Monday, May 25, 2015

Ocean Animals, Zoo Animals, Beekeeper Visit, and a Zoo Field Trip!



 May 4-7 & May 11-14
  • At Large Group: 
    • We read books about ocean life. 
 





    • We played a rhyming game called Fish Go Swish where our hands were fish and we swam when we heard rhymes. 
    • We played a syllable game to the tune of “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes”. 
    • We used buckets of water to make predictions on whether things would sink or float. 
We were pretty surprised by some of the answers.
    • We put on Hawaiian music & surfed on waves. 
    • We acted out the story Commotion in the Ocean. 
 
    • We said tongue twisters and pointed out the alliteration.
    • We made patterns with our bodies (up - down). 
    • Our numbers of the day were: 5-12.  We identify the number, write out how to spell the number, write the number, count to the number while doing  various movements, name things that are associated with the number (like 10 fingers, 12 months of the year, etc.).
  • At Small Group: 
    • We practiced our patterns with unifix cubes. 
    • We explored seashells. We counted, sorted, matched, and weighed them. 

    • We worked on our Mother’s Day gifts. 
We painted pots and then replanted our sunflowers.

    • We matched letter sounds to animals & other objects that started with that letter sound. 
    • We sorted and classified animals into three groups: land, sea, or both. We also sorted them by color and beginning sound.
    • We read simple sight reading books. 
    • The kiddos each had one on one reading time with the teachers where they “read” a familiar story such as: Goldilocks or The Three Pigs. 
    • We pretended to be sharks that were feeling different emotions (happy, sad, angry, etc.). 
    • We wrote in our journals about what kind of water animal we would be. 
  • Outside: 
    • We took the water table outside and put water wheels, boats, ducks, etc. in it. The kiddos have enjoyed the water play on the recent warm days. 
  • Bee Keeper Visit: 
    • We had a special visit from a local bee keeper. She brought in a hive box, smoker, bee keeping suit, and honey for us to try. Before she came we read a story about a field trip to a bee farm called These Bees Count
 
 






  •  At Choice Time this week the kiddos have been really into: 
    • Building homes for animals with the magnatiles and blocks and creating leashes for animals with string.


    • Creating various art work. 
    • Exploring the seashells Miss Kendra brought back from vacation. 
    • Putting on puppet shows.
    • Pounding nails in discovery.
    • Playing in the water table with water orbs.
    • Dancing to Hawaiian “surfing” music.  
    • Looking at maps and planning "adventures".

    • Reading books to each other.

 

 May 18-21

  • At Large Group: 
    • We read books about zoo animals.




    • We acted out the story Rumble in the Jungle. 
    • We played "Someone's in the Middle" the zoo animal version. 
    • Our numbers of the day were: 13-15.  We identify the number, write out how to spell the number, write the number, count to the number while doing various movements.
  • At Small Group: 
    • We sorted and classified animal crackers.
    • We wrote in our journals and drew pictures of the animals we thought we would see at the zoo.
    • We used pictures of animals, a map, and an iPad to guess and then figure out where animals live in the world. 
  • At Choice Time:
    • We are still enjoying building houses for animals, but this week they were building zoos. 

    •  They also enjoyed playing in the water table, both inside and outside.

  •  Zoo Field Trip:
    • We went on a field trip to the Wilderness Trails Zoo. The kiddos had a blast seeing all the animals, playing on the playground, and having a picnic. 

There were lots of baby animals!





They loved being able to pet them!



The birds were really loud!


Dancing lemur


Feeding the goats



Capybara

Black Swan

Brown Bear

Watching them feed the tiger.

Momma and baby boars.

Black bear

Wolves

Leopards



Lions

Peacocks

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