We have been counting and acting out counting songs with our classmates and our fingers. Here are a few you may want to check out at home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUPxmO9Eyug http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L6e0mwbGXw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG6GXdUOR_Y See if your child can count how many are gone; how many are left; and how many there are altogether.

We have met almost all of our Zoophonics animals! We talked about Yancy Yak and her sound this week. Of course we practiced reading and writing some popular words that start with /y/ too. The children tried out the words yes and you and we added them to our word wall. Many children are excited to spell the color words now too - yellow was a focus this week.  Check out this Yakety Yak Sesame Street video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJfr8jSVnHY And why do we love Y? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qGHh0_6Xbc The children got to meet Cliff Hanger from the PBS show Between The Lions. They entertained me with some excellent yodelling after the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwbte-tD9cc Parents may enjoy Nora Jones singing about the letter y - we didn't get to this slower tempo song in class. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEzxchU4RUY We noticed that y is not a letter that plays fair - so stay tuned as we look into that later in the kindergarten year.

Xavier Fox is our Zoophonics animal for the letter X. We could not find many words that start with X, but we could write some with X at the end! Ask your child to spell fox, box, fix, six, ax, and ox - I bet they can do it! Challenge them with the word EXIT. We did watch a cool video of a fox pouncing on its prey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP15zlyra3c And some silly foxes jumping on a trampoline: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8xJtH6UcQY This man on  Sesame Street had the same problem we did -finding words that start with x: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rOUYaQ6a0g We read stories with a fox in them: Chicken Little, The Gingerbread Man, and Rosie's Walk. We noticed that the fox is very sly because he wants to eat things like chickens and gingerbread!        

Wow! We heard and found the letter r all over the place today! We read about rabbits and hares and watched rabbit videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR0wgAMSJ4A We read a story about Rudolph and sang the song too:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe77LIYo6zY Tomorrow we will read Little Rabbit Foo Foo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cOT4T2jDho Look at the rabbit Addysen made after we read the book Making A Rabbit!      

Did you know there really are Umbrella Birds?! Check out these videos: An actual Umbrella Bird: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZVocLe8kBs The Umbrella Bird song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkz-nlN5kM8         We learned that the Letter U is a "Hard Worker" - it makes 2 sounds - the sound at the start of umbrella and its letter name. Hear them both when the Story Bots sing "Unstoppable U": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCwiFQh3BZk We used the letter U in our "magic word maker" and we made and read some of these words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17lyXMgkk9E&list=PLe5MVpQEpecY5uygy1tYsDM...

We have been doing lots of counting in math class lately. The children love this song - Chicken counting! Can you guess that we also noticed that chicken starts with that /ch/ sound? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REAXGhFJcXQ

Take a look at the octopus video we watched because Ollie Octopus is our Zoophonics O animal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH0JNSIrBA4 Here is the Story Bots Letter O link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0LOjbDKvq4 And Sesame Street's "Would you like to buy an O?" that reminded us about the two sounds for O: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml6Yqu-spnM Did your child tell you about the delicious oatmeal muffins Liam's mom made us? Yum! The children are hearing letters in more places than just the start of words too. That Ollie Octopus was in the middle of words like Mom and dog. They are starting to blend sounds to make words both orally and by making the sounds of the letters they see. So smart!