes the clouds look like something else.  Then during small group rotation time one of the groups made ink blots using white paint on blue paper.  Next students told me what it looked like and I wrote for them.  Then they communicated their ideas by drawing what it looked like.  Below is one of my favorites.  This activity is always interesting to me.  Some students shock and surprise me with their creativity. 

Squirrels in Fall (and other seasons too)

Today, as we learned about the seasons, we read the book Squirrels All Year Long.  The kids really enjoyed the photographs and information about the squirrels.  We also read a book simply titled Squirrels.  We compared the information in each book.  We focused in on fall today and revisited the parts of the book that talked about squirrels in the fall.  When we were done we talked about what squirrels looked like, what shapes their bodies were made up of.  Then students used this information and their creativity to create squirrels.  I think they did a great job, how about you?

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful thanksgiving celebration.  Students brought in treats to share.  My pre-k class dressed as the Pilgrims, and the other class dressed as the Native Americans.  We each performed a song for the other group and then sat down to our meals.  Each student had the place mat shown below.  A good time was had by all.  Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.  I know the time with family has been priceless.

Letter Practice

To practice writing letters this week in Pre-K we used shaving cream.  The kids loved it and the task of writing, which can sometimes be met with groans and sighs, was met with smiles and laughs.  All you do is get the cheapest shaving cream you can find and have the kids smear it on the table and then use their pointer finger to write their letters.  It is a big hit with nearly all 4-5 year olds.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

This week we read Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  We read two different versions and compared them during story time.  Then during small group time students retold the story using pieces, and sorted and compared items by size.  To wrap up the day we sang a song about the 3 bears, below are the lyrics and you sing it to the tune of 3 blind mice.

3 brown bears, 3 brown bears
See all the beds
See all the chairs
The momma cooked porridge in a big black pot
The papa's porridge was way too hot
The baby bear cried an awful lot
3 brown bears

To help students sing the song I used the following visual....

 

This is an excellent pre-reading skill.  Using symbols to recall the song is a connection to reading.

Insects and Bugs

Today we read Bugs, Bugs, Bugs.  We talked about all the bugs, the colors they are, shapes we saw.  At the end of the book is a chart that goes over if each bug flies or not, how many legs it has, where it lives, and if it stings.  The students made predictions and we made comparisons.  Finally I explained that insects have 3 body parts and 6 legs.  Next in small groups students made insects with 3 body parts and 6 legs.  Meanwhile the other group worked together to make a graph about how we felt about insects.  They wrote their name (or first letter of their name) on the post-it note and then put it under the emotion they felt about bugs.  We talked about why they had those feelings, counted how many people felt each way, and then compared each category to one another and decided which had more, and which had less.  Attached is a photo of a display of the students' work.