Worms and Gardens

We read my favorite worm book Diary of a Worm. It is such a silly and fun book! We played a dry erase writing game at circle time. They had so much fun, we went around the circle and they took turns telling their friends what to write. They were supposed to pick a letter, number, or shape, but we also had a dog, pumpkin, and dinosaur. At the end it was my turn and they all had to write their name before they went to Music and Movement Time. They played a parachute game. They had to keep the big red bowling ball on the parachute as long as they could. I heard them get all the way to 40! We practiced our scissor and gluing skills at art time. We cut out a vase, glued it to our paper and then used the bottom of soda/water bottles to make flower prints.

Water Safety and Worms

Today we had two special visitors Nurse Katie from the Camdenton Health Department and Officer Stacey from the Missouri Highway/Water Patrol. They talked to the children about water safety. They made a promise to never go to the water alone, and to always wear their lifejackets! They were very good listeners and they asked lots of questions! Thank You So Much Nurse Katie and Officer Stacey! Today we read Grow Flower Grow and learned that flowers need dirt, sun, wind, and rain or water to grow… not pizza and cheeseburgers! We finger painted with worms and tweezers!

Worms and Gardens – Monday

This week we will be learning about worms and why they are so important for our gardens. We read the book Under Ground on Monday. We then painted a picture of under and above ground. We planted some flowers seeds in cardboard and foam egg cartons. We are going to see if it makes a difference if you start a seed in foam or cardboard. We also loved exploring the soil on the table and wrote some letters in it.

Earth

We wanted to beat the incoming rain (Thanks for the heads up from one of our moms) and take advantage of the beautiful weather this morning so we went outside before breakfast today! We read a little critters book called It’s Earth Day. I have loved hearing all of the stories of what the children have been doing at home to help protect our planet! We did a new painting technique, I asked the children if the Earth had more water or land? We referred back to our pictures of the Earth and they all agreed Earth looks mostly blue with some green, they then poured a lot of blue paint and a little green paint covered it with a plastic bag and squished it and rubbed it. They loved the cleaner version of finger paint, and the plastic bag gave it a neat texture! We also got our hands dirty, by planting our own sunflowers!
Thank You So Much for all of the candy donations for the parade!!

Recycle, Renew, Reuse

We read I Can Save The Earth! This was a cute book about a little green monster that wasted electricity, water, and littered all of the time. One night there was a blackout, and he discovered how beautiful the world was, and decided he needed to take care of it. He cleaned up a beach, started recycling, turned off water and electricity when he wasn’t using it, and he even discovered that he enjoyed being outside more than watching T.V. After music and movement time, we went outside and cleaned up all of the trash we could find around our school. We also found things that we thought would be fun to paint with instead of using our paintbrushes. They had a lot of fun painting with sticks, bark, branches, rocks, flowers, seed pod, and even a golf ball that one of the kiddos found!

Happy Earth Day!

Welcome Back! I hope everyone had a wonderful Spring Break/Easter! This week our theme is: Recycle, Renew, Reuse to celebrate our planet Earth! Today we talked about what Earth Day is, and some of the things we can do to help protect our planet. We looked a pictures of Earth, and made an Earth Sun catcher with a coffee filter, markers, and a spray bottle of water. We made a letter matching game using a paper plate and clothespins, and we also wrote in our journals today. Some of them even did some painting with their feet! The kiddos were so happy to be back!

Easter Party

Thank You So Much to all of the parents and grandparents for helping with our party today! I know I have said this before and I will say it again, our families are the BEST! We started our pre-party with some science. We looked at our “rubber” egg (the egg we put in the vinegar), and then we microwaved some Peeps! We tried to transfer bunny tails (cotton balls) from one bowl to another bowl using our noses (and a little Vasaline), we dyed Easter Eggs, and we had our Easter Egg hunt. The children had to find the eggs with their name on them, and then we had so many extra they were able to keep any without a name that they found also. Thank You for supplying the eggs for our hunt! It was a great party! Crazy like always, but a lot of fun! Thank You Again!
REMINDER: PLA will be closed Thursday, Friday, and Monday. Have a Happy Easter!

Easter

Three days is not enough time to do all of the Easter Crafts I wanted to do, but we are doing our best. Today, we had a Pinterest Fail… I was trying to have the kids make these cute yarn balloon eggs http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2009/03/naptime-creation-caution-fragile.html I think if the yarn was cut longer so they could tuck it under it might have worked, but it was just a sticky mess, and all the yarn fell off! I was determined to find one that would work, so if you would like to try this at home try this site… http://premeditatedleftovers.com/naturally-frugal-living/diy-yarn-easter-eggs/#_a5y_p=1383058. I just made one and we will see if it works. The kiddos did enjoy the sensory experience, so it wasn’t a total fail! We also did some more feet painting, letter matching, “Egg Roll” Painting, and some of the children painted an Easter Egg with Pom-Poms and clothespins. Our Vinegar Egg was all foamy today. Can’t wait for kids to feel it tomorrow!
REMINDER: Easter Party 10:45-11:30, bring a dozen plastic filled eggs per child for our egg hunt. No School Thursday, Friday, and Monday. Thank You!

Easter

This week our Theme is Easter. We painted our feet pink for a special Easter surprise, and we also painted circles with plastic Easter Eggs. We started a science experiment by putting an egg in vinegar… I know what is going to happen do you?? Some of the kids thought the egg might blow up! The sensory tub is full of Easter grass and plastic Easter eggs that have capital and lower case letters on them.
REMINDER: Easter Party is Wednesday! Please, remember to bring a dozen plastic filled eggs for our egg hunt.

Volcanoes and Fossil Dough

We had such a great day! Miss Wendy made us a special Dinosaur Muffin Breakfast, and ate with us! (She also did all of the cleaning up) Thank You so much Miss Wendy! We loved our special breakfast! During Circle Time E and T brought in “dinosaur bones” to share with us. They aren’t really dinosaur bones, but they were Big and Really Cool! We made Fossil dough, and used our big dinosaurs to make dino footprints. They should be dry next week. It is made out of coffee and coffee grounds so our room smells really good! Here is a link to the recipe: http://www.healthbarnusa.com/2013/03/06/diy-kid-activities-coffee-ground-fossils/ We also used our old play dough to create a volcano. They loved taking turns pouring in the vinegar to make it erupt! After the vinegar was gone they wanted to keep experimenting. We tried the rest of our coffee from the fossil dough, mountain dew, water and orange juice. The coffee and mountain dew made it bubble a little, the water did nothing, but the Orange Juice did work! Not as well as vinegar, but there was a small eruption! Super Fun Day!
REMINDER: Book Orders are due today. Please, read and respond to the e-mail I sent yesterday if you would like T-shirts or have any questions about the Easter Party! Next Week our theme is Easter and we will be closed Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday. Thank You! Have a great weekend! Miss Carina :o)