So much fun!

We had another busy week at Funtime! I don't know if your kids are as worn out as I am at the end of the day...

This week our theme was Arctic Animals. The kiddos enjoyed learning about Penguins - my favorite animal! On Wednesday we strayed a little bit from animals and talked about Inuit people or Eskimos.

Monday the kids made a penguin (yes, it was a penguin) out of a paper plate and construction paper cut into the shapes of wings, a head, feet and a beak. I know some of them didn't quite look like penguins, we put glue on the back of each piece and let the kids place them where they thought they should go. We did talk about the parts before they sat down at the table, we talked about where the head went and the wings and I pointed to the pictures of the penguins in a "You Big Backyard" magazine - still, some pieces didn't quite end up where they were 'supposed' to. We read about all different kinds of penguins in the magazine and discussed which were our favorites. Mine are Emperor penguins & Rock hopper. A few kids brought up the movie Happy Feet, when we looked at the pictures and I talked about March of the Penguins. Both are great movies, if you are looking for a little family entertainment.
The pre-k class did a math worksheet in which they had to count the penguins and then try and write the number. If they did not know how to write the number, I wrote it with a highlighter and they traced over it. We are really working on counting and number recognition, so I did not expect them to know how to write all the numbers. They did a great job and as always, I am so proud of them.

As I mentioned above, on Wednesday we strayed a little bit from animals and talked about Inuit (which means native) people or Eskimos. We discussed how they live in Igloos and use animals for food, clothing, weapons (I didn't really get into this - just said they also use the animals bones), etc. The kids had fun playing with the word Inuit... We made igloos by gluing mini marshmallows onto black construction paper. I told the kids not the eat the marshmallows, because they were old and yucky. The truth is, they were old - leftover from our movie and PJ day in December - but they were not hard and probably not yucky. The kids were so good, nobody ate any marshmallows; I was VERY impressed! We also had them glue cotton along the bottom of the page as snow on the ground. They had fun making the Igloos and saying Inuit over and over.
The pre-k class worked on writing slanted lines. We have done vertical lines, horizontal lines and now slanted lines. Next we will work on circles and half circles. All of this is in preparation for learning to write their letters. They are eager to learn and always try their best, I can't wait to begin writing letters with them.

Friday was gym day and the gym was all set up for basketball, so we were a little limited on space. Rather than trying to get more stuff out and risk someone getting hurt, we decided to just let them run back and forth. They didn't seem to mind one bit - back and forth they went - wore me out to watch them.

I've had a few questions from pre-k parents about what can be done at home to help prepare the kids for Kindergarten. Here's a list of some things you can do at home that we will also be working on in class:

Alphabet flash cards
Number flash cards
Learning address
Learning phone number
Zipping, buttoning and tying
Writing first and last name (using upper and lower case letters)

Next week we have 2 themes: Ground hog day and Chinese New Year
After that we will begin a unit on Community Helpers

Thank you all for helping your children wash their hands with soap and water before class. And for using the potty.

Happy Sunday! See you tomorrow.