We've had a busy few weeks. We have been reading even more snowy weather books while we talked about letter S. The children made some super silver sparkle S's. They attached them to snowflakes. The Kitten class has two friends whose names start with letter S, Simon and Sydney.
We added pictures of them to our Snowflake collage.
Another of our favorite books about snow is When It Starts to Snow by Phillis Gershator and Martin Matje. The children really like making all of the animal noises and learning what their homes were called. We were all puzzled by an animal not many had heard about, the stoat.
A stoat is a small carnivorous mammal from the weasel/ermine family. Some of them change their coats from brown in the Spring/Summer to white in the Winter time.
We also read one of my most favorite books Crictor by Tommy Ungerer. Madame Bodot receives a mysterious "O" shaped gift for her birthday. Crictor the brave boa constrictor becomes her pet and good friend. He even saves the town from a sneaky burglar. The children made some great portraits of Crictor.
Next we talked about the letter F. We read The Book of F by Jane Werner and William Dugan and "Fire Fire!" Said Mrs McGuire by Bill Martin Jr. and Vladimir Radunsky. The children had great "fun" "finding" things that started with letter F around the classroom...like feathers, french fries, flowers, etc.
We made the letter F into a Flamingo and tried to stand on one foot like they do.
We learned oodles of songs for letter F.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
I caught a fish alive
Why did I let him go?
Because he bit my finger so
We also sang about 5 Funny Fish and Five Green and Speckled Frogs
I think they are fast favorites and we'll be singing them frequently!
For letter W we read Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes. The children agreed with Wemberly's Grandmother, she worried too much. They thought it was really silly that Wemberly feared she would shrink if she got a bath. A few children said that your fingers got wrinkly, but not to worry, they go back to normal after awhile! We painted a Winter scene on our W's and put a picture of Wemberly worrying to remember the story.
With all of the snow we've been getting, we added another favorite Winter book,
Grandmother Winter by Phyllis Root and Beth Krommes. We cut up some white feathers like the ones Grandmother collected from her geese, and blew them around and made pretend snow inside. The children made snow geese to gabble and squawk and honk and hiss. This book also has beautiful wood cut illustrations by Beth Krommes. The story also talks about lots of different animals and where they live during the Winter.
For Letter P we read Playful Little Penguins by Tony Mitten and Guy Parker Rees. The children made Penguin collages that were holding pink and purple P's. We waddled like penguins during circle time and of course found out what our names would sound like if we changed the first letter to the letter P. This is one of our favorite things to do when we talk about a new letter.
We are getting ready to celebrate Tu B'Shevat this coming week. We are looking forward to singing Happy Birthday to the trees and doing lots of tree related activities. We started reading another Sammy Spider adventure. Sammy Spider's First Tu B'Shevat by Sylvia Rouss and Katherine Janus Kahn teaches the children about the seasons and talks about all of the magical things that trees provide for people and animals. We began doing large table paintings in greens and browns so that we can decorate our room with even more trees...showing different seasons.
We are very excited to plant some parsley seeds fro Tu B'Shevat. We think they will be ready to harvest in time for Pesach!
*The Playschool will be closed beginning on Thursday, February 12 through Tuesday, February 17 for the President's Day holiday.
* Please use the radio, TV, or Internet to find out if the Philadelphia Public Schools are open or closed. If the schools are open, then we are open. If closed, then we are closed. This is the only way that you will find out about Playschool weather closings.
Shabbat Shalom and enjoy the weekend.
Ms. Terri and Ms. Amber
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