Baby Chick Count book and game

 Today we finished making a really cute counting book, which the kiddos are loving!  We did this with our Easter and Spring activities, but it would also go well with a farm theme, or could be modified to go along with a counting rhyme, like Five Little Ducks.  I want to share, it's so adorable!

I saw the idea on pinterest, and even although the original site is in Russian, the pictures communicated beautifully. 

 To follow up, I wrote numerals and number words on index cards, and added yellow dots to the back to make it self checking.  I put the cards in a basket with a large orange pompon (momma hen) and a dozen small yellow pompons (chicks).  The kiddos loved it!  Some of our preschoolers need to practice counting with 1-1 correspondence, as well as reading numerals.  The older kiddos who are reading worked with number words.  We'll keep this center out for a while!

Bluebonnets, Museum and Lots of Fun at Home

It is spring time in Texas, and the bluebonnets are in bloom.  I took 3 groups of kiddos on field trips to take photos in the flowers on the way to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  They were so sweet in their group pics!

The museum offers so many fantastic learning experiences for the kiddos. My personal favorite is the giant foam blocks.  The kiddos love the physicality of moving the huge blocks, and creating structures.  They have to think about how to fit blocks together and how to make their buildings strong.  They love looking through the holes, or filling the holes with cylinders that can attach to other blocks too.

 Of course, if you play in the foam long enough, your hair builds up a static charge.

 There's a pretend grocery store...

 Giant light play activities...

 Mirrors...

 An ambulance and hospital area...

 

 Cool water play...

 Things to manipulate and put together...

 And a giant train set.

At home one afternoon we were tickled to find a momma duck with 8 brand new ducklings!  We were surprised by how well they could climb up the dam, and how far from momma duck some of them ventured. (There is a creek behind my house, which we can observe through the fence.  The egrets and herons are also starting to show up again now that it isn't so cold.)

 We also enjoyed parachute and bicycle play outside, and although I didn't take photos of it, we had new Easter and spring themed learning centers inside.  I'll have to post pictures of those next time!

Happy spring!

Reviewing H - J

This week we are still reviewing letters, while also enjoying spring.  We did two hippo art activities one day, painting plaster hippos, and making paper ones too.  They are both very cute, and worked our fine motor skills.

 

I found the inspiration for the paper hippo here, and modified it to be made with construction paper instead of paper plates.  The children loved it.

There are plenty of good hippo books to read to introduce these crafts.  We really love The Hiccupotomus by Aaron Zenz, and Hiccup by Mercer Mayer.

For the letter I, I considered sampling ice cream again, but decided my friends were already excited enough by our ice cream pretend play.  I've saved a couple of empty ice cream containers, bowls and spoons, and put those out with colorful pompons, what a hit!  I really like that the pompons are easy to pick up once they're done playing, but must admit, they do seem to get spread about a lot!

We also improvised a snow cone shop for the letter i - I'm thinking icy snow.  The cash register was very popular, more than the foam balls, bowls, and empty snowcone syrup bottles we had out for our pretending.  It was interesting to observe the children using the cash register, and to see how they used numbers in their play.  They asked their "customers" for their phone numbers to enter on the register, as well as entering prices, swiping credit and debit cards, and using the scanner on bar codes.

For the letter J we reviewed a fun Spanish language song on youtube.com : Jugo de Naranja.  I made a book from the lyrics a long time ago, and we like to sing the song as we turn the pages.  It's a good review of some basic Spanish vocabulary: me gusta, no me gusta, and lots of food words.

After we sang along with the song, and read the book, I offered each child some orange juice.  "Te gusta jugo de naranja?" I asked each child in turn.  "Si, me gusta jugo de naranja," they answered, and then got some to drink.

We read a book that featured a jellyfish while we drank our jugo de naranja (o.j.) and then made a jelly fish art project, which I found here, and did a jelly fish finger play, which is from here.

This was a particularly busy morning, as we also got to practice our hand writing - on a plate of jelly!  Each child got a plate with a smear of strawberry jelly on it, and practiced forming the letter in the jelly.  Correctly made j's resulted in a tasty lick of their fingers.  Yes, we washed hands before as well as after!  This was literally a sticky proposition, and well loved. 

For any readers who have school aged kiddos, this is also a great way to get them to practice writing their spelling words.  When I taught first grade, I suggested that parents make one evening's spelling practice be writing words in something yummy: jelly, chocolate syrup, peanut butter... I'm sure your children would love to suggest other tasty treats.  No licking fingers until you can write the word or letter correctly - talk about motivating!  Yum!

Spring time in the garden

It really is spring time here.  Back in the fall, we put out our old jack-o-lantern pumpkins in the veggie garden, and observed them as they rotted over the winter.  The kiddos were very interested in seeing the whole process, and enjoyed poking sticks at the not-so-attractive remains.  This week we found baby pumpkins growing!  We're watching as the seed leaves give way to true leaves, and seeing how quickly they grow!

 The cabbages in the garden have gone to flower, and are full of activity too.  We've been watching ladybugs, butterflies, and bees come to the flowers for nectar and pollen.

 Look at the pollen sacks on this bee!  She has gathered a huge load of pollen to take back to her hive.

 The kiddos are enjoying playing outside too.  Here they are, "in the hot tub, playing their DSs."  They crack me up!

 This area of the garden has been named "Roly poly city", due to the number of critters hiding out underneath the leaves.  A couple of the children hardly leave this area, they are so fascinated with what they can find here. 

 Some of the growing things are good for us to eat.  We tasted fresh asparagus this week - yum!

 The children are watching the strawberry plants eagerly, observing the flowers as they change into tiny green strawberries, and waiting, just waiting, for them to ripen!

 This is another yummy plant, just starting out.  Malabar spinach is both ornamental and edible.  I overwintered one inside, and we planted some of its seeds a few weeks ago. 

 We've also had plenty of seed play outside in the sunshine lately.  I have several different materials for the children to use: feed corn and sunflower seeds, bird seeds, and some other grains.  I don't want to use food to play in most of the time, as food is a valuable resource, and while we are blessed with plenty, not all the world is.  The animal feed however doesn't get wasted - what the children drop, our squirrels, birds and even the ducks come to eat. 

 I think some of our ecological messages are getting through to the children too.  This kiddo told me the green crane is helping recycle the seeds, moving them into the truck to take to recycle.  

Another part of spring that the children look forward to is Easter, and our egg hunt.  We have been busy this week with stuffing small toys and candy into Easter eggs, prepping them for the real egg hunt we'll have in a couple of weeks.  The children LOVE helping to put the treasures in the eggs, and I am most happy to have their help.

 While we wait for the real egg hunt, we've been practicing in the back yard with empty eggs and baskets.  The children both hide them and seek - it's all good!

 I love the peaceful feeling of spring in the back yard!

Fortunately - a class book.

Friday was a beautiful spring day.  Lots of sunshine, temperature around 70*, just a little breeze.  We decided to have a picnic lunch outside.  I served milk, pb&j sandwiches, carrots and apple slices, and we sat around a large mat together, talking and eating.  One of the boys realized that he had two slices of apple on his plate, and a friend had 3, and wanted to know why.  I started mimicking a story we love, Fortunately, by Remy Charlip, and the children chimed in with additional fortunate and unfortunate suggestions.  Our story was born.

Fortunately, Ella got three pieces of apple at the picnic.
Unfortunately, Trevon did not.
Fortunately, there was more apple.
Unfortunately, my dog, Patriot, tried to get it.
Fortunately, we stopped him.
Unfortunately, a squirrel came to try and get it.
Fortunately, Patriot scared it away.
Unfortunately, ducks came while Patriot was chasing the squirrel.

Fortunately, his barking scared them.
Unfortunately, the ducks ate Connor's bread.
Fortunately, they didn't get it all.
Unfortunately, Nolan dropped his sandwich.
Fortunately, It fell on his plate.
Unfortunately, he didn't want it.
Fortunately, he did want his apples.
Unfortunately, Brielle also wanted his apples!
Fortunately, she knows not to take it.
Unfortunately, Emily started feeling bad.
Fortunately, Makenzie gave her a hug, and it helped.
Unfortunately, Jacob was jealous.
Fortunately, Reese spoke sweetly to him, and he felt better.
Unfortunately, Ms. Paula wouldn't let the kids get up to go play.
Fortunately, she did let them when they finished their lunch.
Unfortunately, there were only two swings for all the kids.

Fortunately, we can take turns!
Unfortunately, Luke hogged a swing.
Fortunately, Ms. Julie asked him to give Olivia a turn.
Unfortunately, she fell off!
Fortunately, she fell on the mulch, so she wasn't hurt.
Unfortunately, she also fell on a roly poly.
Fortunately, she didn't hurt the roly poly.
Unfortunately, it was a spiky roly poly!

Fortunately, the kids could look at it safely, and fortunately it crawled home to it's roly poly city,
and fortunately the kids followed it and found many roly pollies, because fortunately, we love roly pollies!

We'll make this into a class book this coming week, with the children illustrating it.  I can already tell, it is going to be a favorite!