To start, I went over our mobile classroom items of the week (Color: Blue [obviously]; Shape: Star [like a starfish]; Letters: M & N; Number: 5 [the official number of oceans on planet earth]. Our concept of the week was fine motor skills.
Then we started circle time:
Song: Days of the Week (to the tune of The Addams Family)
Days of the week, (clap, clap)
Days of the week, (clap, clap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week. (clap, clap)
There’s Sunday and there’s Monday,
There’s Tuesday and there’s Wednesday,
There’s Thursday and there’s Friday,
And then there’s Saturday.
Days of the week, (clap, clap)
Days of the week, (clap, clap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week. (clap, clap)
Source: Ms. Brown’s Classroom
We looked at our calendar and discussed what day of the week it was, what month we were in, and what day of the month it was. Then we moved on to the weather:
Song: What’s the Weather? (to the tune of Oh My Darling Clementine)
What’s the weather? What’s the weather?
What’s the weather like today?
Is it sunny? Is it windy?
Is it rainy? Is it cold?
What’s the weather? What’s the weather?
What’s the weather like today?
Is it snowy? Is it cloudy?
Is it stormy? Is it hot?
Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/460563499387764713/
Then it was time for our theme discussion.
Non-Fiction Book: Wish for a Fish: All About Sea Creatures by Bonnie Worth; illustrated by Aristedes Ruiz
Rhyming book about the different ocean zones and the sea life that lives in each zone.
Fiction Book: Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen
I love Chris Van Dusen’s books. They’re a joy to read out loud. The rhymes are just perfect for story times. When we were done with our theme books we talked about the letters of the week. We discussed the letter M first. We talked about the sounds M makes and some words that start with M. Then we reviewed letter N.
Letter M Book: A New House for Mouse by Petr Horacek
Mouse can’t fit her apple into her house. So she sets out to find a bigger home.
Then we did our letter M craft. This is the same one I created for our Annual ABC project two years ago.
Before our centers we conducted a (failed) science experiment I found on Preschool Powol Packets. In hindsight, I should have filled water bottles with oil and water. I bet it would have been more foolproof. But I filled balloons and the oil balloon decided to deflate so it sank instead of floated. But I explained the concept to the kids … hopefully that was enough. 🙂
After we were done with our experiment, the kids were free to roam the centers. I made all of the signs in Canva.
I had to hold this particular program in a different meeting room then usual so I had to double up on the salt tray and letter bins/beanbag.
I filled the tray with salt and lined it with an image from Canva. The number formation rhyme is from Teaching Mama. The letter instructions came from Worksheets to Print.
The mountain and man came from the library’s Lego and Duplo collections, respectively. The marker, mermaid eraser, magnet, and marble all came from the library’s supply closet.
The napkin came from the library’s supply closet. The narwhal came in a pack of erasers from Dollar Tree. The candy necklace (really it’s a bracelet but I had a hard time finding a necklace!) came from Dollar Tree as well. The nickel came from my wallet. The nest I had leftover from my wedding (bird and book theme!). And the nail came from my husband’s handyman stash.
The foam letters for both bins came from puzzles I found at Dollar Tree. I created the tub labels in Canva.
The blue play-doh is leftover from our polar bear kindergarten session. I got the alphabet and counting mats from Oriental Trading.
This week’s sensory bin was filled with rice I dyed blue. I got the instructions for rice dying from Happy Hooligans. I printed out the habitat mats from Tot Schooling. Instead of using their animal cut outs, I used animals I had from my collected TOOBs.
This was a very popular center! I created the orange prediction sheets in Word. I got the idea from Turner Tots. The sheets were meant to be predictions but the kids generally used them after they’d let the object drop in the water and then marked off whether it sank or float. Next time I think I’ll make a sheet more like this one from The Measured Mom.
I’m loving these Little Learners tables! I can squeeze so many ideas into one place and I like that it gives the kids free rein to explore. I got the ocean vocabulary words from PreKinders. I got the idea for the ocean zone bottles from Edventures with Kids. I reused the scale I bought for our farm kindergarten program so kids could weigh and compare shells. I got the shells from Dollar Tree. I also set out some creatures from my ocean TOOB along with magnifying glasses so the kids could look more closely at the shells and animals. I printed out the yellow sheet about ocean zones from Exploring Nature. The parts of a fish poster on the wall came from Mrs. I’s Class. Of course the books came from our library collection.
I created fishing poles so the kids could “fish” for the upper and lower case letter cards and match them up. I got the cards from Fantastic Fun and Learning. I laminated the cards, cut them diagonally, and attached paper clips to each half so the fishing pole magnets would pick them up. To make the fishing poles I bought butterfly nets from Dollar Tree and removed the nets. Then I tied and hot glued string on one end and attached magnets at the end of the string with hot glue. They worked beautifully! This center is where the kids practiced their fine motor skills.
Our session summary:
I also handed out two letter/number of the week worksheets for them to color at home and practice their writing. I got the letter worksheets from Easy Peasy Learners and the number worksheets from Tot Schooling. And lastly as homework I sent home a shark booklet I got from Learning with Mrs. Langley.
Next session: Zoo!
The Short Stack Librarian 