DR. SEUSS THEME: We concluded our three week long study of Dr. Seuss this week. The children developed a stronger sense of rhyming words and phonemic awareness during this study. We played several sentence building games as well as grouping words according to word families. We ended the unit with a read aloud of Oh, The Places You’ll Go. This was his last published book, and a great way to end our unit.

COMMUNITY HELPERS THEME: We began learning about community workers this week. To kick off this unit, the children decided how to transform our dramatic play area of the classroom. They chose to set up a vet’s office. (Children are permitted to bring in stuffed animals to use in the vet center during this unit.) They made room for two pet examining tables, a pet washing station in the sensory table, a waiting room, and the computer at the receptionist desk. The computer allows the children to type in the name of their pet, make appointments, and fill in what is wrong with their animal. They are learning basic computer functions, such as alphabet letter placement, space bar, delete key, and how to use the mouse.

As part of our current theme, we are creating a city in block area. We have designated an area for our city. We started this by making a list of all the locations that a city needs, such as grocery store, hospital, and school. Due to their interest in legos, we have decided to make it a lego city. Each child decided on their building, and began construction this week. We will continue to add to this by drawing in roads and creating a variety of signs.

*** I am asking parents to take some time to volunteer in the classroom to share your professions with the children. I would like to have families come in to talk about their job and bring any materials from their work. I will post a sign up sheet outside of the classroom. Thank you!

MUSIC CLASS: Music began this week with Miss Kara. She will be doing class for the kindergarteners every Monday from 2:00-2:30. She does a wonderful job of incorporating movement and music in a very engaging way. The students were very excited about playing instruments and learning new songs.

SCIENCE: In science, we began learning about properties. By exploring with the oobleck, we began talking about all the words that describe this strange substance. Then we moved into a more in depth study of liquids. I placed a variety of liquids into small bottles. The students described the substances and completed Venn diagrams. Now we are ready to begin learning about solids and how it differs from a liquid.

3D SHAPES: In our world of 3D movies, the children were very excited to begin learning what a 3D shape actually is. We learned words such as: sphere, cone, cylinder, pyramid, and rectangular prism. The children went on shape hunts around the classroom to find more 3D shapes that matched the object that they picked out. They have also been able to build with geoblocks and recreating a variety of 3D shapes built with connecting cubes.

UPCOMING: We have many events coming up. We will be posting more field trip information soon! We also have our trip to see “Harold and the Purple Crayon” at the end of the month. Check bookbags for information on Wacky Dress Up Week and Donuts with Dads.