Feb. 27, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and did our fine motor work by counting airplanes (there was a lot of travelling going on - Germany, Mexico, Alaska, Austin), stringing beads on string, spelling with letters, and putting letters on a letter arc. During circle time today we determined that it's cloudy today and put the gray cloud over the tree, counted to 27 during calendar and continued our color pattern, and danced to "Tooty Ta". We went with Pre-K to a performance in the cafeteria. In honor of African American History Month, UT's Innervisions Gospel Choir performed. They were awesome! During centers we worked on our letter "R". We glued letter "R" objects on to our letter "R" paper (rockets, rain drops, roaches, rectangles, and one of our friend's pictures - their name starts with "R"!). We also stuffed our raccoons and then played with them in the tree home center. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. This afternoon after rest time we'll play BINGO and work on our matching skills in Pre-K.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 26, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and did our fine motor work by making frogs jump, creating Mat Man, and animal puzzles. We also did work with writing our names. We played outside with our Pre-K friends. For story time Ms. Avots read "Where Animals Live". Everyone took turns putting the animals/insects in their home. One of the animals in the book was a worm and it lived in dirt. Ms. Avots had everyone put 3 Oreo cookies in a zip lock bag. They all stomped on their bags making "dirt". She gave each of them a cup with some "mud" (chocolate pudding) in it. Everyone used their pincer fingers to pick up the "dirt" and add it to the "mud". Then they all asked for a worm (gummy worm). The mixture was stirred up and then everyone ate it! Ew! It was so gross!!! We had speech therapy with Ms. McGuire (We made sure to give her some "mud" and "dirt", too!). We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. This afternoon we'll eat "stone soup" just like the soup in the story we heard yesterday at the end of the day in Pre-K.
Reminder, the book fair and art auction are tonight! Great school events!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 25, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and did fine motor work by working with play dough and tools, counting frogs, counting ducks in a pond, and typing with the Braille writer. During circle time today we determined that it's cloudy today, put the puffy white cloud over the tree, and touch the cotton ball cloud, counted to 25 during calendar and continued our pattern, and danced to "Peanut Butter". We played outside with our Pre-K friends. We made a big circle and passed the ball around. Ms. Avots read "Brown Bear's Wonderful Secret" for story time. During center time Ms. Avots worked with groups creating raccoon puppets. They did a lot of drawing, cutting, and gluing. In my group we did Handwriting Without Tears and worked with the letter "R" just like we did yesterday. I brought my pet rats in today as part of our letter "R" unit. Everyone touched them and let them tell them a secret. We also played with our tree home with nuts added today. All of the animals and insects were excited to see the nuts! We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. This afternoon, after rest, Ms. Avots will work with groups tossing rubber ducks into a bin of real water and counting how many went in and how many went out and what the total was.
Have a wonderful evening!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 24, 2009

Parents,
I want to celebrate with everyone that Ms. Avots is slowly beginning to take over different parts of our day as the teacher. She is doing a wonderful job!! This morning we ate breakfast and did our fine motor work by working with Mat Man, connecting people, stamps and stamp pads, and nuts and bolts. During circle time we determined that it's sunny today, put the big yellow sun over the tree, and felt the warmth of a flashlight. We played outside with Pre-K. Ms. Avots finished reading "Raccoon at Clear Creek Road" with the raccoon puppet. During centers Ms. Avots began working with students to create their own raccoon puppets. We'll continue working on them tomorrow. I worked with a group doing Handwriting Without Tears. We practiced drawing a slanted line, just like the slanted line on the letter "R". We did a song about starting our letters at the top. We created the letter "R" with our sticks and then we practiced writing the letter "R". Just before lunch we had time to do the "Wood Piece Pokey" as a group. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. This afternoon we'll toss actual duck toys onto a pond to see how many land in the water and how many land out of the water.
Enjoy your night!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 23, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and did our fine motor work with chalk and chalkboards, counting cakes, and Mr. Potato Head. We also had our creation station open for free art. During circle time today we determined that it's sunny, counted to 23 during calendar and danced to "Mary Had a Little Lamb". We played outside with our Pre-K friends. Ms. Avots brought out our raccoon friend (a puppet) and introduced the book "Raccoon at Clear Creek Road". She'll finish reading the book tomorrow. We opened up the Big Toys center and worked with our tree home. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. This afternoon we'll finish up our work adding ducks in and out of the pond.
Have a great Monday night!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 20, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast together and then we counted airplanes, counted ducks in a pond, and created words with letters. We went to the library with Pre-K today and heard books about what animals say and do. After library we played on the playground with Pre-K. During circle time we determined that it's sunny today, we counted to 20 and continued our color pattern, and we danced to "Button Factory". Before center time today we did the "Wood Piece Pokey" learning more about the parts that make up letters. For center time today we had the big toys center open with our tree home. Today I added a mouse and many insects. It's amazing how many things live in trees! We also worked with the letter "Q". We wore our crowns that queens often wear while we did our letter "Q" art. I showed them individually how two big curves and one little line create the letter "Q". They each recreated it. We then glued Q-tips onto a letter "Q" cutout. We also glued queens, quarters (paper copies), question marks and the letter "Q" onto letter "Q" paper. Like all artists, we signed our names on our work. We ate lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. This afternoon after rest we'll continue work on our duck addition.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 19, 2009

Parents,
We had a wonderful field trip with Pre-K to Zachary Scott Theater to see "Home Sweet Home", a play about a bird family that work really well together. We also had a picnic lunch at Little Stacey Park and had a great time playing on the playground.
Have a great night!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 18, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast. Afterward we created structures with oval Lego's, made frogs jump, moved pom poms from place to place with tools, and created a thank you poster for a donor that donated a large amount to my class for us to purchase educational toys. During circle time we determined that it was windy, put the wind sock over our tree, counted to 18 during calendar and continued our pattern, and danced to "Wheels on the Bus". We played outside with our Pre-K friends. We finished the book "Gray Squirrel at Pacific Avenue" for story time. A squirrel puppet helped introduce the book today. For our handwriting segment today we worked with our wood pieces of different size/shape to create Mat Man during a Mat Man song. You will be absolutely amazed with the drawings your children did after this activity. For centers we individually worked with Mat Man and created our own. We also had many different wild animal puppets/dolls in the big toys center. The children worked with them in and around the tree pretending. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest in my group we'll continue our addition work with the ducks in and out of the pond.
Enjoy this beautiful day!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 17, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and did fine motor work. We connected people figures to create structures, we worked with ducks in a pond (lots of counting!), we created faces with magnetic facial features, and made words with Velcro letters. During circle time we determined that it's rainy today. We all felt "rain" on our faces when I squirted a water bottle. We counted to 17 during calendar and added to our red, red, white, white pattern. We also danced to "Popcorn". It was raining today so we didn't go outside. I began reading "Gray Squirrel at Pacific Avenue". Before center time started we started working with some materials that I got at a Handwriting Without Tears workshop I went to recently. We each had a big line, a little line, a big curve and a small curve. These are the basic building blocks of ALL of the upper-case letters. When I asked each of them to raise a certain piece they all did a wonderful job of listening. After we got to know the pieces we did the song "Wood Piece Pokey". It was really fun! During centers today we were scientists!!! We all put rubber gloves on and we dissected an owl pellet. We found many, many bones, a mouse skull, and lots of fur. It was so cool. We looked at the pieces with hand lenses and created a poster with our observations. When we were done observing the pellet we all were able to observe the tarantula that is visiting our classroom. We drew pictures of him. He has 8 legs! We also worked in the home/restaurant center. We had lunch with Pre-K. After lunch we worked with play dough and we also added branches to our classroom tree. I cut holes where each student asked me to place the branch and they held it in place as I glued it to the trunk. Our tree is magnificent! Look for pictures of it tomorrow. This afternoon in my Pre-K group we'll be cutting out pond shapes and tree shapes and gluing them to paper. We'll then add ducks IN the pond and OUT of the pond. We'll add the numbers together to determine the total number of ducks.
Have a great night tonight!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 12, 2009

Happy Zilker Valentine's Day!!!
This morning we ate breakfast and then worked on fine motor activities. We connected people blocks (new toy that I just got!), drew with dry erase markers, created structures with bristle blocks, and counted airplanes. We went on a walk around our school and celebrated the letter "P". We wore our president wigs and carried our letter "P" art and our classroom letter "P" card. We visited the office and our buddies' classroom and they were so excited to see us! We did a great job telling them letter "P" words and the letter "P" sound. We played outside with our Pre-K friends and then went inside with them for our Valentine's Day party. We created dogs out of heart shapes, decorated a heart shaped cookie, painted a huge heart, had a heart painted on our cheeks, played with pink play dough, and put our Valentines in our friends' Valentine bags. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest we'll go back to Pre-K to look through our Valentine bags. We'll read our friends names and see what they gave us. What a wonderful day we had today!

Reminder: there is no school Friday and Monday. See everyone on Tuesday!

Have a great weekend!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 11, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and then worked with gears, large block numbers, lacing shapes, and drawing and writing with dry erase markers. During circle time we determined that it's sunny today, counted to 11 during calendar, and danced to "Mary Had a Little Lamb". We stayed inside this morning because the area where we play outside was very muddy. Instead we did extra movement songs. I finished reading "Screech Owl at Midnight Hollow". For centers today we completed our Valentine pouches and we continued painting branches (paper towel tubes), and adding bark to our tree. When we were finished we worked in the block center. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest we'll work on the heart shape creating special Pre-K valentine bags.

I hope you all have a great night!

Kali Parsons

Feb. 10, 2009

Parents,

This morning we ate breakfast and worked with strings and buttons, jumping frogs, oval Lego's, and play dough. During circle time we determined that it's cloudy today, felt a puffy cloud, counted to 10 during calendar, and danced to "Itsy Bitsy Spider". We played outside with our Pre-K friends. I began reading "Screech Owl at Midnight Hollow", a book about more animals that live in trees. During centers today we glued our tree together, putting the big box on the bottom, the medium box in the middle and the small box on top. We tore small pieces of brown paper and glued them on the tree to create rough bark. We also painted paper towel tubes brown using our hands to create branches. In another center we began creating heart shaped Valentine envelopes. We cut, glued, drew and peeled to decorate them. Ms. McGuire came for speech therapy today. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest I'll be talking with everyone in Pre-K about what they observe about our hand length chart.

Have a wonderful evening!

Kali Parsons

Feb. 9, 2009

Parents,

This morning we ate breakfast and did our fine motor work. We strung beads on yarn, created structures with bristle blocks, connected pop beads, and worked with the little people and dogs on a winter city scene. During circle time we determined that it's rainy today and we all felt "rain" when I squirted everyone with a water sprayer. We also counted to 9 during calendar and danced to "I Like Potatoes". We did not go outside this morning due to the weather. For story time I read "Nuts to You!" It's about a squirrel that lived outside in his tree and then went in a window to see what it was like inside. We talked about animals that live in trees. This marks the beginning of our Tree Homes unit. We began painting boxes (small, medium, large) brown today and we'll assemble them, one on top of the other, to create a tree. We'll add bark and branches another day. We also worked in the home center ordering food in the restaurant and finished our work with the letter "P" by doing letter "P" artwork. We had lunch with our Pre-K friends, but we did not go outside to the playground because it was too wet. Instead, we came back to the room and worked with shaving cream. It mixed with the brown paint we used on the boxes. It looked a lot like a chocolate milkshake. After rest we'll go to Pre-K for math centers. In my group we'll graph the lengths of our hands on a poster.
Have a great night!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 5, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and did fine motor work. We made frogs jump, drew on dry erase boards, clipped clothespins on cards, and created a beautiful poster for our counselor, Ms. Pundt, by drawing, cutting and gluing hearts, sprinkling glitter on glue, and peeling and sticking heart stickers. We also wrote the word "Love". During circle time today we counted to five and continued our AABB color pattern. We determined that it's cloudy today and danced to "Dancing Machine". We played outside with our Pre-K friends. Before story time today we created an upper and a lower-case "P" on our carpet with masking tape. "Big line down, hop around." I read the book "Let's Get a Pup!" Everyone had the opportunity to find the letter "P" on the cover. During centers we assembled our snowmen. We put the big circle on the bottom, the medium circle in the middle, and the small circle (face we had made) on the top. We also glued the hat on top of their heads and glued arms on the sides of the middle circle. Everyone did a wonderful job talking about size and position during this activity. We also began constructing President wigs by gluing cotton balls on the wig shape. Ms. Pundt (we noticed that her name starts with a letter "P"!) came today and did a wonderful lesson with everyone. They played a game that reinforced shapes, colors, and great sportsmanship. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest we'll continue working on number order and the heart shape and possibly measurement in Pre-K.
Enjoy your Thursday night!!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 4, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and did fine motor work - connected links and created patterns, threaded buttons, worked with a two dimensional dollhouse, and moved pom poms based on their size. During circle time we determined that it's sunny today, put the sun over the tree, and felt the heat and shape of a flashlight. We played outside with Pre-K. I read "Curious George Walks the Pets" for story time. We all took turns finding the letter "P" on the cover. During centers we drew, cut and decorated hats for our snowmen. We also water colored hearts number 1 - 10 for an activity we'll be doing in Pre-K. When we all finished our art work we pretended the home center was a restaurant. Yum! We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest we'll put our hearts in numerical order and work on the concept of measuring.
Have a wonderful night!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 3, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and worked on our fine motor skills by stringing spools on pipe cleaners, creating faces with facial feature magnets (we talked about how they felt), and creating art with shape pieces. We also worked as a large group with play dough. They did such a great job asking to borrow tools and sharing them! During circle time we determined that it's sunny today, put the sun over the tree, and dressed the bears in their jackets because the window felt cold. We played outside with Pre-K. For story time I began reading "Pets in Class". We pointed out all of the upper and lower-case "P"s on the front and back cover. Ms. McGuire came for speech today. We also had a small amount of time for free reading. We had lunch and played on the playground with Pre-K. After rest we'll continue working on matching and counting skills in Pre-K.
Enjoy your night!
Kali Parsons

Feb. 2, 2009

Parents,
This morning we ate breakfast and then worked on our counting skills. We put certain numbers of fish/frogs/airplanes on cards with numbers on them. We also pretended with little people that we were in a snowy neighborhood. During circle time we determined that it's windy today. We felt a fan on each of our faces. We also dressed our weather bears in swimsuits because the window felt warm. We played outside with our Pre-K friends. For story time I read "Puppies, puppies, puppies". We found the many upper and lower-case "P"s on the cover. We practiced the letter "P" sound as we read the book. During center time we drew and cut small circles to create features for our snowmen faces. We also cut a triangle for a carrot nose. The block center was also open and many structures were built. We had lunch and played on the playground with our Pre-K friends. After rest we went to the gym to hear African drumming. It was amazing!
Have a great Monday night!
Kali Parsons