Registration Time

Rachel’s Preschool
2012 – 2013 Registration

I have pre-registration for current students and family members from Jan. 5 to Jan. 19. Registration for anyone else will start Jan. 20.

Classes:
There is non-refundable $30 registration/supply fee for every child that registers for a class.

Three year old class:
• Child must be three years old before Oct. 1, 2012
• Child must be potty trained
• Class is every Tuesday and Thursday (except holidays) from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
• Class will start Tuesday, Sep. 4, 2012
• Monthly tuition is a flat rate of $65 a month

Four year old class/Pre-K class:
• Child must be four years old before Oct. 1, 2011
• Class is every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (except holidays) from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
• Class will start Wednesday, Sep. 5, 2012
• Monthly tuition is a flat rate of $85 a month

Please ask me for registration forms if you are interested.

Thank you!!
Rachel

December

Rachel’s Preschool
December 2011

In the month of December we will learn the letters L, M, and N. We will do some activities about winter, snow, and Christmas.

In math the children will be learning to count by 10’s. We’ve also been working on patterns, simple addition, and simple subtraction.

In science we will be talking about snowflakes and how they are made and what they look like magnified. We will talk a little about the water cycle.

In reading we will continue to talk about sequencing, conflict, and conflict resolution (the problem and how it is solved). A great at home activity would be to ask your child (after you’ve read a book together) to tell you what happened in the beginning of the book, what happened in the middle, and at the end.

This month we will also have a Christmas party. At the party we will have a gift exchange, don't forget to bring a $5 gift. We will also be decorating Gingerbread boy and girl cookies, reading some Christmas stories and drinking some hot chocolate.

Now is a great time to start saving rectangular boxes (kleenex boxes, or shoe boxes) for Valentine Card Boxes that we will make in February.

Thank you for all you do!!
Ms. Rachel

P.S. School will start back on Friday, Jan. 6, 2012 after the Holiday Break (this is different than what it says on your Holiday Schedule).

Families

We learned about different types of families. We discussed each of our own families and sang several family songs.

We continued to discuss "A" and went on a hunt for the color "red".

We did some number recognition, 1 through 5, and sorted and counted items.

We read the book "You're Just What I Need"

The children then drew pictures of their families and we made them into necklaces.

All About Me

We spent the day learning that we are all special in our own way. Everybody is different and unique. Children drew pictures of themselves while looking in mirrors. We then talked about different feelings and did a Weekly Reader about feelings. We also read some books, "Different Shades of People" and "What are You so Grumpy About".

We sang some fun songs, "If You're Happy and You Know It", and "If You Chance to Meet a Frown".

We learned the letter "A" and watched a 3 minute video on "A". We sang the "Alligator" song. The children loved the song so much that we actually sang it a few times and acted it out.

Welcome Back to School!

We've started back to school and all the students are so excited to learn and play.

We started out learning all about each other. All of the students brought an "All About Me" bag filled with fun items to help us learn about each student. They enjoyed sharing their items and learning about each other.

We also talked about some projects we will be doing at school this year and read a fun story called "The Kissing Hand" about a little raccoon that was nervous to start school. We made raccoon masks and learned that raccoons are nocturnal. We sang a fun raccoon song.

Raccoon sleeps in the hollow tree
While the sun shines on you and me
Sleep raccoon, sleep raccoon
Warm and cozily

We finished our first day of school by making a kissing hand art project for the parents.

Fun Ways to Encourage Handwriting Practice

Write thank you notes for kind favors and gifts. Very young children can sign their name on a card.
For young children, make simple mailboxes for all members of the family and place them outside their bedrooms. Encourage family members to write notes to one another.
Give your child a journal and make a special time each day for taking time to reflect and write in their new journal.
Ask your child to help you make a list of items needed from the supermarket and let them do the writing!
If age permits, allow your child to take phone messages.
Ask your child to help you label photos from a family outing.
Write letters to grandparents or friends who are out of state.

Back to School Night

Three year-old Class - "Back to School Night" will be Tuesday, August 16 from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m.

Pre-K a.m. Class - "Back to School Night" will be Thursday, August 18 from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m.

Pre-K p.m. Class - "Back to School Night" will be Thursday, August 18 from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m.


The first day of school for the Three Year-Old Class will be Thursday, September 1 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

The first day of school for the Pre-K Classes will be Friday, September 2. The morning will be 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and the afternoon class will be 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Call me if you have any questions. If you cannot make it to the "Back to School Night" call me and we can set up a different time for you and your child to come check out the classroom.

Message in a Bottle

Summer is a great time to teach your child how to properly write a letter.

Teach them the fundamentals and help them write a letter to a friend or a relative. Stuff the rolled notes and letters into an empty plastic bottle, along with shells, flowers, or other tiny treasures.

Then you can teach your child how to make an address label. Seal the bottle tightly and stick on the address label, then you can go on a field trip to the local post office to mail it (ours cost $1.17 to mail).

Independence Day

Today is a great time to talk about the flag of our country.

You can count the stripes, count the stars, talk about rectangles and squares. Use the flag for a fun lesson in math by adding red stripes with blue stripes, or white stripes with red stripes.

Find a patriotic story about the flag and read it together.

Talk about the meaning of the flag.
50 stars represent the 50 states
13 stripes represent the original 13 colonies
Red stands for courage and valor
White stands for innocence and purity
Blue stands for vigilance, perseverance, and justice

Learn the pledge of allegiance.

How to treat the American Flag.

The flag should be displayed from sunrise to sunset.

If the flag is displayed at night it should be illuminated.

Never allow the flag to touch the ground.

The flag should be raised quickly.

To store the flag it should be folded neatly.

The flag should be cleaned and mended when necessary.

When the flag is worn it and can no longer be used to represent
our country it will need to be destroyed by burning in a
dignified manner.

The flag is sometimes flown at half-staff to show respect for
someone who has died.

July 4th Fun

Dramatic Play: Fireworks

Children love to play. Let them pretend to set off fireworks
and make all the explosion noises that go
along with them. They can pretend to set off giant or
tiny ones, whatever they want, and everyone
can get into the spirit and
wave imaginary sparklers around.

Pretzel Sparklers

Give children long pretzel rods.

Have them dip the top section in melted
white chocolate or white frosting.

Then, have them dip them into red
sugar crystals or sprinkles or other
candies on top.

They can wait until the chocolate is dry to eat
or they can eat them right away.

4th of July Strawberries!

Ingredients:

Fresh Strawberries, large and with stems
White Frosting or white chocolate
Blue Sprinkles or colored sugar

Take a large washed and dried strawberry
and hold it by the stem.

Dip the strawberry half way in melted
white chocolate.(If you don't have strawberries
with stems, use a fork to dip them into the
chocolate.)

Then quickly dip in blue sprinkles for a delicious
patriotic treat!!

Cute Craft

Paper Plate Porthole

Supplies:
2 paper plates
Silver craft paint
8 pieces of cereal (cheerios or fruit loops)
Fish crackers
Silk plant leaves
Sea shells
Sand
White craft glue
Blue cellophane
Wax paper
Scissors

Take both paper plates and set them on the table. One should be right side up and the other should be upside down.
On the plate that is right side up, draw your sea floor about 1/3 up the center of the plate.
Line the floor area with white glue, use an old paintbrush or your finger to spread the glue out evenly.
Cover the wet glue with sand and set aside to dry.
On the upside down plate, draw a circle where you will cut out your porthole in the center of the plate.
Glue the cereal pieces around the circle; these are the bolts on the porthole. Let dry.
Paint the cereal pieces and the paper plate from the outer edge to your penciled lines. Don’t worry about painting over the lines a little, as you will be cutting it out. Set aside to dry.
Take the paper plate with the sand on it and hold it over a sheet of wax paper. Turn the plate sideways and gently tap it to loosen any excess sand. The sand should end up on the wax paper and you can save that for another project.
Glue sea life onto the plate with the sand floor. Glue on shells, silk leaves, and fish crackers. Let dry.
Take the silver painted plate and cut out the center circle to create your porthole window. Place it gently over the top of the other plate to see if you are happy with its size and viewing area. Increase size of the hole if you like.
Turn silver plate upside down.
Cut a piece of blue cellophane large enough to cover the hole on the plate and glue in place. Let dry.
Place porthole plate over the top of the sea life plate and glue together. Let dry.
You can add a hanger to the project if you like, simply glue some string or yarn between the two plates at the top during step 13.

5 Tips to have the best summer ever:

1. Set aside some time every day to have fun with your children. Whether it's running through the sprinkler together on a hot afternoon or counting the stars on a blanket in the backyard before bedtime, do one thing a day to connect and have fun.

2. Institute daily reading time and biweekly library visits. Read to your kids, and have them read on their own.

3. Help your kids develop a healthy relationship with time , one that is without technology. Time is, after all, what life is made of. To help kids learn to structure their time, set up a Boredom Buster Jar. I found some great ideas at www.sugardoodle.net

4. Strictly limit technology to certain times of the day. When kids are bored and it's hot outside, screentime has a way of swallowing up all their time. It may be a good babysitter, but we all know that's not what kids need. The more you limit screen time, the better kids get at finding creative things to do with their time -- and the less they bug you to watch TV or play computer games.

5. Plan some fantastic family memories, even if you don’t have the money or time to head off on vacation. Don’t wait. The key is to get out a calendar and schedule the things you really want to do.

Pass the Ice Cube

This is fun game for a hot day. We put water in a cupcake pan and froze it to make big pieces of ice. We played "Hot Potato" with ice cubes. It was really fun to see how long it took for the ice cube to melt. We did have to set up a "no throwing the ice" rule.

Father's Day Gift Idea

The Dad at our house loves snacks. One idea that we are going to do is to give him a six pack of IBC Rootbeer (his favorite) and a container of nuts with a card that says, "We are nuts about you, Pop!".

Sidewalk Chalk

Want to make your own sidewalk chalk?

What you'll need:
Aluminum foil if you are using a toilet paper tube (or petroleum jelly if you're using an ice cube tray)
Disposable plastic container
Plaster of Paris
Toilet tissue tube (or an ice cube tray to create smaller chunks for younger hands)
Duct tape
Liquid tempera paint
Water
Spoon

How to make it:
Cover one end of the toilet paper tube with duct tape. Loosely roll an 8- by-41/2-inch piece of aluminum foil and slip it into the tube so that it lines the inside, fitting snugly. (Or coat the inside of the ice cube tray with petroleum jelly.)
Set tube upright (duct tape side down) on protected surface.
In a disposable plastic container, help your child mix 1 cup plaster of Paris with 1/2 cup water. Stir slowly and thoroughly until plaster is dissolved, about 1 minute.
Immediately add 2 tablespoons paint (or more for brighter chalk color, but be careful it can stain). Mix thoroughly.
Spoon into the tube (or ice cube tray). Tap gently so mixture settles to the bottom.
Let dry overnight before using.

Nature Scavenger Hunt

Who doesn't love a scavenger hunt? Get your kids outdoors this summer and "scavenging" for treasures in nature.

Things to See

•Insects, such as a butterfly, dragonfly, grasshopper, and beetle.
•A spider web.
•Leaves.
•Frogs, toads, and lizards.
•Wildflowers.
•Mushrooms.
•Find feathers or abandoned birds' nests.

Things to Collect

•Pinecones, dandelions, seeds.
•Encourage identification skills by having the kids find different types of leaves or flowers native to your area. (Look for regional field guides in your local library or on enature.com, or do an internet search for the "native plants" of your area.)
•Collect ferns, moss, pinecones, seeds, thorns, and other botanical specimens.
•Catch butterflies, capture a ladybug, dragonfly, or other insects, find a cocoon or chrysalis.
•Look for fossils, colored rocks, quartz, or flat skipping stones.
•Find a temporary "pet," such as a frog, snail, or grasshopper. (You should let them go after you've observed them.)
•Look carefully for something "camouflaged," such as a walking stick insect or a moth that blends in with its surroundings.

Things to Do

•Go wading, swim in a lake, climb a tree, go on a picnic.
•Draw a flower, make a dandelion chain, make a leaf rubbing.
•Get up early to watch the sun rise, write a description of a sunset.
•Go hiking, build a shelter, find your way with a compass.
•Look at pond water, go stargazing with binoculars or a telescope.
•Record a birdsong or other animal sounds.
•Find a chrysalis and watch a butterfly emerge from it.
•Go to the zoo and have each child find a fact about their favorite animal.
•Keep a nature journal for writing descriptions of activities and drawing pictures.

Things to Photograph

•Birds at a bird bath, birdfeeder, or bird house.
•Squirrels or other small animals.
•Animal tracks (if you have time, you can also make a plaster cast).
•Sunset or sunrise.
•Waterfall, mountain, boulder, lake, or swamp (with someone in the picture!)
•A sibling or friend doing one of the activities listed under "things to do."
•Unusual sights like a tree root curled around a rock.
•The discovery (plant, animal, landscape) that amazed you the most.

Make a Display

Encourage kids to keep a nature notebook with a record of everything they saw on their nature explorations. Their notebook can include pressed flowers and leaves, pictures they took with a disposable camera, written descriptions, drawings, and more. Let them display three-dimensional objects in a display case or keep them in their own decorated cardboard nature box. Items such as rocks can make an attractive decoration in a glass jar. Insects can be pinned and labeled to be kept either on a piece of corrugated cardboard, or in a more permanent and attractive exhibit case. After hunting all summer, they should have quite a collection!

Nature Tools

Before setting out on a nature expedition, gather a few important tools from around the house:
•Plastic bags - bring home specimens without making a mess.
•Camera - take pictures of what can't be collected with a digital or disposable camera.
•Notebook and pens or colored pencils - make notes and drawings so you can remember what you see.
•Jars - transport insects and other small critters, or use to display rocks and shells
•Snack - hunting can work up an appetite!
•Sunscreen - don't get burned.
•Baby wipes or hand sanitizer - clean up when you get grimy.
•Insect net - catch butterflies and other flying insects.
•Binoculars - observe birds and squirrels up close.
•Magnifying glass - see the intricate details on insects, flowers, leaves, and more.
•Field guides - get help identifying trees, flowers, rocks, birds, etc.
•Backpack - carry all your exploration tools conveniently.

Summer Learning (click here)

Summer is a great time to help your children get a head start on learning for the next school year, or just to help them continue learning with their favorite teacher, Mom.

I just found a great website with free curriculum for all elementary age children.

Just in case my link doesn't work it is www.theheadoftheclass.com

A Delicious Slice of Summer

We love watermelon and yesterday we bought some, they were only $2.

We had a picnic outside with our watermelon and we also made some picnic punch to go with our picnic. Here is the recipe for the punch.

Ingredients:
6 oz. can orange juice
1 cup sugar
1 pkg. unsweetened strawberry-flavored drink mix
4 cups lemmon-lime soda pop

Mix the orange juice according to directions. Add one cup of sugar and the pkg. of strawberry-flavored drink mix to the orange juice. Add the soda to the punch and mix well. Pour the punch into plastic baggies. Insert a straw and wrap a robber band around the top. Stand the bags in a cake pan or container. Refrigerate until ready to serve or sometimes I even put it in the freezer until it's mushy. Cut out a paper watermelon and make two horizontal slits in it. Slip a straw through it. Enjoy!

Now if you don't have any watermelon around you can still make a refreshing treat. We made ice cream watermelon wedges last week. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
dark brown M&M's (15-20)
2 T. melted butter
green food coloring
1 7 oz. pkg. coconut
1/2 gallon strawberry ice cream (or any flavor that is pink)

Combine butter and food coloring in a large bowl. Toss in 2 c. coconut, stirring until uniformly colored. Line 10 inch baking pan with foil. Press green coconut around edges of pan about 1 inch up. Spoon the ice cream into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the remaining coconut around the outside edge. Press the M&M's into the ice cream for watermelon seeds. cover and freeeze until firm. To serve, lift from pan by foil; cut into wedges.

Summer Fun!

I love summertime! I also love spending time with my children. In the summer we join the local library's reading program and make reading everyday a priority. I also read to the children everyday after lunch. Some of our favorites have been;

A Single Shard By, Linda Sue Park
Fablehaven By, Brandon Mull
The City of Ember By, Jeanne Duprau
Castle in the Attic By, Elizabeth Winthrop
The Princess Academy By, Shannon Hale
Fairest By, Gail Carson Levine
The Wide Awake Princess By, E.D. Baker
Ranger's Apprentice By, John Flanagan
The Beyonders By, Brandon Mull

We also devote each day of the week to doing something semi-educational together.

Mondays we do arts and crafts. Some great ideas are at www.familyfun.go.com (I don't know how to do links, yet).

Tuesdays we cook something fun together. Some ideas are: pita pizzas (just pizza sauce and your favorite toppings on a pita, super yummy!), chocolate cake in a mug, indoor s'mores or outdoor s'mores using our fire pit, no bake cookies, granola, trail mix, peanut butter balls, smoothies, snow cones, homemade ice cream, different kinds of popcorn, and homemade lemonade.

Wednesdays we write in our journals. We can either write whatever we want or we can pick an idea from our journal jar that is filled with tons of writing prompts.

Thursdays we do some service. In the past we have made hygiene kits, recorded videos for grandparents of all our musical talents (I use the phrase loosely), weeded for elderly friends, or drop of a care package to someone in need, or just leave something exciting on someone's doorstep.

Fridays we go on a "field trip". Mostly we end up going on a hike, but sometimes we'll go to a museum, roller skating, or to the movies.

I find that my kiddos love the structure and look forward to the fun activities. Like I said, I love summertime!!

Pre-K Graduation

We finished up the school year with preschool graduation. Each child received a medal, diploma, and of course they were wearing their cute graduation hats. We also had a DVD to watch and yummy cupcakes. Graduation would not be complete without the kiddos singing some of their favorite songs ("A Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track", "You are My Sunshine", "Make New Friends", and a few others).

We had a great year!!!

May

In the month of May we celebrated Earth Day, learned about farm animals and zoo animals, had a fun Mother's Day Brunch/Tea with our moms and went on a field trip to the zoo.

We are working on an end of the year project and finishing up our science unit on frogs.

I have enjoyed these preschoolers so much! I love my job!!

Transportation

We learned the word "transportation". We talked about that the word transport means to carry and transportation is the different ways we carry ourselves to different places.

We learned the many different kinds of transportation (car, plane, bus, boat, train, bike, truck, walking, skateboards, helicopters, etc.). We then made a graph on the board of the most popular kind. Each of the children voted on their favorite form of transporation, helicopter won. We made a bar graph of our results.

We completed a dot-to-dot of a helicopter and then painted a picture of the different types of transportation.

Of course, we also sang "The Wheels on the Bus" and pretended to be a helicopter to some classical music (they were sure dizzy when they landed).

Farm Animals

We talked about the many different kinds of animals on a farm.

We learned the names of baby animals (baby horse = foal, baby pig = piglet, baby goat = kid, baby cow = calf, baby sheep = lamb, etc.)

We talked about the ways that animals help us ( for example wool for clothes and blankets, milk, cheese, butter, etc.)

We sang "Old Macdonald had a Farm" and each of the children pretended to be a different animal and made the animal's sound in the song.

We read several books about animals. My favorite was "Rock-a-bye Farm".

We reviewed the letter "a" and continued to work on our sight words and simple addition.

Gardening

We discussed how a seed grows and the parts of a plant.

We planted marigolds (they've already started to sprout), and read several books about seeds.

We made a mini-book about how to plant a seed.

We continued to practice our sight words and addition.

Kites

We had a lot of fun learning about kites and wind.

We learned how to draw a kite, with diamonds and triangles. We wrote the word kite. We did math with magnetic triangles and then placed them in the shape of a kite.

We learned about wind and that it is moving air.

The best part of the day was when we made simple kites using grocery store bags and flew them outside. It was a windy day and the kites flew high, we even had one go over the fence. This was one of the best crafts we have done all year!

The Ocean

We learned about animals in the ocean. We watched 15 minutes of "Ocean" the Disney movie, the children loved it (especially the blanket octopus).

They each chose an animal and we played some aquatic music with dolphin and whale sounds in the background and they pretended to be in the ocean. We then made a puffer fish craft

We did math using paper cut-outs of octopus legs. We counted, added, subtracted and then made an octopus.

We read a non-fiction book about animals in the ocean and then a few fun fiction books, "Freddi Fish and the Missing Letters", "Froggy's First Kiss", and "Froggy gets Dressed".

We also learned a new silly song about sharks. They love it, you'll have to get them to sing it for you.

We also continued to work on our sight words, sounding out words, writing words, and learning to tell time (to the hour and half hour).

Frogs

We are watching frogs develop in our classroom. They've hatched from their eggs and are now tadpoles. Each of the children have a Frog Journal and once a week they exam the tadpoles with magnifying glasses and draw a picture of the tadpoles in their journals. The frogs that we are observing in our class are Leopard Frogs.

Today we learned about the life cycle of frogs and looked at several pictures of Leopard Frogs.

For snack we ate frogs and bugs (gummy frogs and raisins).

We learned how to spell the word "frog" and each of the children made an "Itsy, Bitsy Frog Book" that they can read.

Ladybugs

Science - On Wednesday and Thursday we learned about ladybugs. We discussed the lifecycle of a ladybug and learned that they are heroes in the garden, they eat the aphids that are eating the plants. They can eat up to 70 aphids in a day.

Ladybugs are insects (a beetle). Each insect must have six legs, a head, thorax, and abdomen. A ladybug has a special shell that covers the abdomen and wings.

Math - We counted dots on ladybugs and added each side of the ladybug's shell to see how many spots there were all together.

Reading - We continued working on our sight words and sounding out simple words.

Art - We made a ladybug out of cardstock.

Butterflies

On Monday and Tuesday we learned about butterflies and moths. We talked about the life cycle of a butterfly and did a Weekly Reader about butterflies. We then pretended to be butterflies and flew around the room to the music of "Madam Butterly". We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and watched a ten minute show about butterflies and their different designs and how they protect themselves from predators.

For art we made a beautiful butterfly using coffee filters and water colors.

In the Pre-K class we continued working on our sight words and simple subtraction.

Spring

Pre-K Class

We had a "x" show and tell.  The children were so creative and brought some great "x" items to show.

We discussed the signs of spring, using our Weekly Reader, and did a worksheet cutting out and gluing different pictures under "Sunny Day" or "Rainy Day".

We went through the whole alphabet coming up with spring words for each letter (a few are; a = ants, d = dirt, f = flowers, g = grass, k = kite, r = rainbow, u = umbrella).

We are learning the sight words "I" and "am".  Each of the children took a turn individually with Ms. Rachel reading a phonics book called, "Who am I".  They did a great job!  We will continue to work on this after Spring Break.

St. Patrick's Day

A fun video about Ireland, from Scholastic.

http://bcove.me/le9ya223

We had such a fun St. Patrick's Day celebration and learned a lot about St. Patrick.  Did you know that he was actually from England?

We also talked about Ireland and even played a fun game with Celtic music.  We pretended like we were leprechauns and practiced kicking/dancing to the music.  When the music stopped the children had to run and hide, like tricky leprechauns.  Then when the music started again they came out dancing.  They loved this game and kept wanting to play it over and over again.

We went on a "green hunt" with each of the children taking turns to find a green item in the classroom.  We then figured out how to spell the word "green" and then wrote it.

In the morning class we made sparkly shamrock headbands and mixed yellow and blue colored water to make green shamrocks out of coffee filters.  At snack we ate green donuts, thanks Eliza!

In the afternoon class we found hidden four leaf clovers and made a glittery shamrock paper.  At snack time we ate green grapes, cucumbers, snap peas, and green apples with green peanut butter, thanks Lydia!

In the 3 yr. old class we made cute little leprechaun hats to wear during our dance/hiding game.  We also made glittery shamrocks and drew a picture of a leprechaun.  At snack time we ate green apples with a yummy green fruit dip (cream cheese and marshmallow cream), thanks Jake!

In all of the classes we learned a new song about a leprechaun, complete with actions.  It is sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot".  
    
     I'm a little leprechaun, quick as can be. 
     I hide my gold under a tree.
     If you see a rainbow,
     you just might find
     where I left my gold behind."

Rainbows

Today we learned about rainbows and our new letter of the week, the letter "x".

• We made a rainbow by using a glass vase filled with water and a small mirror inside.  We shined a flashlight on the mirror and saw a beautiful rainbow!  The children loved it!  We talked about how rainbows are formed by the sun shining through raindrops or mists of water.
• We talked about the colors in a rainbow, Roy G. Biv (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet).
• We read the book Rainbow Fish, and talked about sharing and being good friends.
• We listened to a couple of songs about rainbows, "Somwhere Over the Rainbow" and "The Rainbow Connection".
• We painted pictures of rainbows with rain drops.  The raindrops were made with a medicine dropper dropping several dots of light blue paint on the paper and then the children each had a straw and blew the paint droplets to make them look like raindrops.

• We traced the letter "X"

Weather

Math - We had some fun with an umbrella.  We sang "Rain, Rain go away ..." and counted to find out how many children we could fit under one umbrella.  We also added and subtracted children under the umbrella.

Science - We filled a 2 liter plastic bottle half full of water and put a few drops of red food coloring in it.  We then taped another 2 liter plastic bottle to it and made a homemade tornado.  We also made a cloud by using a crockpot filed with water.  As it heated up we saw the condensation on the lid and when we lifted it off the droplets "rained" back into the crockpot.  We talked about the water cycle.

Reading - We read a story about Melissa and Mark and about how they were careful to always dress appropriately for the weather.  We then played with paper dolls of Melissa and Mark and got to dress them in all kinds of crazy outfits.  We also talked about the months of the year and the different types of weather for each month.

Writing - We sounded out the word "spring" and practiced writing it.

Dr. Seuss Day

The children were so excited to be able to wear their pajamas to school.  They could also wear a crazy hat or have crazy hair.

We read several Dr. Seuss books including Green Eggs and Ham.  We then made some green eggs and ham to taste, most of the children really liked it.

We talked about rhyming and did a worksheet together as a class about rhyming words.

Some facts that we learned about Theodore Geisel, or Dr. Seuss.

• He was born on March 2, 1904.
• He did not have any children.
• He had two degrees both a P.H.D.
• His wife's name was Audrey.
• He had a collection of silly hats.
• His mother's last name was Seuss.
• He wrote articles for a humor magazine.
• His first children's book was And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street.