March Week 5--Spring

I have been in a funk since the beginning of the month. My apologies. Three and Four have done very little "organized" school because of my funk. I'm snapping out of it (I can feel it...) and have planned this coming weeks unit. We'll be talking about spring. I know in many parts of the country, it's not really feeling like spring so maybe they can use these acitvities to help them feel "springy!"

Counting--flower stickers; Make a field of flowers, counting as you go.

Science: Make a birdfeeder--using paper towel/tp rolls and pb and birdseed. Here is a link: http://www.kinderart.com/crafts/easybirdfeeder.shtml

Science/Craft: Make a birds nest--go on a scavenger hunt and glue the nature items to the inside of a coffee filter making a nest. Talk about how birds look for things for their nest.

Craft: Stained glass eggs; Discussion of eggs being new life that occurs in spring. Observe the nest building in our yard (we have a bird box, and a ledge on our porch where there is current nest building going on, YAY!) Cut out the outline of an egg (2), have child pick 2 or 3 colors of tissue paper then cut it or rip it into small pieces, stick it to clear contact paper then cover with another piece of contact paper. Hang in a window and let the sun shine in!

Science/Craft: March is windy-discuss how wind moves the clouds (and observe it!) Make a cloud out of cotton balls.

Plant seeds. Water them (this is my boys favorite activity.)

Fly a kite.

Craft: Make a kite out of construction paper.

Importance of Honeybee's discussion and a bee handprint craft: http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/insects/mhandprintbee.htm

Splashing in the Puddles (gross motor activity from www.brighthub.com)

Set small mats, such as those used for naptime or activities, around the room to make a disjointed path. Then have each child stand on one mat and jump up and down, singing the following song (to the tune of “We’re Following the Leader”):

We’re splashing in the puddles,

The puddles, the puddles,

We’re splashing in the puddles,

One, two, THREE!

When they reach the last line, children should jump forward three mats. You may want to instruct children to remove their shoes before starting this activity. If you’d like, you can tie this activity into the book that you’ve read by discussing how it might feel to splash in real puddles.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/education/early-childhood/articles/63311.aspx#ixzz1HndQzD9h

March Week 2: The Big Red Barn

Math skills: Estimation...use a farm related item (dried beans, unpopped popcorn kernels, toy farm animals, etc.) place some in a jar and have the child guess how much the jar contains. For this, I think I'll show him groupings of 10, 25, 50 before hand and then let him estimate as I don't think he has ANY grasp of this concept. He could prove me wrong though, woudln't be the first time.

Play "The Farmer in the Dell."

Sing Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

Craft: Milk Carton Barn.

Science: Food from the farm. What foods do we eat that grew on the farm? Another discussion about healthy eating.

Science: Duck feathers repel water. We have a local pond that has lots of ducks. I'll go collecting some feathers from shore, and we'll spray some water on them to demonstrate how they repel water.

Craft: Stick Horse http://www.everythingpreschool.com/lessonplans/farmanimals/art/art1.htm

Science: Make butter! It's really simple. Put some whipping cream in a jar, add a marble, and shake shake shake! Enjoy it on some bread. Mmm. Mmm. Good.

Craft: http://stepbystepcc.com/farm.html Pig of Many Pinks (I will see if I can find some other shades of pink tissue paper at the store, all I have is HOT pink. If I can, we'll do this, it sounds cute!)

Craft: Alternate for the above, but I may do both! MUDDY PIGS- Cut large pig shapes out of pink butcher paper. Give each child a pig shape with a small amount of brown fingerpaint in the center of it. Let the children cover their pig shapes with the brown fingerpaint "mud." (MUDDY PIGS- Cut large pig shapes out of pink butcher paper. Give each child a pig shape with a small amount of brown fingerpaint in the center of it. Let the children cover their pig shapes with the brown fingerpaint "mud.")

F is for Farm. For some reason Three cannot remember this letter to save his life. Ok, I take that back, recently (since it's the beginning letter in "Get Ready For the Code" he's been doing better. He knows several letters, and we've already covered F, but for some reason he always forgets it.)

Math skills: Counting a dozen objects, and using the word dozen. :) We'll use plastic easter eggs in a carton, and maybe these flashcards: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/printables/flash-cards/numbers-shapes.htm

Reading: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/fables/farmer-and-his-sons.htm

Cooking: Make haystacks with chowmein noodles, peanut butter and butterscotch chips

We'll also be doing "Food From the Farm" for Muffin Tin Monday!

Sensory: Coffeee grounds make great dirt for tractors to plow! (Awesome idea from http://www.angelfire.com/fl/preschoolfunzone/farm.html)

Sensory/Science: Different forms of corn. Corn starch, corn meal, corn kernels, popped corn.

I also have a game that I got from a GamesForLearning yahoogroup that is called "Farmer Farmer What Do You See?" it covers both colors and counting so I'll use it for both boys (colors for Four, counting for Three."

Lastly, I printed a game AGES ago...seriously, One was a toddler that is a big red barn and several small animals. You have to match the animals to the farm, since some of them are not farm animals. We'll defineatly play that as well. Three has played it before, but it's been awhile. I googled and couldn't really find anything similar to what I have, but you could EASILY make your own version of this.

Week in Review

This is how you make a Venn Diagram interactive.

It's hard to see the ribbon outline in this shot, the original idea was to use hula hoops, but alas, I didn't have 2 hula hoops on hand. So, ya do what ya gotta do to make it work.

Helping me make the cupcakes.

Watching some newly emerged butterflies dry their wings. Sadly, one butterfly did not fully emerge before his wings dried. But, it was a good lesson in life.

Painting his coffee filter with watercolors.

Three's finished product.

And, after assembly.

Three painting his egg carton caterpillar.

Adding eyes.

Adding some of the food the caterpillar ate.

Sequencing.

We did the life cycle cards, he enjoyed them, somehow I didn't get pictures. This weeks theme is "The Big Red Barn." We are visiting a farm next week, so we are preparing for that. Plans to come shortly.