Today we introduced the letter C or, as we call it in preschool, the "cracking egg sound".
At circle time in most of the classes (Miss Jamie's afternoon class will be doing this on Monday)the kids were able to watch and listen as the teacher cracked raw eggs for them! We listened and sang along with the Phonics by Spelling CD for the first time today.
In Arts and Crafts, we practiced our watercoloring skills and painted "C's" in a rainbow of colors. The children are trying their very hardest to remember to dip, color,paint, dip, color, paint, etc... This is our method of remembering to wash the brush after each use of color (so we don't mix the paint colors). They are really getting the hang of it!
In Music we sang songs that contained our "cracking egg" sound.
*Old MacDonald Had A Farm (we focused on COW and CAT)
*Little Red Caboose
*Muffin Man (we like to change to Cupcake/Cracker/Cookie Man -or any other yummy food the kids came up with that used the "cracking egg" sound)
*Pease Porridge Hot, Pease Porridge Cold
PARENTS PLEASE NOTE: If you are asking your child about the letter sounds, please remember that we are wanting them to respond with the sound the letter makes, not necessarily the name of the letter. The ideal way to handle this is to SHOW your child the letter and then ask them to tell you what sound the letter makes. Don't avoid naming the letter (I always ask them "What sound does this letter C make? While I am pointing to the letter.). If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
***Because of copyright restrictions, we are unable to post the pictures that we use for the letter sounds. We use Miss Nada's Phonics by Spelling program. If you are wanting to purchase a set of books and CD's to use at home or on the go we have them available for purchase. It is not required that you do so, but Miss Nada has offered them to parents of Little Readers Preschool students at a discount. These are always available for purchase throughout the year. Pricing is as follows...
Phonics by Spelling 2 book/2 CD set = $21.00 (regular price is $29.95)
Phonics by Spelling 2 book/2 CD set (slightly bent or damaged) = $12.00 (this is a really great deal if you don't mind the slight imperfections)
Phonics by Spelling spiral bound book and DVD = $21.00 (regular price is $38.00)
After reading "Mr. Noisy" by Roger Hargreaves we talked about "inside voices" and "outside voices". At Snack Time we used our "please" and "thank you's" and practiced our best table manners by waiting for all the other children to be served before we started eating - an amazing feat for a bunch of hungry preschoolers, but they all performed their best! It won't be long before the habit sticks and they won't need any gentle reminders from teacher.
In Arts and Crafts today we watercolored for the first time all by ourselves! The children tried their very hardest not to mix colors and used our chant of Dip, Color, Paint to keep on track. Afterwards, they all dumped out their water cups and put away their paint - they are learning responsibility a little at a time. :)
At music time we sang a silly song that one of our teachers (Miss Jamie) made up, it goes like this...
Please and Thank You, sung to the tune of “Frere Jaque”
Please speak kindly
Please speak kindly
Use nice words
Use nice words
Always say Please and Thank You
‘Else your Mom might spank you.
Be Polite
Be Polite
We were all giggling and laughing by the end of this song!
