Zoo Animals, Cool Bear Hunt, Small Group, Outside Time, and a Zoo Field Trip!

• This week we read books about Zoos and Zoo Animals. 

 

• At Large Group: 
• We used masks to read and act out “Rumble in the Jungle”. 

• We used props to read and act out “Goodnight Gorilla”. 

• We created artwork to go on our bulletin board to go along with the song “Cool Bear Hunt”. 

 

• At Small Group: 
• We decorated flower pots and then replanted our seedlings so they can go home with the kiddos.
• We painted wooden letter blocks for our block area. The kiddos really enjoyed mixing the paint to create new colors. 
• We drew pictures and came up with a list of all the animals we think we might see at the zoo. When we return next Tuesday we will use these pictures and lists to see how many animals we guessed correctly. 

• At Choice Time: 
• We went outside for choice time several times this week. We drew pictures of each of the things we can play with outside to help with our planning and recall.  We took our water and sand tables outside to play. We put water beads in the water table and the kiddos were endlessly entertained while giving their fine motor muscles a fantastic workout. When the weather is so nice, the kiddos aren’t the only ones who would rather do everything outside. We take as much of our classroom outside as we can every day. :)

• At the Zoo:
• We went on a field trip to the Saginaw Children's Zoo.

 

Oceans and Ponds, Planting in the Garden, Making Books, Choice Time, and Outside Time!

• For the past two weeks we've been reading books about Oceans, Ponds, and Aquatic Life.

• At Large Group: 
• We retold stories like "Commotion in the Ocean" using props and masks. 

• We worked on clapping out syllables of words and counting the sounds. 
• We sang rhyming songs like “Down By The Bay” and learned new finger plays. 

• We used pictures of things from ocean and pond habitats and a Venn diagram to see what is different and what is the same with oceans & ponds. 

• We used our exercise cards to get our wiggles out and help our minds get ready for the day.

• We studied the Letter Z, also. 

 

 

• We enjoyed several videos of animals in aquariums. We watched a dolphin show, a whale show, and a video of the Ocean Voyager Exhibit at the Atlanta Aquarium (where I went over spring break).  

• At Small Group: 
• We used buttons of varying shapes and colors to sort, classify, and pattern. 
• We used our name folders to practice writing our names, shapes, and letters. 
• After reading each nursery rhyme, we illustrated a picture for it in our Mother Goose mini books. 

• We painted and decorated mini bird houses. 

 

• We did small group outside twice this week. We spent time digging in our planter boxes. We took out roots, checked out all the bugs, and planted and watered our plants. 

• We wrote books! The kiddos have really been into writing stories lately. We have a bunch of pre-stapled blank pages in the writing and art areas for them to use. After writing a story, they love to read them to their friends. 
•  At Choice Time: 

Reading the Lorax - One of our favorites. It never ceases to surprise me that they will sit through the whole thing over and over again.

 

• We took a trip down the hallway to check on our plants. They are growing quite tall and are almost ready to plant.
• We went outside for choice time twice this week. We got some more new things to do outside: stilts (buckets & ropes), scooters, gardening tools, jumping/balancing pods, and more balls. 

Bubble Painting!

 

• At Quiet Time: 
• During quiet time this week each child had the opportunity to read me a story using the pictures. They chose from several familiar stories: