Do cows oink?

Today our read aloud was titled The Cow That Went Oink by Bernard Most.  We made a text-to-text connection today when we remembered that this story was similar to the story The Cow That Clucked.  Both stories had a cow as a main character.  Both cows did not say the right thing, both cows searched for their moo, and in the end both cows were able to moo. 

Today with Miss Sue and Mrs. Palmer the children sorted animals into groups.   One group was farm animals and the other was animals that live in the zoo.  I used this activity to check the children's understanding of our last two themes.

With Mrs. Severson the children played a rhyming game.  A picture of a house full of objects was placed in front of the children.  A set of mouse cards was also spread out in front of them.  On their turn the child picked a mouse card and identified the object on it.  They then found something in the house that rhymed with it.

At my center the children made a book titled My Farm Counting Book.  On each page their was a set of farm animals the children counted them and wrote their total in the sentence on the bottom of the page.  Some children practiced writing the high frequency words I and see in their books.

At closing circle we made butter for our white day snack.  Here is the recipe if you would like to try it.
Supplies:  heavy whipping cream
                 a jar with a lid
                 a marble

1. All you do is put some heavy cream into a jar and drop in a marble to help with mixing .
2. Screw the lid on tight and begin to shake it.
3. The cream has little globs of fat and protein. When you shake the jar, you get the fat and the protein that are moving around in the cream to stick together.
4. Keep shaking the cream back and forth until it thickens. In about 10 minutes, it will turn to butter.
5. When you shake the jar, the little fat and protein globs in the cream hit each other and stick together, forming a larger and larger glob.
6. The glob is butter! The liquid that's leftover is buttermilk.

Farmyard Beat

Today's read aloud was titled Farmyard Beat by Lindsey Craig.  As soon as the sun goes down, the animals are up! ("Sheep can't sleep. Sheep can't sleep. Sheep can't sleep 'cause they got that beat!") Before long, there's a giant farmyard dance party, complete with funny animal sounds. But what happens when all the racket wakes up Farmer Sue?  Everyone dances to the beat, “T-I-L-L… / … they fall in a heap! / Asleep!”  We couldn't listen to this story without making a beat of our own.  The children were each given a musical instrument to play while I read the story.  They watched me, the conductor, for the sign that told them when they should play and when they should stop.  They had wonderful self-regulation during this experience.  To end the day we marched in our own band with the instruments.

Today the children visited the two centers that they did not get to on Tuesday.  At my center the children played the Oink game.  They were each given a recording sheet with numbers on it.  They took turns reaching into a bucket and pulling out a card.  If their card had a number on it they identified it and dotted it on their recording sheet.  If they pulled out an Oink card play moved to the next person.  This game taught us acceptance. 

With Miss Sue the children went on a farmyard adventure.  I hid farmyard animals around the room with letters or words on.  The children were given a recording sheet and a clipboard.  They went around the room identifying and recording the letters or words they found.  At this point in the school year we need to keep learning, but we must make it active learning. 

Down on the Farm

Today we started our new theme farm.  Many goods are produced on farms, so I changed our math and science center into a grocery story.  The children can go to the writing center and make a list of foods that they would like to purchase.  They can use a picture and word chart to help them spell the words.  They can then go to the grocery store and search the isles for what they need.  Then they can check out and take their purchases home.  Lastly, they can cook the food and use it to feed their families.

Our read aloud today was titled The Big Red Barn.  A few children knew this story, which was great because it is new to me.  This story by Margaret Wise Brown is about the cycle of the life on a farm.  At an independent center the children were given a barn.  Inside the barn they were asked to recall the characters in the story and draw them in the barn.                                                                   

We all know that cows live on farms and they produce milk, and that milk is used to make ice cream.  Today with Grandma Sue the children followed the steps in a recipe to make ice cream in a bag.  They were able to use scientific inquiry to observe how the liquids changed their form of matter into a solid.   Since each child visited two out of our four centers today, they may be our ice cream makers on Thursday.

 

Sticky Fingers

Today the children had sticky fingers after visiting one of our centers.  With Grandma Sue the children cut out a chameleon and then painted it with a mixture of Karo syrup and washable food coloring.  The final product is amazing.  The chameleons look like stained glass windows.  This project went along with our story for the day Chameleon, Chameleon.  In the story we learned that chameleons change their color based on their feelings. 

At Miss Sue's center the children were given a bag of numbers and a recording sheet that had numbered cages on it.  The children picked a number, identified it, then they found the cage that matched it, and stamped a zoo animal in it.

At my center the children journaled about what they would do if they were a zookeeper.  We worked really hard to draw a picture of a person with 6 traits.  We also worked hard on using a variety of colors in our pictures and on adding details.

Our song for the day was "Zoo Train."
(Tune: Down By the Station)
Down by the Zoo Train Next to the zoo
On came an animal Do you know who? 
We picked up a kangaroo
And what do you know
This is the way the train started to go.
(Hopping, Hopping) watch us go.
(Hopping) fast then (Hopping) slow
(Hopping) down, then (Hopping) back
Watch us (Hop) around the track.

The children took turns picking animals and describing how the train would move. 

Meeme Zoo Adventure

To begin the day the children listed to the story If Anything Ever Goes Wrong at the Zoo.  Well things did go wrong at our Meeme Zoo.  All of the animals got out.  It was the children's job to count them all and make sure they got back.  While two sets of children were graphing the zoo animals, the other two sets of children familiarized themselves with the rest of the school by visiting various stations. 

Did you know that a kangaroo can leap 30 feet in one bound?  In the art room the children counted how many hops it would take them to travel 30 feet.  For some children it took 21, 18, and even 16 hops. 

Did you know that when a baby giraffe is born it averages 6 feet tall.  In the music room the children compared their height to a baby giraffe's and recorded their results on a graph.  They also had fun playing giraffe limbo. 

In the library the children read a variety of nonfiction books about zoo animals.  In the computer lab the children visited pbskids.com and played a few of their animal games. 

The children did a wonderful job traveling around the school being respectful, responsible, and safe.  It may have helped that we read the story Never, Ever Shout in a Zoo before we began our adventure.

Monkey Business

Today we read two stories, one was nonfiction titled Gorillas and Their Infants, and the other one was fiction titled Goodnight Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann.  The children loved the story Goodnight Gorilla.  Unaware that a gorilla has stolen his keys, a zookeeper wishes all the animals good-night and sets off for home. A troupe of newly freed beasts follow the sleepy keeper back to his house and into his bed. When the keeper's wife wakes to wish her husband good-night, many good-night wishes come back to her from out of the dark!

Our centers today were all about monkey business.  At my center the children used their kindergarten cutting to cut out the body parts of a monkey.  They then used their fine motor skills to assemble their parts with brands.  With Miss Sue the children played alligator bingo.  They reached into the alligators mouth and pulled out a card.  They identified the object on the card and the letter that made its beginning sound.  They then colored in the letter on their recording sheet.

Today we sang the song, "Five Little Monkeys."

 

Five little monkeys, swinging in a tree

Teasing Mr. Crocodile, ‘Can’t catch me, can’t catch me!’

Along came Mr. Crocodile quiet as can be

And snapped one monkey out of that tree.

Four little monkeys swinging in a tree...

At Mrs. Severson's center the children chose a monkey or a crocodile to color, cut out, and tape on a popsicle stick.  We will use them as puppets to retell the rhyme. 

Z is for Zebra

Today our read aloud was titled Zebras.  This book is one in a series of nonfiction books by Pebble Books.  We have enjoyed reading a few books from this series.  They give us facts about where the zoo animal live, they tell us what they eat, what the group that they live in is called, as well as provides us information on the animal's habitat.  I also taught the children a new song that they giggled over.  The title is "Elephants Have Wrinkles."
  Elephants have wrinkles, wrinkles, wrinkles. 
Elephants have wrinkles, wrinkles everywhere.

On their toes, (echo) No one knows, (echo) why yi yi yi yiih.

Elephants have wrinkles, wrinkles, wrinkles. 
Elephants have wrinkles, wrinkles everywhere.

Each time we sang a verse we added another part of the elephant's body that had wrinkles.

Today the children visited the two centers that they did not get to yesterday.  One of the centers had the children make a peacock.  They cut out a peacock's body and glued it to a piece of paper.  Next, they stuck green dot stickers all over their paper.  Then they used a black marker to connect their dot stickers and added details to make them look like feathers.  Lastly, they dipped the eraser end of a pencil in blue paint and stamped a circle inside each sticker to make it look like the eye of the feather.

At my center the children played a roll and dot peacock math game.  Some children worked on the numbers they need on their classroom assessments.  Some children worked on the numbers 15-20, some worked on 20-25, and some read a short story and played an ending sound word game.

Peacocks

When I surveyed the children at the beginning of our zoo unit they said they wanted to learn about peacocks.  So, we designated today as our peacock day.  For our read aloud the children listened to the CD of the story Three Hens and a Peacock by Lester Laminack.  The moral of this story was; "Be yourself, don't try to be like someone else."  We learned facts about peacocks by visiting the San Diego Zoo website.  I have included the link for you incase your child is an animal lover.  We have visited this site a few times in the last couple of days. I only share the facts on this site that a 4 and 5 year old can understand.  http://kids.sandiegozoo.org/animals/birds/peacock

Today at Grandma Sue's center the children played a missing number zoo game.  On their turn the children spun a spinner.  They counted the circles their spinner landed on.  They then moved the corresponding number of places on the game board.  Next they picked a card that had a sequence of numbers with one missing; 9, ___, 11.  The children had to fill in the missing number.  Next year the children will be assessed using AIMS web.  As part of the math assessment they will have to find the missing number in a sequence of numbers.

At an independent center the children worked on making the last letter for the alphabet book they have made over the course of the year.  Today their job was to cut out the letter "Z," write their name on it, and use a q-tip to paint stripes on it.  On Monday we will add an eye and yarn for a mane to turn our letter "Z" into a zebra.

 

Bookworm Gardens

We had a wonderful time visiting Bookworm Gardens and searching for signs of spring.  We toured a barn with Charlotte's web, we sat in Papa Bear's chair from the story Goldilacks and the Three Bears, we dug for dinosaur bones, and we even learned that the main part of a leaf is called the blade.  I have included pictures from our trip as well as a link to learn more about the exciteng learning opportuities that take place at the garden. http://www.bookwormgardens.org/

Busy Day

Today we had an extremely busy day.   To start the day the children were assessed using our districts IGDI's assessment(Individual Growth and Development Indicators).  This assessment was given by the school reading specialist, her assistant, the school psychologist, and myself.  We assess the children in three areas; picture naming, rhyming, and alliteration.

Today our read aloud was Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell.  This book is about a boy who wrote  to the zoo wanting a pet. They send various different animals, all of which prove unsuitable for one reason or another the elephant is too big, the lion too fierce, the giraffe too tall, the monkey too naughty. Finally, the zoo sent a puppy: "He was perfect!"  During centers the children each received a journal page.  On it they drew a picture of an animal that they would like from the zoo.  They then provided an adjective that described the animal and why they couldn't keep it.  One child wrote to the zoo to send a tiger, but he was too scary.  Another children wrote to the zoo to send a seal, but he was too splashy.  While another child wrote to the zoo to send a giraffe, but he was too big.

At my center the children made a giraffe position book.  On each page there was a sentence that told where the giraffe was;  Giraffe is under the sun.  After reading the sentence together the children had to glue their giraffe in the correct spot.  Next year you will hear a lot about the Wisconsin Common Core Standards.  One of the math standards is to explore, recognize and describe shapes and spatial relations.  Spatial relations includes the terms under, between, above, and below, all of which were covered in our giraffe book.

Happy Mother's Day

Before I Was a Mom
Author Unknown

Before I was a Mom
I made and ate hot meals.
I had unstained clothing.
I had quiet conversations on the phone.

Before I was a Mom,
I slept as late as I wanted
And never worried about how late I got into bed.
I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.

Before I was Mom
I cleaned my house each day.
I never tripped over toys or forgot words of lullabies.

Before I was a Mom
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom
I had never been puked on
Spit on
Chewed on
Or pinched by tiny fingers

Before I was a Mom
I had complete control of:
My thoughts
My body
And my mind.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom
I never held down a screaming child
So that doctors could do tests
Or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put it down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
When I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
Could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a Mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
Could make me feel so important.

Before I was a Mom
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay
I had never known the warmth
The joy
The love
The heartache
The wonder
Or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much before I was a Mom.

Mother's Day

Today was an exciting day in our classroom.  We finally checked on our chrysalises and guess what?  A butterfly emerged from each and every one. Yeah!!  When the children opened their chrysalises they found their caterpillar.  The caterpillar had wings that included grapes and crackers for them to eat as a treat.  The children loved having fresh fruit for a change.

I can't tell you too much about centers today because we were working on our Mother's Day gifts, which are a secret!  The children did listen to the story Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?  by Eric Carle.  We also sang the MOMMY Song:
I love my mommy,
She's the best,
My mommy is a great one,
M-o-m-m-y
M-o-m-m-y
M-o-m-m-y
And mommy is her name-o

With Miss Sue today the children played letter Bingo.  They listed to a word on a CD and then determined its beginning sound.  They then found the letter on their game board.  What was nice about this activity is that it moved quickly, which helped us think fast on our feet.  This game has two versions, one that works on beginning sounds of word,s and one that works on letter identification.  We will use both versions.

Cats

Today we talked more about zoo animals that belong to the cat family.  We learned about tigers and their cubs.  We also sang the song, "We're Going on a Lion Hunt."  The children connected this song to the one we sang earlier in the year titled, "We're Going on a Bear Hunt." 

At Miss Sue's center today the children made a torn tiger.  They used orange or white paper to tear out a head, neck, belly, tail, and four legs for a tiger.  They used black paper to tear out stripes.  They then glued all of the parts together and drew on a tiger face.  What seems like an easy project is actually very difficult for many children.  When you tear paper you use your thumb and pointer finger.  At 4 and 5 these fingers are not very strong.  By tearing paper we are able to strengthen these fingers.  This in turn will help your child hold a pencil when they have to write sentences, write numbers in math, and draw pictures when they have to illustrate stories. 

With Grandma Sue the children cut out a lion and glued it onto a piece of paper.  They then finger painted a mane on it using yellow, brown, and orange paint.  At my center the children played tiger roll and stripe.  The children were given one or two dice based on assessments.  They rolled their die or dice and counted the total number of dots.  They then drew the corresponding number of stripes on their tiger.  Some children worked on writing an addition sentence to go along with their roll.

The children who did not make a zoo yesterday were given the opportunity to do so today.  Here are a few pictures of their creations.

 

Zoo

Today we started our new theme "Zoo."  We began the day by making a KWL chart that goes along with the theme.  In the "K" section it asked the children what they know about zoos.  The children stated that they knew seals, lions, tigers, bunnies, horses and kangaroos live there.  The "L" section of the chart asked the children what they want to learn about zoos.  The children want to learn more about elephants, lions, seals, monkeys and chimpanzees, peacocks, cheetahs, and swans.  I will use this chart to help direct my instruction during this unit. This keeps the children engaged and provides ownership of learning. 

Today we learned about lions and leopards.  We learned that both animals live on the continent of Africa.  They live in groups called prides.  They are meat eaters.  Their body coverings provide them with camouflage, which protects them from predators.

The children visited two out of the four centers taking place in the classroom.  Their favorite center was making a zoo.  I brought in a bunch of zoo animals and the children used our classroom blocks to make a zoo for the animals.  This seems like an easy learning activity, but it teaches one of life's most important skills, which is how to get along with others.  The children worked as a team to make their zoo.  They had to communicate with one another what part of the project they we working on.  They had to share resources, and when their zoo was done they had communicate to the rest of the class what part of the project they worked on.  The sharing aspect of this project was done to provide the children with the opportunity to become more comfortable speaking in front of others.

To end the day we went outside.  Before the children played I broke them into four groups.  Each group was given a pail of water and a paintbrush.  The children dipped the brush into the water and painted the letter "Z" on the cement(this is our letter for the week).  This activity helped us practice writing our letter, but it also introduced us the concept of evaporation, for with the hot sun out "Z's" didn't stay around for long.  This would be a fun activity to do at home to practice numbers, letters, shapes, and words.

Friday Fun

Today we had another fun learning day.  The children visited all three of our centers during center time.  At Miss Sue/Mrs. Palmer's center the children made the letter "q" page for their letter book.  We were so busy during our "q" week that we never got to it, so today was the day to get it done.  At my center the children made a page to go along with the class book we are making titled Old Black Fly.  During center time I read the children this alphabet story by Jim Aylesworth.  At the center the children wrote their name on their page, and then cut a picture out of a magazine that they liked.  They then glued their picture onto their page.  Next the children decided what letter made the beginning sound for their picture.  They used alphabet stamps to stamp it on their page.  Lastly, they searched through the magazines for more pictures to glue onto their page that started with this letter.  I will assemble their pages into a book this weekend.

Mrs. Severson had the favorite center for the day.  At her center the children visited the website http://pbskids.org/  Once here I clicked on the games arrow.  On the next page there is a set of 10 buttons.  There is a tree, a dinosaur, a first aid kit, etc.  I clicked on the orange button with the six white squares inside it.  By doing this you will see the topics of games that are available. http://pbskids.org/games/alltopics.html  Today we played letter games.  A few that the children visited were:    Dog's Letter Pit
                        Alpha Pigs Lickety Letter Bingo
                        Bear's Skateboard Park
                        Alpha Bricks
  Other really good ones are:
                        Red's Rhyme and Roll
                        Amazing Alphabet Match
                        Elmo Rhyme
                        Alpha Pigs Paint by Letter
Some of the good games under the counting button are:
                        Chicken Count
                        Bug Catcher
                        How Tall

Another activity that the children enjoyed was due to an accident.  For the children who are working on letters I took one of my daughter's balls and wrote the trickier letters on it with a permanent marker.  During play time I called a couple of friends over and played catch with them.  When they caught the ball they had to tell me which letter their thumb was on or near.  Once we started playing the rest of the class wanted to play too.  Since it started raining at the end of the day we all went to the gym to play this game.  You may want to keep this activity in mind for the future.  I also works when practicing high frequency words, spelling words, and addition and subtraction facts.

Bugging Out

Today during circle time we played the "Busy Bee" game.  I placed a set of flowers labeled 9-15 on our felt board.  Then I sang the song, "Busy bee, busy bee, a flying and a buzzing, a flying and a buzzing, where can you be, where can you be?"  During the song the children closed their eyes up tight and I hid a bee behind one of the flowers.  The children then opened their eyes and took turns guessing what number flower the bee was under.  This game worked on number identification, turn taking, and being honest.  We had a few friends try to peek through their fingers to see where the bee went, this provided us with a teachable moment. 

Today during centers the children visited the two centers that they did not get to yesterday.  At my center the children followed multiple step directions to assemble a ladybug.  They drew spots on each of the ladybug's wings and then counted the total number of spots.  Some children had a few spots, some had a lot of spots, and some wrote the addition sentence that went along with their spots.  With Grandma Sue the children played a roll and cover game.  This gives them practice subitizing.  This is a fancy way of saying: look at a group of something and tell how many there are without counting each individual item.  For example: recognizing that the six dots on a die are 6 — without going 1,2,3,4,5,6.  Some of the children worked with numbered dice, some of the children worked with dice with the number words written on them.