Have you met Scaredy Squirrel? I started using Melanie Watt's books last year for letter S and they are a big hit. I even have a Scaredy puppet I bring out. Scaredy is so timid he hides under my cardigan and the children have to help him be brave. They learn to look him in the eye, sit up straight and introduce themselves to Scaredy. By the time I read the 5th story, Scaredy is much braver. He's gone home to his nut tree now, but is leaving us a new special friend to meet on Monday. Scaredy has the following website http://scaredysquirrel.com/ (I have NOT checked it out yet) that the kindies might like.
Here are some of the squirrels we made on Thursday. I can't believe how much the kindies loved this craft. I was worried it was too much colouring and cutting - but they LOVED it.
Here's what we did with the SKITTLES (Thank You Sarah!)
Here's what we did with the SKITTLES (Thank You Sarah!)
First we graphed them with a partner. (At this point I had to leave to go to a meeting). Our VP came in to be with the class and when he saw the Skittles he became VERY nervous. I went easy on him - the children were only allowed to eat 2! We were saving them for the afternoon to do this:
Just add water and Ta-dah - Skittle Paint! It smelled very sweet! All the kindies were gathered around the table to watch the Skittles turn into paint. We called this an art/science experiment.
The paint was very watery, so we used eye droppers on coffee filters to see what would happen.
We decided that we had made snowflakes!
I confess that I worried about this one (even dreamed about it!)....I usually try things beforehand!
I confess that I worried about this one (even dreamed about it!)....I usually try things beforehand!
Our letter S Chit-Chat from earlier in the week. They kept coming up with new ideas and I eventually ran out of room on the paper. See the yellow post-it note before the question mark? The little kindie who made the S made a 3 by mistake the first time. Post-its to the rescue! The children learned early on that it's okay to make a mistake on our message because we can always try again. Now they all want a turn to try and no one is worried about mistakes. I love Post-its!
One afternoon during Quiet Time I was able to teach the game Froggie Boogie to the kindies. We had a lot of fun and now it's one of our more popular centres. Working cooperatively in groups is in our Social Studies curriculum.
One afternoon during Quiet Time I was able to teach the game Froggie Boogie to the kindies. We had a lot of fun and now it's one of our more popular centres. Working cooperatively in groups is in our Social Studies curriculum.
We celebrated our 50th day already! The Race to 50 game was the favourite! A generous kindergarten teacher from the States made it and posted it on her blog to share!
On Friday it was time to say good-bye to S and find out what our new letter would be. We passed around our feely bag and then the kindies got to guess what was inside.
It was a hard one, but one finally got it - noodles! Time for letter Nn!
Next week the kindies will be practicing for our upcoming Christmas concert. We are performing with Mrs. Hyslop's class. Thank goodness, because Mrs. Hyslop can sing! To make it easy on parents, we've decided that children should just dress up in their Christmas best. The concert will be on December 13th. Hope to see you there!
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Linda Thomas
Next week the kindies will be practicing for our upcoming Christmas concert. We are performing with Mrs. Hyslop's class. Thank goodness, because Mrs. Hyslop can sing! To make it easy on parents, we've decided that children should just dress up in their Christmas best. The concert will be on December 13th. Hope to see you there!
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Linda Thomas