What a GREAT first day back at school from Spring Break!  The kids all had so many fun stories to share with their friends about things that they did and places they visited.  It was so good to see them all again.....and by the looks of their suntans, many of you spent some of the break outside!

Today's book was Grow Flower, Grow by Lisa Bruce.  It's the story of a little girl named Fran who decides to grow her very own flower.  She tells it to grow, and when that doesn't work, she decides it must be hungry.  Fran feeds the flower all of her favorite foods: pizza, cheeseburgers, chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, and spaghetti.  The flower still won't grow.  By this time, Fran is very frustrated and throws the flowerpot outside.  It rains on the flower...the sun shines on the flower....the wind blows on the flower....and to Fran's surprise.....a beautiful flower grows!

We spent the time after the story, talking about what plants need to grow.  Although the kids all thought it was funny to feed the plants "people food", we agreed that it's not really what plants need.  We made a chart of the FIVE things that plants need.  We will need that chart tomorrow when we start our planting.  As always, we found a song to make learning those five things a little more fun!!

Ms. Michelle came today and we got to be outside!!  She had stations set up with different coordination activities.  Everyone's favorite seemed to be bouncing a balloon on a small, hand-held trampoline-like things.  The courtyard gave plenty of room to run after the balloons......the wind also helped make this activity a little more challenging! 

I think that we sent all the children home tired today....getting back into the routine is SOOO difficult! 

Butterfly Release

Looks Just Like A Real Construction Crew!

Just Enough Water To Test Our Boats....

We all watched patiently while the teachers tested the styrofoam boats we made at the creek in the park. There was just enough water.....and they all floated!!  The funniest part was watching Ms. Ellen and Ms. Cortney try to catch the boats before they floated away!  Those two have all the fun!!

Where Did The Caterpillars Go??

The morning observation of our caterpillars was SUPER interesting! We all watched closely as Ms. Cortney and Ms. Ellen transferred each chrysalis to the butterfly home! Some of them were even wiggly!! It won't be long.....and we'll have butterflies!!

Sink or Float??

When the day starts out with a shaving cream activity.....you know it's gonna be a FUN day!  It's so fun to watch the children when they first sit down at the table.  They always investigate the pile of shaving cream first.....then they might touch it with one finger....some even need some hand over hand to get started.  But once they get going.....it is everywhere!  In the hair...up to the elbows...on the face....on the shoes??  I can't really explain it all, but they LOVE it!! 

Today we read Curious George, The Boat Show by H.A. Rey .  This book was a perfect lead in to our main purpose of the day, which was to introduce the opposite concepts of sink and float.  George's friend Bill asks the troublesome monkey to watch his model boat before the boat show.  George accidentally sinks the boat.  He experiments with some other objects to find things that float so that he can make another boat before the show.  The kids all listened to Ms. Cortney read the story and then voted on their favorite kind of boat.

Science was a sink or float experiment that didn't quite turn out like expected!  After a vocabulary lesson, to make sure they understood the concepts.... something that floats stays on top of the water and something that sinks goes under the water.....the kids were ready to get near the water.  We had some visual cues to help us track the results of our experiment.  I really did think that a pencil and a wooden block would sink....but today I saw it with my own eyes....they float!  That just proves how important science experiments really are.....sometimes even grownups don't know all the answers!!

Ms. Angela came back today!  Her activities were all about running and jumping.  We practiced our crunches and jumping jacks from last time.  She was really impressed at how the kids have improved.  She had jumping balls that you could sit on.....the kids raced those in groups of two.  There were some falls, but everyone always gets up laughing with Ms. Angela.  She had a relay race, which is always fun!  This week she let everyone help start the races by yelling "GO"!  We ended the morning with one big jump off the high barrel.  The trick was that each kid had to stand on top and count to three before jumping!  I remember the first time she brought that barrel and some of kids cried because it seemed so high!  No tears this time.....and there were even several requests for TWO turns!!

How many pennies will your "boat" hold?

Boats by Byron Barton introduced us to many different kinds of boats.  The kids were amazed at how many different kinds there were.  I attempted to draw some of them on our Water Transportation list, but my artist capabilities aren't really that skilled!

For science, we took some aluminum foil and predicted whether that would be a good material for making a boat.  Some liked it because it was shiny and some said it would be good because it was not heavy and would float.  They are getting better at making plausible predictions!!  Ms. Ellen demonstrated several ways to manipulating the foil....wadded up in a ball, with the sides folded up like a cup, and flat out.  The kids job was to decide which was the best boat and could hold the most pretend people.  We separated out into small groups (always a good idea when there is any quantity of water involved) and experimented.  I think my group liked sinking the "boat" and rescuing the pennies better than anything!!

Ms. Michelle came today!  She had some neat fine motor tasks that really keep the kids attention.  There were plastic hammers and nails with a train picture on top of thick foam.  The object was to find the dark circles and put the nails in using the hammer.  There were also tiny plastic fish and tweezers for the kids to move from one tub to another.  AND....She brought scooter boards this week!  The kids all remembered the vote and were so excited that Ms. Michelle followed through on her promise!  In groups of two, they took turns, holding on to long ropes and being pulled up and down the hallways on their tummies.  They quickly learn that they go faster if they extend their bodies and get their legs up off the ground!  Such a fun and good sensory activity for the kiddos.....and a good workout for the adults!!

A Visit to The Carolinas Aviation Museum