My littles are so eager to learn! Last week we had our first sight word, I, and this week we are learning to recognize the word can. On Monday, the kids put the two words together and made sentences! They all excitedly raised their hands and shared a sentence. “I can…”. I know that some Pre-K teachers do not do sight words, especially this early on in the school year, but I choose to introduce a different sight word each week. I do this because sight words are a great example for the kiddos to see how letters are grouped together to form words. I know it might seem like common sense, but I always make sure parents understand that we can not begin reading when we are still learning letters and their sounds. In order for the children to become successful readers, they have to fully understand the letters and their sounds first. Another reason sight words are great for my classroom is because I do have some kiddos that can already read, and by studying (and memorizing) the sight words, they can continue to build speed and fluency when reading.

This week we have also been learning about the letter Cc and Our Five Senses. On Monday we learned about our sense of sight. We discussed how our eyes work with light in order for us to see colors, we looked through magnifying glasses and colored tiles, and graphed our favorite things to see.

Tuesday was all about smelling! We had so much fun with our smelling activity. First, I passed around five different scents. Orange, peppermint, pickle juice, lavender, and vanilla. Each kiddo guessed what the scent was and then I told them what it actually was. For peppermint, my favorite prediction was, “That’s definitely toothpaste.” And, “It smells like candy canes!” Overall, vanilla seemed to be everyone’s favorite smell. They decided that it smelled like marshmallows and birthday cake.

At the end of the day during our class meeting, we played a guessing game with the scents. The class got them all correct, which led into the discussion of our brains memorizing familiar smells.

On Wednesday, we focused on our sense of touch. I put together mystery bags and we guessed what was inside. I loved that they worked together as a class and came up with great ideas. I noticed that they all were using their sense of smell when guessing what was in each bag. When we took the items out of their bags one kiddo said, “Now we can use our sense of sight!” In my mystery bags were sand, slime, and some “faux snow” I found at Dollar Tree. I also passed around sandpaper and silk to show them the difference between smooth and rough.

On Thursday we learned all about hearing. I put together eggs filled with different items (rice, beans, coins, candy, macaroni noodles, and popcorn kernels) and passed them around, one egg per child. We used our sense of hearing to guess what was in each egg. After we made our predictions, we opened the eggs and used our other senses as well. We looked and touched each item. At the end of the day I passed out the eggs and we listened to I Know A Chicken. The kids loved it!

Friday was our sense of taste. We read our stories, discussed our favorite things to taste (sweet, sour, spicy, etc.) and had a taste testing experiment using this worksheet.

Friday was also pajama and movie day!

I am so excited to start another unit next week! I can’t believe we will be going into October. 🎃🕸🍁