Zoo Animals

We started out the week by going on a lion hunt!  (A knock off version of "Going on a Bear Hunt"). We went through the grass, chopped down a tree, tromped through the mud, found a lion, and raced back home to where we were safe!  We decided that we like the zoo a lot.  We can see wild animals, but we know that they are contained. 
After our lion hunt, we made our own lion that could be taken to own home....a paperplate lion.

We also enjoyed a center where we used rulers, markers, and measuring tape to see if we were as tall as gorillas and giraffes.

We measured ourselves from the floor, and even made ourselves a little taller by standing on a chair.

But, we still weren't as tall as those giraffes!

We also had a center with some flashcards.  On one side there were black and white pictures of the animal with only part of the animal showing.  The kids tried to guess what animal it was.  Then, on the other side it showed the whole animal and it was colored the color of that animal.

We are still enjoying putting together our 3 and 4-letter words.  We did this with puzzles this week.  Each puzzle was a picture of an animal that lives at the zoo.

There are so many animals that live at the zoo.  We used our playdough and cookie cutters to make cut-outs of some of them. 

We talked about how animals each have different colors and textures of skin and how they look different too.  Some animals are spotted, some are stiped, some are furry, some are rough.  We made this thumb print giraffe below to show that giraffes have spots.

We practiced our counting all the way up to 20 this week with our Zoo Animal Number Book.  We had different stamps of zoo animals and the children stamped the animals on their pages according to the number that was at the top of the page.  If your children didn't finish this activity, they can finish by drawing their own animals, or using stickers.

Not only did we talk about the what different animals look like, we also talked about where they live.  The children learned that a habitat is a special environment that animals live in, and then we had a center with three different habitats in it.....grass, hay, and water.  The children had small zoo animal figures that they were able to place in the apporpriate habitat.  We also talked about zoo keepers and how they make each animal comfortable by providing them with the apporpriate food and habitat.

We have really been focusing on beginning sounds the last week or two.  For a reading center, I had these sheets with the uppercase alphabet on them and the children took animal crackers and after deciding what animal it was and what letter and sound it starts with, they placed the animal on its beginning letter.

For a dramatic play center this week, we just had some good old classic animal games.  The two games they could choose from were Hungry Hungry Hippos, and Monkeying Around. 

The object of Monkeying Around is to see how many monkeys can climb on the tree without the tree falling into the alligator pond.  The children enjoyed singing our 5 Little Monkeys song as they played.

Our stars of the week were Aydon and Kynlee this week.  We are learning so much about each of child and they really are so smart and talented!!

Aydon!

Kynlee!!

We had a special show-and-tell this week from Tyler.  He brought his puppy!  And a friendly puppy he was!

We had picture day this week!  I am really excited to see how they turn out, I think they will be great!

It is Spirit Week March 28th-31st so don't forget to wear your crazy hair on the 28th and 29th, and your pajamas on the 30th and 31st!