Another busy day getting to know one another as we gathered for the first time as the T/R JK class!  The children were super easy going as they entered, parting joyfully from their families and happy to either write or trace their names.  They were then shown around the classroom and given a “tour” of centers before they made their selections and began engaging with their new friends.

Today’s getting to know you activity was focused around the story, “If You Bring a Mouse To School,” by Laura Numeroff.  Of course, before reading the story, we sang a bunch of fun songs, using the mouse puppet from the story to engage the children.  EVERY child participated in the music and movement, singing and rhyming for the first 20 minutes of our group time.

For the story itself, the mouse puppet helped to read the words and even act our the movements the mouse took.  As I got further into the story, I began to hesitate reading, allowing opportunity for the children to predict (based upon the illustrations) what the mouse would do next.  Many of the children caught on quickly and verbalized what they thought would be next in the mouse’s sequence of actions.

Upon completing the book, I played a rhyming, shape identification game with the group.  Each child was given a paper piece of cheese in a different shape.  As I passed the shapes out I stated the name of the shape (i.d. – Gary is getting a parallelogram.”).  I then laid out some paper pieces of bread on which the children would lay their “cheese,” to create the sandwich that the mouse ate in the story.  I sang a song (“Nibble, nibble, cheese is good.  I eat “shmectangles” (rhyming word for rectangle) like every mouse should.”)  What a great opportunity for some informal assessment!

We finished our mouse activities by creating a paper bag mouse craft that the children created based on both verbal and physical directions.  Each child dictated what is was that their mouse would do if they took it to school – all of their tales were so unique!

What a busy, fun day!