Aaaargghh! Spider!

Happy Tuesday! Today we spent some time learning about spiders. There were two stories that were read at circle time. One story was pretend (fiction) and the other story was real (non-fiction). The children did a great job of identifying which story was true and which was pretend. They also were able to describe why. Great job, 4K students!

We learned the difference between a spider and an insect. Spiders have two body parts while insects have three body parts. Spiders have 8 legs while insects have 6 legs. Each child was given a card with a picture of a bug. They had to identify whether their bug was a spider or an insect and how they knew.

Then we visited centers. Ask your child which center he/she visited today!  Sorry for the lack of pictures, but there was a substitute teacher in the classroom.

The first center used their fine motor skills to trace over their names with glue. Then they sprinkled on sparkly, silver glitter to make their name magically appear in the spider web! Of course, they also had to draw a spider on the web and practiced counting 8 legs on the spider! Afterwards, they went on a spider hunt around the classroom to find spiders with different numbers and letters on them. When your child brings home the spider scavenger hunt sheet, see if he/she can identify the numbers, letters, and colors on the paper!

The second center made a scarecrow booklet. They practiced identifying emotions and what their faces might look like when they are experiencing that emotion. Take some time to read it with your child when the booklet comes home, talking about the different emotions and working on concepts of print, such as pointing to each word with one-to-one correspondence. The children at this center also reviewed the letter Ss while making their spider Ss alphabet book page.

The third center reviewed "Itsy Bitsy Spider," which is the nursery rhyme we are focusing on this week. They went on a letter Ss hunt to find that letter in the rhyme. Then they colored their page to be added to their nursery rhyme folders that are sent home each week.

After centers, it was play time!

For snack, the children reviewed what they had learned about spiders. They made a special spider snack! We had to count out 2 crackers to represent that a spider has 2 body parts. Then they counted out 8 pretzel legs because we learned that spiders have 8 legs. This snack was a great way to reinforce our current learnings!

At closing circle, we shared our letter Ss mystery bags. There were some very tricky items in the mystery bags! The children are enjoying sharing the mystery bags each week! They are a great way to help reinforce the letter we are learning about, as well as make connections to words that start with that letter and the letter's sound.

In the morning session, children also reviewed numbers and letters while playing spider web bingo. We covered the letters and numbers with spiders! It was fun! Your child will bring the game board home to play with you too! If you don't have spiders, you can use items, such as pennies, m&m's, Cheerios, blocks, or any other small items you may have around the house to cover up the letters and numbers! Taking the time to review these concepts at home will help your child tremendously! The afternoon session will get to play this game on Thursday!

There will be a substitute teacher in the classroom again tomorrow as we continue to administer the PALS assessment. This week we are administering the first 3 portions of the assessment and will complete the remaining 3 portions next week.

Have a great evening!