Friday, January 27, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Hibernation sounds like a pretty good deal on days like today!! The kids weren't so excited when I suggested that we hibernate all afternoon.....but, the teachers all thought it was a grand idea!!
In order to fully understand what bears do in the winter, today's language circle was "bear style". The thing about bears is that they don't have beds to sleep in all winter.....so they have to look around and find a perfect, cozy cave. After a short walk down the hall, my little blue "bears" found the perfect cave for hibernating. It's amazing how much brown felt draped over a table looks like a cave! Story time in a cave.....it was magical!!
Today's book was a personal favorite, Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. In the story Bear is hibernating in his cave. The weather outside becomes so horrible that several other animals come into the cave for shelter. They each bring something and suddenly it becomes a party. But, Bear snores on. When Mouse adds pepper to the pot of soup they are making......well, you know what pepper does.... AAACHOOOO!! Bear wakes up! At first he is upset because he missed the party, but they decide to keep dancing and singing late into the night. The next morning, Bear is wide awake.....but, his friends snore on!! So cute, and some really great vocabulary!
The kids loved being in the cave! They declared it a Blue Friends ONLY cave......and they were just little enough to all fit inside.....it's always a good day when something so simple makes a story so memorable!!
In order to fully understand what bears do in the winter, today's language circle was "bear style". The thing about bears is that they don't have beds to sleep in all winter.....so they have to look around and find a perfect, cozy cave. After a short walk down the hall, my little blue "bears" found the perfect cave for hibernating. It's amazing how much brown felt draped over a table looks like a cave! Story time in a cave.....it was magical!!
Today's book was a personal favorite, Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. In the story Bear is hibernating in his cave. The weather outside becomes so horrible that several other animals come into the cave for shelter. They each bring something and suddenly it becomes a party. But, Bear snores on. When Mouse adds pepper to the pot of soup they are making......well, you know what pepper does.... AAACHOOOO!! Bear wakes up! At first he is upset because he missed the party, but they decide to keep dancing and singing late into the night. The next morning, Bear is wide awake.....but, his friends snore on!! So cute, and some really great vocabulary!
The kids loved being in the cave! They declared it a Blue Friends ONLY cave......and they were just little enough to all fit inside.....it's always a good day when something so simple makes a story so memorable!!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Penguins!! Is it a bird?? It has feathers, but it can't fly. Is it a fish?? It can swim really well, but it lives outside of the water. Penguins are a confusing animal.....but, oh, so much fun to learn about!
We read The Emperor's Egg by Jane Chapman, which is a factual based story on penguin's and their babies. I changed a lot of the words so the kiddos could understand it, but the pictures were great and the book was full of good information. We learned that penguins lay eggs. Daddy penguins take care of the egg until it hatches by holding it on their feet and tucking it under their bellies to keep it warm. They don't eat the whole time they are taking care of the egg. FOR TWO MONTHS!! When the baby penguin is born, the Mommy penguin comes back and feeds the baby.....by spitting her chewed up food in it's mouth! YUCK!!
Ms. Ellen taught us all how to waddle like a penguin! We put a small ball between our ankles and walked around the room pretending to be penguins! The kids all laughed and had a great time. I'll just tell you that waddling only slows them down a little! After a little practice.....somehow they still end up in a run!
We made penguins for art today. Using a model and very little instruction....the kids all took the pieces and glued them together to make a penguin! It was a great way to reinforce the vocabulary from the book....beak, flippers, feet......and, of course, a bow tie to make him cute!
YouTube has some pretty great videos about real penguins. We watched them swimming and eating and jumping in the water. One video had thousands of penguins together......we talked about how many friends they had!! There were also some really cute songs that had the penguin facts we had been learning all day. All the kids love watching videos and songs on the iPad! Everything gets previewed first.....Ms. Kelly clicked on the wrong video today......and the words were in French!! See??? All the things your children get exposed to in one day......wow!.....what an amazing preschool!!
We read The Emperor's Egg by Jane Chapman, which is a factual based story on penguin's and their babies. I changed a lot of the words so the kiddos could understand it, but the pictures were great and the book was full of good information. We learned that penguins lay eggs. Daddy penguins take care of the egg until it hatches by holding it on their feet and tucking it under their bellies to keep it warm. They don't eat the whole time they are taking care of the egg. FOR TWO MONTHS!! When the baby penguin is born, the Mommy penguin comes back and feeds the baby.....by spitting her chewed up food in it's mouth! YUCK!!
Ms. Ellen taught us all how to waddle like a penguin! We put a small ball between our ankles and walked around the room pretending to be penguins! The kids all laughed and had a great time. I'll just tell you that waddling only slows them down a little! After a little practice.....somehow they still end up in a run!
We made penguins for art today. Using a model and very little instruction....the kids all took the pieces and glued them together to make a penguin! It was a great way to reinforce the vocabulary from the book....beak, flippers, feet......and, of course, a bow tie to make him cute!
YouTube has some pretty great videos about real penguins. We watched them swimming and eating and jumping in the water. One video had thousands of penguins together......we talked about how many friends they had!! There were also some really cute songs that had the penguin facts we had been learning all day. All the kids love watching videos and songs on the iPad! Everything gets previewed first.....Ms. Kelly clicked on the wrong video today......and the words were in French!! See??? All the things your children get exposed to in one day......wow!.....what an amazing preschool!!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Our topic for this week is Animals in Winter. Today we talked about the things that animals do in the winter that are different from people. Since we don't see animals running around in hats, gloves, and scarfs.....we figured that they must do something different to keep warm!
The book of the day helped start our discussion about animals in winter. We read When It Starts to Snow by Phillis Gershator. In this story, we follow many animals as it starts to snow outside. The sparrow starts to look for seeds to take to the nest, the geese fly south for warmer weather, the fish go deep in the ocean looking for warmer weather, and the bear heads off to his cave to go to sleep. Story time was so quiet today. The kids really enjoyed the pictures in this beautiful book!
We wanted to teach the kids the "grown up" words for what animals do, so we made up a poem to help them remember! Now, I'm not exactly Emily Dickinson.....but, if I say so myself.....it's pretty cute! And most importantly, the kids can say it with only a few cues! It goes like this:
What do animals do in winter?
Migrate, Migrate, go off to a warmer place.
Hibernate, Hibernate, sleep off all the food we ate.
Change, change, look a different way today!
What do animals do in winter?
For art, we used those very special ART marshmallows to make an igloo house covered with snowballs. These aren't the marshmallows for eating.....they are the kind for art projects! I think we sold the kids on this because I didn't see too many disappearing into tiny mouths! They loved gluing them marshmallows and we talked about what kinds of animals might want to live in our houses. We will let them dry at school tonight and send them home tomorrow! Then you will have to be on high watch that the marshmallows stay where they are.....
Ms. Michelle was back from her vacation today. She brought scooters for the kids to push and be pulled around on. They LOVED this! She also taught them all to crab walk. We definitely need some practice.....those arm muscles are just not that strong! She also let the kids decorate some snowflakes with fuzzy balls and packing peanuts.....after they used clothespins to pick things up and words to make choices between the different colors! So many hidden OT and Speech things embedded into a simple art activity! That's why we love Ms. Michelle!!
The book of the day helped start our discussion about animals in winter. We read When It Starts to Snow by Phillis Gershator. In this story, we follow many animals as it starts to snow outside. The sparrow starts to look for seeds to take to the nest, the geese fly south for warmer weather, the fish go deep in the ocean looking for warmer weather, and the bear heads off to his cave to go to sleep. Story time was so quiet today. The kids really enjoyed the pictures in this beautiful book!
We wanted to teach the kids the "grown up" words for what animals do, so we made up a poem to help them remember! Now, I'm not exactly Emily Dickinson.....but, if I say so myself.....it's pretty cute! And most importantly, the kids can say it with only a few cues! It goes like this:
What do animals do in winter?
Migrate, Migrate, go off to a warmer place.
Hibernate, Hibernate, sleep off all the food we ate.
Change, change, look a different way today!
What do animals do in winter?
For art, we used those very special ART marshmallows to make an igloo house covered with snowballs. These aren't the marshmallows for eating.....they are the kind for art projects! I think we sold the kids on this because I didn't see too many disappearing into tiny mouths! They loved gluing them marshmallows and we talked about what kinds of animals might want to live in our houses. We will let them dry at school tonight and send them home tomorrow! Then you will have to be on high watch that the marshmallows stay where they are.....
Ms. Michelle was back from her vacation today. She brought scooters for the kids to push and be pulled around on. They LOVED this! She also taught them all to crab walk. We definitely need some practice.....those arm muscles are just not that strong! She also let the kids decorate some snowflakes with fuzzy balls and packing peanuts.....after they used clothespins to pick things up and words to make choices between the different colors! So many hidden OT and Speech things embedded into a simple art activity! That's why we love Ms. Michelle!!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
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