Pets and More

Our All About Me unit took us from sharing about ourselves, to learning about others; the qualities we share and what makes us different, to families and finally pets.  Throughout the first few weeks we were building our class community of learners.  The children learned routines and made new friends.

Embedded within our theme, the children learned and practiced many skills.

The Dramatic Play area became a Pet Vet.  The children took on various roles as veterinarians, pet owners, groomers and receptionists.  While pretending to be each part, they practiced conversing with peers and compromise.  They used their imagination and implemented the knowledge they have about what happens when taking a pet to the doctor.  The children practiced writing skills as they completed an intake sheet for each pet and wrote out prescriptions.

 

These same skills were practiced in a different way as some children chose not to act out the roles, but to use Littlest Pet Shop dolls to pretend.

 

Each week new board games are introduced so students can practice counting, turn-taking skills, and pre-academic skills.  Diggety Dog allowed students to also practice colors.

During circle, we created graphs to share information about ourselves.  Below is a graph describing our siblings.  These graphs introduce students to visuals for organizing information and allow them to practice counting and comparing skills.  Other math skills we've been working on include comparing size (tall, short, big, small), counting and colors.  The students have been learning how to sort by attributes including color, size and shape.

Each day we also learn or review letters of the alphabet using activities from the  Fundations program.  As a follow-up students connect the idea that letters make words as I point out words to our class songs and we connect the letters to their names.  Here students are stamping the letters to their name.

In gym class, while working on gross motor skills, students played a game where they performed different movements (hopping, running, crawling, jumping, etc.) to sort different colored balls around the gym.

More Fun!