Hi everybody,
We started our week rereading Why Can’t I Fly, a story about a monkey
who wants to fly. We made bird wings, like Minnie in the book, but
couldn’t test them because they were still wet with glue and feathers.
Instead we played parachute games. We sang songs, went under the
parachute, and each had a turn to go on top of the parachute too. The
class did a fantastic job of listening during the games. We played so
long that some of our arms began to tire. Whew!
Outside we discovered more worms, more snails, a couple of bees, a
spider, and at least two mosquitoes.
While half the class made music with Alex, the rest of us read books.
We read Boomer’s Big Day, about a dog who moves to a new home. The
children shared many stories about moving to new houses. We also read
Marshmallow about a bunny and a cat becoming friends.
We measured everyone on our height chart for the third and last time
this year. Needless to say, they’ve all grown like weeds.
We noticed our wings were all dry and ready for flight. We took them
for a spin in the big room. Before we took off someone asked how we
would make sure we didn’t fly into the ceiling or lights? We were
advised to be very careful. We listened to soft slow music and loud
fast music. The birds of a feather all flew together. The request was
for rock and roll.
We made bird feeders using pine cones and peanut butter. As soon as we
hung them up, the children wanted to know why the birds weren’t eating
them yet? We threw the rest of the seeds on the dirt area by the new
grass, still no birds. After quiet time we decided to tiptoe down to
look out the kitchen window. We saw three squirrels thoroughly
enjoying our bird feeders! There were also many birds pecking at the
seeds on the ground. We were happy. When we came out to play the
animals scattered quickly.
Have a lemony weekend,
Therese
The early bird
Hi y’all,
We began our week wiggling like worms. We played with some rubbery
rainbow worms in the classroom. People noticed there were four
different sizes. We went outside and used them for a worm hunt in the
sandbox. A couple of people found a real worm. They left him in the
soft shaded soil and observed him digging. The snails have been
getting equal attention.
We watched three videos Clara’s uncle sent us about his pet worms. He
explained how the worms eat the peoples' food scraps, adding nutrients
to the soil which they then use in the garden. After the videos, we
had a little pop quiz, which the children passed with flying colors.
While class photos were happening everyone made worms using model
magic and food color. We have blue, pink, yellow, green, and one peach
worm. While playing in the yard someone found the world’s tiniest
worm. So tiny it was hard to tell if it was real.
We have been playing a Bingo alphabet game, and a farm animal board
game much to everyone’s delight. We played the farm animal game while
others danced with scarves to the sounds of drumming with Alex. We
also sang B-I-N-G-O and Old Macdonald.
We examined our plastic insects with magnifying glasses. We also had
one real bee to see. The children asked if he was dead? Some said yes,
while two thought maybe he was sleeping. They wondered how he died.
“Maybe he just fell out of the sky?” “Possibly someone stepped on
him?” We realized that may not have happened because if it had, he
would be squashed. The class noticed he had a stripe on his eye, curvy
legs, maybe still a stinger, a long thing coming out of his mouth,
wings, and one person thought they saw pollen on the bee's knees.
When we held the magnifying glass over the dead bee, he seemed to
suddenly dance, which startled a few of us. We can only assume it was
the electric static coming off of the glass after wiping it with a
tissue to clean it. It was rather exciting so we did it many times,
including in circle, so everyone could see the dancing bee.
After eating lunch outside on Thursday, as we climbed the stairs to
the kitchen, a baby bird flew into the glass door, landed on the
porch, and then flew and landed on Stellan. It was pretty exciting but
everyone remained calm until the bird flew safely back to the yard.
Then we went to sleep. Quiet time continues to be pretty quiet with a
couple of people asking for it.
Friday we read Are You A Butterfly?, The Backward Day, and Waiting For
Wings. We listened to peaceful bird songs during snack. Outside we
found lots of worms to end worm week and discovered new sprouts under
our bench. We quietly flapped our wings and flew back upstairs for
lunch where we listened to several stories before playing some
Alphabet Bingo and heading into a very quiet, quiet time.
Have a three day weekend,
Therese and Anna