This week was the beginning of a new month, which also means the beginning of a new theme!  The teaching mother is focusing this month’s lessons around a construction theme and the children are so excited about it!

Theme: Construction

Sensory Bin – Sensory play is always something students look forward to when exploring a new theme.  Check out the awesome sensory bin below from Olives and Pickles.

Moving Parts Digger – This is such a fun craft!  Students color and cut out pieces that make up a digger, then assemble them with brads to make the parts movable.  Get the template and complete instructions here.

Construction Themed Books

Here are some of our favorite construction themed books:

Reading

Phonemic Awareness Skill: Initial Phoneme Isolation: Initial Sound – Students practiced listening for the first sound in words.  Say a word, (preferably a one syllable word), emphasizing the first sound.  For example: Red.  /rrr/ed.  what sound do you hear at the beginning of the word red?

Phonics: Letter Bb – Students learned to identify the letter Bb and it’s sound.   The participating mom  used several color photos beginning with the /b/ sound.  Examples: barn, bird, ball, bread, balloons, bear, etc.  Students practiced saying each picture name, emphasizing the /b/ sound at the beginning.

Name Letter Sort – As practice and review of the letters in their names, students also sorted rocks with letters on them.  If the rock has a letter on it that was in their name, it went on one side of the mat.  If it did not fit into the name, it went on the opposite side.

Math

One to One Correspondence – Children can learn both number identification and one to one correspondence counting skills with this activity I posted several months ago.  Make it themed by using nuts and bolts as counters.

Patterns – Themed activities are so fun in math, and easy to create, too.  Find some pictures of construction machines, like diggers, bulldozers, cranes, compactors, and such, mount them on heavy cardstock and laminate.  (I find the two best places for such pictures are stickers and wrapping paper).  You’ll want multiples of the same picture.  They are great to use for patterns.  If your child has mastered the basic AB pattern, try ABC, AABB, or ABCC for an extra challenge!

Writing

It is important to remember that writing practice is preschool does not look like what writing practice does in elementary school.  Students do not (and should not) spend a lot of time practicing formation of letters, but rather gaining control of the muscle groups in the hand and arm that make writing possible.  Read this article I wrote several months ago called What Does Writing Practice Look Like in Preschool? for more information and ideas.

Next Week

• review of recent weeks
• more phoneme isolation practice
• letterKk
• construction themed math activities