Wind and Water - Week 3

This week we will continue Unit 3 of our OWL Curriculum. This unit is entitled Wind and Water. "During this unit students will explore wind and water using observations, experiments and books to learn about such topics as evaporation, weather, temperature, insulation, rain and snow. Through the story time books, children hear about a boy playing on a windy day, rabbits and kittens finding shelter in storms, a child playing in the snow, and a silly hen trying to keep warm in winter. In addition to listening to stories, children increase their listening and speaking vocabulary and continue to learn about rhymes and identify letters and sounds. You can extend what they are learning at school by talking about clouds, rain, wind, temperatures and storms."
Books This Week:
The Snowy Day, By Ezra Jack Keats

Rabbits and Raindrops, By Jim Arnosky
One Dark Night, By Hazel Hutchins
Small Groups: *Because of last week's snow days, we will complete the activities we missed*
Language and literacy - Students will play alphabet Go Fish. They will ask each other for a letter and search for the matching letter.
Math - Students will use different shaped wood pieces, called tangrams, to create a picture.
Science - Students will conduct an experiment using a fan and an assortment of materials with different weights. They will ask and answer the question, "What can air move?"
Art - Students will use eye droppers to paint a butterfly
Choice Time -
-Sensory Table- Snow with shovels and containers

- Games table - Animal puzzles

-Library- Books about wind and water
-Easel - Students will use markers to draw pictures from the stories on laminate. They will then spray the picture with a squirt bottle and see the colors drip and blend.
-Dramatic Play - Students will play with stuffed animals such as kittens, bunnies and dogs. They will reenact scenes from the stories we are reading.
-Rug - Legos
**Art table - We will begin learning about a new letter each week! This week we will learn about the letter "J". Students will color pictures of jelly beans to paint the letter "J." We will save the picture to create an alphabet book.** Please look around your house with your child to find something that starts with the letter "J." Send it in this week for show and tell!
Songs, Word Play, and Letters
5 Little Monkeys

Raindrops and snowflakes
Come Join in to the Game
Hands Poem
Clap you Hands
Happy and You Know It
Extra Notes:
1) Starting next week, we will begin to enjoy playing outside for our gross motor play time. We will try to play outside EVERYDAY! Please send your child to school with a warm jacket, snowpants, boots, hats, and mittens/gloves. Please be sure to label everything!

Wind and Water - Week 2

This week we will continue Unit 3 of our OWL Curriculum. This unit is entitled Wind and Water. "During this unit students will explore wind and water using observations, experiments and books to learn about such topics as evaporation, weather, temperature, insulation, rain and snow. Through the story time books, children hear about a boy playing on a windy day, rabbits and kittens finding shelter in storms, a child playing in the snow, and a silly hen trying to keep warm in winter. In addition to listening to stories, children increase their listening and speaking vocabulary and continue to learn about rhymes and identify letters and sounds. You can extend what they are learning at school by talking about clouds, rain, wind, temperatures and storms."
Books This Week:
Rabbits and Raindrops, By Jim Arnosky
Gilbert and the Wind, By Marie Hall Ets
One Dark Night, By Hazel Hutchins
Small Groups:
Language and literacy - Students will play alphabet Go Fish. They will ask each other for a letter and search for the matching letter.
Math - Students will use different shaped wood pieces, called tangrams, to create a picture.

Science - Students will conduct an experiment using a fan and an assortment of materials with different weights. They will ask and answer the question, "What can air move?"
Art

1) Students will cut out and decorate a paper kite like the one found in Gilberto and the Wind.

2) Students will use eye droppers to paint a picture
Choice Time -
-Sensory Table- Water with funnels and water wheels
- Games table - Upper case letter matching with tag board and clothespins

-Library- Books about wind and water
-Easel - Students will use markers to draw pictures from the stories on laminate. They will then spray the picture with a squirt bottle and see the colors drip and blend.
-Dramatic Play - Students will play with stuffed animals such as kittens, bunnies and dogs. They will reenact scenes from the stories we are reading.
-Rug - Legos
**Art table - We will begin learning about a new letter each week! This week we will learn about the letter "I". Students will use colored ice cubes to paint the letter "I." We will save the picture to create an alphabet book.** Please look around your house with your child to find something that starts with the letter "I." Send it in this week for show and tell!
Songs, Word Play, and Letters
5 Little Monkeys
Come Join in to the Game
Hands Poem
Clap you Hands
Happy and You Know It
Extra Notes:
1) In case of a snow day, please be ready for a call from the Superintendent for notification. If you are not signed up for the automated call, refer to the local weather channel for cancellations and delays. For a 2 hour delay, the morning session is cancelled and the afternoon session will still run.

Wind and Water Balloon Fun!

The Safari Scouts enjoyed playing with their balloons in the wind just like Gilberto!

Wind and Water - Week 1

This week we will begin Unit 3 of our OWL Curriculum. This unit is entitled Wind and Water. "During this unit students will explore wind and water using obervations, experiments and books to learn about such topics as evaporation, weather, teperature, insulation, rain and snow. Through the story time books, children hear about a boy playing on a windy day, rabbits and kittens finding shelter in storms, a child playing in the snow, and a silly hen trying to keep warm in winter. I addition to listening to stories, children increase their listening and speaking vocabulary and continue to learn about rhymes and identify letters and sounds. You can extend what they are learning at school by talking about clouds, rain, wind, temperatures and storms."
Books This Week:
Gilbert and the Wind, By Marie Hall Ets

One Dark Night, By Hazel Hutchins
Small Groups:
Language - Students will play memory using vocabulary words from the UNit 3 stories.
Math - Students will use different shaped buttons to play a shape button lotto game.

Science - Students will blow up balloons and place them in front of a fan to see them blow in the wind like Gilberto.

Art - Students will dip straws into paint and blow into the other end to make straw wind paintings.
Choice Time -
-Sensory Table- Water and sailboats
- Games table - Letter tiles and name cards
-Library- Books about wind and water
-Easel - students will use primary colors to enjoy open ended painting
-Dramatic Play - Students use the kitchen set and pretend food to set the table and play house
-Rug - Garages and cars
**Art table - We will begin learning about a new letter each week! This week we will learn about the letter "H". Students will paint their hands to make hand prints for the letter "H." We will save the picture to create an alphabet book.** Please look around your house with your child to find something that starts with the letter "H." Send it in this week for show and tell!
Songs, Word Play, and Letters
5 Little Monkeys

Come Join in to the Game

Hands Poem

Clap you Hands

Happy and You Know It

Extra Notes:
1) Welcome back! We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Vacation! We look forward to the rest of the new year together!

2) Book Packs will be sent home on Thursday! We hope you enjoy them and please remember toreturn them by the following Tuesday.

Gingerbread Unit - December 20-23

This week we will continue our Gingerbread Unit!
Books This Week:
The Gingerbread Girl, By Lisa Cmpbell Ernst
Small Groups:
Language - Students will talk about and sequence the steps involved in making a snowman.
Math - Students will use dot stickers to create a patterned path to help the gingerbread man find his gingerbread house.
Special Activities -
1) On Tuesday we will have our Gingerbread Family Party! The morning Class party begins at 10:45 am and the afternoon class party begins at 1:45 pm. We look forward to perfoming for you and enjoying gingerbread cookies toegether.
2) On Thursday we will watch Frosty the Snowman and have popcorn together.
Students will make a special holiday gift for their family members.
3) Students will share their Gingerbread Man adventure with the class.
Choice Time -
-Sensory Table- flour and gingerbread men
- Games table - I-pod touch gingerbread game
-Library- Books about winter
-Easel - students will rub crayons over big and small sand paper gingerbread men to create gingerbread man pictures.
-Dramatic Play - Gingerbread bakery; students will use cinnamon play dough and cookie cutters to make gingerbread cookies.
-Rug - Lite brights with gingerbread man cut outs.
**Art table - We will begin learning about a new letter each week! This week we will learn about the letter "G". Students will gingerbread men to decorate the letter "G" and save the picture to create an alphabet book.** Please look around your house with your child to find something that starts with the letter "G." Send it in this week for show and tell!
Songs, Word Play, and Letters
5 Little gingerbread men
Gingerbread, Gingerbread
Oh Do you know the gingerbread man?
The gingerbreads are here
5 Gingerbread cookies in the bakery shop
Come find your name on the gingerbread man
Extra Notes:
- We will not be sending home the Book Packs over the vacation.

Gingerbread Unit - December 13-17

This week we will continue our Gingerbread Unit!
Books This Week:
The Gingerbread Boy, By Richard Egielski
Small Groups:
Cooperative working - Students will work together to decorate and name a life size gingerbread man.
Language and Technology- Students will make use of the program I-Pod Touches to play a gingerbread cookie game.
Math - Students will make a gingerbread math book. They will develop one to one correspondence skills as they count gingerbread buttons and glue them into the book.
Art -
Students will make a special holiday gift for their family members.

Students will make a gingerbread bakery hat. They will use paper gingerbread men and paper candy to complete an ABAB pattern on the hat.
Choice Time:
-Sensory Table- pasta
- Games table - sorting big and small gingerbread men

-Library- Books about winter
-Easel - students will rub crayons over big and small sand paper gingerbread men to create gingerbread man pictures.
-Dramatic Play - Gingerbread bakery; students will use cinnamon play dough and cookie cutters to make gingerbread cookies.
-Rug - Lite brights with gingerbread man cut outs.
**Art table - We will begin learning about a new letter each week! This week we will learn about the letter "F". Students will glue feathers to decorate the letter "F" and save the picture to create an alphabet book.** Please look around your house with your child to find something that starts with the letter "F." Send it in this week for show and tell!
Songs, Word Play, and Letters
5 Little gingerbread men
Gingerbread, Gingerbread
Oh Do you know the gingerbread man?
The gingerbreads are here
5 Gingerbread cookies in the bakery shop

Come find your name on the gingerbread man

Extra Notes:

- Please remember to send your child to school with warm coats, hats and mittens as we will be going out for fresh air as much as possible! Thank you!

Gingerbread Unit - December 7-10

This week we will continue our Gingerbread Unit!
Books This Week:
The Gingerbread Man, By Jim Aylesworth
Small Groups:
Fine motor group - students will lace a gingerbread man and decorate him
Language - Students will make a Gingerbread book while learning prepositions. They will glue the gingerbread man in different positions relative to the fox!
Math - Students will play a game with big and small gingerbread men sorting them into the big and small gingerbread houses. They will also create their own pictures of big and small gingerbread men.
Art -
Students will make large construction paper gingerbread men for the hallway scene.
Students will make a stained glass ginerbread man for the window
Choice Time:
-Sensory Table- Color and shape buttons
- Games table - Gingerbread man color BINGO
-Library- Books about winter
-Easel - students can use water colors to paint gingerbread houses
-Dramatic Play - Students can create and fix toys in the tool shop
-Rug - Fliptrack mountain with trains and tracks
**Art table - We will begin learning about a new letter each week! This week we will learn about the letter "E". Students will glue elephants to decorate the letter "E" and save the picture to create an alphabet book.** Please look around your house with your child to find something that starts with the letter "E." Send it in this week for show and tell!
Songs, Word Play, and Letters
5 Little gingerbread men
Gingerbread, Gingerbread
Oh Do you know the gingerbread man?
The gingerbread are here
5 Gingerbread cookies in the bakery shop