My apologies for posting this blog later than usual. We have been busy in the classroom with many activities and the children getting more curious about different topics.
L and N, working on letter A. We used apples for counting, sorting, art, and eating too. We sorted by color and size and also worked on addition. We counted how many apples had stems, how many were green, how many were red, etc.
R and L making apple prints. When we use paint it often turns into painting with our hands, exploring paint and mixing colors. I love when the children have those ah-ha moments when they realize that blue and yellow combined makes green.
During our circle time we talked about apples, observed them, and touched them. The children noticed many details about the apples' colors, shapes, and sizes. No two apples were the same, they were all different! This turned it to a neat conversation about how we are all children and yet we are all so unique and different in our own special way. In the picture you notice all the ripped paper. We all started with our own paper color and we practiced listening and following directions. For example, rip your paper in two. rip the bigger one again. Line up your three pieces of paper from biggest to smallest. Rip the smallest one. How many pieces do you have now. Then we started to rip the pieces as small as we could. And then we used the ripped paper to make our own apples.
With teacher Thaovy we started to make "A"ngels using markers on coffee filters and then spraying them with water. It was really neat to watch the colors blend together. We are still working on this project at school.
P putting his apples on the apple tree, practicing one to one correspondence and writing numbers. We counted how many apples there were all together, then how many red, green, and yellow ones there were.
FINALLY IT RAINED! We enjoyed Mother Nature! This was an awesome Friday. The children were so excited to use their umbrellas, rain coats, and boots. This picture doesn't do it justice, but about 5-10 minutes before we were going to go inside it started pouring. Oh what fun we had. Thank you parents for having gearing your child up for the rain. We have had a very dry winter but I smile knowing we at least had one amazing day in the rain.
As always the priceless moments of seeing creative minds at work. K and her tree branch umbrella.
A and L engaging at water play at its finest, getting to use the rain.
Taking cover!
Starting to feel a lot like spring. Teacher Richa was so kind to bring us some beautiful daffodils. We used chalk and crayons to draw and color our observations in our notebooks.
Letter Q for Quail. We talked about quails and how quails are our state bird. Teacher Thaovy brought in quail eggs for us to see. Many of the children in our class thought if we kept them that we could have pet quails in our class. We boiled the eggs and looked at them before and after. It was neat to see the transformation.
Painting with Q-tips. It is always neat to see the children's different ideas and creativity shine through the use of different tools to paint with. Painting with Q-tips helped us work on our tri-grip hold.
Sharing day...I love when I get to bring in something from my personal life to share with my/your children. For Q week I thought the children would like to see one of my quilts. This quilt my husband Ryan and I had made from all of our high school t-shirts. The children were more than excited. The joy and excitement that filled our classroom was so beautiful. They all wanted to lay on it as fast as possible. The children asked me what the different shirts were from and could read the letters SBHS. I asked them what the difference between a quilt and regular blanket was and their reply was "Quilts are HUGE!!"
Next they all tried to see if they could snuggle underneath it together.
This was another quilt that I brought from home that my aunt made for Ryan and I for our wedding. There were so many shapes that the children recognized and they even figured out that the blue squares were made out of jeans because on all four corners there are pockets. The stitching had hearts that were tough to see but the children tried to count them. I love to share my life with all of your awesome children!
Making a quilt of our own. Cutting all different types of material.
Some it the children took this very seriously and worked so hard to cut certain shapes and connect then together. One of our friends E even made a robot.
Making our patches.
Practicing staying within the lines, concentrating and taking our time. At this age we see the growth from scribbling to making pictures that depict certain characters and meanings. And we also see the children use their own creativity. Some of the children used a different color in each square, some made designs, and others made patterns.
A was very proud of her quilt
And she brought one from home to share with us.
K using a Quill to write. It definitely took much longer to write with a quill than with a marker. We tried to imagine how long writing letters would have taken before we had ink pens.
Making our Quesadillas with purple room.
We watched to see when the cheese melted and when the quesadillas were ready to flip.
D, L, and L enjoying their quesadillas.
K and J eating their quesadillas. Yummy!
Teacher Kristina Boot Camp. Just kidding! We love to be outside to exercise and stretch. We have been really looking forward to our field trip to the gym coming up march 31st.
Jumping, punching, kicking, and strengthening our bodies.
One of our class's favorite things is to do obstacle courses. K is balancing on the stones that are keeping her out of hot lava. Then a fast run over to the hula hoops.
Here you see P jumping with both feet together in each hoop.
M then crawling through the tunnel.
And lastly, G hitting the tire with a bat. All of the children cheer for their friends, and it goes kind of like this...go G go, go G go... And then when each child got to the tire they would hit the tire ten times and their friends would count for them. We always have a blast making different obstacle courses.
Happy 5th Birthday K! I feel so lucky to be in your life and be your teacher. You constantly amaze me with the things you come up with and the knowledge you share with your friends. One think I will never forget was the day you put on my sweatshirt and you pretended to be me and at pick up told a parent about their child's day like I do. So awesome! Happy birthday kiddo, I wish you the very best!
Make a wish!
It felt like a summer day in Hawaii. The beautiful yellow flowers, hot pink cups, and little paper umbrellas in our parfaits.
Our parfaits were so yummy and we ate them very quickly!
Thank you to K and her mom H for bring a fun yummy birthday snack to share. I cannot believe K is already 5. Where is the time going? Soon they will be off to kindergarten.
I hope you all are having a great week!
Hugs,
Teacher Kristina
