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!

 

 

 



Our First Week!

So Monday started our official.....

and we are off to a great start! We spent the week learning the routines of our new classroom. We did our first Morning Message:

We decorated the journals we will be using for the rest of the year:

And we were introduced to our Handwriting curriculum and used our handwriting books for the first time!

 We also started sending home our backpack with the leader of the day. The first backpack has Biscuit and some Biscuit books, but later more interactive backpacks will be sent home throughout the year. Here is today's adorable leader:

 We also played inside and outside and got to know new friends and explored the centers in our new class.

  

Our theme this week was The Name Game and we did some name activities.

We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, then did some art with the letters of our names falling out of the coconut tree!

 One difference in Pre-K is that we strongly encourage independence, especially at the art table. The new kids are always so amazed that I give them the supplies and directions and then allow them to do everything themselves. :) They learn where our supplies are and that they are free to get anything out as long as they understand how to use the supplies and clean up after themselves. I know it gives them a great sense of accomplishment to be so independent!

 

We also counted the number of letters in our name and built the length in cubes. Then we compared who had more, the same or less.

 

Afterwards, we graphed our names in our pocket chart.

I love these pictures where they are talking to each other and working together. They are precious!

We did SO many things I didn't get pictures of, but that's because we were busy learning and playing! That wraps up our first week, have a wonderful holiday weekend!

 

 

Escape to Ancient Egypt

The last week of camp we traveled to Egypt and of course we began our week in art by making Egypt's flag!



After reading some books about pyramids, we used Cuisenaire rods to build pyramids in the sand.

I also found a Egypt Toob at Hobby Lobby! I love those Toobs. This one had some really cool Egyptian figures that I added to the trays:



At art we build pyramids with blocks which was pretty tricky! They did a great job!





We also built pyramids out of chex cereal and then ate them, yum.



We learned that Egyptians wore collars as symbols of wealth and status. We made some collars out of paper plates and added bright colors and dots of gold to show we had an important status.



For our cultural snack, we tasted Naan bread and made an Egyptian snack. We found one that sounded yummy. Here's the recipe:

Salatit Zabadi

2 1/2 cups of Greek-style plain yogurt

1 smaller English cucumbers

salt

1 clove of minced garlic (you can omit this the first time if your kids do not like garlic- slowly add a little more each time you make it!

a handful of mint leaves, chopped

olive oil

 

Drain the yogurt of any liquid every time you use it, to make it as thick as possible. First slice the cucumbers into very thin slices, and then dice them.  Place them into a shallow bowl and sprinkle with salt. After an hour, you will see that the salt will have drawn out the liquid. Drain it, and combine the cucumbers, yogurt, garlic, mint, and finally the olive oil.



We tasted it with our Naan bread, and as usual all these children tried and liked it! It is amazing how they will try so many of these ethnic foods!



Next, we learned about mummies and there was only one thing for us to do! We made some of our campers into mummies!

As we went we discussed how the Egyptians mummified people and placed them in tombs. Pyramids are just tombs for very important people!



To give our campers some experience in mummy wrapping, we added gauze to the home center and they mummified the babies!



This was a very popular center!



Ms. Rachel checked some amazing Egyptian books out from the library for us!

There are so many interesting things about ancient Egypt.

To wrap up the week we offered Egyptian campers face painting similar to the make up the Egyptians used to wear.

We gave them fancy Egyptian make up!

LOVE it!



And here's a scarab beetle.

At the end of the week we said goodbye to Ms. Heather who had spent part of the summer with us. We really enjoyed having her and will miss her! Here she is with her friend Will, who is going to Kindergarten. Summer is over and everyone is moving on to new adventures.

All in all our travels this summer were exciting, adventurous, delicious and fun. We had a great time catching the traveling bug at the ECDC!