Our Busy First Week

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

        We had a wonderful first week.  After reading The Kissing Hand on our first day, we moved on to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  The kids love helping to read the story...especially saying "Boom Boom" in a loud deep voice.  I used the book as an opportunity to practice using our special "push and squeeze glue." I LOVE these glue caps which dispense only spots of glue.

 The key is to teach the kids that they never "open" the glue.  Instead they need to push the tip on the paper as they squeeze the bottle. I bought these caps years ago and it is one of my best purchases.

After gluing on the trunk, leaves and coconuts, the children used stickers to add their names.  Finally they wrote their name on the poem and counted how many letters were in their names. They are really cute and it was good to see where the kids  were with following directions, and writing their names and numbers

            

Magic Play Dough

          The kids loved playing with the "magic play dough" that I brought in that turned blue if the child playing with it is going to have a  great year in Pre-K.  The magic play dough was home made play dough shaped into 20 small balls.  I pushed my finger into each ball and added a few drops of blue food coloring.  I like that the kids will now always refer to our blue play dough as the magic play dough.

Our Walk

We ended this week with a wonderful walk around the college campus where our school is located.  

Am I lucky or what? :)

We were silent for 1 minute as we used our senses to notice things at the fish pond.

We played on the giant chair and rolled and ran down the hill.

We smelled flowers and played in the rose garden. 

Fortunately our parents know that play is learning and it's sometimes dirty :)

Caps for Sale - perfect for whole class retelling

          One of the first books that I read to my class each year is Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina. I love the book because every time I read it, I think of my Mom reading the book to me and then my reading the book to my own kids.  It's also a great book to introduce retelling. After I explain what a peddler is and read the book one time,  I pick a volunteer (from my pick me cup) to act out the part of the peddler.  The rest of the class plays the part of the monkeys.  I reread the story (giving directions as necessary to the peddler...ie. "reach your hand up and feel for the caps...now what would your expression be?).  The "monkeys" love their fist shaking, stomping and "tsz, tsz, tsz" role.  The kids ask to do the retelling over and over.  I usually do it one more time and then suggest they can do it themselves during free play (and they do!)  

"But the monkeys only stamped both their feet back at him and said, "Tsz, tsz, tsz."

          Caps for Sale is also great for introducing sequencing. After we act out the story, I ask about what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story.  I then have the children choose one "scene" from the book that they want to draw.  They then dictate a sentence about their picture that includes what part of the book they illustrated. For example, "At the beginning, the peddler called out 'Caps for Sale. Fifty cents a cap!'" Later, they each come up and share their illustrations (in order).

          Barbara at Grade ONEderful is hosting a "drama queen" linky party. I like introducing retelling and acting out a story with Caps for Sale because it is such a simple story.  We can easily retell it without any props and everyone gets to participate.    Check out other clever acting ideas at Barbara's site.