They're here......

Get ready to be EXCITED!!!! They're here.......the small one may be called Explorer, another might be named Brownie, one of them might be called Climber since he loves to climb and still another may be named Muncher... Get ready for some excitement as these little guys transform before our eyes! Other names to consider may be Stretcher, Miner or even Chyrillisa. No matter what names are chosen - these caterpillars are sure to be the center of attention for learners of all ages! May's preschool theme focuses on butterflies and their life cycle. I am thrilled to report that today the caterpillars have arrived! We will be watching them grow, make their cocoons and turn into butterflies. Our last preschool class will be the last Tuesday in May. We will celebrate the year and share a few songs with any family that wishes to attend. Please mark your busy calendars and bring your camera :) We continued in April to work on fine tuning our writing skills as well as our reading and math skills. For writing we started our review of grip and how to correctly form each letter. We also continue to expand our writing of numbers. In reading we worked on digraphs: ch, sh, th and wh as well as word families, such as -at, -it and -ug. We introduced the first 20 site words as well. In math, we worked on adding 1 to a number (2+1=3, 5+1=6, etc). During the activity a student rolled a dice, then counted out a specific nmber of students who then stepped into a square taped on the floor to be part of the equation. Finally the equation students all moved to the last box to be counted and added together.

April is focused on phonics

Students are working on practicing and adding to their phonic knowledge in April.

We are working on blending - where students say individual letters then blend them together until they read the whole word as one word. We are also working on word families and rhyming words. We continue to practice listening for the first sound in a word to identify the letter with which the word starts.

Some students completed a worksheet to practice the SAM reader site words.

Students created -at word family flip books by trying out new letters in the beginning of the -at ending. They checked with me to read their new word. If they discovered a word, they wrote that letter on a piece of paper which was stapled to their very own -at flip book.

They all worked on blending word puzzles.

We started a lotto game to recognize beginning letter sounds.

In Spanish, we are singing the months of the year and the days of the week.

April

It is time to review the core phonics to make sure the pre-kinders are ready for their future adventure as kindergarteners.

All students are especially working hard to make sure they are Phonic Super Stars. Most of them have a star on every letter/word card on their letter ring! Many have even earned Super Stars on the individual cards for phonics they know. Keep working on their letter rings at home.

Pre-kinders have started SAM site words on their letter rings. Once they have earned some stars on these cards, I will send home their first SAM reader book. We worked on word families and blending letters.

When reading at home, please practice and talk about reading strategy number one:
1. All letters make a sound! (so sound it out)
This is the first and most basic reading strategy to keep your child from guessing. It doesn't work every time. It is the first and best strategy to start.

We also introduced the consonant digraphs: ch, th, sh, and wh
A diagraph is when two letters used together make a single sound

see my kvetonpreschoolpage on you tube for some favorites I have added including the jolly phonics song, first 24 high frequency words, I can write my numbers song

Rainforest Wrap Up - part two

More pictures of all the fun we had...

Rainforest Wrap Up - part One

We finished up our rainforest unit. Highlights included:
* Science words - camouflage, habitat
* water cycle - evaporation, condensation, precipitation
* evaporation experiment with the aqua mat - one inside & one outside to see how the one outside had the water evaporate faster
* camouflage experiment where green toothpicks in grass were harder to find than the red toothpicks in the grass
* 4 layers of rainforest, animal facts
* Spanish song - "Yo fui a la selva tropical" mariposa, mono, vibora, hormiga
* art - made mardi gras bird masks, made monkey masks, made sock snakes using AB patterns with shapes, made ants painting paper towel rolls and adding eyes, feet, and antennae
* colored rainforest books, colored and painted rain forest mural, made coffee filter butterflies
* tasted rainforest products (mango, coffee, cinnamon, coconut, macadamia nut, chocolate, banana, pineapple) and graphed results of taste taste
* made homemade "rainforest oatmeal cookies"
* made a layered cup to eat of the layers of the rainforest
* assembled a huge floor puzzle of the rainforest
* played animals ABC lotto game