F is for Food!

"Look, Ms Tamra, I'm making waffles for Daddy!"

Today we explored Dr Sears Traffic Light Eating. (For more information click here)

This is such an easy way to help kids remember 

what foods help them grow and 

what food should be saved for special occasions like parties or celebrations. 

So many foods to choose from! But which food will help our bodies the most? Like Lightening McQueen, we need the right kind of gas to go fast!

Green Go foods are things a farmer could grow--your body needs LOTS of these!

We found pictures and divided them into the right categories.  For simplicity in this discussion, we only briefly touched on the yellow light foods.

Making Playdough--a great Math activity with all the reading numbers, counting, comparing sizes and turn taking!

So much fun to watch the food coloring turn it green!!

How do we start our school day?

When the students arrive each day, there are a variety of learning centers set up that they are free to explore and move between as they choose.  Here is a peak of some of the work that took place today. 

The art center was creating color bug themed emergent reader books.

  I forgot to send these home--so look for them in your child's folder on Monday!  Here is the link I used for these great books-- Cover, Page 2, Page 3 

Let your child "read" and re-read these to you over and over and congratulate them each time.  Encourage them to point to each word as they "read" it.  You might need to do it with them the first time--but they'll catch on quickly!

We also had play-dough fun . . . 

Dramatic play included fierce treasure hunting pirates . . .

The math center was a bug grid game . . .

Want to print your own?  Find it here . . . I would love to have bug counters to use with it, but instead we had bears eating the leaves! At home you could use beans, buttons or other small objects. It's simple to play--roll the dice and cover up that many leaves (you could also use regular dice or number cards).  When the grid fills up, you win! I had two of these set up so two kids could play together or it also works for individual play.  

And the always popular Geoboard.

So there's a sneak peek at the work going on during our center time today!

D is for Dinosaur

We love Dinosaurs!

We love learning about dinosaurs!

We had a lot of fun discovering just how BIG some of them where.

 First, all of the children laid down on their backs with their feet up against the door and I put a piece of tape next to each child's head to show how long he or she was. Then we used a research book to look up the length of Stegasaurus. We measured that distance from the door and then put a mark on the floor. We repeated this for Triceratops, Tyrannosaourus Rex, Eoraptor (he was smaller than any of our class members) and Diplodocus (who wouldn't even fit in our school!).
What a fun way to learn about dinosaurs, math, measurement, and comparisons all at the same time!

We also pretended to be paleontologists and went on a dinosaur dig. Here are directions for this easy yet fun and educational activity:

1) Prepare chicken bones by cleaning them and soaking in a mixture of bleach and water.

2) Bury these in sand. I used moon sand (sold near the play-dough) so I could easily mold it into the shape of a rock.

3) Discuss the process of fossilization and the work of paleontologists explaining how carefully they have to be to not damage the fragile bones.

4)Let each child use a small object (I used the mini pick that came with the moon sand) to carefully breakaway the sand in small sections. Then have them use a paint brush to brush away remaining sand.

5) Push the bones in clay and show how an indentation is made. Discuss how casts are made of the fossils and then filled to make copies of the bones. Then they are pieced together like a giant puzzle.

Aren't Dinosaurs fun?!?

Marvelous ME!

Our first day of school subject was "Marvelous ME!" We not only got to learn a little about each child's favorite things and played a lot of games to help us remember their names, but we also learned all about our bodies.

For example, we traced various body parts and compared their lengths . . .

And explored our senses with

SENSE-SATIONAL JELLO!

Supplies:

• Enough Jello to make 1 serving per child. If using more than one pack, chose different flavors and have the kids guess what color the final product will be.
• Water
• Ice

Directions:
Follow the speed-set recipe, exploring senses all along the way! For example, HEAR the package being opened, SMELL the powder, FEEL the water and ice, SEE the colors changing as water is poured on the powder, etc.

Everyone gets a chance to stir!

Chill for an hour and then . . .

TASTE!

And what was today's popular playtime toy? TRAINS!
Complete with lots of "Whoo-whoo's" and "Chugga-chugga-choo-choo's!"