Elephants and The Circus

I love how Kru took the crayon and "wrote" his name. Most students need help writing their name at this point and it is good practice for them to write it with an adults help each day for word and letter recognition.







Daily Question: Have you seen an elephant? Have you been to the circus?
Toys: New colored foam blocks and Fisher Price Little People Toys.
Snacks: red pepper strips, apples clices and and pretzels. Peanuts fruits snacks and pretzels.

E the Elephant exercises in the evening lifting 80 pound weights and says "e e e" (eh, eh, eh). E also says it's own name (long e sound).

Our preschool welcomes Kru to the M/W and Tu/Th classes!

We read a bunch of books about the circus today.

Also, we have been reading books about Autumn. We read The Pumpkin Patch by Elizabeth King and The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams and Megan Lloyd . The first book was done all in photos that children can relate well to at this age. The second story is fun because this little old lady is not afraid (even though Halloween can be frightening to children at this age) and she takes a somewhat frightening situation and turns it into a useful, fun ending.

The Art Reinforcement Activity has been an ABC dot-to-dot (a new skill for most of the students). It was fun to sing the ABC song while doing the activity several times.

We reviewed some words that can be made with three letters, as well as, "Ee" words on the dry erase board. Parents, this is a fun time to begin to point out words that are one, two, or three letters long (A-E) throughout the day. Examples of words you child might read at this point are: a, add, cab, dab, bed, etc.

Elephant and Circus Books:
Circles at the Circus; My First Book of Shapes (Gymboree)
Eleanor's Enormous Ears (Scholastic, Jumpstart Pre-K Readers)
The Travels of Babar by Jean De Brunhoff (Random House)
Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss
If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss
It's Circus Time, Dear Dragon by Margaret Hillert
Lowly Worm Joins the Circus by Richard Scarry (Read-to-Read, Level 2)
Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer
Sidewalk Circus by Paul Fleischman and Kevin Hawkers

The Dinosaur Museum Field Trip

After studying about D the Dinosaur, our classes visited the Brigham Young University Museum of Paleontology (formerly The Earth Science Museum).

Dimetrodon

We learned about fossils: the remains or impression of a prehistoric organism preserved in petrified form or as a mold or cast in rock.

The children enjoyed feeding money to the Dinosaur skull which roared when the coins passed through.

The students are sitting on a replica of a Brontosaurus femur bone.

Preston brought a Stegosaurus and was happy to find a mini replica like his next to some bones.

"Ohh! Ahh!"

Feeling petrified plants.

Some dinosaurs were small/tiny.

Armored dinosaurs had protective scales.

Behind the glass, preschoolers can watch paleontology students
remove bone from plaster blocks.

Dinosaur heads versus preschooler heads.

Carnivors (meat eaters) had sharp teeth and herbivores had dull, more square teeth.

Flying Dinosaurs wide wingspan.
We also had an opportunity to see minerals, fossils of plants and trees.
We enjoyed a small picnic snack of fruit sacks, pretzels, and mini water bottles outside the museum on the grass. After, we came back to the classroom and played with the student's choice of favorite toys.

D is for Dancing Dinosaurs

Daily Question: "Dd" Do you like Dinosaurs?

Toys: Dinosaurs and wilderness mat, Dinosaur puzzles, and Play Dough.


Thank you, Olivia for the sugar snap peas for a health "herbivorous" treat. Thank you Preston for Apple Cobbler yogurt, pretzels, and apple slices.

We listened about D the Dinosaur dancing disco in her father's diner until she is called to dinner. "D d d" is the sound her foot makes dancing.

I am excited that the children now know the long and short A sounds, B, C, and D sounds which will help them to sound out simple words like: D-a-d, b-a-d, c-a-b, A-d-d, etc.

We had fun gather leaves outside and talking about their shape and color while exploring the back yard. The leaves were an extended leaf rubbing activity from our "Cycle of a Butterfly" unit and also helped us imagine what it would be like to have lived in prehistoric times with the dinosaurs. We had a lot of fun!





We read Dinosaurs are Different by Aliki. In the book, children go to a dinosaur museum and talk about what they learned from dinosaur bones. After, we talked about how the bones and shape of the dinosaurs teeth help us to know if they are flesh or plant eaters. (Pointed teeth are for ripping and tearing flesh, flat teeth are for grinding and chewing plants).


An important skill at this age is using scissors. This helps the students practice fine motor skills.
"I did it!" Olivia shouted when she finished cutting out her D the Dancing Dinosaur. I am always happy when one or more of my students tries something and can master it! The student's favorite page from the Encylopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart (Pop-up Book) was the T-Rex. I wonder why?



Dinosaur Books:
How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? By Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
Ten Little Dinosaurs by Pattie Schnetzler, Ill. by Jim Harris (An Eyeball Animation Book)
Time Flies by Eric Rohmann (Caldecott Honor Book) Illustrated (no words)
My Tall Book of Dinosaurs (Preschool Press)
Happy Holidaysaurus! by Bernard Most
Dinosaurs, Learn About Books by Brimax, 4-7 years
A Book to Begin on Dinosaurs by Eunice Holsaert and Robert Gartland
Dinosaurs; Over 100 Questions and Answers to Things You Want to Know by Dan Abnett and Nik Vincent
Dinosaurs Are Different by Aliki, Let's-Read-And-Find-Out-Science (Harper Collins)
Dinosaurs Magazine; Made for Kids! (World Color Press) Sept./Oct. 1997.
Dinosaur Dream by Dennis Nolan
Encylopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart (Pop-up Book)
James Gurney's Dinotopia Pop-up Book (Turner Publishing)
Dinotopia by James Gurney
Dinotopia; The World Beneath by James Gurney
Dinosaur Time by Peggy Parish and Arnold Lobel (An I Can Read Book)*
The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Dinosailors by Deb Lund and Howard Fine
Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs? By Bernhard Most

Cycle of a Butterfly

Daily Question: Do you know what a chrysalis is? Before it becomes a butterfly, a caterpillar goes through a growth stage during which it is called a "chrysalis." On the surface it may not look like much is happening, but the delicate chrysalis process changes the fuzzy caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly with wings of intricate designs and intense colors.


This is our Class Cocoon. It was made by a fat caterpillar just before preschool began this year. We are hopeful a butterfly will emerge.


This morning we learned about watercolor painting and painted our very own butterfly craft (with coffee filter wings, clothes pins, puff balls, chenille wire, and googly eyes). When I held up a filter that had been painted, Hugh gasped and said, " Oh my. My butterfly is beautiful!"

Water colored coffee filters become our butterfly wings.

Assembling our butterfly parts.

[We decided to add the puff balls to the butterfly body and googly eyes for personality. I was reading a book about moths and butterflies afterwards and learned that typically moths have fluffy bodies and antennae and butterflies have thin bodies and separate wings. Oh well. It was fun to make our crafts!]
We had fun being Butterflies by running, whirling, and dancing to Janeen Brady's song,"See Me Run."

Eva with her Halloween Cat shirt and our Halloween cat, Boo.

Outside the children had fun riding the airplane to Colorado and then Connecticut and playing a "c" game--finding a crazy cat, a cute little baby, some stormy clouds (that causes turbulence on board the teeter totter plane) and some rockets...those (imaginary)rockets are scary and make the flight a lot more fun.


We had fun listening to I Love Bugs while we ate our circle crackers and graham crackers for snack time. Snacks included round and square graham crackers. Another day we ate Shark fruit snacks and pretzels (Nathan pointed out our pretzels are shaped like butterflies)


We read some great books about the Cycle of a Butterfly and then heard a story about C the Caterpillar who cuts leave and chews them to gain strength to build a cocoon and become a butterfly. The children make a cutting action with their fingers and say "c c c" (cah, cah, cah.)
Susie is showing a Bug Math Game which has students match bugs with colors and learn patterns.

Butterfly Books:
Caterpillar Spring, Butterfly Summer by Susan Hood, Claudine Gevry, & Mara Van Fleet
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Butterfly Express; A Book About Life Cycles (Child's Word. Magic Castle Readers)
The Bug Book by Dr. Hugh Danks
Know-It-Alls: Butterflies by Darlene Freeman and Mike Maydak
How to Hide a Butterfly by Ruth Heller
I Wonder Where Butterflies Go In Winter, and Other Neat Facts About Insects (Golden Book)
A Child's First Library of Learning, Insect World (Time Life)
I Love Bugs by Philemon Sturges (audio book)
Butterfly & Moth (Eyewitness Books) by Paul Whalley
Percival the Plain Little Caterpillar by Helen Brawley (Bright pictures and foil cut outs).