Apple Valley

Breakfast: Waffles, Apple, Milk

Lunch: Chicken Chow Main (over rice & chow mein noodles), Apple, Milk

Snack: Fortune Cookie, Milk, Chinese candy (nut & seed based so it must be healthy, right)

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

The kids were very engaged with today's activities, I hope they were able to share with you this evening.

Dramatic Play- Chinese restaurant

Where is China on the map?

Fine Motor- Chopstick practice

Writing Chinese letters

Math/fine motor- adding "legs" the sheep (year of the sheep)

Explanation of the holiday- the dragon Nian, significance of red, lucky money, fireworks, zodiac animals, lanterns, etc.

Exploring artifacts

Digging for fortunes (good luck) & ornaments in Mung Beans (the kids were also curious of the smell of the beans)

Transferring activity with soy beans

The kids enjoyed this so much & we didn't have time for a craft so we plan to continue this tomorrow.

Apple Valley

Breakfast: Honey Oats Cereal, Apple, Milk

Lunch: Taco Soup, Tortilla, Apple, Milk

Palm Tree Rhyme Time!...

Is a Sea Horse A Horse? (Scholastic magazine) Books: Oceans & At the Seaside

Palm Rainbow Fish

A few of our trays for this week: Water beads, Writing in Sand, Ocean Magnets

Apple Valley

Breakfast: Bagel w/ cream cheese, Banana, Milk

Lunch: Picnic lunch on our beach towels! Hot dog on a bun, mixed raw veggies w/ ranch, tropical fruit salad, milk

Luau Day! Thanks for bringing a swimsuit, towel & props!

The kids put on their swimsuits & danced to beach music. We used grass skirts, leis, sunglasses, flips flops, beach

balls, visors & sun hats

We used the pocket chart to compare things that live in the ocean & things that live in a pond.

We explored new foods & tasted them...papaya, mango, star fruit, coconut & the familiar

banana & pineapple. It was interesting to see where in the world the foods were from.

Center & tray activities: sand writing, ABSeas fishing game, water table, matching figures that live in the ocean

to their real photo, exploring sea shells, dominoes & whale tale math

We read a book about sharks & learned that the whale shark is the biggest

fish in the ocean. We listened to a funny a story on CD called Clark the Shark

& I taught them a fish rhyme. Perhaps you are familiar with it: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,

once I caught a fish alive...

Apple Valley

Breakfast: PB/Banana Tortilla wrap, Milk

Lunch: Spaghetti, Mixed Veggies, Milk, Pineapple

Today I had a fun time w/ the book "There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Shell."

Hopefully the kids had fun too.

After reading the story we used props to sequence the story & work on temporal concepts. (What did she swallow after the gull?)

*pictured

We re-told the story using a box with the granny face on it, as we went along the kids "fed" the items

to our old lady *not pictured

I asked the kids Yes/No questions as a comprehension activity as well as comprehension picture cards,

the children enjoyed picking their dry erase color to circle the answers

We played a game of "Granny Says" & danced to 2 fun songs about Oceans & an interactive following

directions song that included hula dancing, fishing, riding on our surf

boards, etc.

We also had a fun visit from Stretch n Grow!

I cannot tell you how excited I was when I heard Dr. Jean would be coming to a conference

near us! Will & I have been using some of her songs & methods in our classroom for years so it

was fantastic to see her in person. I'm looking forward to sharing all the awesome things we

learned w/ our co-teachers & the kids @ Apple Tree. I do wonder if she'll ever come north

again in February though!