Mrs. Hannah's Kinder-Prep: August 2018

We've been busy this week talking about our Family and Friends theme. We talked about how many people are in our family and what we can do to be and make friends. We've learned about letter "M", the number 0, and how to spell and spot the color red. We've also done a few new science and math activities to connect to our theme in some different ways. We've talked about magnets and "sticking together" as friends. We made predictions about whether magnets would stick to glass, wood, or metal. We also made predictions about what the inside of two different types of eggs would look like. We discovered that though a brown egg and white egg may look different on the outside, they're actually the same on the inside. Just like people who look different actually just want to have friends and have fun just like everyone else. :) We also started to talk about estimating and making a good guess about how many items were in a jar. This helps us with our 1:1 correspondence and counting skills. I'm so proud to see these kiddos acting like great scientists and mathematicians already!

This week we learned how to spell "RED" singing a song to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?" You can find this song and our coloring work on it inside your child's Reading Folder that they'll get this week. We'll add papers and activities to help us read throughout the year.

Each week we work on our letter sound song as well. We point to the letter/picture and say the letter and the sound...the "A" says "ah"...the "B" says "buh", etc. We use the short vowels for vowel sounds. This is in your child's Reading Folder too.

Mrs. Andrea helped kiddos put stickers on their houses to show how many people were in their home. Then we graphed them on our family chart, which is hanging in the hallway.

We also worked on drawing pictures of our families. We got to use markers this time, which is always fun! Don't forget that some of your child's work I will keep for their end of the year binder, so certain crafts, writing samples, coloring samples, etc. may not go home each week.

Probably the favorite craft of the week was gluing macaroni on our letter "M" papers to help us with our "mmm" sound understanding.

We've been working a lot on our writing our names and will continue to do so each day. We wrote our name in the blank of a poem sheet, "I See Me", and took turns repeating and "reading" it with our own names in it. This is a great one to practice at home too. It's in your child's Reading Folder as well.

We traced "M"s, found words with the "m" sound and also hunted for them on our letter scramble maze sheet. This was our first try with scissors and gluing, and we can definitely use some practice. If you don't already have child-sized scissors and a glue stick or two at home, I would buy some for practice, because we'll do a lot of it this year. It's a tough fine motor skill to be able to do, but they can do it with help and practice! :)

We hunted for circles on our circle page. Some really struggled with this at the independent station, so any chance you get to go over their work at home would be great. We try to check everyone's, but when Mrs. Andrea and I also do our own stations, sometimes it's hard to see everyone's.

Here's our work from last week that is now hanging in the hall. I provided a little note about our "Chrysanthemum" activity too.

These were our self-portraits from last week that are also hanging in the hall across from the restrooms. We are working on realistic colors and shapes when we draw ourselves and family members. Don't worry though, we'll have plenty of opportunities for creativity across the board, but realistic colors and shapes will help prep them for kindergarten. However, there are still times we all want purple hair and pink eyes on our work! :) Check them out the next time you come!

This week I sent home laminated name sheets with a dry erase marker to help your child practice writing their name at home. You may need to guide their hand for the direction of the letters and to help with pencil grip. Practicing with coloring, drawing, writing, and painting at home will all help with pencil grip and writing in the future!

Last week, your kiddo received a little ball like this in their bag. It was one of the items that we put in our Estimation Jar. The Estimation Jar goes home with a different kiddo each time, and they have to put in 20 or less than 20 items in their jar.

We look closely at the jar to see how many items we think might be in it.

Then, we wrote down our numbers that we guessed.

Then we counted as a class to discover there were 16 balls in the jar altogether. We had some great estimations and predictions, but nobody was right on target this time.

We also looked at two different eggs, a brown one and a white one. We made predictions about what they would look like on the inside. Would they be the same or different?

We discovered that even though they look different on the outside, they look the same on the inside. People can be the same way too! Be a friend to someone, even if they look different than you. They're people who just want to make friends and have fun on the inside, just like anyone else!

We also talked about how friends are loyal and "stick together", just like our Bible story this week that we read about David and Jonathan. They were friends who stuck together, even when Jonathan's dad Saul wanted to hurt David. They still remained friends. We tested our magnet to see if it would stick to glass, wood, people, or metal. I was so glad to see how many of them knew our huge red magnet would stick to metal. We also had some vanilla Oreos that "stuck together" and tried to pull them apart without break them. It was tough! Friends need to stick together just like magnets and Oreos!