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This week we started Week Four of our Ice Castle unit with Experience Curriculum, and because Christmas is this week (I still can't believe it), we are splitting Week Four between this week and next week! We are in class three days both this week and next because of Christmas and New Year's. During Week Four we are learning about life in the arctic and on Monday we talked about arctic gear. We talked about why it is important to dress appropriately for the cold weather and what kind of clothing would help keep us warm.
During our creative art activity they got to practice sewing. This was a great way for them to use their fine motor skills! Everyone got a sewing square, embroidery thread and a needle (plastic, of course). Our inspiration photo was a pair of mittens and we took time to observe the pattern we saw on them and then we took a look at our own clothing to see where we could find stitches. They got to sew their own designs and take their sewing square home to keep practicing.
For our literacy activity on Monday we practiced spelling words. I flipped over our word cards and had the children take turns drawing a card. The card they drew was the one they needed to spell. Our word puzzles had a missing letter, so their job was to match their card to the word puzzle and figure out which letter was missing to complete the word. Once they figured it out they used our hands-on letters to complete the word. We practiced sounding out the letters as we did this and sounded out the words as we spelled them. During this activity we worked on phonological awareness and writing. This was a fun way to practice spelling with my preschoolers. Our letters this month were P, I and T. We have been working hard on our letter recognition and letter sounds, so this was a good way to put those skills to practice.
This month we received number mats with fun rhymes to help us learn how to write our numbers. I laminated these so we can keep reusing them. I sat with them one-on-one and we said the rhyme as they practiced writing. My preschoolers are getting really good at writing, and the rhyme made it fun!
To kick off Christmas we had a Polar Express party at school on Tuesday and Wednesday. The children drew names for a book exchange and we started our day by exchanging books. I heard a lot of "Thank you's" and saw a lot of excitement with their new books. They were excited to see presents under our tree leading up to the book exchange. I started a book exchange at the center in Corvallis, and it quickly became a tradition along with Polar Express Day. I was excited to bring the tradition here, the children had so much fun and I love seeing them excited over a new book!
I made each child a Polar Express ticket and before coming in to class they had to find their name. They were excited to have a ticket like in the movie and this was a fun way to kick off the day. Before watching the movie we did our book exchange, and then enjoyed popcorn and hot chocolate during Polar Express.
I hope everyone enjoys the Holiday's with their loved ones!
