TK - Miss Kristine & Morah Raizel

FROM MS. KRISTINE 

This week we worked on the sound for /W/.  We made wonderful walruses.  The children painted their background and walruses, and they assembled everything to get pretty cute walruses with the W for their tusks (elongated canine teeth). They were very proud of the end results.   We also did our /W/ word match.  As a challenge, some children chose to write some W words.  

We couldn’t decide if we should do walruses or worms for our books, so we did both.  The children made a wonderful garden scene with wiggly worms.  They got to put them underground and/or above ground.  They added flowers, the sun, clouds, rain etc.  They got to tell their own little stories.  As an intro to our growing/ planting and insect units, we talked about how important earthworms are to the earth. They thought it was really cool that they live underground, wiggling around to loosen the soil; helping the trees grow. And with all the beautiful trees, we get amazing gifts like fruits and healthy air to breathe.  Thank you worms. 

We also made fun wallets.  First, the children colored and cut out items that start with /W/.  Then, they got to make unique wallets, picking their favorite colors for the paper and the tape.  They did a great job folding and taping their wallets together.  We even used a little velcro dot to make it feel more fun and authentic.  The children put their /W/ pictures in their wallets when they were all done.  For an added challenge, they wrote their name and Wallet on the outside. 

For sensory/art, we wrote W's on white paper with white crayons. They were invisible until we painted watercolor over the page.  It was exciting to see the writing appear and, of course, the children said, “Wow”.

We also had a wild time with water beads.  They are so cool. We did an experiment, soaking a small amount of the little specks in a jar to observe the change. We talked about the change being really cool, but it is not magic.  The children got to see them and touch them as little specs (the size of a poppy seed), and after soaking in water, they swelled up to become large beads. The next day, we added more water, and they got even bigger. We divided our beads into two jars, allowing for more space to grow.  You guessed it, they grew some more.They understood the little specks were able to soak up and hold the water to form the large beads. They were so fun to explore.  They feel wet, but your hands come out dry.  You can't help but say, "Wow", when you put your hands in the bowl. We all had fun with them.

For literature, we read Where the Wild Things Are,  by Maurice Sendak (1963).  This is a classic and a favorite book for many people, young and not so young.  Sendak encouraged imagination and expression.  Our favorite part of the story is that Max's dinner is waiting for him when he "wakes up".  We did a story connection activity where the children got to color an environment from the story and add their favorite "wild thing" to their picture.  

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!