Big ideas for little kids

Your kids have such big ideas!  And big talent!   One of our activities in our "Big/Small" unit was to make really long drawings on receipt tape.  They had fun exploring paper that had unusual physical boundaries.  Some did this quickly, and some took as much as half and hour to complete their creation.  I hung them on the wall-in hindsight, I wish I had been more careful about hanging them flush to the floor so the kids would have a better idea of the height of their drawing compared to their friends.  Nevertheless, it was neat to see them admiring their hard work.

Speaking of hard work-you should have seen them working on ordering balloons from smallest to biggest!  Our words of the week were "small" and "big"-and their job was to put balloons in order from smallest to biggest.  They really thought hard on this one and ended up successfully putting the balloons in order.  What I didn't count on was the balloons moving all over the room as the kids moved...Before this activity even started, we had a little science lesson about air and how the air in our lungs transfers into the balloons.  More air breathed out=a bigger balloon.  In this activity we covered science, reading, and math.  Plus, it was fun!

Working hard to put the balloons in order from smallest to biggest

Task complete

Liam and Cadham checking out the tall art

BIG AL!!!

You should have received a note saying that Big Al and the UA cheerleaders are coming Friday to TPP!   Your child can have a picture taken with Big Al for $10.  If you didn't receive a form about this, let me know and I'll get you a new one. 

Big/Small nature walk

On our big/small nature hunt

We went on a nature walk today and collected things in nature that were big and small (relatively speaking, of course).  The weather was amazing and the kids loved it.  We picked up

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big sticks, little sticks, big rocks, little rocks (and then talked about the stones David used against Goliath), big leaves, little leaves, big weeds, and little weeds.  We took our great finds inside and used two of our sight words, "Big" and "Small" and gave them the opportunity to sort with the words nearby.  We tried collages (not pictured)-what I didn't account for is that many items would be to heavy and bulky

I thought Cadham was drawing his building, but as it turns out, he was drawing Goliath:)

for a collage.  Live and learn!

Working together

Reading new words and sorting

For the first time, I brought clipboards into the block area.  Today they sat and drew amongst piles of blocks.  What I am anticipating in the future when I do this is them planning what will build.

Pretty much all kids have mastered the ABAB pattern concept, so today I introduced AABBAABB with large and small blocks.  After I was reasonably sure they understood that concept, I took it a step farther.  With the kids' eyes closed, I asked them to place the blocks back where they belonged.  After that, I whipped out the words "Big" and "Small" and they worked together with some letter blocks I borrowed from Mrs. Leslie.  They had to search for the letters in the words "big" and "small"-they did it almost completely by themselves.  I was so proud of them-and what's more, they were proud of themselves.

This group loves a challenge

What's next in the AABB pattern?

What's the big deal?

I'm trying out a unit that I've never formally done before-"Big and Small, Long and Short."  I know that your kids know the difference between big things and small things, but I'm using this opportunity to gauge mathematical concepts and talk to them about several related things:

-Many small things make a big thing!  The kids worked together on a huge contact paper/tissue paper mosaic! 
-Talking to them about David and Goliath.  Most, if not all, know this story.  I want them to see that God is the hero-not David.
-Language-what other words mean Big and Small?

I'm really enjoying this unit!

Happy birthday, Roxanna!

We were able to celebrate the beginning of Roxanna's 4th year of life today!  One of the fun things that we reserve just for Fridays is bringing out "Pete the Cat" and then reading/singing along with the book.  As a special birthday treat, Roxanna got to hold Pete today.  There are so many things I love about
Roxanna.  One thing in particular is her affection and devotion.  I've known her about a year-and-a-half now, and she has always been so generous with her hugs.  She is inquisitive and wants to know how God's world operates.  What a joy to see my Roxanna grow!

Our birthday girl got to hold Pete. 

Celebrating with the older class!

Roxanna REALLY wanted to help me vacuum yesterday

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Taste and see that The Lord is good!

Bishop and Liam working hard

We finished up our five senses unit today-with a bang! 

We had a taste test and the kids were able to taste lemon, popcorn, and M&Ms (guess which was the favorite...).  The reactions on the lemon were priceless. There were some great faces that my little iPhone camera just didn't capture.

We took the science activity a step further and turned it into a language activity as well.  The kids were encouraged to describe the food as well.
 
Our verse this week was Psalm 34:8a, "Taste and see that the Lord is good."  My prayer through
this unit on our five senses is that the children

will taste, hear, see, feel, and smell that the Lord is good. 

Smelly "art"

We're finishing up our 5 senses unit this week and today we focused on "smell."  We talked about how our sense of smell is a gift from God, for His glory.  Our sense of smell helps to protect us.  It also enables us to enjoy the beautiful world He put us in.  We talked about good smells (pizza, cookies, flowers) and bad smells (diapers...yuck!).

Our big activity today was our art project.  Like yesterday's, a lot of brown was involved.  Again, process, not product:).  We did spice paintings.  I brought some old spices from home, mixed it with white glue, and stuck in some paintbrushes.  We were sure to smell the different spices (curry, cinnamon, sage, thyme, etc.) and decided which ones were good smells, and which were not so good.  The texture of this "paint" was interesting to explore as well!  This may not be one you want to keep-there is some sugar in the cinnamon (it's all I could find...)

We also whipped out the playdoh in the writing center and made letters and words with the playdoh.  We all know that each have unique learning styles, and my hope is that introducing different mediums in our writing center will offer everyone opportunity to better learn/appreciate language rather than just drilling them with flashcards and tracing sheets. 

Anne Barrett's eyelashes blew me away today

"it" with playdoh

Working hard to create letters with playdoh

This team worked so hard together!

A smelly creation

Playdoh "T"

What is more fun than fingerpainting?

I decided that this past Monday was the day we needed to brave finger painting.  Yes, it's messy.  And yes, most of the time the product is a big, brown, picture of goop.                                                                                 

Bishop experimenting with colors.

But it's the process, not the product that is important, right?  It's the truth and it's something I have to remind myself when things get a little messy in the classroom.  The kids love the freedom to get messy.  They love the way globs of paint feel under their 4-year-old hands.  And they are learning so much as they see their creations!

It's fun for me to see how the kids approach it differently.

Masterpieces!

Happy Birthday, Brooklyn!

A weakness of mine in my previous years of teaching is that I don't celebrate birthdays well.  A goal of mine this year is to celebrate every child's birthday-and make them feel extra special and loved.

That being said, we got to celebrate our first birthday of the year on Friday!  Sweet Brooklyn turned 4 earlier in the week and we were so excited to be able to be part of this.   We read, "Happy Birthday Hamster" at group time.  She got to be the leader all day and had the opportunity to wear the fun hat.  The class gave her a gift and she also got to take home the birthday bag:)  She brought in delicious cupcakes.  We all enjoyed them-especially Ryley:)

 

Architects in training

I'm not sure the children loved this activity as much as I did, but it was still very interesting to see their little brains try to use blocks to build their houses and their friends' houses.  We whipped out the photos of your lovely homes and the kids were encouraged to closely examine the structures and then to actually build models of the houses. 

On an unrelated note, I had to include a picture of sweet Ryley planting a flower on the playground.  She worked on this for a while and was so proud of the results.  She then informed me that all it needed to grow was some rain and sunlight.  Smart girl!

ABC , easy as 123

When I pulled out the teddy bear counters Thursday, I had no idea the kids would truly enjoy them as much as they did!   First we talked about what a pattern is-when something happens repeatedly.   We talked about ABAB patterns.  I would create them and after about 2 repetitions, the kids would catch on.  They would then go on and copy the pattern on the second row.  Several children even successfully created their own pattern on the third row.    

Next step-AABBAABB patterns!

Home is where the heart is

Check out this gem my daughter and I saw while walking in today!

Ryley was so excited to write her name over and over.

Liam, cooking some muffins.

Ole!

We are doing a mini-unit on homes (since it's a short week) and did some brainstorming on things that your kids think of when they think of home.  Sounds like you live fun lives!