T is for Transportation!!!!!
I am so excited for our new theme! This month we will be focusing our attention on vehicles.
Our letter of the week is "T," our color is "Red," and our shape is a "Rectangle." Today in circle time we categorized vehicles into ones that are appropriate for land, sea, and air. Then we graphed which category had more vehicles. We sang songs. Read the book,
The Little Blue Truck, and to top it all off learned about traffic lights. We sang a song about traffic lights and identified what the colors mean. You are welcome to sing this little song with your children to help them remember.
(To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, little Star)
Twinkle, twinkle, traffic light
On the corner, shining bright
Red means stop
Green means go
Yellow means slow, slow
Twinkle, twinkle, traffic light
On the corner, shining bright
After circle time we had some fun making this craft - edible traffic lights!
The children spread the frosting on the rectangle (graham cracker) with their fingers.
Then the used red, green, and yellow M&M's to make the traffic lights.
Great fun and they were delicious too!
After our craft/treat, we headed upstairs to the classroom for centers. We have all new centers out now and I am so excited and happy to announce that the long awaited light board is working. The children loved it! With everything being new, we did have to re-learn some of our rules but all in all, it was a success.
The light board is a wonderful resource. It is great fine motor practice and visual stimulation. We also had the opportunity to practice turn taking with this new addition to the classroom. ;)
Along with our transportation theme came some exciting changes to our room including this huge street rug.
The new centers are all transportation based. These are about counting cars.
Now that we are a month in and the children really have the routine down, I am moving my focus away from teaching them how to properly utilize the room to individualized instruction. During center time I am pulling a few children at a time over to another table to practice and teach certain skills one on one. I am really excited to be able to do this now. It is very important to me that each child get my undivided attention for at least a few minutes each time they are here.
Today I focused my instruction time on sequencing. These are simple ABABAB patterns. The children "read" the pattern and tried to anticipate what would come next. The homework I will send home on Wednesday will focus on practicing this skill.
I also put up a fun new giant poster. It identifies what animals can be found around the world. It is a fun brain break for the kids to go find an animal of their choice.
Again, the children are free to roam the room during center time to learn and explore whatever interests them most. There is the library, dress-ups, toys, literacy, math, sensory, and practical living activities.
After centers we met at the long table for a sensory experience. It is just shaving cream that I encouraged the children to explore. We used our fingers to make shapes. This activity is fun for some, and not for others. I never insist that a child do anything that makes them uncomfortable, but ask them to just stay with us so that no one feels excluded.
It was good messy fun!
Last but certainly not least we did an art/literacy project. We did a do-a-dot page of the letter "T." T is for Truck.
As always I am so impressed by your children and I can already see the progress that they are making. Today flew by. We had so many fun things planned. It's going to be a great month!
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