OCS K3 Preschool News

The K3 Express--Nutrition/Health Unit!! 02-Mar-10

The children had a great time during our 5 Senses unit!! See if your child can tell you each one of our senses!! I think their favorite parts were our smelling and hearing games, as well as playing with shaving cream on the tables!! And, of course, they had fun during our Tasting Experiment!!

I really love our next unit!!

NUTRITION/HEALTH!!

It is actually a unit that I worked on when I was doing my student teaching, so I have many ‘extras’ that I bring in to make it more exciting!! We will talk about good vs. junk food, as well as what kind of food keeps us healthy! We will also talk about exercising and I will introduce “Today’s Exercise” which will be something that we do daily to keep our hearts strong!! We will have a food bean bag toss, as well as use our interactive “There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly” puppet!! This kids will really love this as they can help me ‘feed’ the puppet while we sing the song!! It really is a fun unit!!

Language Arts/Writing: We are going to continue to practice writing our names..remember to remind your child to only capitalize the first letter!! It is very difficult to switch them after they have mastered it that way. It used to be thought that capital letters were easier to form, but research now shows that the lower case letters are actually easier. And why not teach them the letters that they see in books and all around them from the beginning??

Math: I will be introducing patterns this week with a basic ABA pattern. This can be a confusing concept in the beginning, but the children will catch on quickly as we learn about more and more patterns! We will also be talking about our favorite fruit, and graphing the results!! We continue to review our number recognition daily, and I have a fun game that will help them practice!!

We are going to begin our math program this week. The lesson will be ‘Pattern Blocks’, using our plastic pattern blocks and pictures. Most of our math program is all ‘Hands-On’. This means that everything is done in class using the manipulatives that we have. We often work with a copied math sheet from my teacher’s manual, and the children use their manipulatives on the sheet. I will often write comments or put a sticker on their sheet to show their progress with the lesson so you, as parents, can see how your child is doing.

Art:We will kick off this week making our new March bags!! Wow!! March already!! This year is really flying by!! We are also going to make some “Good Food Kids” as we get to look at different foods that we like to eat.

Sign Language: This week we will add “DRINK” and “LOVE” to our list of words that we know!!

Zoo Phonics

My favorite part of this program is when the children start to hear our phonics sounds in everyday things that we say!! And they are really starting to-especially during our group times!! In this unit, we will focus on letters ‘n’, ‘o’ and ‘p’!!

Bible Curriculum:

In this unit, we will review the miracles that we have learned so far, and then we will start learning about “Peter walking on the water’. I also have a cute art project that we will do to help the children remember the story even better!!

Classroom Odds and Ends

*We have been working on scissor skills, and I have placed scissors at the writing table for the children to use. To strengthen your child’s fine motor skills-have them practice at home!! Help them with their finger placement (thumb in small hole and first 2 fingers in the larger hole) and remind them to keep their “thumbs up” as they are cutting!! Let them cut out objects out of magazines, or even cut ‘fringes’ on the edge of a piece of paper!! They love it!!

The K3 Express--My Five Senses Unit!! 16-Feb-10

This week, we are starting one of my favorite units!!!

My Five Senses!!

I love this unit because you can have so much fun..but still learn so much!! Because we will be using our senses in this unit, much of it will be ‘hands on’ inside the classroom, but I know that the children will be so excited to share what we have done!! We will learn some new songs, have fun with some ‘fine-motor strengthening’ playdoh, and even hunt for some colorful objects in our sandbox!!

Language Arts/Writing: We are going to begin working on writing our own names on all of our projects and papers. To practice this, the children will begin tracing their own names with‘dot-letters’. The children that are already able to write their names with lower case letters, will have time to practice them using their name cards from the “Name Board” at the writing table. We are also going to have fun with a “listening game” during our group time where the children will really have to listen hard to play!!

Math: The children LOVED our sorting/graphing activity last week with candy hearts!! This week, we will continue our graphing work with a fun tasting and graphing project that we will display in our room!! During each unit, we will also be working on number recognition, as well as counting and tracing our numbers!! We will also start focusing on our numbers with “1” and “2” this week!!

Science: We will be working on so many Science Activities in this unit, as it is a Science based theme!! A couple examples are: Having fun with our sense of smell with a smelling game, and using our sense of touch with shaving cream on our tables!! (Which is something fun to do at home as well!! Just make sure that you get a mild shaving cream without a fragrance!!)

Art: We will have some fun listening to the story “It Looks Like Spilt Milk” and then making our own fun pictures to go along with it. We will also make some texture pictures with colorful sand!!

Sign Language: The children have really amazed me with their sign language!! This week we will add “EAT” and “ALL GONE” to our list of words that we know!!

Zoo Phonics

The children are starting to recognize the letters that they didn’t know before!! And their sounds amaze me!! This week, we will focus on “l’ with Lizzy the lizard, and letter “m” with Missy the Mouse!!

Bible Curriculum:

The children have been working hard on our “Jesus’ Miracles” unit!! This week, we will start talking about “Jesus Feeds 5000”!! I have our Bible curriculum cards, a cute Bible, and a picturebook to share with them to introduce our new miracle!!

Classroom Odds and Ends

*Dont forget to have your child bring back their library book each week so they can check a new one out during our library time!! Library days are on Thursdays!!

*Our Preschool/Kindergarten Open House is Tuesday, Feb. 16th from 6:30-8!! Come on in to tour the 4 year old classroom with your child!! They really had a great time last week during our switch time!!