Fish Fish Fishy Fish

Fish stories, shells to explore, and lots of colorful fish to create. The colors and the shapes of fish are fascinating and engaging! The children splashed the fish and shells about in the water table, read books about fish, and enjoyed playing "fishy pokey" which is a lot like the "hokey pokey" but with fins and gills.
Science in the prek classroom: wave jars made with oil and water and things that might float in there....oil and water don't mix!







fish tesselations

printing fish, which turned out to be a favorite as you might know from the many prints in cubbies this week. "Realistic" rubber fish were rolled with paint, and paper was pressed on to create a print.
let me tell you about sharks!

bug week

Here we go, it's nearing the end of the school year and the children are clustering, independently, to enjoy a book that each child takes a turn "reading". A silly book that asks for audience participation, asking questions like "would you like ketchup on your cornflakes?" (okay, to be honest, the teacher did add chairs to the circle...hey, I need a chair!!!)
a funny book to read to your friends!
lady bug cupcakes, some very anemone like....
spider webbing a chair
glue and google eyes and colorful paper=bugs
butterfly wings are symmetrical



admiring the art work
bug prints
a spider web greeting
the beginnings of cupcakes
the pastry chef
bug prints
colorful bug stampers
a paper spider web game..toss the spider!
sharing a birthday with my sister and school friends!
"george" as a stand in for a little brother who has turned two today! Thanks for the cupcakes:o)
Until Next Time, Michele

birds

looking everywhere for birds.....
We learned a lot about birds this week! Our field trip gave us the opportunity to see a whole family of birds. The children enjoy a "quiz game" that we play and are able to name birds given facts about them...."I am a bird that lays blue eggs and I am blue" means BLUEBIRD! We constructed nests from yarn and glue, and made eggs from clay to paint and put in the nests. There were "hummingbird" eggs, "bluebird" eggs, and little eggs and big eggs, and the children chose the colors to paint them.
The sensory table was filled with paper shreds and little birds and eggs, and paper nests to nestle them into. "find the bird" was a favorite game.

a special visitor
painting all the eggs...what color did you choose?
dress up was changed to include safety vests and capes.
getting a "monocular" to help focus...
lets' take a look
gathering before we go

a ship in the classroom to travel down the Hudson
there it is!
any birds up there?


lots of looking
Until Next Time,
Michele

A House is a House For ME

A House is a House for me week is built on the theme of the book of the same title. When we read the book, we begin to realize that there are many things that are "houses" for other things....a box is a house for crayons....a dog is a house for fleas.......Our artwork and stories reflected the many houses that we know about.

This week began with the great marshmallow challenge....we participated in a school wide activity to launch STEM week...science, technology, engineering, and math....our activity was a free building exercise with marshmallows and toothpicks. We were interested to see the teamwork that just naturally evolved with the children, maybe as a result of seeing the older children working in their designated teams. The children needed big trays to situate their structures, as they worked together to make complicated designs.
We had many "homes" set up in our classroom, tents and tubes, and the children nestled inside. These lego sticker books......wow.
The beginning building stages. How do these even stick together?
on to how to stick many of these together!



a rainy walk. We quacked a lot.
House structures to paint and tell stories about. We added details the next day, and the children had wonderful stories to share when we asked them "Who lives in your house?"

Dirt cups. (the chocolate pudding/cookie kind) "Dirt" is a house for...gummy worms!
Until Next Time,
Michele