Music Activity: One Elephant Went Out to Play

For this music activity we first used masking tape to make a spider web on the floor. Next we sung and played the One Elephant Went Out to Play game.

Science Activity: Spring Scales

For this experiment we collected several objects from around the room. We hung a basket from a spring scale, and asked the children to make predictions about what items they thought weighed the most. After making their predictions, the children put the items in the basket and the teacher helped them read the results on the spring scale.

Art Activity: Bingo Daubers

A very simple and fun activity on this day. The children used various colors of bingo daubers to paint a picture.

Art Activity: SPLASH! Pictures

After reading the book SPLASH! by Ann Jonas the children made pictures similar to those found in the book. First they glued a picture of themselves onto their paper. Next they used markers to draw a picture. Next, they dictated a story to the teacher about what was going on in their picture.

Story Book for the week of October 12-16, 2009

Our story books for the week of October 12th to October 16th, for our theme of Number Stories were:

SPLASH! by Ann Jonas

Gray Rabbit's 1, 2, 3 by Alan Baker

Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews

Ten Little Fish by Audrey Woods

A Creepy Countdown by Charlotte Huck

Art Activity: Up On Top Collage

First we gave the children a photograph of themselves to glue to their paper. Then, the children used paper punches to cut out various shapes. The children then glued the shapes to their paper to make it look like they were balancing objects on their heads like in the book Ten Apples Up On Top.

Math Activity: How Many Apples?

A teacher made game where the children count dots on an apple to put them in order from 1 to 10. The skills involved in this activity include touch counting, rote counting, and numeral recognition.

Story Books for October 7-9, 2009

Our story books for the week of October 7th to October 9th for our theme of Number Stories were:

1, 2, 3 To the Zoo by Eric Carle

Ten Apples Up On Top by Theo Lesig

How Many Bugs in a Box? by David A. Carter

Art Activity: Monster Mask

We gave the children paper masks and let them decorate them with various colors and patterns of tissue paper. We had lots of scary monsters in the room that day.

Language Activity: Mouse Count

After reading the story Mouse Count by Ella Stoll Walsh, we gave the children some toy mice and a snake puppet so that they could retell the story in their own words.

Art Activity: Painting With Snakes

For this activity we gave the children rubber snakes to paint with. The children dipped the snakes in trays of paint and then decorated their paper with the paint covered snakes.

Field Trip: Build A Bear

On this day we planned a field trip to go to a Build A Bear Workshop to get a new classroom bear. On the day before, the children voted on which style of bear we would build. When we got to the Build A Bear Workshop, the children helped stuff the bear, gave her a pretend bath, and decided on the name Isabella for our new bear.

Art Activity: Bears

For this activity we gave the children a piece of fabric cut into the shape of a bear, some buttons, ribbons, string, and smaller pieces of fabric. The children used glue to add accessories to their bear to decorate it. Afterwards, each child gave their bear a name.

Story Books for September 28 to October 2, 2009

Here is a list of the books our class read for the week of September 28th to October 2nd.

All of these books related to our theme of Number Stories:

Count With Teddy 1, 2, 3 by Roy Trower

Who's at the Door by Tim Booth

Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert

Mouse Count by Ella Stoll Walsh

One Hungry Monster by Susan Heyboer O'Keefe

Math Activity: Spider Graph

A simple graphing activity on this day. The children were asked if they like or dislike spiders. The children who liked spiders put a smiley face on the graph. The children who did not like spiders put a unhappy face on the graph. After all of the children had made their choice, the entire class helped count how many liked or disliked spiders.

Art Activity: Spiders

For this activity we gave the children styrofoam balls and pipe cleaners. They painted the styrofoam balls with tempera paint and then added the pipe cleaners to make legs for the spiders.

Story Book for September 18, 2009

Our story book for September 18th was Itsy Bitsy Spider by Kate Toms. A more in depth version of the traditional Nursery Rhyme.

Health and Safety Activity: Hot Hazards

For this activity we showed the children an assortment of photos of household items. The children had to identify which items were potential burn hazards. The children marked the burn hazards by putting a picture of a flame on the picture of the item.

Art Activity: Shoe Collage

For this activity the children cut out pictures of shoes, and people wearing shoes, from magazines. They glued the photos onto their paper to make a shoe collage. We had some shoe pictures already cut out for the children that weren't ready for scissor use.

Story Book for September 17, 2009

Our story book for September 17th was 1, 2, Buckle My Shoe by Anna Grossnickle. A version of the old counting Nursery Rhyme.

Science Activity: Planting Flower Seeds

The children planted flower seeds for this activity. They measured out the amount of soil and water to use and then added them to planting cups along with the flower seeds. We'll see how well these flowers grow in our classroom

Language Activity: Flower Spelling

For this activity the names of flowers were spelled out on a piece of paper with a picture of the flower. The children used faux flower petals with letters written on them to spell out the names of the flowers. They matched up the letters on the petals with the letters on the paper. A good letter matching and letter recognition skill.

Art Activity: Sponge Painting Flowers

The children used flower and petal shaped sponges to make flowers. They dipped the sponges into tempera paint and then pressed the sponges on to the paper.

Story Book for September 16, 2009

Our story book for September 16th was Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary by Lynn Salem. In this very short version of the traditional Nursery Rhyme, Mary plants different types of seeds in her garden. One of the seeds grows into a beanstalk.

Woodworking Activity: Making an Instrument

The children made a home made instrument at the woodworking table on this day. First they used the hand drill to make pilot holes in the wood.

Next they inserted screw eye bolts into the wood.

Next, rubber bands were attached to all of the screw eye bolts to make a string instrument.

Art Activity: Paper Hats

On this day the children decorated paper hats. We have them each a folded paper hat and let them decorate it with markers. After they were finished decorating the hat with markers, they used scotch tape to attach feathers to the hats.

Story Book for September 15, 2009

For September 15th we read the Nursery Rhyme Johnny Crow's Garden. A variety of animals come to a party at Johnny Crow's Garden.

Language Activity: Humpty Dumpty Re-enactment

For this activity the children re-enacted the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. The sat on a small wall made from cardboard blocks while saying the rhyme, and then fell off the wall.

Math Activity: Egg Carton Sorting

For this activity we wrote numerals, 1-12, inside the compartments of egg cartons. The children had to count out the correct number of beads for each section of the egg carton.