Teeth and Measurement

Our favourite part of the day:

On Monday we wrote the letter "h" had the vet centre and we learned the "Magic" dance.

On Tuesday the librarian came and we weighed ourselves. 

On Wednesday we learned about Crazy Camel and about our teeth. 

On Thursday we learned about the tooth fairy and had centres.

On Friday we played the shark game and learned about Lizzy Lamb.

Measurement:
We continued playing with different capacities at the sand table. We also started learning about weight (heavy and light). Everyone was weighed and then we compared weights and sorted from heaviest to lightest. The children really enjoyed this activity.

Later in the week we did a cut and paste activity sorting objects that were light or heavy. I got the worksheet from kindergarten kindergarten.

We will continue looking into weight and review capacity next week.

Teeth:

We started our unit on teeth this week. The unit started with lessons on the parts of the tooth.

The enamel is the outer layer of our tooth. It protects our teeth and is what makes our teeth white. The crown is the top part of the tooth that we see. It looks like the crown of a king or queen. The dentin is yellow and it supports the enamel. It is softer and yellow and lets us know when something is wrong with our tooth. The pulp is pink and soft. It contains blood and nerves. The nerves tell our brain when our tooth hurts. The roots are inside of our gums and they hold our teeth in place. The gums are the pink part in our mouths that hold our teeth. 

I showed the children the nomenclature and later we labeled a tooth. 

The children learned that they have baby teeth and that they will be losing these when their adult or "grown up" teeth start to come in and make the root loose. They thought it was interesting that we don't have more teeth after that so when an adult loses a tooth they have to get a false one. 

After parts of the tooth I taught the children about the different teeth that we have what their purpose is. Incisors are to cut our food (for biting). Canines are for tearing or biting tough things like meat. The premolars are for chewing and grinding food. The molars are bigger than the premolars and are also for chewing and grinding food.

We did a creative writing/drawing assignment about what the tooth fairy does with all of our teeth. The children had some interesting theories from making necklaces to potion making to organizing them on a shelf. We are starting to do more independent writing. Some of the children are ready for this and try to sound out the words and write while others struggle and write words or letters they know. We will be doing more writing in the next term and hopefully they will all become comfortable with inventive spelling and independent writing. 

I got the nomenclature cards from Montessori Print Shop and I got the handouts from Stephanie Trapp.

Happy Smile:

We have been learning a new poem "Happy Smile". Before we read it for the first time I had the children find words that they knew or tell me about strategies that we could use. They are starting to remember sight words and remember decoding strategies. I am excited to see what they know in June. 

We started preparing for St. Patrick's Day. The children made these rainbow chains with pots of gold this week. It is great practice for fine motor skills (cutting, gluing and colouring).

Animated Literacy:

This week we learned two new characters.  We learned about Griselda Green who giggles and glides with ghosts, Crazy Camel who catches and eats candies, cakes and cookies, and Lizzy Lamb who lays down on lemon leaves. The children reviewed the few ways to write the "cuh" sound: "c", "ck" and "k". After learning these new sounds we practiced reading some words. I almost tricked them with words containing "c", "k" and "ck".

Please go over the handouts that have been sent home with your child to review the sounds and letters. They can colour the picture and then circle the special sound within the song at the bottom. Remember that Animated Literacy focuses on the sound (phonics) and the writing (graphemes) so for Arnie Aardvark we focus on the "ar" as seen in the words hard, arm and art.

This week was brought to you by: The letters h, b, f,q and x

This week we practiced writing more lowercase letters. When you have a moment practice writing "h", "b", "f", q" and "x" as well as what words start with "huh" (for "hat"), "buh" (for "bat"), "fff" (for "fan"), "kwah" (for "queen) and "ks" (for "box"). Another activity could be finding different objects in the house that start with the letters/sounds that we have been learning. 

Don't Forget:

On cold days please make sure to send hats and mittens. Also, on days where there is snow or it is slushy please send boots and snow pants. Thank you!

Feel free to contact me anytime with any questions or concerns. I can be reached at the school, by email or just drop in (I am usually around before school).