Mrs. Rachel's Three's Class: Our Class was a Zoo!

What a fun week we had learning about zoo animals! Without a doubt, the biggest hits this week were simply standing at the sensory bin pouring rice over toy animals and having free play with puppets. As their teacher this year, I am realizing sometimes it is the simplest things that bring the most joy and the most fun! Miss Nicole and I are truly blessed to be their teachers.

We enjoyed reading about fun at the zoo this week with the books Goodnight Gorilla!, Walking Through the Jungle, Giraffes Can't Dance, and My Class is a Zoo! We also sang fun animal songs, including "Let's Go to the Zoo!" (for anyone who wants to pull it up on their computer at home for a few minutes). Our letter of the week was the letter Zz. You can check out our class bulletin board in the hall to see the Z is for Zebra posters we made. All of the friends in our class are doing very well identifying the letters, tracing them, sorting them, and remembering the sounds. For those of you wanting to review what we have learned so far at home, the letters we have done to this point are as follows: M, P, F, A, Z, and E. Some fun activities to practice these letters include laying out or writing letters on a mat or tray and having them find the letter you say or the sound you say, letting them trace letters in shaving cream, building letters with small pieces of food (such as cereal or raisins), and looking for these letters in books.

To go along with our zoo theme, we also worked on patterns using colored bears, matched written numbers with a picture of that many animals, sorted animals, and played giraffe dice games. Everyone is enjoying our end of the day table trading time! You might enjoy trying pattern and sorting activities at home as well (even as simple as putting Fruit Loops in patterns or separating them into color piles).

We continued to practice our verse of the month (Deuteronomy 31:6). Ask your child if they can say their bible verse with the motions! We also focused on how God is so powerful through reading about Daniel in the Lion's Den. They made fun lion masks (that we forgot to send home Friday). Some of us got a picture with our masks, and some of us did not want to! To review what they learned, remind them that strong lions remind us that our God is more powerful and mighty than anything in the world! He protects us and is always with us.

Thank you for giving me the joy and privilege of being your child's teacher. I look forward to seeing them Thursday! Give them a hug from Miss Rachel.