Unit 6 - Week 3

May 24-28

Unit overview - Children will explore how living things grow, using observations, experiments, and books. Through story time readings, children will hear about ducks who find a special home, a new baby on a farm, a boy who grows from baby to school age, and a girl who discovers the joys of growing vegetables. Children continue to learn about letters, sounds, and rhyming words, and will participate in many other math, science, music, poetry, and art activities.

Unit Concepts - Living things grow and have life cycles.-Living things reproduce, and the offspring are the same kind of plant or animal as their parents.- Living things need food, water, and proper living conditions to survive.-Immature living things need special care.-Living things interact, and among animals there are predators and prey.

Books -

Planting a Garden, By Louis Elhert

Make Way for Ducklings, By

Small groups -

Math - students will practice counting while making a 5 Little Ducks song board

Language - students will make a small birds nest using collected materials from a nature walk. Students will talk about what they see and hear on the nature walk.

Science - students will make a bird feeder and observe the birds feeding on them from the windows

Art - Students will make an assortment of flowers this week for our Planting a Rainbow scene.

Choice - Sensory table; soil, Red table; finger painting insects, easel; farm animals and dot markers, rug; farms and farm animals, writing center; bean books, book area; farm books.

Special notes:

1) We will have our end of the year family picnic on Wednesday June 9th. The morning picnic will be from 10:45 - 11:30 am and the afternoon picnic will be from 1:45 to 2:30 pm. More information will be sent home soon.

2) This Friday is our field trip to Drumlin Farm. Please refer to the home page of the blog for specific details.

Unit 6 - Things that Grow!

Week 2- May 17-21

Unit overview - Children will explore how living things grow, using observations, experiments, and books. Through story time readings, children will hear about ducks who find a special home, a new baby on a farm, a boy who grows from baby to school age, and a girl who discovers the joys of growing vegetables. Children continue to learn about letters, sounds, and rhyming words, and will participate in many other math, science, music, poetry, and art activities.

Theme Concepts: Living things grow and have life cycles.-Living things reproduce, and the offspring are the same kind of plant or animal as their parents.- Living things need food, water, and proper living conditions to survive.-Immature living things need special care.-Living things interact, and among animals ther are predators and prey.

Books:The Ugly Vegetables, by Grace LinGrowing Vegetable Soup by Lois EhlertSmall groups:

Small groups: Math group - Students will weigh and measure various vegetables. They will compare quantity and size.

Language - Students will play vegetable memory and vegetable BINGO

Science - Students will inspect various kinds of seeds and sort them into categories.

Art - Students will color, glue and cut to make paper vegetables for out vegetable garden scene!

Choice:

Fruit and vegetable painting on the easel, bean growing books in the writing area, soil in the sensory table, bird seed on the red table, worm and snake observations and drawings on the blue table, blocks on the rug and making vegetable soup in the dramatic play area. 

** We have expanded our class pets from 6 tadpoles to now class worms, Herm, Ferm and Verm the worms and our baby garden snake named Jake. *** 

Music and Movement: Freeze Dance, Resting song with accompanying stretch moves, Where is Thumbkin, Rhythm Sticks, and The Wheels on the Bus. 

A visit from the Science Center!

We enjoyed a wonderful interactive presentation by Wendy from the Science Center. She shared information and facts about intersting animals including a snake, an alligator and 2 toads! The kids had the opportunity to see, hear and touch the live animals!

Unit 6 - Things That Grow!

May 10-14th

Unit overview - Children will explore how living things grow, using observations, experiments, and books. Through story time readings, children will hear about ducks who find a special home, a new baby on a farm, a boy who grows from baby to school age, and a girl who discovers the joys of growing vegetables. Children continue to learn about letters, sounds, and rhyming words, and will participate in many other math, science, music, poetry, and art activities.

Theme Concepts:

-Living things grow and have life cycles.
-Living things reproduce, and the offspring are the same kind of plant or animal as their parents.
- Living things need food, water, and proper living conditions to survive.
-Immature living things need special care.
-Living things interact, and among animals ther are predators and prey.

Books:
The Ugly Vegetables, by Grace Lin
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert


Small groups:

Math group - Students will discuss the concept of measuring length. They will compare colored tinker toy sticks and make predictions about their length.

Science group- Students will plant white kidney beans inside a paper towel and a plastic cup. They will track its growth inside their own Bean Growth Journal!

Fine motor group - Students will make a green broccoli by cutting paper, gluing and coloring.

Choice:

- Blocks on the rug , painting with green shades, making vegetable soup in the dramatic play area, bird seed in the sensory table, vegetable prints, and fruit and vegetable puzzles.

Music:

- Freeze Dance, Down by the Bay, Windshield Wiper Poem, Daisies and Buttercups Poem, If You're Happy and You Know It

"Pre" Kindergarten Socials

Kindergarten Socials-

Memorial Pre-Kindergarten Play dates!
Wednesday, May 19 at 3:00 pm at Simonds Park
Tuesday, June 22 at 10:30 am at Simonds Park
Thursday, August 19 at 3:00 pm at Simonds Park
Hosted by Jenn Sirois and her daughter, Madelene
Please RSVP to Jennsirois@comcast.net

Fox Hill Pre-Kindergarten Play dates!
Wednesday, May 19 at 3:00 pm at Rahanis Park
Tuesday, June 22 at 10:30 am at Rahanis Park
Thursday, August 19 at 3:00 pm at Rahanis Park
Hosted by Tiffany Tucci and her son, Marcus.
Please RSVP to tltucci@yahoo.com

Pine Glen Pre-Kindergarten Play dates!
Wednesday, May 19 at 3:15 pm at Veteran’s Park
Tuesday, June 22 at 1:00 pm at Veteran’s Park
Thursday, August 19 at 3:00 pm at Veteran’s Park
Hosted by Christina Russo and her son, Timothy
Please RSVP to cr01803@yahoo.com

Francis Wyman Pre-Kindergarten Play Dates!
Wednesday, May 19 at 3:00 pm at the Francis Wyman School Playground
-RSVP to Kerri Basile at kbasile@rcn.com
Tuesday, June 22 at 10:30 am at the Francis Wyman School Playground
-RSVP to Liz DeVito at ldevito@winstonflowers.com
Thursday, August 19 at 3:00 pm at the Francis Wyman School Playground
-RSVP to Elizabeth Melo at efmelomsw@yahoo.com

UNit 5 - Week 4

Theme – During this unit students will explore shadows and reflections, using observations, experiments and books to learn what makes a shadow and a reflection. Through Story Time books, children hear about a girl playing by a still pond, a puppy who thinks he is a kitten, a crocodile collecting reflections in a pail, a sleepy boy who sees a shadow save a cat, and a raccoon who has an adventure with only his reflection for company.

Theme Concepts: Reflections are images thrown back from a shiny surface.There must be light or there is no reflection. Mirrors and still water reflect light well; dull surfaces do not.If water is moving, its reflections are blurry or crooked.Objects are opaque, translucent, or transparent. Shadows are the dark areas made when an object blocks light.As part of exploring reflections in water and mirrors we will also be looking for reflections in bubbles. We will be exploring different tools to use to make bubbles (bubble blowers, large wands, just your fingers).

Stories:
Kitten for a Day, By Ezra Jack Keats

Dreams, By Ezra Jack Keats

Duck in a Truck, By Jez Alborough

Small Groups:

Language – A dog puppet and a cat puppet for a puppet show

Science - Shadow making with a flashlight and blocks

Special project for mother's day!

Choice: Rug - Ball track

Sensory table - sand, water and swamp animals

Dramatic Play – Pet shop

Yellow Table – math number pegs

Writing Center – "I wish I had a pet named...." book

Blue table - Colored peg boards

Easel - paintings of Kitten for a Day

Songs, Word Plays and Letters

My Hands on My Head

Down By the Bay

Matching Letter Chant

5 Little Monkeys

Alphabet Action Song

Rhythm Sticks

**Special Activity** Next week we will have Wendy Pavlicek from the Science Center bring down some animals for the kids to see. She will offer an informative and interactive presentation!