Time for St. Patrick's Day!

This week we were introduced to clocks and how they tell us the time.  We talked about how their are 24 hours in a day and how the clock hands go around the clock twice in one day because 12 plus 12 is 24.  We made this cute bunny clock to take home.  We just learned about how to tell the time on the hour.  So we always made sure that the big hand was on the 12.

For a math center we had a HUGE clock with a hole near each number that we tossed bean bags into.  We started at the one and tried to make a bean bag in every hole all the way around to the twelve.  Great for number recognition and to see the placement of the numbers on a clock.

We also made our own clocks out of hula hoops.  The hula hoops were placed at a center with the numbers and the hands and the children had to put the numbers in order around the hula hoops.

We had a center with some clocks for us to explore as well.  The children could come visit this center and turn over a card that had a digital time on it, and they would try to make their clock say the same time.  We even made it a game to see who could get their clock to say that time the fastest.

We also talked about how long a minute is.  We timed ourselves to see if we could jump in the air on one foot for a whole minute.   We also had a center with puzzles and a stop watch.  At this center the children chose a puzzle and tried to build it within one minute.  If they did it in the minute, they could be done, but if they didn't they had to try again.  They did great!

Since there are 12 numbers on a clock, we reviewed the number 12 this week.  We did this with a sticky dot activity.  I printed out the number 12 and the kids had to trace it with sticky dot stickers.  They were asked to start at the top and trace it just how they would if they were writing the number.

We also were able to celebrate St. Patrick's Day this week.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The silly leprechaun paid us a visit.  He left us a poem and stuck some gold coins around the room on the walls and the ceiling that had the entire alphabet on them. We had to find them from A to Z and the last letter gave us a clue to his pot of goodies.  We did this and were so happy to find the surprises that he left!

He also turned our milk and frosting green for snack time!

For an art project we made our own shamrocks to bring us good luck.

For a science project we cleaned some coins using lemon juice and salt.  They had to sit in the solution for 5 minutes so we set our timer and waited for it to ding.  We talked about how each minute has 60 seconds in it so for five minutes, we have to count to 60 five times. 

The kids had fun taking the coins in and out and polishing them up after the timer went off, but I do have to say that this was not the most successful science experiment we have done.  After the children left, most of the coins they had cleaned had a green residue on them.  (Maybe it was that crazy leprechaun again!)

For a math center, we played shamrock dominoes.

These were homemade using index cards and shamrock stickers.

We also did some coin sorting again.  They don't need to know the value of the coins yet, but recognition of which coin is which is a great start.

We talked about rainbows and how legend says that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if you can ever reach it.  We made our own rainbow necklaces with fruit loops.

We also learned a song about rainbows that I will post at the end of this post.

For a sensory center, I hid some "gold" in the sand table.  We talked about how leprechauns like to paid in gold for their services and how real miners look for gold in special rocks.

This "gold" was made by spray painting the little rainbow rocks used in fish tanks.

We are still reviewing different letters each day.  Hopefully you feel your children are starting to feel comfortable with the alphabet and its sounds. 

  I found this song in The Mailbox magazine.  It is sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and was written by Marie Cecchini.

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue.

Indigo and Violet too.

Rainbow, rainbow in the sky.

Rainbow, rainbow way up high

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue.

Indigo and Violet too.

Our special stars of the week this week were:

Zak!!

and Paige!!