May 15 – May 19
We will focus on bees this week. As we talk about where animals live we will continue to study the living things in our play area. The children have been working on the new hoe for the snails and the caterpillar. They have found baby slugs, roly-poly bugs and spiders. As the weather warms we will be outside more often and they will have more time to watch the birds in making their nests and listen for the babies in the bird house on the church wall.
We will also be talking about colors when we read our story, The Bee, at circle time. This story gives the children the opportunity to guess what comes next. This is one of the pre-reading skills we have been working on. To be able to guess what comes next the children need to be engaged in the story, to stay focused and to follow a story line.
The Bug in the Rug rhyme is an example of this pre-reading skill. As they learn rhymes they are developing the skill to hear the sounds of words, how some words sound the same and how words are used in a story or rhyme. Children enjoy rhymes and the humor that comes with some of these rhymes.
The five early literacy practices: Sing, Play, Talk, Read, Write
As we sing songs, learn rhymes and read stories we are working on early literacy skills. These stories, rhymes and songs are building blocks for their vocabulary. Reading the books during Circle Time and in the Library encourages them to love to read and to have print awareness that is broadened as they see the written words that are spoken to them as you read the story. As we re-read stories or do the song/rhyme/flannel story for yet another time it is to encourage your child to hear the words/sounds and be able to re-tell the story/thought/word sequence. The repetition of the songs and stories is a way they can practice this early reading skill. Singing songs and listening to stories / rhymes allows the children to hear the cadence and rhythm of words, the syllables that make up a word, the sounds of words and they are using these skills as they recite the words back to you. Through repetition they make the connections of sounds they hear and the words that represent the thoughts in the stories, rhymes and songs.
Bug in Rug
Bug in a rug
Bug in a rug
Which one of you bugs
Is hiding under my rug?
Insects All Around
Ladybugs and butterflies
Buzzing bees up in the sky
Teeny tiny little ants
Crawling up and down the plants
Many insects can be found
In the sky and on the ground
The Ants Go Marching