In My Africa

Today we headed to Africa.

We found Africa on a map.

Talked about 'r' blends like in Africa.  We found other 'fr' words.  And 'gr' and 'pr' and 'tr' words, too!

We read a book about animals in Africa called Cool Time Song and learned some animal names in Spanish.

We talked about the kids that live in Africa.  They may look different, dress different and eat differently than we do, but they are a lot like us.  They have mothers who love them, friends who play with them and they love to sing and learn.  We read a really cute book called "For You are a Kenyan Child" by Kelly Cunnane (winner of the Ezra Keats new writer award).  It is the story of a boy who forgets what he is supposed to do as he gives us a second person perspective view of a Kenyan village.

We usually do some music on Wednesdays so we reviewed adagio (slow) and allegro (fast) as we listened to some sweet African beats.  The kids loved beating on "drums" and dancing.  We learned piano (soft) and forte (loud).  We listed to marimbas and djembes and lots of cool vocal sounds.

Because today was the second of October we practiced writing 1's and 2's during calendar time.  We are getting to be better writers.  Please remind your child to hold their crayon 'the preschool way' and in their right hand.  I think all of the children are right dominant this year but a couple of them still try to switch back and forth.  It is helpful for children if they pick a dominant hand and do not switch.



A fun thing to do at home

There is an episode of the PBS show Arthur about Africa that I think is very cute.  We will not have enough time to watch it in class (it is about 12 minutes long) but I think it would be a great supplement at home.  I think they might want to watch it a couple times this month.

It is called In My Africa and is the second half of episode 9 from season 14.  You can find it on Netflix, Hulu and YouTube (the Youtube video I found had a problem in the middle, but maybe it was my computer.  Both the Netflix and Hulu versions worked for me).   If you play it on Hulu or Netflix you will have to jump to about 14:35 to start the In My Africa part.

This is a really cute song about all the countries in Africa.  It has lots of real photos from Africa, animals, food, people, culture, etc.  I think it would be fun for the kids to watch.

Thanks,
Miss Meg