March 21- March 25

This past week we talked about the letters S and T and learned all about zoo's and zoo animals! We had a zookeeper station set up, where students could dress like zookeepers, go bird watching, catch fish, and feed the animals. The students could wear animals stickers and then act like the animal that they had. We did several fingerplays and songs about different animals and read the stories "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?", "The Baby Beebee Bird," "I am Pangoo the Penguin," and "Good Night Gorilla." (which we read about 6 or 7 times because all the kids liked it so much!). We talked and made a list of all the things that a zookeeper is responsible for, we talked about the different kinds of habitats the animals in the zoo live in, and we made lions, monkeys, hippos, and drew zoo animal in cages.

We talked about what an adjective is and the kids listed adjectives for several different zoo animals. They practiced counting how many eyes, noses, mouths, legs, tails, horns, and wings different animals have, and then they practiced writing their numbers. We sorted zoo animals based on characteristics they have in common and we saw how tall we all were next to an Emperor Penguin.

We talked about ordinal numbers, by moving an elephant through different rings. We worked on our number recognition skills by rolling a die and coloring the number on our zoo worksheet page. We also "painted" animal crackers with corn syrup and food coloring.

We really had a fun week pretending to be zookeepers!

This week we'll be talking about Texas and the letters U and V. We are also going to be learning about pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters!


Don't forget that the Book Fair is going on this week! Be sure to stop by!


Stephanie Ray

Important Reasons to Learn Spanish!

1. Spanish is the third most widely spoken language in the world! In about 25 countries, Spanish is the first language! Travel is lots more fun, if you speak the language of the people who live there!

2. Spanish and English share many words in common - most are of Latin origin. Plus, it is easier to learn other romance languages (those derived from Latin or "roman") such as Italian, Portuguese, and French!

3. Learning a second language makes one a better student! The more conections you feed your brain, the smarter you will be! AND - it is proven that students who learn a foreign language excel in college entrance exams!

4. To learn another language opens our hearts and minds to other peoples and their cultures - "to know another's language is to begin to know his heart . . ."!

5. It is FUN!

*This information is taken from Risas y Sonrisas Spanish Program for Kids by Leticia Smith

March 7- March 11

This week we worked on the letters Q and R. We read a story about Quilla the Queen and Rowdy the Rat. We also talked about wind and what the wind can do. We did a science experiment to see what kinds of things the wind can move, then graphed the results. We also made windsocks and got to bring them outside to see how well the wind could move them! We read several stories about the wind too!

We also talked about St. Patrick's Day this week! We read a book about the holiday and one about leprechauns too! We painted shamrocks, painted a clover field, made a rainbow and a pot of gold, and made "leaping" leprechauns. We also made a class book about what we would wish for if we caught a leprechaun and we also got to drink a magic leprechaun drink! We mixed blue and yellow to make our special green drink! We also played a game called "Leprechaun, Leprechaun, Where's Your Shamrock?"

This week we continued to work on rhyming words, and the kids helped to spell the rhyming words they were coming up with by sounding them out! They are getting really good at sounding out words and trying to figure out what letters they are hearing! We also worked on number recognition and also on writing numbers 0-10. We worked on simple addition using gummi bears and continued to work on recognizing our last names and are beginning to work on writing our full name.

When we get back from Spring Break we will be studying the letters S and T and studying zoo animals!

Hope you are all having a great Spring Break! See you next Monday!


Stephanie Ray
254-598-8101

Feb 21- March 4

Sorry I haven't blogged lately, but I've had a real busy past couple weeks! But anyways, these past two weeks we talked about the letters M, N, O, and P. We read several books about the letters and we practiced writing them and tried to come up with words that start with those letters. We also learned about clocks, worked on rhyming words, and making patterns. The students each made thier own clock and we talked about the big hand and the little hand. They also learned that we look at the big hand to decide what hour it is, and the little hand tells us the minutes. We saw how long a second was, how long a minute was, and how long an hour was.

We also worked a lot on our writing. They made number books and also practiced writing the days of the week after we read the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." We are also starting to practice recognizing and writing our last name.

We went fishing for numbers, played an eye spy game, searched for different letters, sorted shapes, reviewed our colors, and learned about our fingerprints. We got to take our fingerprints and then graph what kind of design they made. We learned that everyones fingerprint is different!

We continued to add words to our word wall and letters to our Alphabet Book! The pockets with the popsicle sticks is still going well too! We've already had a few students who've gotten 5 sticks and got to pick out a prize!

This week we will be talking about the wind, St. Patricks Day, and the letters Q and R!

March 10th is the last day for box tops! So bring them in this week! The winning class gets a uniform-free day on Friday!

And don't forget that Spring Break is next week! :)

Stephanie Ray
254-598-8101