This week we had a few activities that focused on literacy. Literacy in my preschool classroom looks like this (to name a few):
* Reading
* Singing
* Rhyming * Games * Word Walls * Name/Word Building * Writing I have books in every classroom and most of them switch out every month to keep their attention. Having books readily available gives them the opportunity to pick one up! We read stories everyday in class and often times we will take "Book Breaks" during our day.
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This week one of the activities in our Space and Sky curriculum from Experience Early Learning was called Planet Word Builders. With this activity they practiced alphabetic knowledge and classification. We worked to build three planet names: Earth, Mars, and Venus. I cut up the letter cards and laid them next to the word strips, randomly. We did this activity individually so that I could really see what letters they were able to identify.
I wanted them to not only be able to match the letter but also identify it. We have been working on identifying uppercase and lowercase letters, and learning that a capital letter is used at the beginning of a sentence, a name, or a place. I like that the name strips had the planet picture beside the word. The children are able to relate the picture to that word, and this is important for preschoolers when working on their early literacy skills. Some children wanted to do this activity a few times!
This week included St. Patrick's Day. I cut out a pot so we could make a Pot of Gold, and we combined art and literacy. They worked on structuring a sentence, telling me what they would do with their pot of gold. Instead of giving me a simple one or two word answer, we worked on putting those words into a sentence. The sentence started with "If I had a pot of gold..." and then they had to put their thoughts into a sentence to complete it. It is fun to give your preschooler a sentence starter and seeing where it goes! The children all had different ideas on what they would do with their pot of gold.
Each month in our Experience Preschool curriculum we receive two books. One of our books this month is called Up in Space. We have been focusing on the eight planet names and their distance from the sun and this book was a great way for us to review what we have been learning! They had a lot of fun guessing which planet came next, and because we have been working to memorize the order of the planets most of them were able to guess correctly! This is also a great book to review number recognition. At the end of the story the eight planets are numbered and pictured as a review of what we just read.
Each month we learn a new character trait and the other book we receive each month goes along with that trait. This month we have been learning what responsibility means and in our story this month we learned that it is important to take responsibility for our actions. These books are fun for my preschoolers and also teach important lessons!
We are ending our week with Kids in the Kitchen, making a Sunshine Salad which goes perfectly with our Space and Sky theme this month. I found this recipe on Pinterest, from simplystacie.net. This salad included one fresh pineapple, one can of mandarin oranges (don't drain), two bananas, and one box of Jello vanilla instant pudding. Most of the children loved this, saying that they loved the vanilla flavor. I had one student ask me to share the recipe with their parents because they loved it so much!
It has been a fun week focusing on the gas and ice giants in the sky.
