Picnic time!

The ants go marching one-by-one, hurrah, hurrah. The ants go marching one-by-one, hurrah, hurrah. The ants go marching one-by-one, the little one stopped to check out our fun!
What do you think of when you think of a picnic? We think of picnic baskets, red and white checkered tablecloths, hot dogs and sandwiches at the park, ketchup and mustard, and ants! Check it out:

We practiced our basket weaving skills this week! We talked about how picnic baskets are often times baskets that are woven together using thin wood. We used two different colors so that we could see the pattern that we made as we went. The kids caught on quick!

We practiced some more patterning skills by making our own picnic tablecloth. I had the squares drawn, and the children used red crayon to make their own patterns.

For a dramatic play center, we had a supply of food, aprons, spatulas, and a barbeque for the kids to roleplay. There were even some ants at this center, because ants are sure to find good food at a picnic!

For a math center this week, we played the classic ants in your pants game. The children chose a color and tried to see who could be the first to get their 4 ants into the pants. Once someone won, they counted the total of how many ants landed in his pants.

We also talked about where ants live and how they are very strong. We helped these ants get back to their ant hill by marching them in alphabetical order using the lowercase alphabet this time. They even had a hint because these ants made a pattern. They marched in  red, black, red, black order.

And, if you still aren't squirming in your chairs thinking about ants in your pants, we made more! The children could also visit our playdough center to make their own ants. There was a supply of black playdough and black pipe cleaner for the children to build their ant armies.


And, for an art center this week, we played with mustard and ketchup! I filled a mustard and ketchup bottle with yellow and red paint, and the kids created their own condiment creations. We used a spin art machine to make our pictures.

Everyone of them came out so different!

We spelled a-n-t this week and learned a song teaching us how to count by 10's to 100. It goes as follows:

Counting by Tens (Twin Sisters Productions)

Ten (clap, clap, clap), twenty(clap, clap, clap),thirty(clap, clap, clap),forty(clap, clap, clap),fifty(clap, clap, clap),sixty(clap, clap, clap),seventy(clap, clap, clap),eighty(clap, clap, clap),ninety(clap, clap, clap),one hundred(clap, clap, clap),

That’s it!

Counting by tens is so much fun.

Counting by tens it can be done.

If we practice over and over again, we will learn how to count by tens.

Ten (clap, clap, clap), twenty(clap, clap, clap),thirty(clap, clap, clap),forty(clap, clap, clap),fifty(clap, clap, clap),sixty(clap, clap, clap),seventy(clap, clap, clap),eighty(clap, clap, clap),ninety(clap, clap, clap),one hundred(clap, clap, clap),

That’s it!

Counting by tens is so much fun.

Counting by tens it can be done.

If we practice over and over again, we will learn how to count by tens.

Let’s do it again, double time.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred.

Counting by tens is so much fun.

Counting by tens it can be done.

If we practice over and over again, we will learn how to count by tens.

Our stars of the week this week were:

"Big Boy" Tyler!

and the loveable Miss Addison!

We also had a birthday this week. A very Happy Birthday to Brynlyn who turned 5!