Letter Hunt

                        Long Weekend News 


Alycia - I color my face and mouth.

James - I sleep at the night. Yesterday, I see my cousin. I went far away and got pumpkins. We took them home. I got them from the farm.

Molly - I play baby. My mommy bring shoes to me. 

Amelia - I go to soccer and I scored a goal. I saw my friend Journey. She was in basketball. I go to a party and the party was actually on the boat. 

Cameron - I go to the Halloween store. We didn't find the costume that I want, but I am going to be a bat. We go to eat some snacky. I got dinosaur chicken nuggets at Whole Foods. April's dad, April, and Cam and me were playing tag at April's birthday party. I had cake and pizza and juice and carrots. 

Asa - I hang at my grandmom's house. I went swimming in mom mom's pool. I went to Julian's birthday. I got toys, dino toys. 

Joesph - I have chicken nuggets and cookies. I ate too much chocolate. I ate all the peanut butter cups. I played with Juliet.

Milan - I played with my brother. I painted a pumpkin. I painted a face on it. I painted it orange, and I painted the stem pink. I painted a mouth.

Vivian - So first, I went to my grandma's house for the morning and spended some time with her. Then I went back home. Then we had lunch and mama was home there. Next day, I went to April's birthday party. Then we had a snack when we were done playing in the inside playground. There was three bouncey houses and one set of play stuff. Then once we were done playing a little bit more after the snack, we had cake. Cake was the ending part. Then we had some goodie bags. 

London - I eat noodles and spaghetti. My mommy, daddy and London in the house. We build the train station.

Cam - I stayed home and I played. I played with my toys. I went to the pet shop and looked at the animals. The next day, I went to the Halloween shop. Then I went to Target. Then I went to the gas station and then I went home. I was playing tag with Cameron and April's dad and Joey at April's birthday party.

Thea - I went to a birthday party and it was April's birthday. I had cake. It was vanilla. I play on bouncey houses, three bouncey houses. For the rest of the weekend, I was with grano and papa Pete.

Jamesy - We get a pumpkin. I go to the birthday party. We did eat and we get cake. We sing happy birthday to April. I went to the zoo. 

Reyn - I played with mommy and all the toys. I go to the store and I go to the birthday. 

When we arrived in the Spanish class, the Cardinals sat in a large circle on the rug and Alicia went around greeting each friend individually. Alicia said "Buenos dias (friends name)," to which the friend responded, "Buenos dias, Alicia," or gave a wave. Next we shared Un momento de silencio, followed by the Buenos Dias song. Then, using the head and shoulders song as our guide, Alicia and friends went over our body parts. 

Head- Cabeza

Shoulders- Hombros

Knees- Rodillas

Feet- Pies

Eyes- Ojos

Ears- Orejas

Mouth- Boca

Nose- Nariz

Next, Alicia explained that we were going to play a game called Camina (walk). Alicia would say "Camina, camina..." and the Cardinals would walk around the room, but when she said, "Para!" friends would stop, and Alicia would call out which body part friends should touch, "Toca (body part)." Following the game, the Cardinals came back to the circle to sing Adios. Today was Amelia's turn to squeeze la vaca.

After morning meeting and snack time, the Cardinals engaged in a letter hunt activity. We introduced the activity by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, a colorful and playful story about letters. Upper and lowercase letters were placed on the three back tables, on chairs and under chairs in the classroom.  Each Cardinal, one at a time found a letter, brought it back to the group, told us what letter it was and whether it was lower or uppercase. Each friend then made the sound of their letter and then the whole class repeated after them. Our older friends were challenged to tell the class two or three words that began with their letter. Our younger friends picked their own letters and those who needed help with recognition and letter-sound were given help as they repeated after an older friend or teacher. 

S- snake, slice, snack

o- orange, octopus

N- Nick

r- Reyn, rhino, run

k- kite, kangaroo, kitten

n- nose

B- bat, ball 

h- horse, hair, happy

M- Milan, mommy, ma'am, man

I- icepack, iguana, ice cream

R- Ronen, rat, rain, road, red

A- apple, alligator

v- Vivian, violin, vote

j- James, Joseph, Joanna, jellyfish, juice

We then used all the letters that were picked to see how many words we could create. The purpose of this activity is to help develop letter-sound associations, letter recognition skills, understand that letters and words have meaning, confidence, and all in a play-based way to foster the love of learning. We will be repeating this activity several times throughout the school year because young children learn from repetition and as their brains develop, the mastery of skills bloom.  

                 Words we made with the letters friends found:

To conclude our letter hunt activity, we sang the ABCs.

The Cardinals also spent time outside having fun in large motor and discovery activities. 

Ask your Cardinal what letter they found in our letter hunt activity?

                  We hope you all had a wonderful weekend!