Community Helpers (Part 2 of 2)

We had a fun but very important week continuing our community helpers lesson.  We learned some very important safety tips.  We practiced dialing 9-1-1 and learned that we can call that number at any time if we are ever in an emergency.  Then, we talked about some different emergency situations.  One emergency we discussed was a house fire.  We talked about what we should do if our home ever catches on fire, and we even had our own fire drill in the school and climbed out the window just like we would if there were a real fire.  We learned to STOP, DROP, and ROLL if our clothing catches on fire, and we even had a visit from a real firefighter named Tom.

Firefighter Tom taught us some very important tips.  He told us that if we are ever in a fire, this is what we need to do:
Get low and Go!
Get out and Stay Out!
Don't hide, go outside!
We really enjoyed learning about the cool gear that he wears and how he helps people.  We even got to climb a ladder and save a kitten!

Some other community helpers we talked about this week were

Mailcarriers.  We even made our own mail bag to carry our letters in. 

This was a great fine motor skill because the kids had to lace all the way around the bag in order for their mail not to fall out.  Lacing cards are a great at-home activity as well.  It is something that is difficult for the children, but if they don't give up, they can do it!

For a vocab center, we played a lakeshore game where we had some different office buildings and sorted different items into which building they belonged.

For example, a toothbrush went in the dental office building, a backpack went in the school building....

We also talked about how community helpers serve others and we all work together to make our communities work.  A cashier helps us pay for our groceries.

We talked about letters h-o-t this week to spell hot, and also m-a-n to spell man.  We also counted counted up to number 17!

Community helpers (part 1 of 2)

We have so many people that help us in our community.  These people choose their jobs according to what they love to do, and that is what we hope to do one day as well.  In fact, Ms. Jennae asked us what we would like to be when we grow up, and we know you will get a kick out of our answers in our year-end scrapbook.  Here is one answer for a sneak peak:

We know that whatever we choose to be when we grow-up, we will do a great job! Whether it be a....

Baker!  or a........

Firefighter!  or a....... 

Doctor!  or a.....

                                           Construction worker!

There are so many jobs to choose from, how will we ever decide??

The kids and I had a lot of fun this last week learning about community helpers and what their job entails.  As you know, we even got to visit the dentist office for a field trip to see what kind of work that they do.

Their office was welcoming and fun.

The dental assistant taught us the proper way that we should be brushing our teeth.  We each got to take a turn if we wanted to. 

She also taught us how to floss.  We got to volunteer to be the teeth!

We had a great time learning about our teeth.  We even learned that an apple is "nature's toothbrush" and can help us clean our teeth just by eating it!  We learned what foods are good for our teeth, and what foods are bad.  But, most importantly, we learned that it is not scary to visit the dentist, they are there to help us.  Thank you Stevenson Pediatric Dentisty for letting us visit your office!!

Don't forget to ask what I learned this week?  We talked about the number 15 this week, and we spelled the word hat.  We even had the magnetic leap frog letters out to spell our names and listen to the letter sounds.  What a great week!

Out of this world!

We had a lot of fun this week exploring space.  We talked about how there are 8 planets in our solar system, and briefly told about each one.  We talked about how BIG the sun is and we talked about other stars too.  We even learned a fun song called "The Solar System in Motion" that I found on the internet from http://www.lilteacher.com/. Here are the words:
(To the tune of The Farmer in the Dell)

The Earth turns around,
The Earth turns around.
Once a day, every day,
The Earth turns around.

The moon goes round the Earth,
The moon goes round the Earth.
Once a month, every month,
The moon goes round the Earth.

The Earth goes round the sun,
The Earth goes round the sun.
Once a year, every year,
The earth goes round the sun.

We talked about how constellations are groups of stars in the sky that help us map out the sky.  We made our own constellations with the number 13 (our number of the week) and with our lite bright center.

For a fine motor activity, we "reached for the stars".  I filled the sand table with different sizes of pom-poms and the kids used chopsticks to pick them up and put them into another container.  They loved star catching.

We also used the sand table for a sensory activity.  We filled it with sand, and then used different sized and weighted balls to drop into the table like a meteoroid and then observed the different craters that they left.

Check out those craters!

We also had a center with stencils where the kids could create their own patterns and then trace and color them.

We made space necklaces out of glow-in-the-dark beads and then traveled to space (a dark room) to see them glow.

We also had fun making our own moon art project, moon rocks, puzzles, and launching our own rockets!