Monday, January 24, 2011

Being Healthy is Fun!

This week we will our two week unit about healthy bodies. We will spend this week exploring how to keep our bodies healthy with nutrition and exercise. Our letter of the week is Xx for x-ray and for eXercise. Check out starfall.com for more letter the week words. We will be making CheX MiX for our cooking lesson this week. This is always a huge hit with the kids. Visit chexmix.com for several recipe varieties you can try at home.

Dole has a great website for kids......check out SuperKids for fun way to get healthy. Here are two games on their website:
1. Catapult Game
2. Drop & Catch

Many activties in the classroom will relate to our story, The Very Hungry Caterpiller. Watch this great video version of the book. There are so many great concepts in this story including sequencing, days of the week, numbers, food groups, and the life cycle of a butterfly. Click here for website #1 that has lots of great ideas you can do with your child. The ideas are endless. Here is website #2 with more activities from DLTK. The kids loved reading this story.....let them help you read as they can repeat the phrase "but it he was still hungry."
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We are really working hard to learn our numbers 1-5 and also extending patterns. You can reinforce this concepts at home very easily. Check out this link that has information regarding Math Activities for Preschoolers.

Here are some ideas you can try at home:
Egg Crate Counting
Take a simple egg crate and number the bottom of each space with permanent marker from one to five. The extra spaces can be cut off or left blank. Give your preschooler a plastic bag full of any small, interesting items like mini-M&Ms, jelly beans, beads, dried peas, pebbles, etc. Have your child match the number of items to the corresponding number in each space. To make the game more fun and challenging and to develop small hand coordination, have the child use child's-sized plastic tweezers to place the items in the cups. Children can also use the same items to fill plastic Easter eggs with numbers on them.

Sticker Chart
Take a piece of butcher block paper and write the number symbols from one to five vertically on the paper. Give your child an inexpensive book of stickers. Have the child put the correct number of stickers next to each number. Children may also enjoy drawing the correct number of pictures or gluing the correct number of pompoms or buttons on the paper.

Patterning: Fruit Loop Necklace
Making necklaces by stringing fruit loops on yarn is a preschool math activity that can reinforce many skills. First have your child sort the fruit loops by color. Then use the different colors to create patterns. String a pattern on yarn first and then ask your child to create the same pattern. Have your child create a pattern for you to create. When a necklace has been strung, have the child count the loops as he slides them. Children love to practice counting backwards as they eat the cereal off their necklace. Make sure to wash hands before this activity!