Birds of a Feather

Dear parents,

We read Baby Bird's First Nest. We talked a tiny bit about animals that fly. Most people shouted "birds fly" with one person adding butterflies and telling us about her grandmother who loved butterflies.

Tuesday Kim came for a family share. She read Feathers For Lunch and the children acted out the story. One person got to be the cat and everyone else was birds. The cat just got feathers. We split the class in two groups. While some acted with Kim, we reread a book about a bird's nest and asked the children if there was anything we could use in the big room to make a nest. They used the square, rectangle, and triangle blocks to make a circular nest. One group wanted to make sure it was big enough for six baby birds while the other group was more
concerned with flying the coop.

In the yard we collected sticks to build our own bird nest. The children helped weave the sticks, mud, vines, grass, and leaves into a nest. While we were working on it someone noticed a bird fly into a small area on the church wall. When we looked for closer inspection we saw that there were two birds building a real nest! The children wanted to put our nest in a tree. We did. They wondered whether birds would use it or maybe borrow sticks for their own nests.

We used the Cheerios Kim left us to make bird feeders. The children honed their excellent fine motor skills to weave the cereal onto pipe cleaners. We took them out to the yard and placed them in a bird's eye view. Later when we returned a few missing Cheerios excited the children. And the teachers.

Friday we read Pepito the Brave Bird and searched for shapes in his body. The children saw circles, triangles, and half circles. We traced them on the carpet and in the air. We worked to trace these shapes using cardboard shapes, and scissors to cut them out. The children glued them onto paper to make new shapes.

Next week, another family share--book yours today-- more acting out books, and story writing.

Have a flightless weekend,
Therese

Acting like animals

Hi Mamas and Papas,

We began our week talking about our feeling chart and thinking about how we move from happy to sad feelings and back again. Children gave examples: when someone shares it helps me feel happy, when my friend says unkind words I feel sad, when I cuddle I feel happy, and when I have a boo boo a bandaid feels better. We also read From Head To Toe and people took turns to go in the circle and act like wild animals. The class guessed what animal they were acting out. It was wild. There were gentle and wild wing flapping, kicking of heels, howling, scratching, roaring, and a little bit of spinning round. Who knew we had such acting ability?

During our last tumbling class with Alexis people were seen rolling over and over and over on the mats. In the classroom we let the children do a retelling of The Three Little Pigs. They knew the story like the backs of their hands. Then we acted it out. The children chose whether they wanted to be the peddler, the mama pig, the three little pigs, or the big bad wolf. One person chose to be an audience member. Guess who your child chose? We reminded people not to really eat the pigs and most acted accordingly. Someone had the idea of using our family tree as the apple tree in the story. In the end we all enjoyed a nice pot of wolf stew.

The children retold The Three Bears too, and afterwards we acted it out. We had eight bears, six Goldilocks, and one audience member. The acting was superb with deep voices, middle sized voices, and squeaky little bear voices. Goldilocks fell out of chairs and slept soundly when the Bears returned.

We wrote a list of animals to act out in the big room during a game of stop and go. The children came up with fast and slow animals, fluttering and slithering animals. They acted out all of the above as well as singing the animal sounds. We ran like a cheetah (the favorite), back and forth and back and forth across the big room. When it was time to be a sloth, one person just couldn't shake their cheetah feet.

We are continuing to add to our Acts of Kindness list. We talk some about the Golden Rule. Everyone agrees they like when friends invite them to play, share, and take turns.

Next week, animals that fly.

Have a wild weekend,
Therese