Week 14

Where does the time go...14 weeks...Middle of November? I can't believe it. I'm sorry I missed last weeks update...life is just crazy!

We have moved on to our "Tiny Town" unit...talking about community helpers. We have learned about (and done projects for) doctors, construction workers, and mail carriers... We have discussed other jobs such as policeman and fire fighters, dentists and such. We also went around the circle and said what we wanted to be when we grew up...and even though I tried to explain what a job is and how you have to go to work and then they pay you money...we still had some girls wanting to be a real princess when they grew up (who knows...maybe they can work at Disneyland). We have some basketball players, doctors, policeman and fireman...and of course we have to have some "spider mans" and "Batman's". It has been a really fun unit, and I am still hoping to do a field trip to the fire station this month (just need to get my act together and call them...maybe after I finish this) and I hope my neighbor will be able to come over with her police car and talk to them for a few minutes about police work (she is on her death bed at the moment...so hopefully she'll get better soon :)).

On top of learning about the above topics we have still been working on our letters, shapes, and numbers, as well as participating in some cutting exercises, Rhyming games, and some name recognition games. They all seem to be doing really well in all of the areas...I don't see any big red flags at the moment...PROGRESS REPORTS will be sent home next week (hopefully...if not for sure before Christmas!)

I wanted to post these pictures because they were perfect of examples of how I prefer our projects to be. When I am registering children I often get asked the question of how I separate the children and how can 3 year olds and 5 year olds possibly be in the same class...and this is how...one, we don't give our children enough credit...3 year olds are capable of a lot...they can learn all their letters and sounds learn to cute, etc. They can't sit quite as long or stay on a task as long, which is why I always keep us moving. But as far as projects go...this is what I like to see in the above picture (it's not as clear as I would've liked) this 4 year old girl decided to color her pliers with a pattern, and she stuck with it on the whole side (she also knew it was a Christmas pattern...red, green, red, etc.) The other side she just wanted to do all red.

The one below is a little boy that just turned 3 a couple weeks ago. He chose random colors to color with, and couldn't quite get it all colored by the time he started to lose interest. Both are ok with me and what I encourage the children to do all the time...I always try to have them make it their own. This year is a little different because most of the projects are sent to me...I feel as if they do a good job of letting the children express themselves how they want...and I LOVE that!

I loved their little mail boxes today...I thought they turned out cute. Their goal was to go home and write a letter to someone (or draw a picture) and mail it to them. SO if you could help them with this...that would be GREAT!

Thanks for all your help with all the turkeys...I Love to see all the different ideas. If you haven't had a chance to bring yours in yet...I would love it if you could. The kids are LOVING looking at everybody's and pointing out which one is theirs!

I hope you have a great week. I have used all the letters out of the November box already, and am hoping to receive Decembers this weekend so I can let you know what letter it will be. Stay tuned! Have a great week!