Animals

The start of another great week came with great star of the week presentations and then we got right into making our first project associated with our theme of the week: animals.  The children made stained glass decorations using shadows of various animals.  They first used water color paint to covered some coffee filters and then placed the shadows of various animals on top to be glued to look like stained glass.  They were beautiful!

We learned about polar bears next and how they are able to stay warm in the cold cold tundra!   We learned about the layers of fat, skin and fur on their bodies by wearing rubber gloves and covering our hands in shortening then dipping our gloved hand in ice filled water and then dipping the ungloved hand in the water to see which is colder faster.  It's amazing how well this works to teach this concept.

After we cleaned ourselves up from being polar bears we worked on our cutting skills by cutting on the curved line drawn by teachers on paper.  As the children cut on the line their hard work paid off in the shape of a coiled snake!  They then were able to add eyes, a tongue and spots and stripes to their snakes to make them unique to each child.  If your child thinks cutting is boring, try this type of activity with them, it just might get them to work on those skills a little more.

Our animal yoga was next and the weather was just too nice to pass up on Monday so we brought our yoga mats outside for a little animal yoga.  We learned moves that helped us look like cobras and dogs and giraffes and butterflies to name a few. 

We finished the numbers 0-10 this week for our number of the day and these practice sheets help us remember how to make letters too as the older children trace the words that correlate to the numbers on the page.  Next week we will start having a shape of the day to end our last few weeks of preschool. 

Before heading home on Monday the morning preschoolers made some paper animal puppets like giraffes and noted the long necks.  The afternoon preschoolers then came in and did something similar with tracing their hands and turning them into animals.  Lots of drawing and cutting this week as both groups worked to draw animals, paint animals and cut animals out of paper.

The afternoon preschoolers also played a phonics game with pictures of animals and the words of those animals.  The children would listen for the first sound and of the animal and then look for the first letter in the pile of words that matched the sound they heard.  

Then we learned about the layers of earth worms dig through in jars.  If you have a spoon and cup or bowl and a patch of dirt get out there this spring and dig up some worms.  The children can learn a lot about the world beneath their feet without leaving their yard.

We played with our animal blocks a lot this week too.  The children took turns rolling the dice and whatever animal it landed on we had to act out motions for that animal.  We wrap square tissue boxes then place a picture and word on each side making animal dice! 

Our stories this week were about owls, ducks, and more as in our down time we took the time to read lots of books related to our animal theme as well.

We split up into stations a lot this week as we colored in and counted spots on cows and made patterns on zebras then moved on to build lady bugs with their matching spots at the tables.   

We put farm animals in their pens and then practiced adding and subtracting them from the pen and putting them out to pasture.  We also put animals into containers and asked the children which bowl and more and which had less animals too. We were very busy!

After we drew animals in the sand with popsicle sticks at the tables we cleaned up and heard the story of an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.  We were able to work together at the circle to tell the story by putting the images of the animals the old lady swallowed onto her belly during the story.

When the morning preschoolers came back we practiced sequencing numbers by placing them in order to make caterpillars.  There were even a few kiddos who asked to do a countdown and have their caterpillars go backwards!

The creativity continued as we built cows with black spots; except for one preschooler's cow who came down with 'one-spot-i-tis' when she decided to make sure her cow only had one spot until as she brought it to her cubby that spot fell off and gave her cow 'no-spot-i-tis'.  It was great!

The teachers showed us a few games about animal care this week and we virtually cared for a few animals before rescuing a few animals from glaciers.

After rescuing animals we sorted and counted animal crackers onto pages with various numbers.  The children then had to be able to tell their teachers which box had the most and which had the least.  This is something that is easy to do at home with any small items.

In between finishing up art samples for end of the year scrapbooks, we made spots on giraffes using our dot paint and then filling in the rest of the giraffe.  

The children were able to milk cows this week by using gloves filled with water as they learned the word utter and were able to pretend to be farmers.

We stayed on the farm to collect chicken eggs and made a hypothesis about whether or not the inside of a brown egg matches the inside of a white egg.  Then, the children cracked the eggs open to find out if they were right.  We then washed up and discussed how similar people are to eggs, we might look different on the outside but are the same inside.

After talking about eggs on the farm we made pink pigs by mixing paint to make pink and then built the parts of a pig on a plate.  After that we traveled to the zoo and learned how to spot a cheetah before heading to the tables to make our own by painting a yellow background then adding spots.  

If your child's mask came home gray or mainly black they are still young and working on following step by step directions.  The older preschoolers followed these steps better but this is why we do these activities; to chart the progress they make with multiple step projects.

We were charged this week with searching through the polluted waters to find animals using our searching tools; tongs, tweezers and chip clips.  These tools promote small motor skills needed for cutting and holding scissors and the best part, we buy ours at the dollar store!  Next time you are looking for a fun tool for your children to use at home and you don't want to monitor the scissor use, give them these tools instead!

In fact, we used them twice this week alone when we brought them back out on Friday to help feed some baby birds their 'food' which was just some pom pon balls and other small items.  They could have done this for hours!

Our morning preschoolers worked on their fine motor skills too as they mixed colors for science at the same time.  They were given bags with two colors of paint and then told to mix the colors together by rubbing the bag and squeezing the colors together to help them mix to make a new color.

The bags had various animals drawn on them and for an added challenge they were asked to try to slide as much of the paint into the space where the animal drawing was to get those fingers moving even more.

The afternoon children built their own turtles out of a make shift puzzle which was many pieces of turtles they needed to attach to build a whole turtle then added small bits of colored tissue paper to the shell to make them unique.

We took a trip to the imaginary zoo by giving everyone a mock map of a zoo and allowed the children to draw their favorite route and describe where they wanted to go and in what order.  It was great for building directional vocabulary and worked on writing skills by drawing lines where they wanted to head.

After making map routes, we went to do some bug math and counted the spots on lady bugs then drew the number of spots the lady bug had on them.  We used geometrical shapes to build animals and worked on animal puzzles too.  We made patterns with our frogs and had a great week!

What's coming up?

This coming week we will be talking about jobs and careers in our community and lives.  We will hear what our preschoolers want to be when they grow up and will be using that information to put on display for our "Oh, the Places You'll Go" themed preschool graduation party.

The week before Mother's Day we will talk about family and all those in our lives who we love and are grateful for complete with a Father's Day focus, Mother's Day focus and Grandparent's Day focus on people who fill any of those roles in our lives.

Preschool graduation is May 17th, if you have questions please let us know.  Invitations went home last week with details.