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!

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!!