Pre-K is a HOOT! : 2017

This week we continued our Gingerbread Unit! Let's take a look at the week.

On Monday we welcomed a small group of 4th graders into our classroom. The 4th graders were challenged to create and execute a lesson plan for our Pre-K kids. The lesson plan began with reading the book, "The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend" by Dan Santat. After reading the story, the 4th graders asked the Pre-K kids to create their own imaginary friend using crayons and paper. The Pre-K kids got to work and drew pictures of their imaginary friends and gave them interesting names and superpowers.

During centers the kiddos played a Gingerbread Roll & Color Math Game and completed a Gingerbread Matching Game.

On Tuesday we had PE! Mr. Linkhart worked on the kiddos throwing skills. The kids got to "build" a snowman by throwing bean bags into a milk-crate. The goal was to throw 3 bean bags into the milk-crate in order to build a snowman!

During centers the children made Milk Carton Gingerbread Houses! Prior to creating our masterpieces, we discussed the proper steps needed to be followed in order to assemble a gingerbread house out of icing, graham crackers and candy. We talked about how the icing is like the "glue" that will help the graham cracker stick to the milk carton. The kiddos then discussed how they were going to decorate their houses. "I want to use lots of marshmallows!" "I'm going to use ALL the candy!" The kiddos had fun decorating with holiday gummies, M&M's, marshmallows and fruit loops.

On Wednesday the kiddos started their December self-portraits. The kiddos worked hard observing the details - from skin color to hair, teeth, and eyebrows! The kiddos also completed a Fruit Loop Graph. First, the kiddos decorated a gingerbread house play-mat with fruit loops, then they graphed the fruit loops. We discussed which color had the most and least amount of fruit loops. One of the kiddos asked what the words "most" and "least" meant.

On Thursday we attended the Kindergarten Auto Show!

On Friday we had a Pajama & Cookie Party! The day began with making gingerbread cookie dough. The kiddos helped to measure and mix the ingredients. Our buddies joined us and helped us roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to make our gingerbread cookies. While our cookies baked we read books with our buddies. Not too long after our cookies went into the oven, Chef Fulton ran into our classroom and told us that our gingerbread cookies ran away!!! Our buddies helped our Pre-K kids follow the clues to find our cookies. Once the cookies were found we decorated and ate our treats!

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!

We will see everyone back at school on January 8, 2018. We will then begin our unit on "The Mitten" - based on the book by Jan Brett.

"Run, run, run as fast as you can.

You'll never catch me,

I'm the gingerbread man!"

This week we began our Gingerbread Unit!

On Monday we read, "The Gingerbread Man." The kids loved this story and chimed in during the parts of the story that read, "Run, run, run as fast as you can. You'll never catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" After the story we played gingerbread math and fine motors games. The children practiced their counting skills by rolling the dice, counting the dots, and decorating the gingerbread man with the corresponding number of candies. To practice their fine motor skills the kiddos did a gingerbread color sorting activity using pom-poms and tweezers.

On Tuesday the kiddos made gingerbread play-dough! We used this as an opportunity to practice a variety of skills and learn some new skills. We began with reading the play-dough recipe. This reinforces that print has a purpose and teaches units of measure. We also talked about the properties of the materials (dry, wet, liquid, powdery, oil) which teaches various vocabulary and experience with materials. We discussed how it is important to follow the steps in the correct order - the order in which materials are mixed may affect the product! Finally, we talked about how mixing materials together can make a change - a material may get wet, clump together, or dissolve. After making the play-dough the kiddos used their imagination and creativity to make gingerbread men! During play the children practiced social skills (asking to pass the rolling pin), developed language skills, and continued to explore the properties of the new material.

On Wednesday & Thursday the kiddos made a Gingerbread Craft using foam sheets. The kiddos cut out their gingerbread man that was traced onto a brown foam sheet. Then the Pre-K kids decorated their gingerbread man with various foam sheet shapes and googly eyes. After the kids were finished decorating we incorporated math by counting the number of circles, squares, rectangles and triangles on their gingerbread man. The children had a lot of fun decorating their gingerbread man! One of the students added a lot of googly eyes and said that it was an, "Alien Gingerbread Man."

On Friday we welcomed our Reading Buddies and Mystery Reader into our classroom. Our Mystery Reader was Junior Kindergarten teacher Ms. Massey! She read the book, "How to Catch Santa" by Jean Reagan. The kiddos were very engaged and loved the book!