March & April 2012

March and April will be filled with many new and exciting activities. In the month of March we will focus on topics such as March weather (Wind, “Lion Days”, “Lamb Days”) Rainbows, Welcoming Spring ( Animal Babies & Kites), and St. Patrick’s Day. In the month of April, we will explore Life Cycles (Frog, Chicken, and Sunflower), Seeds, Plant Growth, Pond Life, Easter and an Author Study (Leo Lionni). Our class will discuss how people, animals and plants change. They will be planting by themselves in the Science Center along with doing science experiments. The children will learn that scientists have a plan, that they make predictions and that they carefully select the materials for experiments according to their desired outcome. In our Math Center, we will be continuing our work with patterns, adding challenges such as “can you make a pattern with one kind of block?” and looking for patterns in the books we read. In addition, we have extended our number combinations work with many games that we play on the Smartboard. We will also learn how to make comparisons with connecting cubes and ribbons and measure to see which one is long, longer and longest along with short, shorter and shortest. We will continue to read lots of stories such as The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins. This rhyming story follows a wild wind that blows through a village snatching whatever objects it catches in its fancy. During Shared Readings, we have used enlarged versions of rhymes to practice a variety of skills such as finding words that begin with a particular letter sound, hunting for rhyming words and tracking print from left to right and word by word. We also are continuing “picture walks” before we read books. During this activity, we go through the illustrations looking and describing what we see, asking questions and making predictions about the book before we read the words in it. Predictions are then checked against the text as we read the story. The children love this activity and the opportunity to enhance their pre-reading and comparison skills is priceless!
We are discovering new and exciting things each new day. The children have grown so much. They are kind, caring and ready to move up the educational ladder in a few short months. I am very pleased with the progress each child is making and look forward to seeing continued growth in the remaining months of pre-kindergarten. Each day is a new learning experience for my girls. They are learning to be more responsible for their behavior and are growing so independent. Thank you for entrusting your most valuable possession to my care. God bless them all!