Elephants at the Circus

Daily Question: Have you seen an elephant? 

Toys: Dress ups, Circus Tents, ABC Wooden Puzzles, Colored foam blocks.

Snacks: Pretzel sticks, carrots, celery and Ranch dip.

Elephant Activity: During snack time we reviewed A-D with the songs/stories and actions.  Then introduce letter E.  E the Elephant exercises in the evening lifting 80 pound weights and says "e e e" (eh, eh, eh). E also says it's own name (long e sound).

 

Circle Time

I Spy E words: Encyclopedia, Explorers Book, Eggs, elephant toy, Eva, Elsa, ear , excited (for Halloween)?!

The Art Reinforcement Activity was an ABC dot-to-dot (a new skill for most of the students). It was fun to sing the ABC song while doing the activity several times.  I hold children’s pencil and we sing the ABC song over and over as I help each child and then they color E the Elephant.

 Circus Books:  Sidewalk Circus and Olivia Saves the Circus. We read books about the circus. Sidewalk Circus showed us how we can find circus participants all around us! Such as a squirrel walking across a "tight rope" (phone line) or a Strong Strong man.

Recess: We are loving this sunny Fall weather!  The children drew lines on the sidewalk and practiced tight rope walking.  The students enjoyed flying on the teeter totter to a circus or Egypt or to a Saharan plain to see an elephant. 

Zakai's Birthday!

Yesterday Zakai turned 5! He got to wear the birthday crown today and we all sang "Happy Birthday." We then each asked him a question!

Maelo: What is your favorite toy? 

      Choo Choo Train

Eva: What is your favorite color?

     Orange

Anna: What are your favorite clothes to wear?

    The Birthday Crown

Raegan: Do you like pumpkins?

     Yes

Tanner: Do you like Spiderman?

   Yes

Lena: Do you like the Birthday Crown?

   Yes

Ben: What is your favorite cake?

   Pumpkin

Harris: Do you like rainbows?

   Yes

Lukas: Do you like cars and trains?

  Yes 

Thank you Zakai (and Mom Sara) for the orange balloons, and presents.  Our students loved the silly shaped straw and Silly Putty!

We reviewed some words that can be made with three letters, as well as, "Ee" words on the dry erase board. Parents, this is a fun time to begin to point out words that are one, two, or three letters long (A-E) throughout the day. Examples of words you child might read at this point are: a, add, cab, dab, bed, etc.

  We ended by reading The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything. In this book, a little old lady is followed home by shoes that go "clomp clomp," pants that "wiggle wiggle," a shirt that "shakes shakes," etc. In the end it turns out to be a scary pumpkin man! She tells it she is not afraid and sends it out to the field to be a scarecrow. We talked about how during Halloween time there are a lot of fake scary things around, but we do not have to be afraid. We can be like the Little Old Lady! 

Elephant and Circus Books:
Circles at the Circus; My First Book of Shapes (Gymboree)
Eleanor's Enormous Ears (Scholastic, Jumpstart Pre-K Readers)
The Travels of Babar by Jean De Brunhoff (Random House)
Horton Hears a Who! by Dr. Seuss Horton Hatches an Egg by Dr. Seuss If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss
It's Circus Time, Dear Dragon by Margaret Hillert
Lowly Worm Joins the Circus by Richard Scarry (Read-to-Read, Level 2)
Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer
Sidewalk Circus by Paul Fleischman and Kevin Hawker 

 Halloween Books: 

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams and Megan Lloyd.