Pete the Cat and Grandparents' Day

I should probably be on some kind of marketing committee for Pete the Cat. He is so infectious for some reason, and I love that his books incorporate so many kinds of learning. We cycled back to colors and color words during this little unit about Pete and the author who created him. 

In this book, Pete steps in different things, and his shoes turn colors. 

So, the 4 year olds worked on color word recognition...

…and the 3s worked on sorting by color. 

We learned different things about Eric Litwin (aka Mr. Eric).

The 3 year olds did a button collage to go along with Pete's groovy buttons.

I put out this sign at the Learning Fair:

They cut out the bodies and the heads, and used pre-cut pieces to do the rest. I love how unique each one is!

 We discovered that our little stuffed Pete play music, dances, and takes naps when we're out of the room. We always try to catch him in the act, but he is very sneaky. 

Here is the video to Pete's favorite song to dance to in our room: 

 Unbeknownst to me, Eric Litwin was a speaker at the conference I went to on March 6 & 7. I ended up exchanging my ticket last minute so that I could get into his session. I sat right up front. He was so much fun! I wish the whole class could have seen him sing and dance and play guitar. 

 It's a little blurry, but here we are together! I was just so excited to meet him. 

March 10 was Grandparents' & Special Friends' Day.  It was so wonderful to see all the families. The 4 year olds made frames for their visitors.

I don't have a picture of a real frame that the kids made, but this is what I used for inspiration:

Thank you to all the grandparents, aunts, uncles, moms, and dads that participated! 

Green Eggs and Ham and Dental Health

Green eggs and ham is one of those essential childhood experiences. During "Cooking with Books" a couple of weeks ago, we read that book and made green eggs with ham on the griddle. 

Cracking an egg is kind of a BIG DEAL for preschoolers, so each child got their own picture during the process.

February was Dental Health Month, so we did lots of activities revolving around keeping our teeth healthy. 

 Here, the kids are brushing the "cavities" off of the laminated tooth. 

 Both classes had visits from dental hygienists at Children's Dentistry Group in Lake Zurich.

 We learned this little song to help us remember how to brush our teeth. 

This is sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star:

The four year olds sorted food into two categories: happy tooth and sad tooth. These are hanging on the bulletin board in the classroom. 

Hopefully your child has been more enthusiastic about taking care of his/her teeth!