SHELL EXPLORATION

During the first week of April, I went on vacation in Florida and was able to bring back an abundance of exotic seashells.  I had decided to focus on Nature Materials during April and this fit in beautifully.  I laid out shells on trays with magnifying glasses and also included a book about shells.  The conversation that was inspired was amazing.  The children started their observations and immediately started commenting on the different types of shells, the different colors and sizes of the shells, and of course, how they could hear the ocean in the shells.    

Some of their words..."Some are prickly".  "Some are smooth".  "I noticed something, this one has stripes, and this one has stripes"!!  "Look, it has purple inside this one".  "Some have holes in them".  "Some are bumpy".  "Hey, I think I see water inside this".  "Oh it must be the sea you are listening to".  "No, I 'm looking, I see puddles".  

More words..."Something big would've had to live inside"!  "You can see these little dirt spots from the ocean".  "You might see a little rainbow if you do this" (put magnifying glass close to your face).

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Here is a child trying to match the shells on his tray to shells in the book.

I continued to support the children by offering paper and pencils so they could trace shells, write about shells, and document what they saw.  

PRIMARY COLORS

We spent the month of March mixing colors.  We started by learning about the three primary colors, or first colors.  We learned that you can't mix anything to get red, blue, or yellow.  But, what happens when you mix combinations of primary colors together?  First, we made a chart of equations and tested out the different combinations.  I wrote the different colors down to help them with spelling, but they were able to figure out which color was which by sounding out and figuring out first letters.  Beginning reading!!

This child is writing down the first two primary colors she is going to mix together.

Here she is mixing red and blue together.  Once she figures out what color that makes, she will add that to the first equation she started to write out.  Math, literacy, and science in this project!

Mixing...

Writing...you can really see the equations in this picture.

Lots of mixing and writing! 

PUPPET STORIES

The children love to hear my puppet stories and often beg for them during circle time.   On this day, they each got to choose two puppets and make up their own story to share with the group.   They chose from a ladybug, lion, bumblebee, frog, and pink elephant.  They really enjoyed creating their own imaginative puppet stories.  Storytellers in the making!!

STONE SOUP

As a culmination of our community unit, we read the story Stone Soup.  There are many variations of this story, but I have found one that I prefer that stars a town with animals who are visited by two pigs.  In the beginning of the story, the townspeople are super grumpy and locking their town up from the visitors.  They aren't willing to share.  Then, as the story unfolds, the pigs come up with a plan and show the villagers how to share.  It is amazing to see how the animals faces go from grumpy, mean, and angry to smiling and happy once they learn how to work together and help each other to make stone soup together.  Everyone ends up contributing as part of the community and the story ends with a great feast and party with the villagers and visitors.  Once the children hear the story, they love to help with retelling as the week goes on.  We do book-related activities throughout the week and at the end of the week, we get to work together and help each other make our own stone soup!  

The children made a list of what ingredients they wanted in their stone soup and they went "shopping" for the ingredients!  Preschoolers really are imagination experts!!  They took turns shopping and checking their friends out of the market.

Of course, the highlight of the week was actually preparing the stone soup!  Here, a child is using a butter knife to chop some pears to put into the soup.

The children also chopped some apples.

And some potatoes...

They scraped their chopped fruit and vegetables into the pot and also added some frozen mixed veggies and elbow noodles.

We couldn't forget to stir it all up before putting it onto the stove to simmer!

It was sooo yummy, we all ate bowls and bowls of it!

LETTER OF THE WEEK

We started our letter of the week again, and as I like to do, we started at the end of the alphabet.  One of the kiddos wanted his Zebra to have eyes, so he got out a dry erase board, sketched some eyes, found a piece of paper, drew them, and cut them out.  I absolutely loved the independence and thought that went into this!

Here is the final project, eyes and all!!

Y was next, yellow finger paint and coffee grounds to give it some texture.  Look at how this child is practicing a pincer grasp!  I also love how one child carefully fingerpainted the Y and the child next to her has both hands moving on her paper, loving the sensory experience.   I love how children can get individual experiences with each project they do.  

These children are practicing their "X" on dry erase boards.  They each took a turn making an x at circle time and then they asked if they could each have a board so they could practice more.  How could I resist?  I love the excitement they show with letters!!