Happenings With Hemme - Blog

Happenings With Hemme

Pets & Wild Animals

3/4/2019

Here are a few read aloud books on You Tube. The students loved them.
Both books have fun voices and music.

We began our week charting all kinds of PETS! I had to really break it down and discuss what made an animal a good pet. Although, unicorn was a class favorite.

We did the same thing with WILD ANIMALS! This was quite comical.
There were all kinds of sounds coming out of our room. Naming an animal meant acting it out and making all the noises.

Blippi videos are loved by my students. He's quite the character. Very silly.
In this video Blippi visits the zoo. Since we weren't able to take a field trip to the zoo, this was kind of like we were there.

As a class we sorted animals into two groups; wild animals and pets.
We had a great class discussion as to what made certain animals good pets and which ones would not make good pets.

During small group time each students sorted their own set of animals. These students really got this lesson!

This informational video is great for wild animal week. The students were able to see the animals in their habitat. They even got to hear the sounds they make.

Our "Fine Motor Friday" consisted of painting lions with forks. I LOVE this activity.
It is a NO MESS activity, which is one of the reasons why I love it.

STEM time is our favorite. I love giving the students materials and giving them a task, then sitting back and watching their little brains work. These students were asked to create a zoo for their animals. They worked together to make their zoo together...then later decided that the lion, elephant, and cheetah should not be in the same cage. They were using big words like DANGEROUS!

A fun Smart Board activity consisted of sorting wild animals based on the number of legs they had. This activity involved so many skills. They identified animals, counted, and then identified numbers. They have come so far!

During center time, each student was able to count with me one-on-one.
They placed that many spots on their wild animal. Woo hoo, look at them go!

Feeling the LOVE for Valentine's Day

2/15/2019

We started our week charting how to be a good friend.
I love to incorporate friendship and Valentine's day!

We listened and followed directions to make our Valentine's Day bags.
Of course, reviewing colors, shapes, and counting.

Our Name Hearts turned out great! These kiddos are still working on name practice with identifying all the letters in their name and putting them in order.

Fine motor practice is very important. The students cut out their hearts and then wrote their names. Hopefully these masterpieces made it home.

Our Valentine's Day party was a BIG hit! Thanks to Nevaeh's mom for coming and helping in the morning. A BIG thank you to all the parents who sent snacks. Our party was enjoyed by all!

Winter

1/22/2019

Both preschool classes did a great job charting all about winter!

We made snow in our classroom. We explored it with our senses and then made it a center!!
Recipe:
3 cups Baking Soda
1/2 cup white conditioner

We listened to the book read aloud, "Snowmen at Night." Then we charted what we thought snowmen would do at night. Their responses were very well thought out.

We used our fine motor skills to tear paper and make a snowman!
Fine motor skills help with using scissors and writing our name.

Our name snowmen turned out extra cute. Some of these kiddos have long names. It was a little harder for them.

Counting snowflakes was great practice for kindergarten.
Our goal this year is to count to 20!

Special Announcement

1/11/2019

Mrs. Hemme and her husband are excited to announce that another child will be coming this summer.

Christmas

12/18/2018

We read the "Gingerbread Man," then charted where we would run if WE were the Gingerbread man. The kiddos were very creative with their answers.

Our smallest to BIGGEST Christmas trees turned out great!

Another good Smart Board activity that the students LOVED! This time they were counting ornaments to match the number at the top of the tree.

Matching Christmas trees was great letter practice. UPPERCASE and lowercase letters are great practice for Kindergarten.

Our Christmas lists were very well thought out.

Special visit from Santa!!

A BIG thank you to PTO for our class Christmas gifts.
We have already started using them during center time.

Thanksgiving

11/15/2018

A little late posting this but that doesn't mean I'M not thankful!! So are these kiddos.

Our shape turkeys turned out pretty cute. We practiced colors, shapes, and following directions.

I absolutely LOVE our name turkeys. Yordy and Layla are so excited to show them off.

Matching numbers to their quantity is always challenging for us.
We are getting much better though.

Fall

11/13/2018

We began our week brainstorming everything we already knew about FALL!
The students already knew a whole lot. I love giving them an open topic and letting them talk. I just sit back and listen to their conversations.

We went on a leaf/nature hunt. At our new building we have some HUGE leaves. We found acorns (the students called them coconuts) and pinecones (the students called them pineapple). Oh the joys of preschool! #ILoveMyJob

We had some fun in the classroom. We went on another leaf hunt and then found our partner. We reviewed colors, numbers, and even counted.

The story "Leaf Man," was read before their STEM activity.

At the end of the week we took all of our leaves that we collected on our leaf hunt and made our own creation. This is a STEM activity. There is no guidance by the teacher. Materials are placed in front of the students and they can create whatever they'd like. After they made their creation I wrote down what they told me. We created dinosaurs, school buses, snakes, people, and several dogs. All their stories were so in depth. These are great pre-writing skills.

Halloween Week 2

11/5/2018

We had so much fun during our Halloween party that I almost forgot to take pictures.

Halloween Week 1

10/29/2018

Our countdown to Halloween week began with SPIDERS!!
We reviewed our letter of the week by sorting UPPERCASE and lowercase letters.

We charted whether or not we were afraid of spiders.

We made SHAPE MONSTERS and reviewed our shapes.

We created our own monster with all different shapes.
The students got to use their own imagination with no help from the teacher.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins

10/17/2018

Here are a few YouTube book read aloud we did this week.
The students sometimes like a change of voice.

We measured ourselves with pumpkins.
These kiddos are getting GREAT at number recognition.

FINE MOTOR FRIDAYS call for tearing paper!! Fine motor skills help with pencil grip and using scissors. We've got to build those finger muscles up!

Putting our names in order is sometimes a challenge.
We've been doing a lot of that lately. Practice, practice, practice.

We did a lot of pumpkin investigating.
First we predicted whether or not our pumpkin would sink or float.

Then we opened up a pumpkin, looked inside, felt inside,
and picked out all the "yucky" filling.

Last we made a SHAPE JACK-O-LANTERN.
We are always practicing some sort of skill.

The Smart Board is always a hit. We ordered numbers 1-10.
Each student had a turn ordering a number on the pumpkin vine.