Week of March 30-April 2, 2015

Week of March 30-April 2, 2015

Theme: Staying Healthy

Focus question: How can I stay healthy?

Letter of the Week: Vv

Dear Families,

As we conclude our unit Healthy Food/Healthy Body, the children will review what they have learned during the past few weeks. The class will read, discuss, draw and write about what they now know about healthy habits, healthy food choices, and the importance of exercise. children will also learn how doctors and dentist work hard to help us stay healthy and about the basic human need for food, clothing, and shelter.

Learning Together

Share healthy snacks with your child and talk with him or her about why you used certain types of foods to create them.

• Visit a local park or playground on a regular basis and encourage your child to play on the equipment.
• Talk with your child about why everyone needs proper clothing to stay healthy. Together, select some of your family's outgrown or gently-used clothing and donate it to a shelter.

Activities

• Along with finishing our Healthy Food/Healthy Body unit we will also be doing some spring/Easter activities.
• We put together plastic Easter Eggs according to a picture.
• We will count play-doh Easter eggs to place in a basket.
• We will identify beginning sounds and match pictures to the correct letter that makes that sound.
• We will make Easter Egg prints with plastic Easter eggs.
• We are going to do Easter Egg relay races on Wednesday when we are in the gym.

Upcoming activities

• Show and Share-Thursday, April 2 Letter V
• Spring Break-April 3-12. Return to school April 13

Week of March 23-26, 2015 Healthy Fun

Week of March 23-26, 2015

Theme: Healthy Fun

Focus Question: Why is exercise important?

Letter of the Week: N

Dear Family,

getting preschoolers to move is never a problem! This week children will learn why their movements and exercise they undertake on a daily basis is so important to their health. They will review the names of their body parts and they will also learn to do some exercises that strengthen their bodies and keep them flexible. The lessons this week will also involve reading about and discussing winter and summer sports.

Learning Together

• Choose and listen to some favorite songs with your child. Then, together, dance along to the music.
• With your child, choose a time every morning or afternoon to do bending and stretching exercises together.
• Play the game "Match Me" with your child. Perform exercises, such as jumping jacks, toe-touches, or marching in place, and then have your child try to replicate the exercise that your performed.

Activities

• The children will play a movement game where they choose a movement card and then roll the dice to find out how many times they will  perform the movement.
• The children will make a sentence strip book about how they can move their bodies.
• We will follow directions to make a healthy snack using measuring cups and counting.
• We will work together to develop a list of sports activities or exercise that we like to participate in and ways in which we are moving our body when we participate in them.
• We are going to play a body part game where the children get to construct a monster by putting on given body parts and rolling a dice to find out how many of those body parts they should put on, those monsters could get pretty crazy. 
• On Thursday we will have Super Hero Day. The children can dress as their favorite Super Hero. We will talk about how we are Super Heroes who are in charge of keeping our bodies super healthy and strong. For homework this week on a blank piece of paper please help your child identify their favorite super hero and why they are their favorite super hero and then let your child draw a picture of their favorite super hero. We will share Our Favorite Super Hero papers on Thursday. 
• We will practice our names using magnetic and wikki sticks to practice our names. For our older students we will practice first and last names.

Upcoming Events

• We currently do not have anyone signed up for the Letter N snack of the week, if anyone is interested please let me know. If you do not hear back from please know that I have found someone who will be bringing the snack.
• March 26-Show and Share Letter N
• March 26-Super Hero Day-Dress as your favorite superhero

Week of March 16-19, 2015

Week of March 16-19, 2015

Theme: Healthy Food

Focus question: What food keeps me healthy?

Letter of the Week: M

Right to Read Week: Reading Under the Sea

Dear Family,

Getting children to make healthy food choices is often difficult! This week's lessons help prepare children to do just that. They will learn about the importance of eating fruits and vegetables, and they will have the chance to taste some healthy snacks. 

Learning Together

• With your child, make a healthy snack such as "Ants On a Log." to do so spread cream cheese or peanut butter on celery sticks and sprinkle with raising.
• With your child, look at advertising fliers from grocery stores. Ask your child to circle pictures of the healthy foods.
• Together, make a graph showing your family's favorite fruits and vegetables.
• Have fun with your child by planning a day's breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu. Ask your child to name healthy fruits, vegetables, and dairy products to include in the meals.

Activities:

• This week we will try a variety of healthy fruits and vegetables. I am asking your child to bring in a favorite fruit or vegetable. I have made a list of whether your child will bring in their favorite fruit or vegetable. On Monday we are going to taste vegetables and make a chart of our favorite ones and on Tuesday we will do the same with fruits.

       Monday- a.m. favorite vegetable: Andrew, Savannah, Elise L., Claire S., and Keerthisri

                      p.m. favorite vegetable: Zach, Brandon, Emma, Patrick, Prathyush, and Avan

       Tuesday-a.m. favorite fruit: Elise P., Claire L., Hunter, Peyton, and Hayden

                     p.m. favorite fruit: Eve, Gabe, Myrrah, Bridget, and David

         Thank you for helping us with this activity.

• We will be sorting healthy and unhealthy food. 
• On Friday we will make healthy recipes together to have for snack.
• We will also be celebrating Right to Read Week, Reading Under the Sea. There are many fun school wide activities planned for the week.
• Monday-bring in a beach towel to keep at school for the week, we will be doing our Dive into Reading each day on our beach towels. Scholastic books coin challenge-bring in pennies and wear sunglasses.
• Tuesday-Scholastic books coin challenge-bring in nickels and wear your favorite hat.
• Wednesday-Scholastic books coin challenge-bring in dimes and wear your favorite beach or ocean shirt.
• Thursday-Scholastic books coin challenge-bring in quarters and dress up as your favorite ocean animal.
• Friday-Art show and book fair in the gym 5-8. The preschool children will have art displayed at the art show. This is also a good opportunity to shop for books at a reasonable price at the Scholastic book fair.

So as you can see we have many exciting activities planned for the week. 

Week of March 9-12, 2015

Week of March 9-12, 2015

Theme: Being Healthy

Focus Question: What are good healthy habits?

Letter of the Week: A

Dear Families,

 During the week our class will be discussing and learning about ways to maintain personal health and hygiene. Children will learn the importance of developing healthy habits such as washing their hands frequently, brushing their teeth, dressing appropriately for weather conditions and getting enough sleep.

Learning Together

• With your child, make a chart that lists the healthy habits of hand washing, tooth brushing, and going to bed at a designated time. Have your child apply a sticker to the chart each time he or she accomplishes one of these tasks.
• Together, read Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London and Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy Carlstrom. Then talk about clothing that is appropriate for specific types of weather. 

Activities

• We are going to make an Alligator for letter A. We will add teeth to our alligator by rolling the dice and counting out the correct number each time it is our turn.
• We will also be doing some simple adding by making a mouth and adding teeth as we roll two dice.
• We will talk about healthy habits such as washing our hands when we read the story, Those Mean, Nasty, Dirty, Downright Disgusting but Invisible Germs. We will follow that up with an activity that demonstrates how many germs are on our hands that we can't see, how we can pick them up and transfer them to other objects and how to get rid of them: WASH YOUR HANDS.
• We will also talk about brushing our teeth. We will read the story Those Icky Sticky Smelly Cavity-Causing but Invisible Germs.
• We will sort objects by determining if they are healthy for our teeth or not healthy.
• We will practice flossing teeth by using a large duplo block with play-doh placed in between each raised circle (tooth) and using a piece of yarn (floss) to get the play-doh out.
• We will also do an experiment with a hard boiled white egg. The egg will be placed in Pepsi to sit. The Pepsi changes the eggs color to a light brown color. First the children will try brushing the egg with just a toothbrush and then they will brush the egg with a toothbrush and toothpaste. We will compare which method worked best for getting the egg the cleanest.
• When we go to the gym this week we will play a germ pick up game on scooter boards.

Upcoming Activities

• Spring Break-April 3-12. Return to school on April 13.
• As a reminder Show and Share is every Thursday. Please take the opportunity to pick out something with your child that starts with the letter of the week to bring in and share. Although I always have extras the children get especially excited when it is something they have chosen special from home. This week the letter of the week is A.