Weekly Highlights: April 12-15

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

Kim Gallant once again has some tips for at-home sensory integration education, and Sarah Trout tells us all about the kids’ projects to learn about how plants grow and birds spend their time.  Check back tomorrow for more highlights!

From Sarah Trout

We have stuck with the Spring theme.  We are keeping up with our flower journals and we have green sprouts at last!  It’s wonderful to see all the little flowerpots clustered around the big ones by the entrance.  Also, we’re focusing on calendar skills, letter/sound correspondence – we’re up to 18 sounds! – beginning sounds, parts of a book, and rhyming.

We’re also getting ready for some outdoors learning.  We’ll be making and flying kites as well as building a bird feeder so we can watch the birds’ habits.

From Kim Gallant

This week in the Sensory Integration classroom the theme is Spring Fever and Bug Exploration.  We are focusing on counting by 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s, time telling, money identification and value, spatial concepts, short vowel sounds, opposites, and rhyming.  This week’s vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile learning activities involve bubbles, planting seeds in dirt, writing sight words with sidewalk chalk, and creating a bird feeder.  The activities provide the necessary sensory stimulation to help the children organize and prepare their bodies for learning. 

This week’s “Learning Made Fun” idea:
“Sidewalk Chalk Spelling/Sight Words” 

Write your child’s sight/spelling words on the driveway, sidewalk, or patio.  Get creative and draw different shapes around the words such as hearts, clouds, and stars.  Draw a small score keeping box on the ground as well.  Have your child stand on the shape and read the word inside of it.  If you are working on spelling, have the child close her/his eyes and spell the word out loud.  Every time your child reads/spells the word correctly tally a star in the score box.  Once she/he has earned so many stars reward her/him with a Popsicle or fun summertime treat.  

Purpose: To reinforce your child’s spelling /sight word identification skills, and have fun.

Materials needed:
• Sidewalk chalk
• Driveway, sidewalk, or patio
• List of spelling/sight words

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