Monday March 30, 2020

Happy Monday!

We are now another week closer to seeing each other!   I can't wait to share with you our story today!

Please give your child a hug from me, and let them know that Mrs. Smith really misses them!!!

One of my favorite authors is Eric Carle. I love his illustrations and the colors and techniques that he uses.  Our story today is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".  If you have this book at home, you might want to get it and follow along during the read aloud.

Below is a link to hear the story:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Read Aloud Picture Book ...www.youtube.com › watch

Why do you think the little caterpillar was so hungry?  How long was the caterpillar in the cocoon? Have you ever seen a butterfly?

We love to act out stories in our class.  Can you act like a hungry caterpillar? Who eats and eats, then he takes a long nap and emerges to a beautiful butterfly that flies around the room!

If you have access to a printer, below is a coloring page of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  You can print it out and color it.  Or, you can color it online!!  I'd love to see the colorful caterpillars that you make!
hungry-caterpillar

Yesterday, my family and I went for a walk to a park near our house.  There were butterflies flying all around us! One finally stopped long enough for me to take a picture.

I have turned on the comments section of our blog, please feel free to leave a comment if you child has something that they would like to share!!

Wednesday March 25, 2020

Hello!

I hope that your week is going well, and that you enjoyed our story on Monday.  I can't wait to share with you our story today!

Please give your child a hug from me, and let them know that Mrs. Smith really misses them!!!

It is so important to get up and move!! It keeps our mind and our bodies active.  Let's get moving by doing one of our favorite songs!
watch

Our class loves to read Pete the Cat books. Our story today is from the same author, Eric Litwin.  "Groovy Joe: Ice Crean and Dinosaurs" wraps up our lesson this month about sharing and being kind.   Watch out, because Groovy Joe has a catchy song that might get stuck in your head!!

Please click on the link below to enjoy our story for today:

watch

It's awesome to share!!  All the dinosaurs were happily enjoying ice cream thanks to Groovy Joe! What fun things have you been doing at home to be kind to each other?  I was talking to Mrs. Youngbauer, and she said that her girls have been busy working together on different projects at their house.  The have been making forts out of pillows and blankets to read and play in,  and doing some science experiments!  Here are a few pictures of them!

Our next door neighbor has a HUGE lemon tree, and is very kind about sharing the lemons.  We have been picking lemons like crazy, and making pies and lemonade.

I hope you all continue to have a great week, and make some memories together.  I'll be back on Monday with a new post to share! Feel free to leave a comment below, and share how you have been spending your time together at home!

Monday March 23, 2020

Hello!

I know that we have only been away from each other for a week, but it feels so much longer than that.   I hope that you are all staying healthy and enjoying your time together as a family. To those of you who were traveling, I hope you are all back home by now.  As you all know, we are following what Bettendorf schools has decided and will resume classes hopefully on April 13th. During this time away from each other, I will be posting a few activities each week, that you can do at home with your child.

Please give your child a hug from me, and let them know that Mrs. Smith really misses them!!!

Before we left for Spring Break, we had been talking about being kind, sharing, and how to be a good friend.  I am sure that there have been some moments at your house lately, where sharing or being kind has been forgotten.  I know there have definitely been those moments between the Smith Boys at my house!!

One book that I enjoy reading is "The Boy Who Wouldn't Share" By Mike Reiss.  Edward has lots of toys, but doesn't share any of them with his sister Claire.  Every time Claire tries to play with something, Edward yells "It's mine, mine mine!" Until, one day when Claire has something that Edward might like. Does he change his feelings on sharing?

Please click on the link below to watch and listen to the story:
watch

Some questions to ask your child are.  What made Edward want to share with Claire?  How do you think it made Claire feel when Edward wouldn't share his toys?  What is one way to say you are sorry for not sharing? How can we share at home?

Here is a song about sharing!  Dance your wiggles out!
watch

Here is a picture of two of my kids sharing.  They were on a scavenger hunt, and working together.

I have turned on the comments section of our blog, please feel free to leave a comment if you child has something that they would like to share!!

Thursday March 12, 2020

It was a sea of PURPLE today at school!!

I loved seeing everyone decked out in the color of the day!  Today for our cooking activity we made Blueberry Oatmeal muffins.  I was so glad that the whole class brought their strong muscles to school today, because we sure used them for stirring our batter.  We dumped oatmeal, greek yogurt, eggs, oil, honey and a whole wheat flour mixture together.......but, don't the most important ingredient....BLUEBERRIES!!!  We did such a good job, pouring and stirring.  We were great listeners and did a great job waiting for our turns.

Our story today was "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see?" By Eric Carle.  This is such a cute story that goes through all of the colors of the rainbow.  The Brown Bear sees a Red Bird, then the Red Bird sees a Yellow Duck, and so forth.  Ask your child what happened when the children in the class were asked what they saw.

We used our parachute today.  We made big giant waves, and small gentle waves.  Our parachute we way up high in the air, and down low by our toes.  I love to hear all of the giggles in the room, when we are playing with the parachute.

Boy, while our muffins were cooking they smelled so good!!  I think everyone had rumbling tummies at snack time.  They were nice a warm, and so tasty!!  We were so eager to eat our muffins!  We had a birthday in our class today.  We sang Happy Birthday to Carson, and enjoyed a birthday brownie.

Remember that there is no school next week due to it being Spring Break.  Safe travels to all of those who are traveling for break!

Tuesday March 10, 2020

Finally the sun is shining!!!

The weather is finally starting to go in our direction!  The sun is shining, and the birds are chirping! I hope you all had the chance to enjoy the beautiful weather over the weekend, I heard lots of stories of adventures that were had outside.

Our story today was "How to catch a Leprechaun" By Adam Wallace.  How do you catch a leprechaun, its harder than you think! He'll turn your whole house upside down, He's quicker than a wink!!He is a sneaky little leprechaun, and he thinks he is smarter than you!! Do you think you can catch the leprechaun?!? Ask your child what crazy ways the kids in the book were trying to catch the leprechaun.  This book got some conversations going about catching leprechaun's, I heard that some of you even make traps at your house!

Ellie was our snack leader today.  She brought cheese sticks and wheat thins! Thank you, Ellie!!

Thursday is our Birthday/Cooking Day!  It is also wear PURPLE Day!! I can't wait to see the fun creations that you all come up with!!

Monday March 9, 2020

What a wet Monday!

Just when you think the weather is going to finally be nice, now we have rain!!!  We just can't win!! I hope you all had the chance to enjoy the beautiful weather over the weekend, I heard lots of stories of adventures that were had outside.

Our story today was "How to catch a Leprechaun" By Adam Wallace.  How do you catch a leprechaun, its harder than you think! He'll turn your whole house upside down, He's quicker than a wink!!He is a sneaky little leprechaun, and he thinks he is smarter than you!! Do you think you can catch the leprechaun?!? Ask your child what crazy ways the kids in the book were trying to catch the leprechaun.  This book got some conversations going about catching leprechaun's, I heard that some of you even make traps at your house!

Andi was our snack leader today.  She brought ham, wheat thins and applesauce.  Thank you, Andi!!

Wednesday is our Birthday/Cooking Day!  It is also wear PURPLE Day!! I can't wait to see the fun creations that you all come up with!!

Thursday March 5, 2020

Finally another sunny day!!

The weather is getting nicer by the day, hopefully next week it will be warm enough for us to go outside and play!

Our story today was "The Very Lonely Firefly" By Eric Carle.  One night a lonely firefly goes off in search of friends.  He follows every flicker of light he sees, only to fins the lights are only lanterns, owls' eyes, or headlights....not other fireflies. The firefly was so lonely, and started to give up hope of finding friends.  But, off in the distance he sees a flashing light. Ask your child if the firefly ever found any friends.

We started learning about a new shape today.  The triangle, we counted sides and walked the room looking for different triangles.  Finally, we made triangles.......out of our friends!!  Ask your child how we made human triangles!

Dylan was our snack leader today.  He brought cheese sticks and Belvita bars.  Thank you, Dylan!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and get the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful weather that is headed out way!!

Wednesday March 4, 2020

Finally another sunny day!!

The weather is getting nicer by the day, hopefully next week it will be warm enough for us to go outside and play!

Our story today was "The Very Lonely Firefly" By Eric Carle.  One night a lonely firefly goes off in search of friends.  He follows every flicker of light he sees, only to fins the lights are only lanterns, owls' eyes, or headlights....not other fireflies. The firefly was so lonely, and started to give up hope of finding friends.  But, off in the distance he sees a flashing light. Ask your child if the firefly ever found any friends.

We started learning about a new shape today.  The triangle, we counted sides and walked the room looking for different triangles.  Finally, we made triangles.......out of our friends!!  Ask your child how we made human triangles!

Alex was our snack leader today.  She brought yogurt and blackberries.  Thank you, Alex!!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and get the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful weather that is headed out way!!

Tuesday March 3, 2020

We are marching into March!

I can't believe it is already March!!  Our year is just flying by!  I hope that you all were able to spend some time outside and enjoy the fantastic weather on Sunday.  I heard lots of stories, of bike rides, eating ice cream and going to the park.  Hopefully later in the week we can go outside as a class.  Spring is near!

Our story today was "There Was an Old Lady to Swallowed a Clover" By Lucille Colandro. That crazy old lady is back.  She swallowed some clover, a daisy, a fluttering butterfly and a few other items until she got to a fiddle, then she started to dance........Ask your child what happened when the little old lady started to dance.

Today we had various movement cards.  We crawled like turtles, waddled like penguins, flew like birds, laughed like monkeys, stood like flamingos and a few other animals.

Carson was our snack leader today.  He brought apples and peanut butter.  Thank you, Carson!

See you all on Thursday!

Monday March 2, 2020

We are marching into March!

I can't believe it is already March!!  Our year is just flying by!  I hope that you all were able to spend some time outside and enjoy the fantastic weather on Sunday.  I heard lots of stories, of bike rides, eating ice cream and going to the park.  Hopefully later in the week we can go outside as a class.  Spring is near!

Our story today was "There Was an Old Lady to Swallowed a Clover" By Lucille Colandro. That crazy old lady is back.  She swallowed some clover, a daisy, a fluttering butterfly and a few other items until she got to a fiddle, then she started to dance........Ask your child what happened when the little old lady started to dance.

Today we had various movement cards.  We crawled like turtles, waddled like penguins, flew like birds, laughed like monkeys, stood like flamingos and a few other animals. 

Hudson was our snack leader today.  He brought Scooby Snacks and juice.  Thank you, Hudson!

See you all on Wednesday!