Your little sprouts!

We hear the saying a lot, "He is growing like a weed." These little sprouts you guys are growing are nothing like weeds! They are blooming into quite the best bunch around! I have enjoyed watching them blossom so much! Check them out this week. They grew some things of our own too. I hope their little greenhouses sprouted their lima bean seeds for them to watch at home.

Here Mark is checking out the mystery bag. We had nature items hidden inside and they had to look at a card with a picture on it, and try to pull that item out of the bag without peeking.

We also checked out some plants from seed, to plant, to vegetable. We had a peanut, a watermelon seed, a peach pit, and more!

We practiced writing our names with these jello worms! Slimy and slippery just like the real thing. I still convinced a few to try them though!

Yum......I think?!

We also had fun making your Mother's Day gifts. We hope you liked them as much as we did!

Sorry, I haven't been as good about taking pictures and posting lately. So much to do, so little time! We also did some pussy willow paintings, gummy worms math, and a flower shop center. In the flower shop center, we had our cash registers, flowers and seeds with price tags on them, and real money to pay for our things. They are doing great with their addition skills!

Book of the week: The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Words of the week: Bud and Stem

Stars of the week!:

Below you will see our fun and fashionable friend, and always happy, Hillie!

and

the boating babe, and dress-up diva, the adorable Aubrey!

Spirit week and all things magnetic

Hats off  on to spirit week at school!

We talked about what a hero is this week, and who we consider heroes. And, just so you know, YOU moms and dads made it to the list even before the superheroes did. :)

We played superhero and shrek 3-D matching games. Half of their body is hidden under one cup, with the other half under another, and you try to match up each character.

We worked on our creativity with these wedgits. If you've never heard of these before, check them out. They are hours of fun!

We did some superhero comparisons with our balance scale.

We also talked about magnets this week. I explained a bit about how magnets attract and repel, and different materials that are magnetic. Here Brett is doing a magnetic "magic" trick. He has the round magnet on his hand, and a big, rectangular magnet underneath. By moving the magnet underneath, the top magnet flips over.

We practiced our names and other words with our magnetic writing boards!

We also used these giant magnetic letters to work on putting the alphabet in order. It is fun when we do alphabetical order....I get to hear the ABC's sung all morning!

The kids were thrilled about another "magic" trick we learned with magnets and paperclips. We magically got every paperclip out of the vases filled with water, without touching the water and getting wet! They thought this was so fun! But, I also think they started to grasp how a magnet works and that it really isn't magic at all.

We covered our numbers with magnetic chips and used our magnetic wands to clean up.

Another dramatic play center were these magnetic gears. There are only two gears that have a handle on them, but if the kids put them together properly, every gear will turn with just one of the handles. They created a lot of different patterns and really got their own gears turning!

and still, more magnetic fun! 

They thought that it was so fun to watch the magnetic ball move around on the table by using a magnet underneath.

Star of the week:

Our first star is the superstar sister and adorably cute and cuddly, Kennadee!

and

our second star is the super silly yet skillful and smart, Jacob!

Happy 5th Birthday to the magnificent Morgan! We got to spend the morning of her actual birthday with her, boy are we lucky! That smile is irresistible!

We're getting "ants'y for bug week!

Did you hear that we have a class pet, or rather 30! Yes, these ants started with a clean slate.....of gel that is. It was really fun watching the ants create their tunnels, and they did it quickly! The gel is also their food, so they carry it to the top (that's the white mess you see at the top) and then go up and eat when they get hungry. Really is interesting to watch!

Here the kids are checking out the ant farm, along with some other bug specimen.

We practiced matching our uppercase to lowercase letters with these ladybug mini puzzles.

Look, they even put them in alphabetical order!

We practiced our number sequencing skills with these bug puzzles numbers 1-10. A bee, a grasshopper, and a spider, oh my!

We practiced our fine motor scooping skills with this scoop-a-bug center. They would catch the bug and put it in the corresponding bug jar. We got really good at this so that we could catch some real bugs with our jars below!

Our own jars to catch the real thing!

Some more fine motor activity with a game of 'Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite'! None bit, but......

some did fall! For this center, we had to roll a die and pick a bug of the color it landed on. Whoever caught the most bugs won!

We called this center 'Swat-a-bug'. We used our clip boards and fly swatters to try to find each letter of the alphabet. As we found each letter, we would cross it off the list on the alphabet.

And, we created some patterns with these bug patterning mats. 

Books of the week: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

and

I'm a Pill Bug by Yukihisa Tokuda 

Words of the week: BUG (of course) and JAR

Song: Days of the week

Stars of the week:

Our first star is an aspiring astronaut! Check out our super silly and super sweet superhero, Kody! 

and

We also learned that this guy likes to climb and camp, swim and skateboard.

The excellent Easton!

And, we celebrated a birthday this last week. Happy Birthday to the amazing Azure! That smile sure makes US happy!