March 9th, 2012

• In language arts, we read many Dr. Suess books and practiced listening for rhyming words.
• In writing, we did many activities based off of Dr. Suess books.  From Mr. Brown can Moo, Can You, we wrote a story about something else Mr. Brown can do and practiced using onomatopoeias (sound words).  In Horton Hatches an Egg, Horton sits on an egg for a lazy bird.  In the end, the egg hatches and it is an elephant bird.  We then drew a picture of what it would look like if two other animals were mixed.  We also read, There's a Wocket in my Pocket. Inspired by this story, we made up our own creature that rhymed with where it was hiding (E.g. This is a Zed under by bed).  In addition, we read Green Eggs and Ham.  We then wrote about something we do not like to eat and where we would not like to eat it. 
• In math, we learned about estimation and were introduced to a new math center where we practice estimating how many sea creatures we can grab in our hands.
• During our theme time, we read more Dr. Suess books and did some activities based off of the book.  After reading The Foot Book, we sorted shoes.  After reading One fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, we did an activity where we practiced graphing fish.
• Our community centers had a few Dr. Suess activities.  We acted out The Cat in the Hat in our dramatic play center.  We finger painted a Cat in the Hat hat.  We also practiced our tracing and cutting skills by making a cat head.
• Special theme of the week: Dr. Suess
• Heart Word of the Week: and

Donations Needed

For Dr. Suess Week:

• eggs (by Thursday)
• ham cubes or small pieces (by Thursday)

For discovery bottles:

• empty glass or plastic jars
• vegetable oil
• shaving cream
• hair gel
• shampoo
• food coloring
• corn starch
• white rice
• glitter

March 2nd, 2012

• In language arts, we worked on the strategies of summarizing and retelling.  We also did some songs and activities on the smart board to practice beginning sounds.
• In writing, we practiced writing our heart word "this" in our visitor's guides.  We then practiced reading our visitor's guides.
• In math, we finished up creating our own story problems and solving the story problems.  This week, many of our problems focused on subtraction.
• In social studies, we made maps of our city.  We also made a key to go along with those maps.  In addition, we learned about the difference between goods and services.
• During community centers, we continued with our city.  We worked hard this week on taking turns and learning what to do if many people want to do the same thing at once.
• Heart word of the week: do
• Special theme of the week: Neighborhood

February 23, 2012

• In language arts, we continued to practice summarizing after reading a story.  We also continued to work on identifying the main idea of a story and all the details that go along with that main idea.
• In math, we continued to create and solve sea creature story problems.  With these story problems, we are working on beginning addition and subtraction skills.
• In writing, we wrote an article for our city newspaper.
• In social studies, we continued to develop our city.  This week, we created roads and road signs.  We also began talking about maps for our city.
• During community centers, we have continued expanding our creativity while we work in our city.  We added the "White House" to our city because we thought we needed a president.  We have also added cars and a car dealership to our city so we can drive on the roads and follow some of the signs we have created.  Before we could drive cars around our city, we had to take a drivers test to earn our driver's licence.
• Heart Word of the Week: this
• Special Theme of the Week: Neighborhood

February 17, 2012

• In language arts, we practiced the strategy of summarizing and identifying the main idea and details of a story.  We also continued to practice with recognizing beginning sounds and ending sounds.
• In writing, we drew a picture of what we wanted to be when we grow up.  We then wrote a speech bubble telling what we want to be.
• In math, we continued with sea creature story problems.  This week, we individually solved some sea creature story problems on white boards.  We also began creating our own story problems.  On Wednesday, we celebrated the 100th day of school.   We had fun counting to 100 several different ways.  We also counted out 100 pieces of snack.
• In social studies, we began our unit on neighborhoods.  We decided to turn our classroom into a city.  We brainstormed different businesses we needed in our city and what people might do at those businesses.  We also learned about the difference between needs and wants.
• During community centers, we "opened" many of the businesses we brainstormed.  We have a construction zone, Pizza Hut, a vet, a post office, a school, an art museum, a library, a bakery, a fire station, and a police station.  We are learning about some of the different things we can do at these jobs, as well as developing our social skills.  We are also working on some literacy skills by writing down orders, writing down why an animal was visiting the vet, giving tickets for students "caught being good", etc.  We are also practicing some math skills by exchanging money in the city.
• Heart word of the week: you
• Special theme of the week: "Neighborhoods"

Febrary 10th, 2011

• In language arts, we once again practiced the strategy of recognizing story structure.  With our focus book, we decided the story structure was beginning, middle, and end.  We also came up with rhyming words in the -ed family and the -ap family.  While using the Smartboard, we practiced recognizing beginning sounds.
• In writing, we wrote about ways to keep our teeth healthy.
• In math, we acted out and solved sea creature story problems.
• In science, we learned about ways to keep our teeth healthy.  We also learned about some healthy and unhealthy foods for our teeth.
• In our community centers, our construction zone turned into a dentist office.  We built dentist chairs with the bricks.  We then used puppets and pretend dentist tools to act out going to the dentist office.  In our science center, we had hard boiled eggs and saw what happened if we drank too much kool-aid or pop.
• Heart word of the week: for
• Theme: Dental Health

Sorting foods that are healthy for our teeth and unhealthy for our teeth

 Our dramatic play turned into a bakery this week

 Exploring eggs to see what happens if we drink too much pop or kool-aid

 Dentist office

 Graphing our favorite sea creatures

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