Spiders...continued!

This week we wrapped up our Spider Unit. Let’s take a look at the week!

Science - On Tuesday, Mrs. Showers hosted Spooky Science with some of her Upper School students! The Pre-K kids loved traveling up two flights of stairs to the upper school science lab where they created monster messages using q-tips, made slime, and watched a pumpkin “get sick” from eating too much candy!

Math - This week we played a game of chance. In our Spider Tissue Box we had one orange spider ring and one black spider ring. The kids took turns closing their eyes and picking one ring from the box. Once they looked at the color, they would put the ring back in the box and then record which color they picked. They did this twelve times! Once they were done, they counted how many times they picked orange and how many times they picked black.

Fine Motor - The kids helped to decorate our classroom for our Halloween Party! They cut out black shapes and then glued them to construction paper pumpkins to create a face. They also helped cut long stripes of black and orange paper for the halloween paper chains hanging up in our room. The kiddos liked taking part in the decorating! We also played with clay and really worked the clay using our fingers. This is a great activity for developing fine motor skills!

Music - In Mrs. N’s music class the children continued to practice songs for Grandparents Day! In our classroom we learned a new halloween song. The song is sung to the tune “Bingo” but instead of singing about a dog we sung about a ghost! The kiddos really enjoyed this one!

There’s something white who likes to boo and ghost is its name-o!

G-H-O-S-T

G-H-O-S-T

G-H-O-S-T

...and ghost is its name-o!

PE - This week Pre-K and K participated in some more hula hoop activities. Hula hoops are great tools for getting kids’ large more skills active! The first activity was called “Line-Up.” In this activity the hula hoops are lined up in one long line. The children lined up behind the first hoop and they were instructed specific ways to go from one hoop to the other. For example: hopping on two feet, hopping on one foot, frog hopping, tiptoe, stomping, etc. The second activity was called, “Bean Bag Grab Game.”  In this game each child was given a bean bag and a hula hoop. When the teacher said go, each child tried to take a bean bag from someone else’s hoop to bring back to their hoop. They could only take one bean bag at a time. When the teacher said stop they had to go back to their hula hoop and count how many bean bags they had!

Video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/7GUJZBXiuVDmD8d92

Art - The children painted coffee filters with watercolor paint and created beautiful designs! The children then cut out a spider body and 8 spider legs, we then assembled the spider on top of the coffee filter.

Halloween Party - On Friday Pre-K & JK celebrated with lots of games and of course lots of candy! We played Ghost Bowling, Halloween Bingo, Spider Web Toss, counted candy corn, played with Spooky Noodles, and decorated cookies! The kids loved showing off their costumes and playing with their friends.

Carnival - Carnival is always so much fun for all ages! The Pre-K kids enjoyed playing all the games. I think the favorite was the bouncy house!

Reminder: NO SCHOOL and no EDP on Nov 3rd & 11th

Spiders

This week in Pre-K we had creepy crawly fun learning about spiders!  So far we have learned that spiders have 8 legs, most have 8 eyes, they spin sticky webs to catch food, and they have two fangs!

Let’s take a look at the week:

Morning Meeting: During morning meeting we continued to discuss our schedule for the day, review daily jobs, calendar, weather and songs. This week we learned a new song called, “The Witch Has an Itch.” We also read fiction and nonfiction spider books!  

Special Celebration: This week we had a special guest come in and tell us all about Diwali - the Hindu Festival of Lights.  Diwali signifies the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair. To learn more about the holiday we listened to a story, decorated diyas (lamps), colored light printouts, and tried a special treat!

Music: This week in music we continued to practice our songs for Grandparents Day as well as some new songs!

Check out Video 1: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1VQQjVcRU6NqLk362

Check out Video 2: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rTMeWpV5qI6Mm7K22

PE: This week we played hula hoop games with Ms. Strain’s Kindergarten class. The first game we played was called - “Find the Hoop!” To play this game, hula hoops of various colors were spread out all over the gym floor. A teacher then called out a color and the children had to run and stand in that color hula hoop. While running to the correct hula hoop, the children would also try to avoid the tagger! The kids loved this game! The second game we played was called, “Red Light, Green Light.” We used hula hoops as cars and the children had to follow the traffic instructions. Sometimes they would have to be a race car on a race track (run and drive fast!), or a school bus in a school zone (walk and drive slow!)

Fine Motor: The students had a good time stacking spider rings on pipe cleaners and using tweezers to remove the spider rings from the spider web!

 

Art: We made Color Resist Spider Webs with Yarn Spiders! They are hanging up in the halls and they look SPOOKTACULAR!

       

     

Science: A special 4th grade friend come into our class and taught us how to make Spooky Spider Slime using household ingredients such as glue, shaving cream, baking soda, contact solution, water color paint, and glitter! The children helped to add and mix the ingredients. We had a lot of fun playing with our slime after we worked hard making it!

Math: For our math center this week we had Spider Counting Mats! The students counted out spiders, one at a time, until they equaled the number that was on the interactive mat. We practiced numbers 1-20! Some students were able to count to the “big” numbers independently, and some students needed some teacher guidance. Since our spiders were a variety of fun and bright colors, some students started making patterns. It was fun to watch the students interact with the counting activity in different ways!

Language Arts: This week the children had journals and they told a teacher a story about what they would do if they were a spider. The teacher dictated their story and the children drew a picture to match their story. This is good pre-writing practice! Journals are one of my favorite centers. The children's stories are so entertaining and creative! For example, this was one student's response:

“I would crawl into someone's room, and then a girl would put me out of her house, and then she would lock it, and then I would never want to go into that house….never again!! And then I saw a King who had a lion's face, and then he said “ROOOAAARRR”... I put milk on him and then he licked it!”

Zoo Phonics: This week we learned what sounds the letters “M” and “N” make. The names of these letters are - Minnie Mouse and Nigel Nightowl! The kiddos also started listening for beginning word sounds and matched pictures to our zoo friends picture. The children are enjoying our pre-reading practice!

Handwriting without Tears: We have been working hard on our sign-in’s and practicing writing the letters in our names. Everyday we make sure that the children are holding pencils, markers, and crayons correctly in order to reinforce good writing habits. If you see your kiddo holding a writing instrument, or scissors, incorrectly at home, please remind them how to hold it correctly! Everyday we work on fine motor skills that help to make our hands stronger for writing.

Recess: The kiddos always have fun outside!!

Check out video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Y5t0xUJXE0oRfWzU2

Pumpkin Carving: We had fun spending quality time with Lower School families!

Reminders:

• Please remember to check your child’s set of extra clothes to make sure they have plenty of seasonally appropriate clothes!
• Carnival and our Halloween Pre-K/JK party is this Friday!

Pumpkins...continued!

This week we finished up our Pumpkin Unit. Here is a look at our week:

SCIENCE: One of the most popular activities this week was our Erupting Pumpkin Volcano! Before we conducted our experiment we predicted what was going to happen when we combined the baking soda and vinegar. We briefly talked about how baking soda is a base and the vinegar is an acid, and when we combine the two a chemical reaction takes place and a gas is produced. The gas is carbon dioxide which fizzes and bubbles. The science behind this experience is probably too much for a 3 year old to fully understand, however, it does plant a seed for future science learning!

Click on the links below to watch our Erupting Pumpkin Volcanos!

Erupting Pumpkin Volcano - Video 1

Erupting Pumpkin Volcano - Video 2

The Pre-K kids also learned about the Life Cycle of a Pumpkin. We first read the book Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington, which details how a pumpkin grows. After reading the book we colored print out pictures of the different stages. We then cut out the pictures and glued them in order on a timeline. The kiddos caught on quickly and were surprised to find out that pumpkins are yellow flowers before they get to be big and orange!

MATH: This week’s math game was a Roll & Color game. The kids were each given a dice. They were instructed to roll the dice, count the dots, and color in the corresponding number on their paper. This is great way to practice one-to-one correspondence.

ART: The children created Mosaic Pumpkins and Shaving Cream Marbled Pumpkins. The kiddos love to experiment with texture and love being creative!

The kids also painted their October self portraits.

LANGUAGE ARTS: For Journals this week the topic was - “How would you decorate your pumpkin?” The children shared a variety of answers such as, “Mine would be wearing weeds!” and “Mine has lipstick on!” They enjoyed drawing pictures that matched their responses.

We also played Letter Bingo. The kids were shown an uppercase letter and the kids had to see if the lowercase letter was on their bingo board.

P.E.: This week in P.E. the Pre-K and K kids teamed up and completed an obstacle course! The obstacle course had hula hoops, hoppity hops, bikes, scooters and cones! The children loved the thrill of the race!

READING BUDDIES: This week we decided to take a break from reading with our buddies and instead we worked on our creativity! The 5th/6th grade friends helped us with our art projects and decorating our classroom pumpkins. It’s so much fun watching the “big kids” play and get messy with our preschoolers. As they were leaving they asked if they could spend more time in the classroom volunteering! They really love Pre-K!

MUSIC: The kiddos learned some new songs in music class this week! They love singing and playing the instruments. The kiddos are beginning to practice for their Grandparents Day performance!

ZOO PHONICS: This week we learned the letter “I” and “J.” These two friends are “Inny Inchworm” and “Jerry Jellyfish!” Ask your preschooler if they can tell you the sounds that they make! We are making our way through the alphabet one letter at a time! Once we learn all of our sounds we can practice reading CVC words.

Next week we will begin our Spider Unit!