Groundhogs and Shadows

Unfortunately, this guy told us that there is going to be six more weeks of winter. Fortunately, if the weather that we have been having is called "winter", we don't mind. (BTW, these cute groundhogs were not inspired by me, but by the creative Rachel at iheartcraftythings.blogspot.com)

We had fun painting our Groundhogs and talking about Groundhog Day. Yes, we did this the week AFTER Groundhogs day. This time we wanted to talk about what he had decided, not predict what was going to happen :)

And, what better week could there possibly be to discuss shadows, light, and reflections than one with groundhogs involved! For this discovery center, we used flashlights, color paddles, mini x-rays, colored glass pieces, and other manipulatives to explore color and shadows. 

Tigers, dinosaurs, and duckies oh my!

For a writing center, we used our uppercase alphabet letters and wax bendy sticks (bendaroos) to practice "shadowing" our letters correctly. The wax on the sticks helps them to stick to the letters so that they stayed in place until we pulled them off.

We also each got to have a turn at the computer this week. We played a shadow game where we matched the dinosaurs to their shadows. Click here for the link if you'd like to play at home.

For a math center we matched up our numbers with our match and connect counting boards.

We discussed how groundhogs dig burrows to hibernate. We talked about what other animals hibernate, and dug our cute groundhog puppets some burrows of their own.

We also briefly discussed mirror images and reflections. We made these mirror image rubbings of our names.

The kids had fun spelling their names on our overhead projector and seeing the shadow reflected onto the wall. We also put other objects on without our friends seeing and had them guess what the object was.

We also worked on our problem solving skills by putting together puzzles!

And, we practiced putting our alphabet in order with our grids and alphabet letter stamps.

Books of the week:

Guess Whose Shadow by Stephen R. Swinburne

and 

Groundhog Gets a Say by Pamela Curtis Swallow

Poem of the week:

Groundhog, groundhog, don't be shy! 

Won't you come outside and spy? 

If your shadow you should see, 

Winter weather there will be. 

If your shadow isn't there, 

Spring is surely in the air.

Happy Birthday to our sweet Sarah this past week!!

Trip to the Fire Station

F is for fire. We practiced our cutting and pasting skills this week, and in preparation to visit the fire station, we made letter F's that looked like they were on fire. We cut different sizes of paper and pasted them onto our letter F to look like the flames.

We also talked about how to contact help if we have an emergency. It was so fun to listen to all of the children's dialogue. "911, what's your emergency?" "My cat is stuck in a tree!"

We even worked on putting out our own fires with these squirt guns. Those are "flames" they are squirting at, and each flame has different letters to spell out FIRE.

We helped our fire dogs find their spots. Each fire dogs' hat had a number on it, and the kids placed that many chocolate chips on his body for spots.

And we made our own fire safety dog too! He helps us remember the rules:

1. Don't hide and go outside!

2. Stay low and go!

3. Get out and stay out!

We even had our own fire drill where we practiced climbing out the window in case of a fire. Do you all have a meeting place at your home in case of fire?

Then, we were off to the fire station! The firefighters showed us their trucks and all of the tools and hoses inside them. They taught us some important tips like staying low to the ground in a fire, and never hiding. We should not be afraid of a fireman in his mask because he is there to help.

They even turned on the lights for us and let us climb through their trucks. It was a very fun, informative field trip. Thanks so much for letting us come and showing us around United Fire Authority, Station 107.

Book: Clifford the Firehouse Dog by Norman Bridwell

Song: Firefighter Song 

(tune: I'm a Little Teapot)

    I'm a little firefighter on the go. 

Here is my helmet 

Here is my hose. 

When I see a fire, 

Hear me shout: 

"Turn on the water 

 put the fire out!" 

Shhhhhhhh!

We also celebrated another birthday this week!

Happy Birthday Kyler!!

Community helpers

I love community helpers theme time! One thing that I love is watching the room transform from this

to this

The kids get so excited to "be" the different helpers. For a math center, we made our own baker hats and practiced our counting skills with these cute little cakes from Lakeshore Learning. They went from 1 to 10, and we put the corresponding amount of candles on each one. We also had some pizza! It was cut up into different fractions, and we talked about more, less, same; along with small fractions such as 1/2 and 1/4.

Another fun math center were these tools grid sheets. I printed these up from prekinders.com. We rolled the die, counted how many dots it landed on, and placed that number of bolts onto our grid. The first to fill up their sheet won!

For a literacy center we practiced sounding out 3-letter words. Each word had a picture to help, and then we found each letter in our letter drawers and spelled each word out with our foam letters.

For creative play, we dressed up as many different professionals, just as you saw above. One center was all about teachers. We had our pointing sticks, glasses, white boards, flashcards, and much more! The kids loved playing "boss" and giving each other assignments.

We practiced our coloring skills by making our own postal stamps. 

Book of the week: Saftey: People Who Keep Us Safe. This is from the Growing Up Safe series. Cute book about how community helpers keep us safe and what we should do if we are lost or scared.

Songs: We sang a few songs this week about different occupations.  One that we liked was this one to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell"

The doctor makes us well.

The doctor makes us well.

Hey! Ho! What do you know?

The doctor makes us well.

Continue with other verses.

The farmer sows the field . . .

The chef cooks the food . . .

The mailman brings the mail . . .

The firefighter puts out fires . . .

Policemen keep us safe . . .