* We had a fun day today!  Our special letter was "I".  Out story was
Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni.  We read the story, talked about the concept
of "inch", discussed measuring and then I gave each of the children
his/her own "inchworm."  It was an inch-long piece of green ribbon, with
eyes drawn with a marker.  They loved it!  We measured our fingers,
shoes, nose--even smiles.  And we also worked together to measure some
of our building blocks.  We laid the worms end to end and counted to see
how many inches long the blocks were. Great collaborative effort.  When
I ran out of worms in my basket, I waited for the children to suggest
what to do.  "We could use ours too!"  They were delighted!

I know many more elaborate ideas could be done with this.  My class
meets only 2 x per week, so we need to include a lot in our plans each
day.  I keep things as simple as I can--I have 40 4-5's, so by
necessity, keeping things simple helps me keep on track!

We just had a wonderful day.  They LOVED measuring, were thrilled with
their inchworms and talked about going home to measure everything in
sight!


* Tuesday - A picture of an Iguana with a capital letter I on his back.  The
kids colored him then put glue on the letter and covered it with small beans
so they could feel the way the letter is written.

Wednesday - Inkblot pictures.  White const. paper that the children dropped
black paint on and then folded it in half and rubbed it.  When it was opened
we described what we saw and wrote it on the bottom of the page.

Thursday - Ice cream cone made from diff. color constr. paper and then real
colored sprinkles glued on.

Friday - igloos made from oaktag with small marhmallows glued in as "bricks"
of ice

We also had ice cream and ices for snack.  Our Ii boxes  are sent home each
day with a different child and they bring in things they have at home that
begin with the letter of the week.