My Special Letter

Did you know that you have a special letter?  It is the first letter of your first name!  

We spent an entire week learning all about our special letters and used them to complete many fun crafts and activities.

We started our week by learning the alphabet song to a slower tempo, this helps us not miss letters in groupings like LMNOP.  After singing the alphabet song we found our special letters on our alphabet chart.  This year we only have two friends, Lainey and Lucas, who share a special letter, L!

Next, we learned that all letters are made by combining big and little lines and big and little curves.  After identifying each of our four pieces we practiced building our special letters using the directional words up, down, and diagonal.  

  

 

After our activity we worked as a group to clean up and sort each of the pieces back into their four types, naming them as we sorted. 

We had so much fun sharing our special letters that we decorated at home!  So much creativity went into each decorated letter, thank you parents for your help!

After sharing our special letter, we learned how to use round paint dotters and "dotted" the letters in our names! This was a fun activity with our shape of the week, circle.

Our favorite Special Letter craft of the week was painting our special letter with watercolors!  They make beautiful additions to our classroom decorations.

We took time to practice our handwriting skills and wrote our Special Letter on our class chart!

 

 

This week our fine motor focus was on cutting.

First we practiced cutting straight lines.  Next, we practiced cutting curved lines and circles.  We cut out circles in rainbow colors and made silly circle caterpillars!

  

 We had so much fun at our first pep rally and participating in the first Red and White day.  We learned that Holy Souls School has three special letters and we use them in many of the cheers for our sports teams.  Go HSS! Go Wabbits!

We were all very impressed with the cheerleaders' performance.  We loved the tumbling so much, we couldn't look away!

 

I Am Special!

Last week we learned all about the things that make us special!  

We started our week by sharing things we can do that make us special!  Running fast, playing soccer, doing gymnastics, and dancing were popular answers.  After sharing with our classmates we drew a picture of our favorite activity to hang on the board.

Next, we read the story Chrysanthemum about a tiny mouse with a BIG name.  After finishing the story we discussed our own names, their lengths,and added them to our class chart.

One thing that makes us special is being a boy or a girl.  We each created a self-portrait and then we sorted ourselves into boys and girls!

 Our hair is another thing that makes us special!  We learned that some friends have short hair while others have long hair, some have straight hair while others have wavy hair, and some of our friends are brunette while others are blonde or have black hair. 

Our eyes help us to see and their unique colors make up special.  We learned that our friends have either blue, brown, or green eyes!

Next, we learned about the concept of growth and change over time.  We know that we are bigger than when we were born and that we will continue to grow until we are adults.  I wonder how tall everyone will be when they graduate from HSS, probably taller than Mrs. Baker! 

 Our birthdays are another thing about us that make us special.  No two friends in our class have the same birthday, or even celebrate in the same month, so we all get to celebrate our own special day!

The last characteristic that we discussed that makes us special is our hand prints and our finger prints.  We were all amazed that God created everyone's finger prints to be unique!

All week long we documented what makes us special in our own books.  We are putting the finishing touches on them now and will be sending them home soon to share!

 Last week we continued learning about appropriate behavior in school.  We read two books about a boy named David who just can't follow the rules.  We discussed not wanting to be like David and made our own David craft to remind us to do the right thing.

 Last week we got to play in each center around the room!  

Faith and Tristan playing in Games Center.

Karter and Lainey enjoying Leo the Lovable Lion in Listening Center.

Bode and Marshall weighing bugs in Science Center.

Chase and Patrick cleaning the "store" in House Keeping Center. 

Dane and Lucas building in Blocks Center.

Other centers we enjoyed are Reading Center, Art Center, Handwriting Center, and Math Center!

To end this post I wanted to share pictures of everyone playing together on the playground.  I love how quickly we have all become good friends!  :)

Hip Hip Hooray For The First Week In PreK!

We had a wonderful first few days of school!  Before you take a peek into our activities, I'd like you to meet the 2018-2019 Hoots!

Bode

Chase

Dane

Faith

Karter

Lainey

Lucas

Marshall

Patrick

Tristan

All week we learned about our new friends, the parts of our school, and the adults we will see around campus!

We learned that the cafeteria where we eat lunch is also called the Allen Center where we have assemblies and programs.

 We attended our first assembly where we learned all about having H.E.A.R.T!

Students who have H.E.A.R.T. are:

Honorable, Engaged, Academic, Respectful, Team Members 

Mrs. Mansfield, our aide, was even in the assembly! She's on the far left.  :)

On Thursday we attended Music class with Mrs. Golladay for the first time!  We each got to play the drum and a second instrument during our fun Little Bunny Foo Foo activity.

The first week of school can sometimes be a little scary or make us feel anxious.  We read the story The Kissing Hand about a sweet raccoon named Chester who goes away to school for the first time.  Chester was a little nervous to leave his mother so she gave him a special present to help ease his mind.  Chester's mother gave him a kiss on his hand and reminded him that he could keep her kiss with him at all times and hold it to his cheek when he missed her.  What a sweet way to always have mom close!  

After reading the story we completed our first big art project and made our own Chester raccoons to hang in our classroom!  Although all the rain and humidity made our tails droop.  

 The first week of school wouldn't be complete if we didn't take time to make our very own owls!  We completed a guided drawing, whole group, then each Hoot got to color their owl however they liked.  Can you guess which owl is your child's?!?

  We had such a fun time together, I can't wait to show you all we do next week!

-Mrs. Baker