Group Meeting:  We had a lot to talk about as we started our day.  We are going to create a grocery store in the Housekeeping Area.  I wanted the children to think of all of the things that we will need to get the store up and running.  We made a list and tomorrow I will send home a note asking for the things that we need.  I completed the name book/directory that we started on Thursday.  I told the children that they could use it to practice printing the names of their classmates or if they wanted write a letter to a friend.   I also told the children that they would be meeting a new friend today, Magic C Bunny (see below).

Story:  The story I read today was If Big Can...Little Can.  During small group time, we talked about trees growing, so I used this book to talk about how they are growing and changing as well.  In the story, Little Koala is trying to keep up with Little Bear.  We compared this to big siblings and little siblings.  There are some things that Little Bear can do that Little Koala can't do yet.  However, there are also things that Little Koala can do that Little Bear has outgrown.  At the end, the find that friends need to find things that both can do together.

Small Group:  I brought in some tree cookies (slices of tree trunk) so that we could look at the rings.  I explained to the children that every year, the tree grows and adds a ring to the outside.  If we want to know how old the tree is, we have to count the rings.  The tree cookies had many, many little rings.  Instead of trying to count all of them, we drew our own tree sections and counted the rings that we drew.

Large Group:  We are learning about the letter C.  The Handwriting Without Tears program has a special bunny to help the children remember how to make the letter C.  Magic C bunny lives in a magician's hat.  He reminds us to make the letter C with the curve going to the left, under the smiley face.  It may seem like the letter C is not difficult to make, but for a lot of children, making curves and making them go the right way is hard.  Magic C bunny helps!

Art:  We added new painting sponges to the easel and colored sticks and tape to the table.

Snacks:  The morning class had mandarin oranges and milk brought by Max.  The afternoon class had bananas and juice brought by Lucy.  Thank you!