Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales - "Jack"

This week we enjoyed learning the nursery rhymes and fairy tales about Jack!  These were very fun for the kids to hear and say together as a class!  There are quite a few "Jack" rhymes and stories.  We covered "Jack and Jill," "Jack Be Nimble," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Little Jack Horner," and "This is the House that Jack Built."

With "Jack and Jill," the kids got to make their own puzzle!  This was a new experience for many of them.  The Pre-K students cut out their puzzle pieces and then after putting them together as a group, they were able to fit their pieces together. 

The younger classes did a great job of carefully coloring their "Jack and Jill" puzzle picture and then...

felt SO big once they'd put their own puzzle together!

These kids enjoyed working on another "Jack and Jill" puzzle as a team!

"Jack be nimble,

Jack be quick,

Jack jump over the candlestick!"

This short, simple nursery rhyme was perfect to practice saying as they got ready to jump over the candlestick!

I love the happy expressions as the children learn and do new things!

This week we enjoyed reading the classic fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk."  Classic stories and rhymes are so wonderful to share together with children.  I love how they see that good wins in the end and that even though they felt nervous for Jack while he was trying to get away from the mean giant, in the end he was safe and it all worked out.  Many of the classic stories have great meaning and application for our lives too!

After reading this story, we played a math game to see who could get their "magic bean" up to the giant's castle first.  The children took turns rolling the die and counting the corresponding spaces.  We worked on one-to-one correspondence, counting, and number recognition as well as cheering for others and taking turns!

Our letter this week was "N."  We also worked on the numbers 9 and 19 with the Pre-K classes on Friday.  They all did a great job this week!  Learning through play and practice is the best way to learn!

Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales- "3"

April is our month to learn about Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales.  This week we learned about the stories and rhymes that had "3" in them: "Three Blind Mice," "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," "Rub-A-Dub Dub," and "The Three Billy Goats Gruff,".  Hands down, the overall favorite was "Three Little Kittens"!  They loved acting out this little rhyme and the Pre-K classes are getting very good at memorizing it too. 

They absolutely loved "losing" their mittens and then excitedly found them and brought them back to show the mother or father cat!

I loved how some of the kids were so expressive in their parts.  Acting out stories helps to reinforce the stories and helps develop confidence in expression as well!

When I asked the kids what kind of pie they thought little kittens might like, we got some wonderful ideas from strawberry pie to mouse pie and everything in between! : )

This week we worked on sequencing with the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".  Most of the children were pretty familiar with this story so it made it a good choice for this activity.  They worked on remembering the events in the story in order.  We used a lot of sequencing vocabulary like "first," "next," and "last," as well as "before" and "after".  They did a really good job with this activity.

Many of the younger children are getting quite good at using scissors! 

For our letter of the week, we learned "K."  We also played our ABC Bingo to review and reinforce all the letters.  We covered the letters with little bear manipulatives like the "Three Bears" story.

Every day as part of our gathering time at the rug, we have time set aside for the children to share whatever they would like with the teacher and the class.  Everyone has something to say!  This is a great opportunity for the children to express themselves in a group setting, to share feelings and emotions, to share things they're involved in, or share exciting things they've done, etc.  This time also gives them a chance to practice those important skills of taking turns and listening to others.

The children always look forward to music time! 

I loved catching this little moment.  She had just checked out a book from our lending library and couldn't wait to read it so she just took a few minutes during centers to quietly look through her new book!  It makes me so happy to see children enjoying books and letting their love for them grow!  Keep nurturing that love for books at home by reading to your children each day-it's so important as they are getting ready to read and even starting to read.

I love all the things going on in this little picture.  From buying and selling play food to taking care of babies. These children have built strong friendships over the school year!

Enjoying their time to draw and doodle on the big white board!  I also love seeing how well all of the children are learning to share.  The social skills that are taught, practiced, and learned in preschool are just as important as the academic preparations for kindergarten.

The children really enjoy playing with the babies we have at the preschool.  They like putting them down for a nap, feeding them, and changing their clothes.

We had a special treat this week with a REAL baby in one of our classes!  Many of the kids in this class don't have a baby at home.  It was darling how they gravitated to this happy little guy and how they adored him and were so intrigued by him!

We had a terrific week!

Author and Illustrator Jan Brett

For our last author week, we learned about Jan Brett.  She is an extremely talented children's author and illustrator and has written so many wonderful books.  The stories are fascinating and the illustrations are so life-like!  Her books are intriguing to both young and old.  Since we learned about Jan Brett right after Easter, we just had to read her book entitled "The Easter Egg" about a young rabbit who spends the length of the book trying to discover his talents and how he can share them with others.  In the story, each rabbit decorates an egg the best they can to present to the Easter Rabbit.  We thought it would be fun to have the kids do their best, like the rabbits in the story, and decorate their own little Easter egg however they wanted.  They turned out so colorful and beautiful!

The Pre-K classes also cut the eggs out once they were all done.

 Another Jan Brett book we enjoyed this week was "Honey...Honey...Lion!" This was a fun animal review for the kids since we already learned about many of the animals on the African savannah. 
 
 We also watched a little clip showing a number of the animals that Jan Brett saw on her trip to Africa in order to see the animals in their natural habitats and study them to be able to draw the many animals in her book in such a life-like manner.
 
 For one of our projects, we played "Honey...Honey...Lion!" (which is very similar to "Duck, Duck, Goose").  As you can see, the kids had a wonderful time chasing each other around the circle as the honey badger and the lion as well as waiting for their turn!

We had a very special visitor come to our class this week.  Since Jan Brett has used the hedgehog in many of her stories and has a pet hedgehog of her own, we thought it would be neat to see a real hedgehog in real life.  Thank you Shelley for bringing Bilbo to our preschool!  He was so interesting to watch and see up close!  We got to see his prickly quills, hear him "chuff" when he was so sleepy since he's nocturnal, and see how he curled up in a ball.  After seeing the hedgehog in real life, it made the story called "Hedgie's Surprise" come to life.  

 If you'd like to learn more about Jan Brett or find some fun activities for your children as well as videos of her travels and writing experiences, check out her website: JanBrett.com

The big pre-kindergarteners did a great job practicing their handwriting this week as they worked on writing the letter "D" as well as their name with just the first letter capitolized. 

These two were so proud of themselves after they successfully linked all the monkeys together and found a place to hang them!  Just look at those happy grins! : )

Working on sequencing during centers.  The children had to find the three items that went together and put them in order.  Sequencing is a pre-math skill and helps to understand order and predict what will come next.



Singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" with these cuties was so much fun!

We had a great week!  Keep reading to your children each day and pointing out letters, numbers, colors, and shapes that are all around us!