Birds In The Trees!

Today we started a new animal habitat....in the trees.  We started the day with the Touch and Feel pool full of bird seed.  The kids had fun sorting, and counting, and even looking close at the bird seed with magnifying glasses.  During morning circle, the kids focused on the letter M. We brainstormed words that start with the /m/ sound.

Ms. Michelle was here today for OT.  We began with a scooter board ride through the "bunny trial" searching for hidden Easter eggs.  Once they found an egg, the kids had to pull the scooter board to the end and put their egg in the basket.  Then there were five bunny hops before going back to their seat.  They were building with Legos while waiting their turn.  We ended with Finger Fun, which today was several fine motor tasks.  First, the kids had to open the Easter eggs.  Inside were stickers and stamps.  Each child had a clipboard with paper on it where they had to put the stickers and practice with the different shape stamps.  It was also good practice at sharing and taking turns.

Our story today was Baby Bird by Joyce Dunbar.  Baby Bird wants to fly, but when he climbed out of his nest he just flopped on the ground. Baby Bird is very focused on learning to fly. He doesn't notice a squirrel sniffing around him, a bee buzzing by, a frog hopping over him or a cat stalking him. When he ended up on a roof he decided to try to fly one more time. This time it worked!!

After reading the story we talked about things that make birds special. Birds lay eggs and they have feathers.  They have wings and most birds can fly.

For art, the kids made a bird feeder. First, they covered a toilet paper roll in soybutter. It was super messy!  Then we rolled the sticky tube in bird seed. The kids can take the bird feeder home and hang it outside. It already has a ribbon attached!  As the weather improves this week, the kids can watch out the window to see what birds come to eat the bird seed!

Squirrels!

Even though it was not theme related.....we started our morning circle by talking about todays holiday!!  It's St. Patrick's Day! Lots of the kids remembered to wear green and we shared things we know about St. Patrick's day and leprechauns.

Today's book was Bear and Squirrel Are Friends by Deb Pilutti.  Bear and Squirrel were unusual friends because bears like to eat squirrels for a snack. Bear and Squirrel had a lot in common, the both liked to collect acorns and blueberries. Bear helped Squirrel make a nest in the trees for winter and Squirrel helped Bear get ready to hibernate in his cave. When Bear woke up from his hibernation...he was very hungry!! He couldn't help himself.....he ate all the blueberry pancakes Squirrel made for breakfast!

After reading the story, we compared bears and squirrels. We talked about ways they are the same and ways they are different.

For art, the kids helped decorate the shell of the acorn. The kids decided if they wanted a black shell or a colorful shell. We tore paper and pinched it into small balls before gluing it onto the shell of the acorn. After the kids finished decorating the acorn, they wrote "nut" on the acorn so we could remember what squirrels like to eat.

 After lunch and music, we took a few minutes to take a walk around the courtyard to look for clovers or shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day and....while we were out there....we even found some acorns for the squirrels!

Learning About Foxes

We started the day with a fine motor activity in the Touch and Feel pool.  The kids took large pieces of orange paper and orange streamer paper and tore it in much smaller pieces.  Tearing is hard work for those little fingers!  But...once they knew we were using this paper for art, they took the job very seriously!

Ms. Danielle was here today for Young Athletes!  The weather was so pretty as we worked on balance and coordination.  The first thing we did was balancing on two beams.  Then we worked on side stepping, which was hard without "open/close verbal cues" and stepping over hurdles.  Then we walked across a series of buckets.  The kids had so much fun and were such good listeners today!

We had music with Ms. Stacey today!  We sang along with our Hello song, reviewing our big music words from last fall - crescendo and decrescendo - and then learned the second part of our song of the month, Animals Are Different.  Next we talked a little bit about St. Patrick's Day and Irish music, then played a listening game with the parachute.  This was tricky since we had to keep our voices quiet and just use ears, even when we were moving very fast with the music!  After that, we learned some silly words for a song about animals in the forest - Do Wah Diddy Diddy Dum Diddy Do!  In this song we took turns singing and sharing facts about different forest animals during each verse.  Next, everyone got a drum so we could practice taking turns and playing and stopping again with the I've Got the Groove Song we learned last week.  We ended with See You Later Alligator, and some excellent singing voices!

Our story today was Fox by Kate Banks.  As the seasons change, a little fox learns that there is a time for everything.  He has many things to learn before he is ready to go out into the woods by himself.  His parents teach him all about the woods, how to hunt and bury his food during winter, how to run like the wind, and how to stay safe from the wolves.  When the time is right, he can go out into the wood on his own.

For language circle, we made a big chart of all the animal habitats that we had learned about so far.  We started with people....who live in houses, and continued down a long list with some impressive vocabulary that the kids have learned this month.

During art we used the paper from the morning to make fox faces.  The kids glued down the orange paper and added eyes, a nose, and ears.  They were very excited to run down the hallway acting like foxes!!