What is your Letter?

ABC Clothesline

Something else we did several times during letter week was our ABC Clothes line. I hung a clothesline down low, under our word wall. We hung clothes pins that each had a letter card on it, until we had the alphabet hanging in order. Then we matched up other letters or objects with the ones that were hanging. I like this activity because the children can better understand the new information by using touch, sight and sound.  This activity helped us with matching, sequencing, auditory discrimination, phonemic awareness and of course Letter Recognition.


***This is an activity that I got from a book called Brain-Based Activities for Young Learners, by Ellen Booth Church

Letters, letters, everywhere letters!!

This week we are working on a few letters. We are starting to recognize the first letter in our names. Carly Sue is gluing Cheerios to her "C".

Evan is doing the same to his "E".  He is following the letter with glue and then putting the Cheerios on top.

They also covered my letter "P".



We also counted how many letters we have in our names. Evan has four, Carly has five (plus 3 when you add Sue). My name has seven when you add the Ms. and Evan's mommy's name has seven letters too. We had fun counting them and then we hung them on the wall. We will continue to try and recognize the names this week. 

We talked about the letter O. We painted lots of O's on paper and then we made Octopus Headbands. For the O's we used different sized caps and dipped them in paint. For the headbands we painted our hands and used our hand prints for the bodies. Then we glued on Eyes. Carly Sue chose Purple eyes and Evan chose Green.

Evan is working on O's.



Now he is painting his hand. He decided on a Green Octopus.



Carly Sue and her O's!



Evan is putting the glue on his Octopus and gluing it to his headband. He also decided to make tracks on his headband, before gluing on the Octopus.

Carly Sue is putting her eye's in the perfect spot!



They were too excited at the thought of going back outside. Are they they cutest, or what?

Watercolors and Beach Signs

This was the different signs that we learned this week. We learned the sign for bird, shell, fish and crab. Carly Sue is painting the pages of her Beach Book that shows the different that has those signs.

Evan is telling Carly Sue she should paint her crab RED!

Evan is putting the finishing touches on his pictures. 



The books turned out really cute. They were simple, only four pages. The story went like this:

I went to the beach and what did I see?

A bird at the beach looking at me!

I went to the beach and what did I see?

A fish in the water splashing at me!

I went to the beach and what did I see?

A shell in the sand sparkling at me!

I went to the beach and what did I see?

A crab in his shell waving at me!

We are wrapping up Ocean Week. We finally got to go to the "beach" across the street. It has been too hot to go outside and we have been pretending to be at the beach inside. However, today we got to go to the sand box at the park and have our Beach adventure. We walked like crabs in the sand, dug for treasures on the shore, we packed our snack and played with beach balls. Unfortunately, the sky got very dark and we had to go back to the house and finish playing inside.

We also made Octopus headbands and completed our Beach Books. Those were fun. Each page tells about something at the beach. Plus, we learned the sign for each object. (bird, crab, shell and fish)

Hope everyone enjoys the pictures and have a great Weekend!!!

Dolphin Chill Out Song

http://youtu.be/C72027z1kmA

This is fun to play with the kids. We have used it to learn about dolphins "talking" to each other, we have danced to it and I also added it to the end of our nap music play list. It is very relaxing.

Eric Carle

For you Eric Carle fans, I found a few of his stories that are done in "claymation". They are cute a very quick.  Here is the one that we watched this week.

http://youtu.be/R8JjJs2Pg5g

Ocean Animals are FUN!

Well we are smack dab in the middle of Ocean Week. We have been learning about (and swimming with) sea animals. We learned that a Star Fish has really cool suction cups. We made our own version of a Starfish and used Cheerios for suction cups. It was yummy and fun. We also found out that Hermit Crab's grow big, just like we do. The only thing is, they have to find new houses when they get to big. Thankfully we just have to get new pants!

We have also had fun building with the new Mega Blocks that came in the mail. We also got our new Toy Story Memory Game. It is so fun trying to find pairs of Jessie and Buzz. Finally, we are making it through the Heat Wave. We haven't gone to a real Beach, but we have been in the pool, which cools us off just as well. Plus, with the heat advisory, we have actually only gone out first thing in the morning. While we miss playing outside, we haven't been short on the fun. Check out some of the things we have done the last couple of days.

Building with Mega Blocks

Starfish and Cheerios suction cups!!

Ahoy Mateys!! Ocean Week has begun!

We got started this week talking about The Ocean! We had sea animals in our water table, we read Wally The Whale and The Curious Dolphin. We also painted sea shells during art. We sprinkled kosher salt onto the wet paint and when they dried our shells were so sparkly. We also had a visit from Joe the Pirate. He is a puppet that sails the Seven Seas. He told us about looking for treasure and all of his ocean friends. Finally, we used the pool today. We pretended we were...well, at the beach! What better way to beat the heat than in the pool.

Here is Evan investigating Ocean Animals. Today we talked about Clown Fish, Starfish, Seahorses and Crabs. We also identified Hammer Head Sharks, Great White Sharks and Orca Whales.

Carly Sue is pouring water from once container to another, covering Clown Fish.

We also used purple, orange and yellow to paint sea shells. Then, before the paint dried we sprinkled kosher salt on them, so that when they dry, they will sparkle. Evan is using a pincer grasp to pick up the salt and sprinkle. Not only is he acting like a Crab, he is practicing a fine motor, pre-writing skill.

Carly Sue is concentrating on painting her Sea Shells.

What's on the horizon??? Beach Week!

Evan has inspired me to plan a week around the Beach! I can't think of a better way to celebrate Summer. Some of the things we will be doing: Talking about things we can do at the beach and then writing down their answers (dictation), exploring a beach themed water/sand table, Alphabet themed Treasure Hunt. Check out this weeks lesson plans to see all that is in store. We will go to the "Beach" and play with beach balls and look for shells. I can't wait for our Beach Fun to begin!

Brain-Boosting Skills

Because children learn best when fully engaged in challenging activities, I try to provide playful, engaging activities that support children's healthy brain development and learning. Here are some of the elements that are a part of our every day activities,at A Place To Grow Childcare.
Observing: watching, examining, gathering information

Comparing: noticing similarities and differences

Predicting/Estimating: speculating outcome, educated guessing

Classifying: sorting objects and ideas into a variety of categories or sets

Matching: putting similar objects and ideas together

Sequencing: organizing objects in a  row or series based on size or time

Patterning: creating a repeating linear design such as ABAB

Determining cause and effect: reaching logical conclusions based on experience

Inferring: reaching logical conclusions from given or assumed evidence

Deducing: reasoning from the general to the specific

Creative thinking: Brainstorming, using materials in different ways

Flexible thinking: looking at things and ideas in new ways

Perceptual-motor: taking in and processing information through body movement

Expressive and receptive language: speaking and understanding spoken language

Sensory-motor: taking in and processing information through the senses

Cross-lateral integration (cross-crawl): coordinating both sides of the brain through body movement

Memory: retaining and retrieving information

*Brain-Based Activities for Young Learners
by Ellen Booth Church

Farmer's Market

We wrapped up our Farm Week, buy setting up a Farmer's Market. We had small baskets, bags, real and pretend fruits and vegetables. We set them up on a table outside and took turns shopping and paying the "Farmer" for our delicious treats. It was a lot of fun to move our dramatic play activity outside, and enjoy the beautiful day. We ended our shopping trip, by sampling the pears that we "bought" on the picnic table outside. Later we chose Strawberries, Oranges and Apples to juice. We all took a turn putting in the fruit and stirring our juice. We even had enough left over for Evan and his Mom to take home to enjoy.

Picking our fruit 

Evan is pushing down oranges.

He is watching it come out the spout.

Carly Sue's turn.

Evan stirs it carefully, mixing orange, apple and strawberry juice together.

A little more stirring.

Carly Sue takes a taste.

Evan tries the juice, too!

I think he likes it!!!

T is for Tractor

Today we continued with our Farm Week. We sang our new song, Take Me Out To The Barnyard and Old MacDonald as we walked to the park. We looked for farm animals on our walk, but there were no cows, pigs or horses anywhere. We did see a statue of a chicken in someones front yard. Evan pointed it out to us and it was very exciting. We spent a little extra time outside today. It was beautiful out--perfect weather. Next week it is supposed to be hot again, so we took advantage of such a nice day. We also made Tractors out of the letter T. We talked about how important a tractor is on the farm and read the story, Johnny Tractor's Fun Farm Day. This week has flown by and even though Farm Week is almost over, I bet we will be having farm fun often.

This is what we used to make our Tractors. The letter T, Circles and a long, skinny rectangle.

Evan wanted a red Tractor. He is busy putting glue on his "T".

Carly Sue used glue and a glue stick.

She also added a few extra tires to her Tractor.

Farm Facts We Have Learned

We have been busy this week talking about all things FARM. We made barns and talked about the animals that live in them. We talked about farmers and different things that they grow. We dug in dirt and "harvested" our own potatoes and then we scrubbed them with towels and toothbrushes. We found out that Cows like to sleep on soft beds of hay and baby Ducks follow their mommies every where. We watched a short clip showing children collecting eggs from hens and milking cows. We learned a new song called :

Take Me Out to the Barnyard
(tune: Take Me Out to the Ballgame)
by Judy Hall

Take me out to the barnyard.
Take me out there right now.
Show me the cows, pigs and horses, too.
I hear an oink and a neigh and a moo.
There are chickens laying their eggs.
If they don't lay it's a shame.
Oh, it's one, two, three eggs today,
And I'm glad I came.

We still have more farm fun in store for Thursday and Friday. Be on the lookout for what we are doing!!!

Evan is covering his pig with Puffy Pink Paint.

Carly Sue is also using the Puffy Paint that we made by mixing shaving cream, glue and red paint.

Carly Sue is wearing a Cow Crown/Headband. It started as a Cow Mask, but we decided to wear them on our heads.

Evan is wearing his Cow Headband while he plays on The Farm!