Week 31
Dear Preschool 2 Families:
The World of Eric Carle!
As we continued our unit on Eric Carle, we began our week by reading Today is Monday. After first discussing why the cat on the cover of the book was holding a knife and fork, we read on to find different foods being served each day of the week. Ask your child to tell you which food was eaten on each day of the week. Sunday was a special treat we would all enjoy!
We read another favorite, The Very Busy Spider, and the children first noted how relaxed we all felt as the spider fell asleep after her very busy day. They enjoyed watching her build her web, page by page and then catch a fly in it. The question then was – How can a spider not stick to her web that is so sticky to catch a fly? We were excited to experiment and see for ourselves if this is possible. Ask your child to tell you about how a spider accomplishes this feat, and how we tested this theory.
The playdough table saw a new medium to manipulate this week. Your preschoolers cut, stretched, pulled, rolled, and squished Gak! A wonderful mixture of liquid starch and school glue. Ask your child to tell you about this delightful sensory experience.
We had fun retelling The Very Hungry Caterpillar, discussing the lifecycle of the butterfly and learning a song to remember the sequence. Then we worked together, taking turns, carefully adding unit blocks, to build a “chrysalis” for our very hungry caterpillar.
The rain didn’t diminish our enjoyment of gross motor activities as we soared like airplanes, swam like goldfish, hopped like bunnies and came up with some unusual ways to freeze to our favorite big room songs. When the rain finally stopped, the warmer temperatures brought a heightened enjoyment of our playground time. The children’s excitement and energy brought much laughter and squeals of delight as they ran, climbed, rode, swung, dug, and searched for bugs together. Searching for sequins and sparkles newly sprinkled by the “Sparkle Fairy” is always a popular activity, collecting pocketsful of these treasures to share with you at home.
Luckily the rain stayed away for Spring Picture Day. The children laughed at the silly bunny who wiggled and spun around the camera and happily said cheese on cue!
Many of Eric Carle’s books contain lessons on not only such things as the days of the week and the life cycle of the butterfly, but friendship and compassion. We had some important conversations about including others in our play, being kind and a good friend to all. As the children continue their social/emotional learning and practice the skills of negotiation, empathy and using kind words, we encourage you to continue this conversation at home as we empower the children to be Kind, Helpful and Polite!!
After the children have been busy “cooking” breakfast all week, with bacon and eggs, muffins and fruit, and of course lots and lots of pancakes, we read Pancakes, Pancakes. Here we discovered that it was not so easy to make pancakes for breakfast in the old days. Ask your child if they remember any of the steps necessary to make this breakfast meal. After this mouthwatering discussion, we encourage you to have your child help make a family breakfast at home, maybe even for Mom on Sunday! Yum!! We ended our week with a rousing game of Eric Carle bingo which helped us remember how many different books he wrote.
Ask your child to tell you about some of Eric Carle’s wonderful books we enjoyed, and which one was his/her favorite – and of course -why? Many can be found at your local library to extend your child’s enjoyment.
We hope you have a wonderful Mothers’ Day weekend and enjoy some special family time together!
Miss Michelle, Miss Penny, and Miss Carol
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