Under Where?

Theme:  Letter U
Letter U has two sounds.  We choose some pictures of U words from underneath an umbrella.  We decided if it made the short or long U sound and then put it in the right place on our board.  We love making the short U sound.  Some of our focus words included:  uniform, unicorn, up, under, underwear, Utah...

Choosing Time:  Unicorns, a Unique collection of toys, Dress-Ups, Utah Puzzle, Elevator Up game, Letter U Memory...

Music & Movement:

• London Bridges
• A Very Merry Un-Birthday
• Tiny Turtle
• Ukelele Playing
• When You're Up, You're Up
• You are my Sunshine
• ABC

Games:

• Keep the Balloon Up
• Pin the Horn on the Unicorn
• Who is Hiding Under the Umbrella?

Snacks:

• "Ugly" yet yummy creations with cream cheese, crackers, craisins, and mini m&m's
• Popcorn & Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
• "Underground" Worms in Mud Cups

Art:

• Umbrella Fun
• Balloon Painting

Writing:  We practiced letter U/u

Vocabulary:  In one of our songs we sing the word, neither, one of the kiddos wanted to know what that meant.  We've had fun trying to give examples of either and neither :)
 

Reading:  We practiced listening for the letter U sounds in words.  We told if we heard U sounds in the beginning, middle, or end of words.

Un-Birthday Party:  We thought about what kinds of activities happen at birthday parties:  games, balloons, treats, and prizes.  We played games, had balloons, ate treats, and had prizes.  It was successful!

Books: My Umbrella is Up,

 

Turtles & Tortoises

Theme:  Letter T
Letter T is fun to make and it has a fun sound to say.  We took turns pulling off "tulips" off of our Temple poster.  Each Tulip had an idea for a fun T activity. Some of our focus words included:  turtle, two, ten, tin, tent, turkey, twist, tiptoe, touch, taste, tongue, tiny...

Choosing Time:  Trains, Turtles, Tracing Puzzle Pieces

Show & Tell:

 Tea Set

 Tiger

 Turtle

Sea Turtle

Snacks:

• Tasty Painted Toast--Each kiddo was able to paint a piece of bread with red, blue, and yellow milk paint and then we toasted it, Yum!

Art:

• Turtles
• Triangle Collage

Science:  We compared turtles and tortoises.  We had a tortoise come and visit.

Games:

• Touch & Taste:  I put several marbles and peanut M&M's in a bag.  One at a time a child put his hand into the bag to attempt at pulling out an M&M instead of a marble.  Even if a marble was chosen, each kiddo got an M&M to eat.

Music & Movement:

• Tiny Turtle
• Twisty and twirling T's
• Tiptoe 
• Sesame Street's "Plain White T's"

 Writing:  We traced S/s's and Wrote T's

Video Clip:  Cookie Monster Introduces Letter "T"

Books:

a book about seeing through touch

Feeling Lucky

Theme:  St. Patrick's Day Party

Snack:  Green Smoothies & Green Rice Krispy Treats

Games:

• Building Leprechauns
• Build a Rainbow/Jump over the rainbow
• A Leprechaun played a trick on us and left some Chocolate Gold Coins for us

Art:

• Shamrock Shakers
• Hot Rocks

Books:
   

Sweet & Salty

Theme:  Letter S
We noticed that both upper and lower case S have the same shape.  We had fun pulling S shapes out of a sack and then did a corresponding activity with each shape.  We focused on some fun S words like swim, sun, skin, see, soft, silly, slimy, sweet, speak, snack, string, sing, song ....We also learned that when H follows S it makes the "sh" sound, which includes words such as shoulder, shine, shark, show, shake, and shush.

Choosing Time:  Silly Scissor Cutting Collages, Shapes, trains, doll house, dress-ups, jewels,....

Show & Tell:

 Songs

 Squares & S

 Swords

 Super Hero

 Saber-tooth Tiger & Snakes

 Who is longer?

 Can you coil into a spiral?

Science:  We learned about Signs of Spring--I asked the kiddos, "What kinds of changes do you see outside?"  Many of them replied, "Rainbows!"  I laughed.  And, just so you know, some also answered, "Birds!"  Hopefully now, we'll also be looking for brown to turn to green--on the trees, in the grass, in dirt...and for butterflies and bees to start showing up.

Music & Movement:

• Dancing Snowmen
• Rain is Falling
• See Me Run
• Everything has a Shape
• Stand Up
• Put Your Hand inside the Circle
• Make a swirling shape
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
• Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

Writing:  We practiced R/r

Snacks:

• Popcorn & fruit Snacks
• Square Crackers with String cheese
• Kid Cliff Bars

Art:

• Salt Dough Sculptures that we created and then painted
• Super Hero Capes
• Sponge Painting (with a challenge to put the sky shapes  and the ground shapes in the right spaces)

Books:
    

Rainbows, Rockets, & Rabbits

Theme:  Letter R
We practiced the letter R sound.  We made big R with our bodies.  We noticed that little r has a rainbow shape.  We thought of several words that use the R sound:  rabbit, rat, rain, rainbow, red, read, rock, roof, reverent, ring, raccoon, rhyme...

Choosing Time:  Robots, Rainbow fruity necklaces, Rubber-bands, ...

Show & Tell:

 Rainbow dress

Rhino, Rabbit, & Raccoon

Rope

Snacks:

• Popcorn, Pears, & Oranges
• Frozen Go-gurts & Goldfish Crackers
• Clementines (rainbow shapes) & "gold" crackers

Music & Movement:

• I'm a Little Rabbit
• I Can Sing a Rainbow
• Rain is Falling
• Row, Row, Row the Boat
• If all the Raindrops were Lemon Drops
• A Chubby Little Snowman
• Ring Around the Roses
• If You're Wearing Red Today
• Little House in the Middle of the Woods

Math:  We Had a hunt for numbers

Art:

• Watercolor & Salt Rainbows (we first had to trace the rainbow and black glue over the lines)
• Rainbow Collage
• Rockets

Science:

• What happened to the painting when we added salt?
• What 3 things do we need to make a rainbow?

Books:

Falling for Rapunzel

The White Rabbit's Color Book

Red Riding Hood

Roses are Red

Quickly and Quietly

Theme:  Letter Q
Q is a little shy so it always needs a buddy:  U to follow after him.

Choosing Time:  Queen's jewels, Queen puppets, Dress-ups, Blocks,...

Show & Tell:

 Quilt 

 Queen Elsa

 Quacking Ducks

Snacks:

• Quick Bread
• Crackers with Cheese to make Q

Art:

• Q-tip Painting

Science:  We did an experiment with Q-tips, food coloring, milk, and dish soap. 

Music & Movement:

• 5 Little Ducks
• Quickly, Quietly
• Make little q
• Bazooka Bubblegum
• Q moves:  throw like a quarterback, quack like a duck, walk quietly, run quickly, wave like a queen

Books:
The Queen Couldn't Sleep
The Quilt Maker's Journey

Games: 

• Who is in the Quilt?
• Roll the Dice and Color the Queen
• Quarter (Q) & Penny (P) toss

Birthday:  We had a fun time celebrating this 4 year old!

Pajama Pancake Party

Pajama Pancake Party:
We had a wonderful time wearing our p.j.'s, eating pancakes, and proudly parading around.  We played games, practiced songs, face painting, colored pictures, worked puzzles, and listened to poetry.  Learning about "P" is a party!