A Nocturnal November...

What we learned about bats:

RF- A bat can fly.

EV- Bats can hold their babies when they are flying.

EC- Bats fly with their wings fast (flap them fast).

GA- Bats sometimes use the moonlight to find their way & their eyes. 

         GA- Bats have super duper finger bones that go into their wings.  

SB- The mommies hold their babies so they don't fall.

CS- Bats fly at night time.

LC-  They have wings

ELB- They can see in the night time.

AK- They have long wings. 

MC- They are furry.

A personal accomplishment for me: 

several students now think bats are cute not scary!

What we learned about owls:

AK- Owls sleep in the day.

LC-Owls have feet because they need to land on trees.

MC- Owls have wings and feathers.

ELC- Owls eat mice. 

I made a Smart Board sorting activity for choice time & circle.
Students had to sort the animals by when they were awake.
This helped us to learn which animals are nocturnal and which are diurnal like us.

These are some of the books we read about bats & owls
We also watched quite a few short Discovery Ed. videos.
We learned there are so many types sizes of bats and owls are birds of prey.

Some Team 3 students show of the bat and owl masks they made.

Students have been exploring magnetic shape block on the light table.


The block are excellent for learning about 3D shapes.
G & A show the cubes they made.
They also figured out how to make 2D trapezoids on their own...
"Mrs. Dix, come see! We made trapezoids!"

As always the block areas is a busy place:

"We made a zoo."

The garden set has renew interest in the doll house.

T demonstrates the new scooping tools we have in the sand table.

A sneaky way to add more scissor practice opportunities.

We explored the physical details of owls with these art projects:

The students were eager to make Thanksgiving cards for their families.
They drew a picture & completed the sentence "I am thankful for ____".
For some students I took dictation,
others were able to trace or write on their own.

A bit of pre-Thanksgiving baking in the sand table.
"We're making pie! Mine is pecan, my favorite."

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Dover Pre-K: "Bat Come Under my Hat" Rhyme w/ Signs

Our class learned the rhyme "Bat Come Under My Hat" so well we made our own video.
Notice the girls in the back right also learned the ASL signs for bat, hat, bacon & oven.

Our Bat & Owl unit happened to coincide with our need to improve & hone rhyming skills.
Bat is easy word to generate rhymes with so it inspired my literacy focus for the unit.

Dinosaur Discoveries...

Facts About Dinosaurs:

Mary- Some have long necks.

Amelia- Some have long legs.

Liam- Some dinosaurs have spikes.

Robert- They have bones.

Erynn- They have long tails.

Elliot- Some have horns.

Elijah- Some are meat eaters, some are plant eaters.

Grace- Some eat leaves.

Miles- They use claws to scratch and eat other dinosaurs. 

Summer- Some dinosaurs have spiky tails.

Charlotte-Some eat grass, some don't .

At the end of our dinosaur unit we gathered facts again.
This time there were more details & collaborative thinking.

Elliot- Dinosaurs have sharp claws & run faster.  

Erynn- Dinosaurs, T-Rexs eat meat.

Elijah- The one that runs fast and have sharp claws are a saber tooth cat /tiger

Grace- Dinosaurs always look for food.  Some eat fish from ponds.

Mary- Some dinosaurs have wings.

Summer- Those are the ones that eat fish.

Amelia- Some dinosaurs have plates on their backs.

Robert-  Dinosaurs eat plants.

We learned they come from eggs.

Acting like paleontologists at the sand table..

...and at the science table with real fossils!

Exploring color and transparency at our new light table.

Designing our own dinosaurs at the Art center.

Some proud Team 3 students display their work.

Every dinosaur was different!

Team 5 made dinosaur "skeleton's" with Ms. Wheelihan in Art class.

Some Halloween themed painting.

These students worked together to find every square in the geo-block box.

"I made a person!"

Our new math toy is also great for fine motor work and persistence.

I love this game from Lakeshore.
It is good for every developmental level in the class.
Team 5 works on numeral recognition, ordering from least to greatest and counting quantities.
Team 3 can work on basic counting and building fine motor skills as you see here.
Plus the cakes and extremely appealing!

Books we read for our dinosaur unit.

One one our wonderful grand parents came to read to the class during choice time!

Time to bundle up for active play.

Team 3 was introduced to the smart-board last week.
My number one rule is "computer hands are clean and dry!"

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Fire Safety Visit

Choice time ground to a halt when the fire trucks pulled in...

The East Dover FD brought the aerial ladder truck to Dover School!

The fire department did a special presentation just for the pre-k.
I really appreciated the extra time they took.  It was exactly right for our age group.

There was serious student engagement as the firefighters demonstrated and explained their protective gear.

Those oxygen tanks are heavy!

We talked about staying low beneath smoke and to always go to a firefighter if you need help.

Our female students were particularly impressed by the "fire girls" from the East Dover Fire Department.

We created our our fire station in the dramatic play area.

Some children were the family & would call 911.
The fire fighters would answer the call and get the fire's location.

They would say "We'll be right there.  Get out & stay out!"

Being on a fire fighting team requires team work & sharing.

Once the fire was out, a firefighter would let the family know it was safe to come in from their meeting spot.

Back at the fire house the team would record information about the fire.

After fighting a fire, a snack is always nice!

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October Openings...

The beginning of the month saw the addition of goggles & magnifying glasses to the science area.  I also opened up the Smart Board for Team Five's use and their math topic was sorting.  We put pull across & pull down together for Ll & Tt.  See below for more details.

Everything looks different through a magnifying glass!

Students explored the details of our room.

The apple looks so tasty! ...
Seriously we kept finding child sized nibbles in our specimens.

Working with the pens is the most popular smart board option.

Testing out the sand wheel.

Setting the table in Dramatic Play.

Team 5 P.E. continues with some ball related outdoor activities.

This is a triangle, watch what I'll build.

Practicing the building block of basic sorting.

"Who wants ice cream?  We do!!"

This team 5 member is very proud of her letter stencils. Such perseverance!

Showing off emerging writing skills. 

I can't recall the details but, believe me, this student knows
exactly what she is writing down during this scenario!

Building an elevated race track with a ramp.

"I'm building a race track."

"This is a church, see the doors?"

These are the book I read with Team 5.

These we read all together!

We've had some nose picking problems & I find this book to be a sure cure.
However, I read booger as goober... it just sounds a bit more polite to me.
By the way, a goober ghost is when one uses a tissue to get a
stubborn goober out of one's nose. That is Mrs. Dix's favorite part.

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