All About Me and Apples!

Okay so this trying to post at least once a week thing isn't working out so well!  I don't know how some of you do it, but between school, planning, my own kids and their million activities, laundry, cooking, cleaning(yeahright) and everything else I just can't seem to find the time to post as much as I would like!  I still try to check my reading list everyday to blog stalk all of you and steal your awesome ideas!  Anyways.... We have been sooo busy at preschool these past two weeks!  And did I mention how much I LOVE MY CLASS!!  Seriously, they are just the sweetest group of little smarties EVER!!!  I just love them all so much!


Okay, so the week before last we focused on All About Me and Our Families.  We discussed how we all are different, but each one special.



We graphed the color of our eyes and then discussed the results.  They cut out the circles for the eyeballs and HELLO- awesome cutting skills!!!!  Yay!




Here is an interactive writing predictable chart that we did.  We focused on the letter Ii this week-look at those letter Is!!!  Yay!


 

 Here we measured how tall we were and then compared the results.  This picture was taken before we finished all the kids-we started this one day and then finished the next.  I guess I forgot to take another picture-oops!  We lined up from tallest to shortest, and then shortest to tallest.  For some reason they thought this whole thing was hilarious! Silly kids!


 

We talked about the people that make up our family and then did this Who Lives in My House glyph.  I got this idea on Pinterest and it was sooo fun!  The kids did an awesome job!  Not only did it cover knowledge of who makes up their family, but also color recognition, as well as counting!




 

Here is the key that we used for our glyph.  I made a really small version and glued it to the back of each of their houses, so the parents could read the glyph.






We sorted letter in our name and letters not in our name.






And of course since we focused on the letter I, we had to paint the letter I with ice cubes!  Every week, during small group time, one of the groups completes a letter for their alphabet book.  The groups rotate throughout the week, so everyone goes to each activity.  I keep the letter art, cut out and mount onto colored cardstock, and then assemble into a book and then they take them home at the end of the year.  We do all kinds of process art for these letters and the books really turn out awesome and fun!  One of my favorite projects of the year!

Sooooo then last week, we focused on Apples!!!

We started our week with a KWL chart and filled out the K and W.  I totally did not get a picture of this, but i was really amazed at all of the stuff they already knew!  Smarties!





Here, after discussing the parts of the apple and talking about seeds, we did a Seed Snip.  I gave them a strip of black paper and they had to snip snip snip to make seeds for their apple.  Again, I am AMAZED at the scissor skills this group has so early in the year!




We did a fine motor/following directions/ paper tearing activity.  This is one of my favorite apple activities that we do-I have done it every year!  I LOVE how the apples all turn out so different! 




Of course we read Ten Apples Up On Top!!!  We focused on AB pattern and they did it!!!  I will leave these hanging thru next week and then assemble into a classbook!  They LOVE classbooks!




This was one of our small group activities.  I am lucky enough to have one aide and a Foster Grandparent that comes to my room everyday, so we have three groups during small group time.  Two groups of 4 and one of three.  Sometimes I group them by skill level, and other times random.  This group was making AB apple pattern hats.  They picked two colors and then went to town with AB pattern on a sentence strip.  Then i just stapled into a hat.  We make TONS of hats throughout the year.  They LOVE making hats!



Here is the group working with Foster Grandma.  This is a game that I got out of a Mailbox magazine  few years ago.  They each have a sorting mat, take turns picking an apple card out of the bag, and then sort onto the mat.  When all cards are gone, they count how many of each color they have.  They love it!




This was the last group, and they were doing their letter art for their alphabet book.  And since we were focusing on letter A and apples, they did apple prints, of course!  Again, I will save these, cut out the letter, mount on colored cardstock and assemble into a book after we are finished with all of the letters.





And finally, here is a picture of my Family Projects Board.  Each month, I send home a Family Project to make the home/school connection.  Since we focused on All About Me in the month of September, I sent an All About Me project.  I found this on Pinterest,  except the original was for 1st or 2nd grade so I modified it for Prek.  I actually have added two more that were returned since I took this picture, so I have 9  of 11 families that completed the first Family Project and let me just say THAT IS AWESOME!!!  The kids REALLY love looking at this board, with the projects that they worked on with their families! 

Okay this post was REALLLLLY long!  I guess that's what I get for waiting two whole weeks to post.  We are just so busy!!!  Next week we are continuing our study of apples and will even be making applesauce!!!  I just love smelling that stuff cook all day long!  Hope everyone is having as much fun this year as I am!