Fish Tales 3/19 ~ 3/23

Before vacation we had the opportunity to look at a macaw and a tiger. These animals visited Shorecrest in conjunction with the JK FLora & Fauna Around the World Activity Day.

 We began the week by looking at an adult eagle and a eaglet that were sitting on the cell phone tower on the Florida Power property next door. The children looked through a telescope that Mr. Chaparelli set-up outside our classroom. The eaglet has the appearance of an osprey with a speckled chest and black head.

As we walked from the playground on Monday, we looked at the new spring leaves and how they are lime green in color. Fingerpainting with green and yellow paint was a favorite center time activity. We made prints of our fingerpaintings and created handprints, which we cut out. These will become the leaves on our classroom tree in the window. 

 We celebrated a birthday on Tuesday!

Spring is here, spring is here

Birds appear, birds appear

Flowers are growing, flowers are growing

Spring is here, spring is here. 

The children enjoyed painting at the easel using spring colors.
We talked about the colors and encouraged the children to "draw" with the paint brush. They came up with the idea of what they wanted to create.

Reading books that were either authored and/or illustrated by Eric Carle was the highlight of the week. The children really enjoyed looking at the end flaps of each book and tried to guess how Eric Carle created them.

Some of the books we read were: 

Today is Monday Illustrated by Eric Carle

 Baby Bear, Baby Bear What Do you See? by Bill Martin Jr. & illustrated by Eric Carle

The Very Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

My First Book of Colors by Eric Carle

The Very Clumsy Click Beetle by Eric Carle
The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle
Mr. Seahorse by Eric Carle
What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Schwartz

Painting with real "spring" leaves was another activity this week. We will cut the  paper into leaves to decorate the bulletin board tree. The children will add a small piece of tissue paper to the leaf to represent an egg as the first step in the metamorphosis of a butterfly.

We looked at the Dimetrodon that had been in water and removed before Spring Break, talked about evaporation, and discovered it measured 4 macaronis long.

The children are transferring the learning that occurred when they rolled balls down the tubes and the gutters creating inclined planes during the week before vacation. This week they built a "race track" from the unit blocks in the exploratorium and then built a ramp so the cars could go speeding down the ramp. On another day, the children built structures that we left up and added to them in aftercare with Mrs. Mundell's class and the next day. Still other children took triangles and put them together to form rectangles in the middle of the "race track!"

 At exploring on Friday, we created Eric Carle paper by painting a banner and using scrapers, comb, and brushes to form patterns on the paper. We added stars and this paper will become the night sky for our exploratorium bulletin board. Other Eric Carle paper will be used for the children to create insects.

The children spread pink and green cream cheese on a diamond of bread for snack. They enjoyed the spreading process and asked for the crusts that were cut off of the diamonds.

 
. Blowing bubbles outdoors using a variety of wands was another favorite exploring activity. The children exclaimed with glee as they watched the bubbles float into the trees and beyond.

 Painting stepping stones was another popular center at exploring.

We will use these stepping stones on our playground.

March 30th - 9:00 ~ We will begin the morning by attending the Relay For Life all school assembly.

Then we will be going to the Large EC building for exploring with them.

9:30 - 10:45 Exploring - Parents are welcome to come and help with exploring

10:50 - 11:45 - Playground

5:00 - Many booths will be set-up and ready to go

6:00 p.m. Relay For Life Opening - Football Field

There are food, games, and items to buy at this event dedicated to raising money for the American Cancer Society. Please stop by if you have a chance!!

Fish Tales 3/5 ~3/9

We began the week by pretending to be paleontologists opening the plaster of Paris dinosaur fossils with a hammer and screw driver. The children were amazed to see the imprint that the dinosaur had left in the plaster! This activity not only gives a glimpse into the world of the dinosaurs, but also helps to develop their hand strength and fine motor coordination!

 This is the dinosaur that we measured with the macaroni at assembly last week and you can see it is 7 macaronis long. By the end of the week, it measured 5 macaronis long. We had a discussion about absorption and evaporation.

In celebration of Dr. Seuss week, we transformed the loft onto a combination of props from The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham to stir the children's imaginative play.

In preparation for the party on Friday, the teachers traced around each child. We read My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss and practiced making faces similar to the moods in the book.

Using Dr. Seuss as inspiration, we provided the children with props from the book, Go Dog Go by P.D. Eastman.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss provided the basis for snack. The children sorted them by color, created numerals and letters with the fish, and then counted them!

This balance scale gave the children opportunities to discover properties about weight. They had to match up bears with the same number to get them to balance.

Using the Handwriting Without Tears lines and curves with the magnet board reinforces letter formation!

Visiting Ms. O'Mullane's second grade class proved educational and fun! the children shook a small vial of a liquid for nearly 10 minutes and then discovered butter! They used the butter on a snack they all shared together!

On Thursday we went to the library to choose new books and Mrs. Smay read The Cat in the Hat Comes Back by Dr. Seuss! Ask your child what voom is?

By Thursday the children had learned that as you raise the ramp higher up, the ball rolls faster!

We went to the Black Box theatre, which is attached to the main theatre, to watch Mr. Leavengood's upper division student perform songs and skits from their mini-mester. Each March the UD students provide a variety of service activities, both on-campus and off. One the children's favorites was a song entitled, Oranges and Lemons!

 
The spring break party was filled with Dr. Seuss themed activities. For snack we ate green eggs and ham and threw socks in a box! The children painted the life size outlines of themselves. As you can see they displayed a variety of feelings which is evidenced by the variety of colors of paint that they used. We decorated the paper hats with letters, dinosaurs, and flowers. The children created a door hanger for their bedroom by finding their initials using sticky letters and then decorated them with dinosaurs. The children had a grand time moving through
an obstacle course carrying a Dr. Seuss character!

THEMES for MARCH
March 19 ~ 23  Author - Eric Carle, Diamond, Rainbows
March 26 ~ 30 Insects, Spring, Diamond, Rainbows

The yellow bags may easily be washed. Please remove the plastic bag, wash the yellow bag,  and hang it up to drip dry. 

Fish Tales 2/27 ~ 3/2

  
The children painted a dinosaur shape with tempera cake paints and cut around it. They printed their name on diamonds and glued them onto the back to create a "Name-o-saurus!"

 

The children painted a banner with rollers and the teachers cut it into a Triceratops for the classroom bulletin board over the cubbies.

 One of the children celebrated his 4th birthday!

These girls are looking at the dinosaurs on the bulletin board using a camera and binoculars from the paleontologist lab!

 Building with dinosaurs and curved blocks promote creative, imaginative play!

 Our field trip to the Coast Gusard Air Station was very educational. The children were able to board and go in cockpit and the back of the C-!30 radar/transport plane named Hercules. It is able to carry the Jayhawk Helicoptor in back of the cargo area.                               

 We walked down the hanger to the Jayhawk helicoptor.

 
Commander Hipes showed us a safety rocket.

On Friday at exploring the children ate trees (broccoli) and bones (pasta). We talked about herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores!. We took off our shoes and socks and donned dinosaur feet and stomped with paint on banner paper.

In honor of Dr Seuss' birthday, Mrs. Sam recited some of the Cat in the Hat book at assembly and then showed the children how to make hats using newspaper and colored tape. The children will decorate the hats at the party on Friday, 3/9.

Our classroom was the music room with Mrs. McIvor!

 

REMINDERS:
~We have 6 spots left for the Almost Sleepover on April 27. The EC teachers host this fun evening from 6:00 ~ 9:00 pm. Outdoor play, pizza, songs and a movie are just some of the events for this fun filled eve. If you would like to participate, go to  http://gala.shortcrest.org
~Sign ups for summer camp are on line. Go to the Shorecrest Home page and click on AMP UP FOR SUMMER! There is a list of EC camps, dates, and a registration form. A hard copy of the camp brochure will be sent home soon. The Alpha classes may sign up for anything that reads PreK. Wee chargers are for incoming Alpha students.

~The yellow bags may easily be washed. Please remove the plastic bag, wash the yellow bag,  and hang it up to drip dry.

THEMES for MARCH
March 5 ~ March 9 - Dr. Seuss, Diamond, Rainbows
March 19 ~ 23  Eric Carle, Diamond, Rainbows
March 26 ~ 30 Insects, Spring, Diamond, Rainbows