Aloha from Hawaii!

Last week as as we ended summer, we squeezed in one more summer-ish theme: Hawaii! We started by learning about pineapples. Both classes did a lot of pineapple inspired activities.

We covered a pinapple with yellow squares and practiced 1 to 1 correspondence. 



Pre-K 2 measured their pineapple to see how tall and wide it was.

They wrote the results in their journals and drew illustrations to go with them.



Pre-K 1 did 1 to 1 correspondence, too and used our handprints as the spiky green leaves of the pineapples.



We also drew pineapples for morning message.

Then, we took this pineapple:

cut it up and ended up with this:

Then we tasted it, of course!

Pre-K 2 did crayon resist watercolor dolphins in art.





Both classes added sand and shells to the sensory table. Some shells had letters for some letter identification games!

 

Pre-K 1 went fishing matching numbers and letters in this fishy game.

Meanwhile, Pre-K 2 was learning about hula dancing!



Both classes used ipads to do research this week. Here Ms. Rhonda is showing an example of hula dancing.

Then everyone danced!

In Pre-K 1 we read this favorite story:

For our morning message we added a letter to the coconut tree.

Later in the week we investigated a real coconut! We weighed it...(it was HEAVY!)

and examined it with magnifying glasses.

Then we prepared to open it!

We researched how to open a coconut and watched a demonstration.

We followed the directions,

And cracked it open!

It was fairly difficult to cut the meat out, but we figured it out. I love the faces they are making!

And everyone was offered a taste.

Since we are focusing on simple graphs, we have been graphing EVERYTHING! So, we graphed if we liked coconut or not. It was pretty even across the board.

We also made leis and learned that in Hawaii people are welcomed with leis when the arrive to Hawaii!

Here's Pre-K 2's lei making:

Last, but definitely not least, we talked a ton about volcanos. We researched them on our ipads, read about them, and thought about what we knew about them. Here's one of our anchor charts with our thoughts about volcanos.

After all that volcano talk the only thing left to do was make a volcano! I found the easiest way ever to make a volcano. I have made lots of them and this was the best. See below:

I used white tape instead of blue painters and had the peas paint it the next morning.

Best ingredients for a volcano:

Next we took turns making our volcano erupt!







Pre-K 2 used it, too, so it really lasted well!

After our volcano experiment, Pre-K 1 added a volcano poem and illustration to our journals. We are adding poetry to our journals all year to read back as predictable text.

Here is one beautiful illustration and the poem.

Pre-K 2 watched a video of a volcano erupting...

and then started a super cool project. It began with this white molding clay and a small cup.

The molded the clay around their cups...

and later, when they hardened, they painted them.





Then they each took home their own personal volcano with directions for making them erupt. So cool.

That wraps up our Hawaii week. It was so much fun! Next week we're headed home to our great state of Texas. Aloha!

 

 



Community Helpers

Last week we discussed community helpers and careers. We started with fire safety and read many, many books, but here's a couple that were popular:



 In Pre-K 1 we made shape fire trucks. This craft is a sneaky critical thinking activity. We made one fire truck together as a class and then provided all the pre-cut pieces. The peas were asked to attempt to reconstruct the truck to look like the first one. Then they could personalize their trucks by drawing firefighters on their pictures.

Finished product:

We also discussed stop, drop and roll and talked about what smoke alarms are. We challenged the peas to go home and locate their smoke alarm (or fire alarm) in their homes. We discussed what to do if you were ever in a place filled with smoke from a fire. You have to crawl on the floor! We practiced by crawling under a blanket.

This activity was a hit. We did it more than one day. :)



Pre-K 2 talked about traffic safety and made these stoplights!

They learned how to trace, cut and glue on their own. 

They even added words to their lights!

Pretty impressive, guys!

Both classes enjoyed a stoplight snack craft. They were a big treat since we used frosting and m&m's to make them.

Pre-K 2 began working on writing numbers since we will be introducing our daily math books soon.





They continued to work on writing names,

and used their number writing practice to do a community helper counting sheet.

Both classes also started our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum this week, too. You can check out their site here. 

 Pre-K 1 introduced our literacy buckets this week. The peas have been begging to work with the buckets, but we introduce them slowly so we can model how to use the materials. They were thrilled when they found out they were going to be open this week.

We continued morning messages as well and worked on writing letter A.

 After discussing some careers/community helpers, we discussed some ways we could use our centers to explore different careers. The peas decided that we could make our home center into a restaurant. We added a chef hat, menus and aprons.

 It got a lot of business.

 

 After discussing doctors and how they care for us we made doctor bags in Pre-K 1 for fun and to use in our imaginative play.

 

 Ms. Amy put out her astronaut set and we used the space station.

 

One of the most popular centers all week was the Engineering and Construction center. We discussed how engineers use blueprints as a plan for buildings. Then a construction crew works to build the building. We planned and then built many structures. Here are a few:

And we built and built...

 

Pre-K 2 had some really great engineers, too. Everyone worked together!

We definitely had a busy week full of hands on learning and I'm confident these sweet peas can grow up to be anything they set their minds to!