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Bucket Filling

9/26/2018

September 28th, 2018

Are you a Bucket Filler?

This week we read the story “How Full is Your Bucket” by Mary Reckmeyer and Tom Rath, and Bucket Filling from A to Z by Carol McCloud and Caryn Butzke. The concept behind these stories is that everyone has an invisible bucket that fills when good things have happened to us and empties when bad things happen. When we use kind words and actions then everyone’s buckets fill. We discussed this difference between a bucket filler and a bucket dipper, and made group buckets with examples of each. We also sang and danced to the Bucket Filler song by the Learning Station.

We played a game that involved picking a bucket dipper or bucket filler example and either taking out a stuffy from the bucket or tossing one in, to represent the effect our words and actions have on our buckets and those of everyone else.

Everyone made their own mini bucket that help little pom pom to represent a full bucket, and decorated it by peeling and sticking stickers to it, as well as made a paper bucket by tearing and gluing paper to fill it up.

Our letters this week were I and U. We practiced building them in a variety of ways, sang letter/letter sound songs, and listened for words that began with these letters.

Some of the nursery rhymes we touched on this week were Five Little Monkeys, Rain Rain Go Away, Jack be Nimble, and Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

A couple other things we did this week were threading beads onto a pip cleaner to make bracelets and playing with play dough.

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Fall

9/24/2018

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September 21st, 2018

It’s Fall time!

The kids have been so excited to finally jump into piles of leaves. Although we do not have quite enough leaves to make piles, the kids are still enjoying making leaf angels. We talked about what colours represent fall and went out to explore the leaf colours that are here in the neighbourhood. Not only did they find the colours of fall but this also sparked a discussion about leaf sizes/shapes, why leaves change colours and why they fall off the trees. We made rip and glue paper fall trees, tissue leaves, and leaf paintings with tempura paint. The kids did a great job threading yarn through holes on a laminated leaf as well.

We had a great time exploring pumpkins and gourds; sorting and matching by size, and colour. We practiced using describing words with the different types of gourds we saw.

The letters we focused on this past week were T and H. We practiced building them in different ways ie: with laminated big and little lines, with our bodies, and with stickers. We made a tally of the letter H word things we liked the best. We also played a scavenger hunt game where the kids had to find an acorn letter and come match it up next to the corresponding letter. It was great to see the older ones helping the younger ones. Teaching the younger ones is a great way for the older ones to reinforce what they already know. What good helpers!

Some of the nursery rhymes we sang this week included Jack + Jill, Rock-a-by-baby, and the ABCs.

A couple of the Fall books we read this week were Let it Fall by Maryann Cocca-Leffler, and There was an old lady who swallowed some leaves by Lucille Colandro.

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Emotions

9/16/2018

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September 14th, 2018

This week was all about our feelings. We read stories, sang songs, played games and made crafts relating to this topic. We also talked about the things that make us happy, sad or angry, and appropriate ways to cope with these emotions. As the year goes on, this will continue to be a focus of us.

We practice identifying and matching emotion cards, mirrored emotions, made a pasta/button/sticks emotion face, made Happy/Sad emotion sticks that we later used in a game. This game was a Red Light Green Light type emotion game where when they said green light everyone walked towards them, then when they held up a happy face everyone had to jump and cheer, and when they held up the sad face everyone dropped to the ground and made a sad face. We also made a blow painting of the Pout Pout Fish from the story Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen, and made a feeling monster where they represented an emotion of their choice and practiced where on the body certain parts belong as they placed their monster’s arms and legs.

Some of the books we enjoyed as a group, relating and not relating to our theme, this past week were:
- Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
- I was so mad by Mercer Meyer
- Feelings Book by Todd Parr
- I’m not scared book by Todd Parr
- There was an old lady who swallowed a fly by Pam AdamsOur letters this week were F and E. We practiced building these letters in multiple ways including with beans, with tissue paper, crayons, and Math Man pieces (Big Line and Little Line). we also sang the song “Where do you start your letters?” from the Handwriting Without Tears program. Even if we’re not writing, I still emphasize building them starting at the top. Why do we start at the top? When all capitol letters start at the top in English we read and write from left to right and top to bottom, and this way there is not confusion about where to start writing.

*It is common that children may not remember the letters we are learning each week, but will as they are more and more exposed to them. This is why we do more than one letter a week, and informally make reference to letters throughout the day.

We have been having quite a bit of fun singing and creating actions to nursery rhymes. Nursery Rhymes are important to early speech, language and cognitive development. For example; discriminating sounds, enunciating words clearly, listening comprehension, memorizing through patterns, inferencing, identifying phonics, increase vocabulary, and the list goes on. Some of the nursery rhymes we sang this week include:

- The Wheels on the Bus
- Row Row Row Your Boat
- B.I.N.G.O.
- If you’re happy and you know it
- The Muffin ManWe also did some colour mixing and sponge painting with letters this week.

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The beginning of a whole new school year

9/9/2018

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September 7th, 2017

Just like that a new school year begins. There are a bunch of new little faces for the 2018-2019 school year. I look forward to seeing them grow and learn and play together.

On our first day we read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. We made our own Kissing Handprints with a special poem as well. Throughout the year some things will be sent home and some will be saved in a portfolio to take home at the end of the year.

This week our focus was on our routines and how to be at school with one another. A great interest has been taken in our morning meeting where we do gross motor action songs and games together, sing nursery rhymes, and practice letter learning (through song, dance and fine or gross motor activity). As the school year progresses, special leader day (more info to come) activities will be incorporated into our morning meeting as well. We started off our letter learning this week with the letter L, we sang songs about L, formed it with our fingers and bodies, practiced saying the sound it makes, and use play dough, buttons and stickers to build L.

Throughout the year we will be focusing on two letters per week, and rotating this with a more focused learning of numbers and shapes (also informally learning everyday). For those who are ready for writing specifically, I follow the letter order in the preschool book from the Handwriting Without Tears program. It is designed to start with the letters that are easier to write in uppercase, although I do still teach both upper and lowercase at the same time.

Incorporated into our routines are everyday skills and learning that take place, such as the responsibility of setting up and clearing your own dishes, washing hands well, how to walk on the sidewalk with everyone as we go to and from the parks, safely crossing the street as a group, dressing your own self, and taking care of all our toys and materials to name a few.

Everyone has been doing really well with using a timer to know when to clean up (with verbal cues as playtime draws closer to an end). I am very impressed with this for the first week back!

Mat Man was introduced this week. We sang Mat Man's song while we built his body. Mat Man is a fun and involved way of learning the parts of the body and their positioning in relation to other body parts.

We spent some time this week talking about ourselves and our families, what a family is, and people and families are different and that is okay. We also used people sponges to paint a picture of our families. Below is a list of the books we read about this topic.

Families Families Families by Suzanne Lang
The Family Book by Todd Parr
The Okay Book by Todd Parr

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Bucket Filling

Fall

Emotions

The beginning of a whole new school year

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