Bugging Out

Today during centers the children followed multiple step directions to assemble a ladybug.  They drew spots on each of the ladybug's wings and then counted the total number of spots.  Some children had a few spots, while some had a lot of spots depending on the numbers they are working on.

During the last few days some of  the children have visited the website http://pbskids.org/  at playtime.   Once here I clicked on the games arrow.  On the next page there is a set of 10 buttons.  There is a tree, a dinosaur, a first aid kit, etc.  I clicked on the orange button with the six white squares inside it.  By doing this you will see the topics of games that are available. http://pbskids.org/games/alltopics.html  The children can play many letter games here.  A few include:  
                        Dog's Letter Pit
                        Alpha Pigs Lickety Letter Bingo
                        Bear's Skateboard Park
                        Alpha Bricks
  Other really good ones are:
                        Red's Rhyme and Roll
                        Amazing Alphabet Match
                        Elmo Rhyme
                        Alpha Pigs Paint by Letter
Some of the good games under the counting button are:
                        Chicken Count
                        Bug Catcher
                        How Tall

Butterflies

Today we read one of my all time favorite stories The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  This story gave the children an insight into the life cycle of a butterfly.  Here is a great video to use to review this concept with your child http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+monarch+butterfly+life+cycle&mid=9A6964297C9549A8659E9A6964297C9549A8659E&view=detail&FORM=VIRE4

 At one center the children completed the first few pages in the Butterfly Life Cycle book that we are making.  On the first page they glued a leaf and drew an egg on it.  The second page had the following sentence on it:  When the caterpillar hatches, he eats and eats and eats.  For this page the children used a hole punch to punch holes in the leaf to make it look like it was eaten.  They then used circle stickers to pattern a caterpillar on the leaf.

 At another of our centers today the children made a caterpillar.  They used a clothespin and pom poms to make it.  When it was finished they placed it in a brown lunch bag(the chrysalis).  We then hung the chrysalises from the hooks in our ceiling.  The caterpillars will now rest as they go through metamorphosis.

R is for roots

At center time today the children made book tilted What do seeds need to grow?  On each page the sentence described one thing that seeds needed to grow.  The children then drew the object in as part of the illustration.  For example, on the page that said, "Seeds need sun to grow," the children drew a sun.  At an independent center the children used seeds and their creativity to make a mosaic.  Our song for the day was "Flowers, Stems, Leaves, and Roots," which we sang to the tune of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." 

Planting a Rainbow

Today's weather was perfect, for at my center the children journaled what they like to do when it is raining.  Some children like to jump in muddy puddles, while others like to play Chute's and Ladders.  The children are working hard to sound out words and write what they hear.

At another center the children played on the iPads.  We have a few new apps: Starfall ABCs, Sound Sorting, Math 4-5, JumpStart Preschool, and LunchBox.  The children enjoyed them all.

 Today the children also listened to the story Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert.  During center time the children then painted a rainbow of their own.  They cut out a pot, glued it onto a piece of paper, and then used their creativity to paint a rainbow of flowers.  The best part of this project is that no two are alike.

Kite Day

Today's story was titled The Wind Blew.  At one of the centers the children explored wind.  Each of them were given a straw and a bag of objects.  They used their straw to create wind to blow on each object.  They observed the results of their blow and recorded them on a recording sheet.

At another center the children created a kite.  They were able to use glitter glue to decorate their kites, which they loved.  They also practiced patterning when they glued bows on their kites.

Today the children also read a story titled Rain.  On each page they dotted raindrops.  On the last page of the story they drew a picture of themselves holding an umbrella, because the words on this page said, "But not on me."  We have been working hard all week on u is for umbrella.

Yesterday we had a new arrival to our classroom: caterpillars.  We will use the caterpillars as a way to learn more about the life cycle of a butterfly.

Wacky Weather

Today at one center the children listened to the story It Looked Like Spilt Milk.  They were then given a blue piece of paper to fold in half.  Next they placed white paint in the fold and rubbed the two sides of the paper together.  They then opened up their paper and described what object their cloud looked like.  Some responses included cheeks, a tiger, and a butterfly.

At another center the children watched the YouTube video for the story Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.  After the story we discussed if what happened in the story was real or fantasy.  The children also shared what they would like to see rain from the sky.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olO73t4kf9E

At the final center the children played a raindrop listening game.  They listened to the number of claps (thunder) I made and placed the corresponding number of raindrops (shiny blue rocks) on their cloud.  They also used the raindrops to practice one-to-one correspondence.

Dinosaurs

Today we had another great day learning about dinosaurs.  The children enjoyed getting some wiggles out doing the Dino Pokey.
Tune: Hokey Pokey
adapted by Mrs. Jones

 You put your claws in
You put your claws out
You put your claws in
And you scratch them all about
You do the Dino Pokey
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about.

You put your feet in
You put your feet out
You put your feet in
And you stomp them all about
You do the Dino Pokey
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about.

You put your teeth in
You put your teeth out
You put your teeth in
And you chomp them all about
You do the Dino Pokey
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about.

You put your tail in
You put your tail out
You put your tail in
And you swing it all about
You do the Dino Pokey
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about.

 One of our dinosaur centers today involved making a fossil out of Model Magic and noodles.  The children pressed the noodles into the model magic to make a dinosaur body.  We will wait for our images to fossilize and then the children will be able to take their fossils home.  They loved this activity!! 

Today our read aloud was titled If the Dinosaur Came Back.  The children were each given a page that had the sentence starter If the dinosaurs came back ________ would ____________. on it.  The children drew a picture of what they would do with a dinosaur came back.  One child said they would play Barbies with it, another said they would play with it in their tree house, while another student said they would take it for a walk.  The students have come a long way when it comes to drawing a recognizable picture.  I must say I was very proud of the effort the children put forth on this activity.  I took the pages that the children completed and made them into a class book.

Oviparous Animals

Today we learned about oviparous animals.  An animal is oviparous if it hatches from an egg.  Our read aloud today was titled Chickens Aren't the Only Ones.  We also read the book What Will I Be? This book gave us a riddle and we had to decide which oviparous animal solved the riddle.  To check if we solved the riddle correctly we had to lift a flap.   During one of our centers today the children drew an oviparous animal.  They also cut out an egg that it could hatch out of.

Little Lumpty

The story we read today was titled Little Lumpty.  This story is a spin off for our new nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty."  In the town of Dumpty stands the high wall from which Humpty Dumpty fell long, long ago. Every day Little Lumpty passes the wall and dreams of climbing to the top. His mother warns him not to, but, at last, Little Lumpty cannot resist. He gets a ladder and climbs to the top of the wall. How wonderful he feels, if only his friends could see him. And then he makes his big mistake: he looks down! He starts to shake and tremble, he cannot move from where he is sitting. "Help! Help!" he screams, fearing that he will end up scrambled like Humpty Dumpty. The townsfolk run to save him.  At this point in the story I stopped reading the book.  We then broke off into centers.  During center time the children made a brick wall and cut out their own Little Lumpty.  They then used their imagination to decide how Lumpty could get down from the wall.  Once they had their idea they used a marker to add details to their picture showing how Lumpty would get down.  Some children thought he would jump into some marshmallows, one child said he would use a leaf blower to get down, and another child said he would slide down a slide.  When I finished reading the story at closing circle the children learned that the real Little Lumpty is saved when the townsfolk hold out a blanket for him to jump on.

At another center the children took a plastic Easter egg and cracked it open.  They identified the object that was inside of it.  They then listened for the letter that made its beginning sound.  Lastly, they dotted the letter on their recording sheet.

Today we also started a new grocery store play theme.  If your child would like they may bring clean, empty food containers to school to add to our store.

 This week we are also going to be scientists.  I found an egg(not a real one) and brought to class.  The children predicted what will hatch from the egg.  Over the next few days we will observe the egg for changes.  Once an animal hatches from the egg we will make a conclusion to our experiment.