Letter A and Zero, My Hero! 9/16

Letter A and Zero My Hero!

Daily Question:  Do you like ants?  Most of the students do! (Harris and Anna do not).

Today we started our "Busy Bees" Positive incentive program. 

When "bees" fly up through the red, yellow, and green levels--they make it into the Beehive and get a treat from the Treasure Box.

Toys:  Trains, (new) Apple Colors and Shapes Game, color and number puzzles

 Snacks:  Applejacks, Apple slices, and Animal Cookies!

Letter A Show and Tells next time!

Circle Time:  We became "Aa" Detectives in class today.  We spied A in apple (on the wall), an ant at recess, a student named Anna, and various As in books:  ape, archery, airplane, Aunt Annie.  We learned the sounds of Aa (short a and long a).

Letter A Stories:  
Dr. Seuss's ABCs: An Amazing Alphabet Big Book by Dr. Seuss
The Berenstain Bear's A Book by Stan and Jan Berenstain.
The Amazing I Spy ABCs: Over 250 Animals and Objects to Spy and Identify by Ken Laidlaw
Ten Apples Up On Top! by Theo LeSieg (Dr. Seuss) 
Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins

Books in bold are books we read and talked about today in class.
Recess Fun:  Where will they fly to today?  Antarctica, Australia, Austria!?



We read a story about an alligator, named "A" who was angry because some ants stole his adorable apple. The children and I put up our fists with A and shouted "Aaa--bring me back my apple!" ("a" as in the soft a sound in ant and apple).














Math Concept: Zero, My Hero! 
We watched a catchy, short clip about the importance of the number "0" from Schoolhouse Rock (Multiplication Rock).  Then we had a quick discussion on counting and what zero represents and why it is important to remember zero in front of the traditional counting numbers.  We counted to ten and then saw how after nine, one more made a group of ten with a 1 in the tens and a 0 in the ones.  (Early Math concepts that we will reinforce again on Thursday with our "A" sounds, applesauce, and Zero Hero necklaces.

We also read Ten Red Apples.  In this book we counted how many apples were on the tree each time one apple was taken away. We used this to review the number Zero, when there were no more apples left on teh tree! 

As parents, our children are continually looking to us to teach them. Make a game out of learning and point out things like numbers, colors, shapes, at the grocery store while you are shopping. It might just distract your little ones enough to forget to whine for a treat!