Spring in The Friends Room

After our neighborhood unit, The Friends Room explored some of the cultures within our community. We spoke about other cultures and communities, and discussed what makes each distinct. We studied England, Japan and Australia and utilized the airplane we made in our imaginative play center.

We are enjoying Spring and have begun rehearsing our end of year play, The Little Red Hen.

The following songs, books and activities have been spread out amongst the AM and PM sessions.

During meeting time The Friends Room:

-Shared our vacation stories

-Began using our globe and maps

-Talked about England, Japan and Australia

-Learned Japanese words and phrases

-Made flags from the countries we spoke about

-Welcomed Bridget into our Friends Room community

-Is discussing spring

-Is observing our caterpillars

-Had a visit from Art Farm 

-Rehearsing our end of year play, The Little Red Hen 

During activity time The Friends Room:

-Made an airplane for imaginative play during our cultural study

-Made our Spring Break vacation book

-Made biscuits, candy sushi and tasted Australian lamingtons

-Made spring landscape watercolor paintings

-Is working on projects for the upcoming auction including a platter, a set of chairs, placemats and a Friends Room bag

-Is observing our caterpillars with magnifying glasses and making observational drawings

-Decorating pots and planting Marigolds for spring

-Is enjoying Spring by painting outdoors, having picnics at snack and outdoor read-alouds 

-Making goodbye gifts for Catherine

-Playing with peg boards

-Planting in our dirt table

-Creating the set for our play 

The Friends Room is Singing:

Kookaburra

3 Little Birds

Little Bunny Foo Foo

The Baby Song

Goldfish

Lots of Little Pigs

Bottle Caps

The Flower Song
Little Red Hen (by Stuart Stotts and Tom Pease)

The Friends Room is reading:

When Blue Met Egg by Lindsay Ward

Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel

Forever Friends by Carin Berger

And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano  

If You’re Hoppy by April Pulley Sayre  

Seeds! Seeds! Seeds! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Once There Was A Seed by Judith Anderson and Mike Gordon

Splish, Splash, Spring by Jan Carr

Fancy Nancy and The Boy From Paris by Jane O’Connor

Tea For Ruby by Sarah Ferguson   

How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills   

Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey  

A Visitor For Bear by Bonny Becker

Jack and The Beanstalk retold by Steven Kellog

The Little Red Hen by by Paul Galdone  

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes By Eric Litwin

The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

 

Lyrics:

The Flower Song

First you take the seed and you plant it in the ground,

Next a raincloud comes and waters all around.

Next the sun shines brightly without a sound,

And in just a few days, a flower is found!

Bottle Caps

I love to walk outside

I look down on the ground

What do you think I'll find?

What do you think I've found

A beautiful bottle cap

Purple orange silver gold and green

I'll take it home with me.

Collecting bottle caps bottle caps

Bottle caps bottle caps every one I see

Collecting bottle caps bottle caps

Bottle caps bottle caps every one I see

I love to pick up shells

I find them by the sea

I love to pick up shells

Some for you and some for me

I love to pick up shells

I'l bring them home with me

And put my shells on the shelf and keep

Collecting bottle caps...

I love to pick up rocks

Big and small ones too

I love to pick up rocks

Some for me and some for you

I love to pick up rocks

I'll take them home with me

And put my rocks in a box

And my shells on the shelf and keep

Collecting bottle caps...

I like to pick up string

I find it one two three

I like to pick up string

Some for you and some for me

I like to pick up string I'll take it home with me

And put my string in something

And my rocks in a box

And my shells on the shelf and keep

Collecting bottle caps...

I've got some new ones old ones

Blue ones gold ones every one I see

I've got some red ones brown ones

Flat ones round ones every one I see

Collecting bottle caps bottle caps

Bottle caps bottle caps every one I see

Lots of Little Pigs

Once upon a time there were lots of little pigs

And some of them thought they'd

Build themselves a straw house

So they built it they built it big and strong

So the wolves wouldn't get them

(And they shut the door-kachung)

On the next day some more little pigs

Decided to build themselves a stick house

So they built it they built it big and strong

So the wolves wouldn't get them

(And they shut the door-kachung)

On the last day the rest of the little pigs

Decided to build themselves a brick house

So they built it they built it big and strong

So the wolves wouldn't get them

(And they shut their big brick door-kachung)

In the meantime, the wolves were sleeping in the forest

Then the wolves woke up

And they stretched a big stretch

And they sniffed a big sniff

And they said, "I smell pigs!"

So the wolves marched on over to the straw house

And they knock knock knocked on the door

And they said,

"Little pigs little pigs, let us in"

And the pigs said,

"Not by the hair on our chinny-chin chins"

"Then we'll huff and we'll puff

And we'll blow your house in"

So they huffed and they puffed

And they blew that house in

And the pigs ran over to their friends

Over at the stick house

So the wolves marched on over to the stick house . . .

And the pigs ran over to their friends

Over at the brick house

So the wolves marched on over to the brick house . . .

. . . And they huffed and they puffed

but they couldn't blow that house in

So the wolves went around to the back of the house

And they climbed up the chimney

But the pigs heard them and put a pot of boiling water

Underneath the chimney

And the wolves landed in the water

AAAAOOOOOOOHHHHHH!

And they burnt their bottoms

And they went running back to the woods

Where they cooled off in a lake

And they looked at each other and said

"We didn't want to eat those pigs anyway

Let's go back and have a party."

So they did

Goldfish

Lots of little fish were sleeping on a rock

In the bottom of the ocean

They lifted up their heads

And they shook out their tails

And they said let's go swimming

Let's go swimming let's go swimming

Yeah let's go swimming

Let's go swimming let's go swimming In the bottom of the ocean

Then the little fish got so very very tired

That they came back to the rock

And they put down their heads

And they put down their tails

And they took a little nap

And when they woke up

They decided to take a shower

So whey washed their hair

And they washed their ears

And they washed their tummies

And they washed their beards

And they washed their nose

And they washed their toes

And then they said

"Wait a minute, we're fish!

We don't take showers!"

Let's go swimming let's go swimming…

Then the little fish got so very very tired…

And when woke up

They decided to brush their teeth

So they got out their tooth brush

And their toothpaste

And they squeezed a little on

They tried not to waste

And they put it in their mouth

They brushed north and south

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch

And then they said,

"Wait a minute, we're fish!

We don't brush our teeth!"

Let's go swimming lets go swimming…

Then the little shigh got so very very tired…

And when they woke up

They decided to ride their bicycles

So they rode to the left

And they rode to the right

And they rode all day

And they rode all night

They rode down the hill

And then faster still

And then they said,

"Wait a minute, we're fish!

We don't ride bicycles!"

Let's go swimming…

Let's go swimming…

Our Friends Room airplane

                         Making candy sushi
                                     

The Culmination of The Friends Room's Community and Neighborhood Unit

The Friends Room defined a community as:

-“A group of people who work together to help each other”

-“People who work and play together”

-“When you be nice and play nicely together”

-“Love”

After exploring Merricat’s and the roles of the members of our school’s community, we explored who is in our community and what their roles are. After discussing our individual roles within our classroom community, the children began making labels for the toys and tools in The Friends Room so they can take responsibility for caring for their toys and maintaining their classroom.  

We began exploring our neighborhood. We made a neighborhood mural, a miniature city and made paintings of our apartment buildings. We went on neighborhood walks and the children brainstormed what they thought we might find. Here are their words:

-“Buildings”

-“Little and big houses”

-“Birdies”

-“Trees”

-“Grocery stores”

-“People”

-“Cars”

-“Trucks and tow-trucks”

Now that we have explored our neighborhood, we will begin thinking about other cultures and communities, and discussing what makes each distinct.

The following songs, books and activities have been spread out amongst the AM and PM sessions.

During meeting time The Friends Room:

-Discussed who is in our community and what their roles are

-Went on a scavenger hunt around the Friends Room and Merricat’s to interact with the members in our community

-Shared our vacation stories  

-Welcomed Krystin into our Friends Room community

-Had a visit from Art Farm and saw a turtle, lizard, toad and guinea pig

During activity time The Friends Room:

-Made Valentine's for our families and cookies for snack

-Transformed our dollhouse in to Merricat’s Castle

-Worked with clay

-Made our own paper

-Is practicing writing our names and labeling toys and tools in our classroom  

-Made paintings and took photos on our walks for our neighborhood mural

-Made pizza with a real chef (Chelsea's dad!)

-Wrote our names on our new snack cards

-Made Knuffle Bunnies

-Wrote and illustrated our vacation stories

-Made Prachi a goodbye book, and celebrated her time in our classroom with a "Prachi party"

The Friends Room is Singing:

You’ve Got A Friend in Me

5 Little Puppies

If You’re Happy and You Know It

Grandpa’s Farm

Around and Around is the Name of the Game

Our Subway Song

I've Been Working on The Railroad

The More We Get Together

Hot Potato

Taxi, Taxi Song

This School Was Made for You and Me

The Other Day I Met A Bear

The Friends Room is reading:

Valentine’s Day by Eve Bunting

Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

A Walk In New York by Salvatore Rubbino

Are You My Mother? by Philip D. Eastman

The Lonely Moose by John Segal

3 Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig by Eugene Trivizas

Chicken Little by Steven Kellogg

Flora’s Very Windy Day by Jeanne Birdsall

Fancy Nancy; Bonjour Butterfly  by Jane O’Connor

Rainbow Fish and The Sea Monsters Cave by Marcus Pfister Herbert

Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

Lyrics:

This School Was Made For You And Me: (to the tune of This Land Is Your Land)

This school is your school,

This school is my school,

From the East Side, 

to the West Side,

Children come and play together. 

This school was made for you and me. 

You've Got A Friend in Me:

You've got a friend in me,

You've got a friend in me,

when the road gets rough ahead,

and you're miles and miles from your nice warm bed.

Just remember what your old pal said cause,

you've got a friend in me. 

Taxi, Taxi. Riding in the Backseat:

Taxi, Taxi. Riding in the backseat.

Role the window up.

Role the window down.

Put the money in the slot, 

See you later, thanks a lot! 

Sure beats walking cross town!

Jobs and Community Unit Continued...

Jobs and our Merricat’s Community

As we continue our jobs unit in The Friends Room we have discussed different types of jobs and the children began to think about what they want to be when they grow up.

Parents visited to discuss their jobs, which included, a fashion designer, a movie publicist, fitness instructor, mommy, dancer, opera singer, school psychologist, photographer, computer programmer and fundraiser. We greatly appreciate the parent involvement that went in to this unit!

As we continued to discuss jobs the children began to think about some of the jobs they know. Here are their words:

-“A policeman makes sure people are okay. He goes in a police car.”

-“A veterinarian is a pet doctor that takes care of pets.”

-“An astronaut goes to space in a rocket ship. He goes to the moon!”

-"A garbage man puts garbage in to the garbage truck when he sees garbage ahead!"


-"A businessperson works in the office to get money to put in his pocket to take it back home and pay. Maybe for his kids."


-"A performer stands on the stage and dances. A clown can perform on a stage too."


-"A firefighter puts out fires. He works in a fire station. When the alarm rings he knows there's a fire."


-"A letter carrier brings mail in the lobby to people's homes. He works at the post office." 


-"A conductor drives trains to different stations."


-"A hairdresser styles hair. But I go to the barber shop."


-"A farmer gardens and plants his carrots. He feeds his animals. He has pigs."

As we continue our jobs and community unit we are looking closely at our Merricat’s Community. After which, we will begin exploring the area surrounding Merricat's and jobs within our neighborhood.

The following songs, books and activities have been spread out amongst the AM and PM sessions.

During meeting time The Friends Room:

-Discussed Chinese New Year

-Interviewed parents about their jobs

-Is working together as a community, using our critical thinking skills and working together to solve problems

-Is playing hot potato and “Doggy, Doggy where’s your bone?”

-Had a special visit from Art Farm where we were able to pet a chinchilla, dove, tortoise, and frog

During activity time The Friends Room is:

-Playing with insta-snow

-Building a firetruck to transform our pretend center in to a fire station

-Making winter mittens and hats

-Playing animal and shapes dominoes

-Painting with watercolors to music

-Making lanterns and egg drop soup for Chinese New Year

-Creating a dragon for our Chinese New Year Parade

-Completing community themed puzzles

-Painting with Valentine’s Day colors  

-Playing an I-Spy memory game

-Building with various manipulatives that hone fine motor skills

-Making crafts to practice our cutting skills

-Playing number and letter recognition board games

-Beading

The Friends Room is Singing:
Our Friends Room Favorites 

I’ve Got the Whole World in My Hands

Did You Ever See a Lassie?

5 Little Puppies  

The Friends Room is reading:

When I Grow Up by Arthur Yorkins

Chinese New Year by

Jack and The Beanstalk by Mary Engelbreit

Puss in Boots by Mary Engelbreit

Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Mary Engelbreit

The 3 Questions by Jon J. Muth

Tale of the Tricky Fox by Jim Aylesworth  

Hey, Al! by Arthur Yorinks

Fireman Small by Wong Herbert Yee

Lyrics:

Did You Ever See A Lassie?

Did you ever see a lassie

A lassie, a lassie

Did you ever see a lassie

Go this way and that?

Go this way and that way

Go this way and that way

Did you ever see a lassie

Go this way and that?

Did you ever see a laddie

A laddie, a laddie

Did you ever see a laddie

Go this way and that?

Go this way and that way

Go this way and that way

Did you ever see a laddie

Go this way and that?

5 Little Puppies

5 little puppies sitting in a row,
Tell me please, what do you know?
The first one said, "I know my name."
The second one said, "I know a game."
The third one said, "I know a song."
The fourth one said, "I know right from wrong."
The fifth one said, "I'll tell you what is true, what I know, is I love you!" 

                     http://www.glammomny.com/

                                                        Portraits of Friends 

                                       "When I grow up I want to be..." 

                                                                     Art Farm 

Jobs and Community Unit in The Friends Room

 To culminate our friendship unit we had “open mic” performances where each child was able to sing, dance, tell a joke or a story. Before our performances we discussed what it means to give a compliment. After their performance each child was given a compliment to recognize their talents and demonstrate the importance of friendly behavior.

The Friends Room filled our “safe and friendly jar” and we had an ice cream party to celebrate!

We began our “jobs and community” unit with a DVD viewing of Catherine performing the role of Cinderella in Indiana University’s production of the ballet. As we continue to discuss jobs, we look forward to more parents visiting to discuss their careers!

The following songs, books and activities have been spread out amongst the AM and PM sessions.

During meeting time The Friends Room is:

-Talking about jobs

-Playing memory games

-Discussing winter

During activity time The Friends Room is:

-Drawing pictures of what we want to be when we grow up

-Working in pairs to draw portraits of friends

-Painting with friends

-Making watercolor paintings

-Playing dominoes

-Playing rhyming bingo

-Making sand art

-Playing with modeling sand, playdough and space mud

-Using peg pattern and color recognition boards

-Watching IU’s production of Cinderella performed by Catherine

-Playing Candyland

-Painting with ice

-Conducting science experiments with Prachi to explore ice and the water cycle

The Friends Room is Singing:

Shark attack

I Know A Chicken

The Baby Song 

Our favorite winter songs

  

The Friends Room is reading:

The Jacket I Wear In The Snow by John Grogan

The 3 Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone

Snowman Storybook  by Raymond Briggs

The Feel Good Book by Tod Parr

The Rain Came Down by David Shannon

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes  

Cinderella retold by Barbara Karlin

Franklin is Lost by Paulette Bourgeois