If your child is anything like mine then he/she is probably telling you we did nothing at school. Our children may be unaware of all the learning taking place but it is happening. Here are a few things we are doing in class that you might not see on papers coming home:
Capital E we found to be easier to write but lowercase e is requiring more practice. With majority of our class having lowercase e in their name it is important students know how to write it correctly. 
Students enjoyed acting out real life situations in our restaurant play area this week. While students were playing they were using their mathematical skills with money. We talked about word families and incorporated a book. Students were excited to realize that they too could read short words by knowing the word family. On Monday we pretended we were aliens visiting earth and searched outside for treasures to collect for crayon rubbings. On Friday we are going to go on a nature walk where students collect earthly treasures on their very own Earth bracelet. 
    If you are looking on ways to extend your child's literacy skills at home check out this website with phonemic awareness activities. Be aware that one part that might be confusing for children is the difference between syllable (beats in a word) and phoneme (letter sounds heard in a word) segmentation. This website has great hands-on activities. We will be doing some of these here in the classroom.

    Students were thrilled to have the opportunity to share their stuffed zoo animals from home and their wonderful memories of times they have gone to a real zoo. With only having students one day this week our day was packed full. We sang zoo songs while doing mathematics; one-to-one correspondence, counting, and number recognition. Most students participated in a Penguin game where students worked on their gross motor development by carrying a soft ball between their knees while walking (moving like a penguin). All students worked hard in developing their fine motor skills in using scissors to create our lion art project. They also went on a zoo animal hunt. This has to be one of the kids' favorite activities with the students chiming, "Let's do it again!"
    All students are working very hard on writing their letter of the week. At home we can remind our child that the letter Zz is made with points instead of curve lines and that the letter is forwards. 
    Have you taken your child to Schreiner Farms in Dallesport? It is FREE to visit. This unique ranch has many animals you would see in a zoo such as zebras, camels, buffalo, giraffes, etc. The only downfall is that visitors must stay in their vehicles (safety first). If you are ever going to The Dalles take a few minutes to cross the river and take a look.  

    Kids were very excited today! We started off our morning doing our usual routine of singing the ABC song, saying and pointing to each letter and sound, seasons, days of the week, calendar, months of the year, number of days in school, weather, money, and pledge of allegiance. 
    We are reviewing our letters this week with cheers (kinesthetic) and sensory boxes. Students are to move their arms according to what lines the letters touch while saying the letter and its sound. There are two sensory boxes. One filled with dried beans and numbers, and the other with cotton balls of assorted sizes and colors and letters. Students are to find a letter then say its sound/double check with audio and find the lowercase letter that matches. When finding a number students match with a corresponding card and determine what number it is through rote memorization or counting the dots.
    Many of our students still need extra support with patterns. We used Valentine patterns today where students were to finish an already made pattern. For extension have your child start with a simple pattern then slowly add more components to the pattern. This could be a color, shape, number or 3+ items. 
   During phonemic awareness time we are focusing on segmenting words and rhyming words (word families; -at, -in, -ot, etc.). We are incorporating the book "Tanka, Tanka, Skunk" by Steve Webb to discuss these two early literacy skills. 
    On a side note, I am thrilled to announce we will be adding a much better outside play area for our students. This spring/summer you will see many new things slowly appearing. For starters, I already added an airplane teeter totter that is ready to play with on Wednesday. The playground is here but as you can see from the picture below will take much more time and planning to put together. I plan on creating a safe, age-appropriate and developmentally extensive play area for our kids to reach their milestones. This is just a start of what I envision our preschool outside area having.    
 

    Sharing is a difficult concept. "I must share my toys but cannot share germs. What?" 
    Various activities, songs, and projects were all wrapped around our theme sharing. The fish that came home this week was called the "sharing fish". Students were to share their sharing fish candy (peppermint) with 3 people. Each child also illustrated and wrote their own sharing book that they were supposed to take home and read to their parents. In class we did activities like putting puzzles together to reiterate the concept of sharing in order to complete a task.
    This month we are learning about heart shape. We learned how to cut out and draw a heart this week. The letter Ss and its sound was undoubtedly a huge part of our learning this week. A letter that was embedded in every activity. The number 8 is a tricky one. A very difficult number for children to write. You might want to continue to practice writing this number at home.
    In our weekly puppet show we learned about eating healthy. Thus the reason for attending the Field Trip to Diamond Fruit. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves and had eager children wanting to tell you all about their visit to the production facility. 
    Next week is Valentine's Week. Wow, the months are flying by.

    Are dragons real or make believe? Well, if you are talking about dragons who do not breathe fire then the answer is yes. Komodo dragons are real, although these dragons are more like a lizard than the medieval fantasy dragon. Students took part this week jousting (gross motor development), sorting the king's jewels (math & fine motor development), working together as a team to build a castle with legos and blocks, and writing about what we would like our fantasy dragons to protect. Through all our fun themed based learning activities we are focusing on academic LEARNING.
    Students segmented sentences by utilizing counters to discover how many words make up a sentence. They sequenced stories with a beginning, middle, and end and created their own unique book to take home to show to their parents. 
    Did you see a pom pom and toothpick come home? Students were to explain to you what these items represented. The toothpick is prickly and hurts to touch our cheek just as mean words hurt. The pom pom is soft, fuzzy, and feels good to the touch. We want all of our words to be like the fuzzy pom pom...making others feel good. Go this week and remind our kids to use kind words and discuss what reactions others have to kindness.