Sunday, May 6, 2012

The Fantastic Fish Swim into Sea Life


We started the week with a  Mystery Reader. Dr. Long read Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister! This is a delightful story about sharing and how good it feels when we give to others!
We continued talking about the metamorphosis of a butterfly and created the last stage by adding liquid watercolor to a coffee filters with medicine droppers. When the filters were dry the children decorated a clothes pin for the head, thorax, and abdomen with markers. They added pipe cleaner antenna!
The children are wonderful about making connections and created letters using the construction set!
To the surprise of all of us the teachers located a chrysalis and challenged the children to find it. They looked high and low. The only clue we gave them was when we returned from a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, we saw it. Then one of the boys put on his thinking cap and asked which way did we walk when we came into the room? We replied to the right so they stood at the door and pointed in the direction that we walked. Asking questions helps the children to think and so important to brain growth!
It took approximately 10 more minutes of hunting and searching then one boy found it on the basket handle on top of the butterfly enclosure we have in the room!

Creating a jellyfish by decorating paper, cutting it out, hole punching, and looping yarn was a multi-process project that the children really enjoyed!

The children pressed the plexiglass together, separated the pieces, and added a piece of paper in the middle, thus decorating both sides at the same time!

Hole punching is the next step. I have found that some skills are easier  for the children  to do standing up and this is true with hole punching!

After the children complete a project we often sing several lines from a song. This causes the other children to look at the project without having to stop what they are doing and gives satisfaction to the child who has just completed their work!

We celebrated another birthday by sharing the birthday book and eating a yummy snack!!
The birthday boy brought many items from the sea and the children used magnifying glasses to explore them!

Mixing colors is not just for paint! In the exploratorium the children placed paddles on top of another and created brown, then green!!

 We attended the Kindergarten dress rehearsal for their grade level show, which included songs in Spanish and a rendition of the LITTLE RED HEN!
At exploring, the children ate jello for the sea, added vanilla wafer sand and goldfish!! YUMMY!! They created flying fish from Eric Carle paper; painted bubble wrap with rollers and printed paper; and printed with sea life stampers on banner paper. We will use the bubble wrap paper to create an octopus!
DATES TO REMEMBER:
MAY 10 - Field trip to the Pier Aquarium. We have enough parent volunteers for this trip!
MAY 25 - End of the Year Party - 9:00 Playground - 10:00 Party
We would love for some of the parents to arrive for the outdoor activities on the playground, while we will need others for the party! Come when you can and stay for any or all of the festivities!
MAY 30 - Last day of school - You may pick your child up in the classroom at 11:30 or meet us in car line at noon.