WILD ABOUT ANIMALS

From Africa to Antarctica, we became part of the wild animal kingdom. We took an imaginary safari across Africa and looked through binoculars to see zebras, lions and more. We waddled like a penguin in the coldest place on Earth then we hopped on over to a continent with some unusual Down Under residents.

Visiting the African Savannah through our special binoculars!

Making snow for the Antarctic Habitat!

Carrying baby penguins on our feet just like a mama penguin!

Exploring the animals from “Down Under!”

What does Eucalyptus smell like and who LOVES to eat it?

What is a Marsupial?

Who can jump as far as a Kangaroo?

Our color for the month of April is the color “blue”. What a great excuse for us in the toddler classroom to make blueberry muffins all together! The toddlers love to help mix in each of our ingredients when we make different recipes, all of them waiting as patiently as they can for their turn! Turn-taking is a very important step in cognitive development for toddlers and young children, and the beginning stages of being able to communicate back and forth with their peers. Because of this, we focus on turn-taking as much as possible in our classroom. Taking turns in larger group activities also helps toddlers practice for when they encounter turn-taking in one-on-one situations during free play and/or recess.

Last week we learned all about the butterfly life cycle in preschool prep! The students were able to watch a life cycle video, complete an activity where they put all of the cycle steps in order, helped to act out the stages of the life cycle and finally, listen to a reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar! What a fun day!

We learned that the first step of the life cycle is for the mother butterfly to lay eggs on a leaf. Next, a baby caterpillar emerges from its egg. (We learned that the baby caterpillar feeds on its egg shell before eating anything else!) We had some volunteers act out these stages 🙂

After the caterpillar can’t eat anymore and grows bigger, it builds a cocoon around itself called a chrysalis.  It grows and changes in this chrysalis for about 15 days! We wrapped some of our friends in a pretend chrysalis to act out this step!

When the caterpillar is ready, it breaks free from its chrysalis and is no longer a caterpillar, but a beautiful butterfly!

This month we have been doing many hands on activities in the classroom! Check out some of these fun activities below!

-We completed a class measuring project!  Each person was measured with yarn that was displayed on the board!

-April’s science focus is on bugs and insects.  We had a full insect day where the kids were able to color insects, dig for insects, read about insects and act like insects!

-We did a fun gross motor/ letter/ shape activity! Each student took turns picking a letter out of my bowl. They had to tell me its name and sound.  Then, they had to get the letter to “Marvin (The Starvin) Alphabet Monster.  The tricky part was that they had to take a specific shape path to get to him! (Ex: All green circles).

Before we left for Easter break, we had so much fun celebrating the coming of Spring with new games, painting Easter eggs with water colors, making Spring cards with “chick” thumb prints, going on a Easter egg hunt, and feeding Peter Cottontail his favorite food–carrots!

Easter egg Hunt!

We sure had a Hoppy Easter! 🙂

In this strategy, students read aloud to each other, pairing more fluent readers with less fluent readers.  Children who read at the same level may be paired to reread a text that they have already read, for continued understanding and fluency work.  In order to increase student fluency, readers need experience reading to and listening to other readers of all kinds.  Specifically, lower-level readers benefit from strategies such as Paired Reading by listening to the reading of a higher-level reader.  Reading with someone else encourages students to try reading material that may be above their usual reading level, while also building oral skills so that students are more comfortable with their reading.