The Best Class Pet Ever!

My girls begged for years to get a pet. With one allergic to cats that was out. With no fenced back yard a dog was out. After lots of research it was decided we could handle a guinea pig. The weekend of the new exciting event we piled into the van and headed to the pet store. Sarah immediately fell in love with an orange and brown guinea pig and into the cardboard box she went for the ride home. Sarah is my reader, and she had adequately researched the best size house, complete with second story her new pet would need. She knew which bedding was best (turns out I needed to make and  fleece bedding for the newest member of the family, and then launder it weekly) We had everything planned out, except for the part where the girls could not decide on a name for their pet. Of course the only reasonable solution was to go back to the pet store and buy another one. They would be lonely without us at home after all.

                                           

I loved those little fur balls, but they did not love me. Turns out three of the people in our family were allergic to those cuddly little guys. My allergies got so bad I would break out in hives when I had to brush them or hold them to cut their nails. Undeterred, we kept those little darlings for nearly two years. Two years!

After that I vowed to never have pets again. Except of course for our funny little class pets.


One of our class jobs is the Veterinarian. Originally the students took care of Lucifer (named for the cat in Cinderella) our class bunny. Lucy is the perfect pet. She goes wherever we go, is so quiet, never makes a mess, and can be tossed in the washing machine when needed. She is a white bunny so she needs it a lot :)

                                                     

For the month of December we have added a new pet Gingy. We began the month reading a variety of gingerbread man books to mark the adoption of our new class pet. The class was thrilled with our new pet, so we decided to make Gingy a house. The day the gingerbread house was unanimously decided upon I went to the cardboard recycle bin to gather supplies. Unfortunately our maintenance team had just taken the loot to the bin outside. Disappointed  I shared with the class that we would have to wait until I picked up our next snack order for boxes.

Never doubt the resourcefulness of children. When an activity is truly child directed they find a way to make it happen. The next morning Jemal came to class with his sister hidden behind a very large stack of boxes. Jemal had taken it upon himself to find a home for Gingy. I LOVE that he took this so seriously. We had only had a rather short conversation about Gingy and his house and the very next day everything we needed to get started was in our room. These children are our future leaders... and I could not be more impressed!

So we got to work cutting, taping, and stapling a house together. We painted and painted and painted.

   


                           
                           

Then we glittered gum drops, colored lollipops, and drew swirls on peppermints. Our 7th grade buddies came down to play one afternoon and helped us decorate Gingy's house. And what a house it is. Gingy loves it, but I have been told he sometimes locks the door to keep us out.

                            



While we never set out to create such an elaborate home for our temporary class pet, the children have really brought him to life. It is a joy to watch them create.

                                          

Gingy watching us from the window when we went outside to play...

And listening so nicely to stories...

Unity

Recently our class had the school's traveling Unity cross. Each week at the end of mass, the cross is handed from one class to another. During the week the class with the cross is supposed to focus on a way to show unity. In Preschool this may seem like a daunting task. Nearly our entire day is spent differentiating and individualizing not only lessons and instruction, but also procedures and routines to best meet the needs of our littles where they are developmentally.

Yet, we see Unity from our darlings in so many ways. When a friend is sad, hugs overflow. Someone needs help keeping up in line, a hand is offered to guide them down the hallway.

We sometimes use a strategy in class I refer to as 'Ready Teach'. When I ask a  question I often raise both fists above my head, spread out my fingers and this is our silent cue that the children should talk to a neighbor to try to figure out the answer to the question. This encourages children to talk through their ideas. It encourages conversation and allows students who many not readily know the answer a chance to participate actively in the lesson. What I really love is listening to the children teach the other children. They have the sweetest ways of explaining things. And it encourages Unity.

At this point in the year we have introduced all uppercase and lowercase letters as well as their phonemes. While we are still working on lowercase letter recognition almost all our students have 100% accuracy with their uppercase letters, which makes our clip boards so much more fun.

Every few weeks the children help out by 'hiding' words around the room. As one of their activities the children are able to take their clip boards and find the hidden words. The papers have the matching picture, all they have to do is transfer the word to the paper. They love writing and reading their words.

So Serious... I love this picture.

We are even learning to read number words

And using toys to spell words :)

They love this new activity. The children take turns hiding a tactile letter in the green bag. The other two take turns reaching into the bag and trying to guess the letter just by the way it feels. A really hard game but it shows how well the children are able to mentally recall letters.

And by the way, did you know we are figuring out addition. It happened by accident. 

We have been working on our ten frames. 

We practice the sentences : I have ____ I need ____ more to make 10. Of course the next logical step was addition.. Pretty exciting stuff happening in our room these days.

While we were busy playing, the learning snuck in

At the beginning of every month we change our Math and Daily 5 "on your own" tubs. They tend to be seasonal based themes. Some activities are a review of lessons taught in small groups, others are a small twist on previous lessons. We had such a great time with a few of our new tubs.

Feed the Sneaky Squirrel

Feeding our sneaky squirrel was fun to watch. The children had to roll the die (or dice 

depending on how high they are able to count fluently) and count out the correct amount 

of nuts. The best part was watching the kiddos try to use tweezers to pick up all the nuts.

Ten Frame Race

With a partner, the children rolled a die and colored the correct amount of spaces. 

Our focus with this game was to use math vocabulary. We modeled the sentences 

"I rolled ____" "I need ____ more to make 10". 

And our favorite...

Hidden Words

Taped under table 2 are several seasonal words. The children have white boards, markers and erasers. They get to slide under the table and copy the words. The help build vocabulary, pictures correspond with the text. It is a fun way to practice handwriting and it also encourages 'reading'.

We practiced how to safely go under the table, putting only the top half of our body under the table. Watching their strategies on how to best complete this task was amazing.

Some children brought their boards under the table with them.

Others kept their boards on the table. They looked under the table for words, 

were able to remember the letter, and then write them. 

Alex is so proud of his work!

(and gross little painty fingers have obviously been wiped under our table)

And more pictures from our Jackson Pollack painting activity...

I seriously love these duck feet.

Love these expressions. They were so into the painting!

In addition to our new learning tubs, we also added a few new toys to the room. 

I like to rotate toys so the children do not become bored. 

We are enjoying our marble run set. We also have new pirates and knights.

James and Jeremiah worked very hard to create a marble run. It was so cool that we saved it for the next day. Having this set up by our door could have been disastrous, but the children really wanted to play again the next day so they were mindful to enter and exit our room carefully.

Boo Breakfast

Our first class party was last week. Thank you to our amazing team of room parents who organized the event as well as those families who provided items and came in to help things run smoothly.

The children had a great time. We are always nervous before the first party of the year. The children love routine and predictability (and to be completely honest that is probably because I need it too). When we add a change to our regular routine ~ like costumes and parents coming and going ~ there is a very high potential for tears. Not this year. The children have really developed a rhythm for their day. They know when to ring the chimes, what to say, and what to do when they hear the chimes. They are really quite impressive to watch in action. We used the chimes at our Boo Breakfast to make sure the children were able to go to each center and they went about the activities as if we have donuts and wear costumes all the time. AMAZING

Loving the gloves on Elsa to keep her from freezing everything. I predicted four 

Elsa costumes, and was right. We even had lights and music on some costumes. 

Costumes sure have changed since I was a kid.

We listened to a fun story written by Jerry Seinfeld. 

We made adorable Halloween ornaments 

with sticky wiggle eyes!

We made necklaces with cute paper straw beads. 

And of course breakfast

Don't you just love the fancy serving trays for our Breakfast?!

And these two... this looks like such a serious conversation. Those expressions, I wish I knew what they were talking about.

Showing off her monster juice box :)

And this face...

We are seriously the cutest things ever!

At the beginning of every month we switch our activities in our 'On Our Own Tubs'. We practiced a few new ones today. The pictures we took today are adorable. Stayed tuned for those. 

Also, we have a fun new bird watching bench in our room. We are completely entertained by one friendly squirrel who likes to visit us.