Pre-K helps usher in Spring by mixing Literacy & Art

In this timeless classic story, Blueberries for Sal, we travel along to Blueberry Hill to pick blueberries. Sal’s mother wants to take the berries home to can them, so the family may enjoy them during the winter months. Sal brings along her small tin pail to help, however, she ends up eating more than she picks! On the other side of the hill, Little Bear and his mother are eating blueberries to grow big and fat for the long, cold winter. Both Sal and Little Bear sit down to enjoy the delicious berries, and when they get up to find their mothers, they each mistake the other’s mother for their own! After listening to the story, students created their own small tin pails using aluminum foil, blue daubers, blue marker, and a little imagination and creativity! They glued the small squares-shaped piece of foil, dabbed “blueberries” with the daubers, drew a handle and found and counted the number of “blueberries they picked. Yum!

Ten little caterpillars are out and about in our big, wide world–come join them! You never know what you might find. . . . A butterfly, perhaps? Students created caterpillars by glueing colorful pom poms onto a craft stick and adding googly eyes. This wonderful story beautifully done through the magical collaboration of Bill Martin Jr. and Lois Ehlert, explains to students the transformation that a caterpillar makes into a butterfly. Perfect in time for Spring!

Pre-K Mixing Science, Library & Music

Borrowing the idea from the amazing school librarian, Andy Plemmons, from the Barrow Media Center in Georgia, Pre-K learned about “fractals” and how it helps to know the words to songs to better understand a song’s meaning and purpose. We started by listening to the song, Let It Go, from the movie, Frozen, and paid particular attention the word, Fractals, in the song. Elsa sings, My power flurries through the air into the ground, My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around, And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast, I’m never going back, the past is in the past… We read the non-fiction book, Mysterious Patterns Finding Fractals in Nature, by Sarah C. Campbell, and discovered that fractals are unique and repetitive patterns in nature. After pointing out fractals in the book, we, then, spent some more time pointing out fractals we saw all around us like patterns on socks, shirts, skirts, the library tables, and in nature. Students were given the opportunity to draw “fractals” they had come up with using plain white paper, crayons, pencils, and colored pencils.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom – Let the letters of your name climb up a coconut tree…

Pre-kindergarten has begun a new unit called, plants and living things. In collaboration with the library, the students are in the midst of learning about the life cycle of plants, the parts of a flower, the many types of plants, and what elements are necessary for a plant to grow. Students have been closely monitoring their bean seeds growing in little plastic cups, viewing educational videos from Brainpop Jr. and PBS Learning Media describing the life cycle of a plant, and enjoying various fiction and non-fiction read-alouds. As a class the students read the classic and timeless picture book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, written by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault and illustrated by Lois Elhert, and recreated the coconut tree (or their own kind) in the story. The students had the opportunity to glue the leaves and trunk to make a tropical tree. The students started a discussion on what kinds of fruits grow on trees such as apples, coconuts, bananas and more. The students practiced spelling their name with the letter stamps and stamped them on their page just like those falling from the coconut tree in the story. A told B, and B told C, I’ll meet you at the top of the coconut tree!