The kids looked so cute this morning for pictures! They all were proud of their clothes, telling me that they couldn't get them dirty!
We learned a poem about brushing our teeth today.
"I know how to brush my teeth.
On the top and underneath.
Up like a rocket and down like a plane,
back and forth like a choo-choo train."
After each child was able to say the last two lines, he 'earned' toothpaste to put on his toothbrush and practice brushing his teeth. I have no idea what it's like for them brush their teeth at home, but they seem to love doing it at school!
We finished our Dr. Suess story, Green Eggs and Ham, giving everyone a chance to complete sentences with the rhyming word. I enjoy that word play and I think the kids did too.
Feeling words and faces were introduced today (happy, sad, mad, tired, scared and sick). We pretended to be feeling each of those feelings, making faces and changing our voices. They giggled so much which I just hadn't anticipated! We used the old stand by song, "If You're ___ and You Know It, _____", using words and actions to depict the feeling. (happy=smiling, throw up your arms; sad=pretending to cry, wipe your tears; mad=growling face, stomp your feet; tired=yawning, stretch your arms; scared=wide eyes and shake voice, shaking our hands; and sick=moaning, hold your stomach). Your child might enjoy singing this at home!
As we read 'Green Eggs and Ham', we would look at the character's face and decide how he felt. I wanted to break out into song with "Feelings" by Barry Manilow (hopefully you remember that song and I am not THAT old!), but didn't put the kids through my rendition!
As an experiment, I asked the kids to draw any picture that they wanted to using pencils, crayons and markers. To my delight everyone went right to work with absolutely no hesitation. Their ability to visualize something and draw it on paper has improved so much since the beginning of the year. Their confidence level has increased! After dictating phrases/sentences about their pictures, the kids sat in the "Super Star' chair to tell each other about their pictures.
I opened up the last part of the day for free play to see what they would gravitate toward and just observe their play/interaction with each other.
They immediately went to the dentist/doctor box, working out who would go first. All of the kids used the various items as the dentist/doctor, talking to each other. We were past the parallel play and onto symbolic play today. Isn't that exciting?
Several kids started to play with the calendar numbers, board pictures or books. They were given a chance to put the calendar numbers in the correct sequence, talk about the dentist pictures we have been using, and read to each other. The end of a really wonderful day:)
