Family Ties

Our theme this week was Family Ties, so in Pre-K we talked about families and the people we share our homes with. We talked about how diverse families can be. In our classroom this year we turned our tree into a Family Tree! It says, "Family is Something to Hoot About!" We have been hanging up family photos as they come in, and I love that the kids can see their family pictures displayed in our room. 

 We started by brainstorming what a family is, can (do), and has.



We read several of this cute series of family stories:

You can check out the series by Nick Butterworth here.

In centers, we played with our house. It's the Loving Family Dollhouse by Fisher Price and although it's got some wear and tear, it's a favorite in our classroom.



We had pretend family play in our home centers.



And we built homes with blocks.



Next, we made houses out of paper bags and paper scraps.

I'd live in this house!

One important part of our week was the introduction of our daily work in our math binders. Ms. Amy came across this idea over the summer after some Pinterest inspiration. :) Ms. Rhonda and Jen  helped get everything ready to go in them. We assembled them last week and we are really excited to incorporate them into our learning. Every day the peas will trace the daily page, write a number, graph the weather and fill in a chart counting the days we've been in school. Fortunately, they are a big hit! The peas love them, some of them want to do them first thing in the morning.





 

Next, in Pre-K 1, we did our first page in our journals.

 We added a poem called Families and drew our family for our first entry.





Next, we did a family glyph. The master glyph is hanging up in each classroom. At art the peas get a black house and then we direct them (with words only) to glue on the squares that match the people who live in their house. (We really do "the people who are in your family" so children don't have to exclude any parents that live in a separate house.) Amy and I were talking today about how funny they are about this glyph, and the table conversation is pretty entertaining. :)





We also did letter A in our Handwriting Without Tears books! They did an excellent job!

We rounded out the week with sack lunch day which is almost as popular as pajama day!



We also had a school wide project where families decorated a house. They turned out so cute! I'm sure everyone has seen them since they are in the front, but take a minute to check it out because they are so fun to look over! I love the diversity and creativity of each house!



And to wrap up this post, many of you I'm sure have been hearing our morning chant at home. So...here's an official copy of our morning chant if you want to get the skinny on why your children keep saying "Hello, jello." or "What's up buttercup?" :)

Have a great weekend everyone!