May 2nd Week Part B

May 15 - What do we get from the Farm?

Here my service oriented students stopped doing their own puzzle when one student asked for help.

To help us learn about the products we get from farm animals, we put some puzzles together. As the puzzles were put together we had a brief discussion about each animal and the product we use from them.

We then got out our magnifying glass and took a closer look at some of the products from farm plants and animals. We took a piece of cotton and took it apart and examined it. We recorded our findings in our Science Journal.

We also took a very close look at a piece of wool yarn. As we disassembled a piece of yarn we talked about how wool is sheared from the sheep, carded, and then spun into yarn.

For snack we had some farm products. We ate carrots , yogurt, and apple juice.

for our outdoor play we created an obstacle course. Each student was given a couple of props and asked to create a task to do at their station. The first student took the tunnel and beach ball, her challenge was to run to the tunnel, crawl through the tunnel, then kick the beach ball as far as you can.

The second student chose hula hoops and the goal. Her challenge was to roll the hula hoop across the grass and into the goal. She was totally convinced that the hoops would fit into the goal, even though the hoops are taller than the goal.

The third student chose two cones and asked that  the students run a figure 8 around the cones. Running is one of his favorite activities.

We came back in and cut out shapes to make a tractor. I printed the shapes on the back of different scrap booking paper. The plan was to have the students share the different shapes and make a more colorful tractor. The students had a difficult time putting together a multi pattern tractor. I think that if the tires had been black that would have been acceptable.

While we waited for the moms to arrive, we pulled out our math journals and a cube with farm animals to create a graph of farm animals rolled.

May 2nd Week Part A

May 13 - Farm Animals

In our morning meeting we learned a poem "Do you Want to be a Bee?" We pulled farm finger puppets out of a bag to decide which farm animal we could be. The students added actions to go along with the words and it became very loud, very funny, and very active.

We then graphed the room reading Farm Data a free download. The students really enjoy working independently and writing in their journals. In the bottom right corner of each graph is a number and the Data Graph has the corresponding number. After reading the charts, we shared our data. It is cute to watch the students confidently and proudly share their data.

For our snack we made pig snacks. We used cookie cutters to cut out a circular piece of flour tortilla and ham. We used a smaller circular cookie cutter to cut out a cheese snout. To complete the pig's face we added M & Ms. After we got pictures of our pig faces, we removed the M & Ms to eat them and discovered that the candy had bled onto the ham and cheese.The students were delighted that they had colored their pigs without even using crayons.

On of the students was out sick today, I had ripe bananas and an idea, we could make banana muffins. The girls were excited to cook, they also love to give service. We made mini muffins, we divided the muffins between the three students.

We took time to chill out as we waited for the muffins to bake, and read books.

May 1st Week Part B

May 8 - Mother's Day Craft

Today we worked on gifts and cards for our mothers.

Our gift was an origami dog. We used scrap booking paper to make our dog.

I thought the scrap booking paper would be cute, but the dots on the paper hid some of the eyes the students drew.

After the struggles of trying to fold the origami dog and make it look just perfect, the students needed a a break that included some large motor movement. I placed a bag of lower case letters on one side of the room and the students had to quickly move (crawl like a bear, slither like a snake, or move like some other animal) to the bag, grab a letter from the bag, and then quickly move back to the board. Once the student was back at the board we discussed the letter and placed it onto the Venn diagram. We organized the letters by just straight lines, just curvy lines, and letters that had both curvy and straight lines.

Our Mother's day cards were very challenging for preK students. It seemed simple as I was planning it. I cut out tear drops out of tissue paper for the flower petals and the leaves. The students were to gently twist the point of the tear drop shapes to give them a 3D look. This was too much of a challenge for the  students as they tried their best. I finally twisted the tear drops and they just glued them onto the cards. we twisted a piece of tissue paper for the stem. Inside we pasted a Mother's Day poem and wrote "I love you, Mom." inside with our signatures.

After snack and some free play outside, we came back in and played a couple of rounds of "I have ... who has...?"

My students take this game very seriously as you can see the concentration on their faces.

May 1st Week Part A

May 5 - Cinco de Mayo

 

Today we learned about Cinco De Mayo. 

In preparation for our first craft the students helped sort all the pony beads by color. I took advantage  of the time and we learned how to count to 10 in Spanish.

We continued counting in Spanish as we put pony beads on our chenille stem. First we folded the chenille stems in half and then we put ten beans on each side.

To complete the chili pepper craft we made bunny ears and then twisted them together and we had our chili pepper.

We started our lesson with a origami book I made using pictures from apples4thteachers. Using the key words we talked about the significance of the holiday.

We watched a short video Mexican Hat Dance video. After watching the video, we got out our sombrero and did our own Mexican hat dance.

For snack we made sombreros. We made a variation of a picture I saw on pinterest, I did not have bread so I used flour tortillas and made peanut butter tortilla rounds instead of bread.

Here is a picture of our finished sombreros. We also had yogurt and juice with our sombreros.

Outside we had an obstacle course the students had to run. They ran to the tunnel, crawled through the tunnel, run to the beach ball, kick it into the goal, return the ball to the kicking place and race back to the start. They were able to run the course in forty to forty-five seconds.

After running the course the students decided to pick bouquets of beautiful flowers for moms or grandma who was arriving today.

Next the students cut fringe into tissue paper to make a paper bag pinata to hide a dessert for their families.

This is a picture of our finished pinata.

The special treat we made for our families were sombreros. These are variation of what I saw on Pinterest.

The finished product.

We finished all of our projects and had some cookies left over so we took a break and sat out on the deck and had a quick snack.

We also took some time to do the Mexican Hat Dance again. I couldn't find the music fast on my phone fast enough so we just hummed the song and did the dance.

For homework the students were given a dot to dot sun picture,  a copy of the Cinco de Mayo origami booklet I made, a Cinco de Mayo Sudoku, and the assignment to share their pinata contents (sombrero cookies) with their families.

April/May Week Part B

May 1 - Dinosaur Ridge Field Trip

Today we took a our first field trip to a wonderful place, Dinosaur Ridge. We started off using our mapping skills and highlighted the roads we traveled and marked off some landmarks to help us know how far we had traveled and how close we were to Dinosaur Ridge. On the top half of our worksheet each student was to identify 6 different things that would be seen while at Dinosaur Ridge, kind of a Bingo game.

On the ride, the students took turns reporting on the dinosaur book that was their homework from Tuesday. The students also brought a plastic dinosaur like the dinosaur in their book.

Decked out in our very best Paleontologist outfits we arrived at Dinosaur Ridge and started looking for all the interesting sites. We were greeted by a very colorful stegosaurus. It was the first thing checked off on a Bingo sheet.

At the base of the mountain was a map of the dinosaur finds on the mountain along Alameda Parkway.

The students got a close look at the dinosaur footprint.

There are many markers to help visitors gain a better understanding of what can be seen. This is a marker explaining and pointing out ripple marks in the stone.

We walked up the east side of the mountain, taking time at the tracks site to have a snack. We made it to the top of the mountain and took time to look out over Denver. Using our binoculars we tried to find our houses in Aurora. All we could really identify were the tall building at the DTC and the golf balls that are located on Buckley Air Base. Couldn't see our houses.

Back at the base of the mountain and at the visitor's center we took time to really practice our Paleontology skills and enjoyed the dinosaur dig. Scooping the gravel and dumping the buckets were the highlight of the dig. Finding the bones didn't seem as interesting as moving the gravel.

The students also found a cement slab with more dinosaur tracks. These tracks were ones that could be explored up close and personal.This was one of several new points of interest that have been added in the last few years.

Another new feature was the water structure that gold miners used when they were panning for gold in the 1800's. Playing in the water was a lot of fun.

Inside the museum we fount a life size replica of a triceratops skull. I took a quick photo as the girls were hiding inside the back of the skull. The students explored the triceratops' teeth and eye sockets.

The students took a minute to pose for us inside the triceratops skull.

The museum had footprints in the floor. This is a T-Rex footprint and it was bigger than all three of their feet.

A younger sibling got to ride a top a Utah raptor statue. The students wanted a ride also but realized that they were just too big to sit on the statue.

The students took time to investigate all the statues and exhibits. The museum is not very big but it is packed with interesting exhibits. It is the perfect size for 4 year olds.

Another view of the triceratops and the cute bone seating that they have around the museum.

The students tried on the different horns on exhibit. Then we found out that this horn was not really a horn but a claw that was found on a dinosaur's front foot.

After a long morning of investigating we took advantage of the picnic area and had lunch before headed back home. Having a dinosaur to play with in the car was a really good thing, because they played with the dinosaurs all the way home (about 40 minute drive).