At the Beach

 Last week our theme was a beach/ocean unit and we did SO many fun activities. This is a theme we could do so much with, so every year we change it up! Pre-K 2 started with a fish graphing activity with colored goldfish, yum!

Of course both classes added sand to our sensory tubs/tables and we had sea shells and sand castle building supplies.

We have a Child Development class from CHHS that visits our school weekly. Here's one of the students getting engaged with our kiddos!

 

Pre-K 1 did a Rainbow Fish morning message. After reading the story, I drew the rainbow fish, then invited the peas to brainstorm how to add scales. They drew some first, then used construction paper scraps to cut scales and glue them on. At the end we added some "shiny" scales with tin foil.

 

Ms. Amy found a fishy poem that both classes used in our journals!

 They drew five fish to go with the poem.

 

Pre-K 1 did a little fishing in class...

 And caught some fish!

 In art, we had an art messy table making pinterest inspired jellyfish.

 These guys are hanging from our ceiling now!

 Another pinterest inspired art activity was sunset paintings. We squished red, orange and yellow paint around on our paper until our heart's content.

 The next day when it was dry we folded it over and painting the bottom for the sandy beach.

 Beautiful sunsets, right? I would relax on some of those beaches!

 

Lastly, we added some silhouettes of  beach balls and a beach umbrella. I love them.

 On Thursday we all wore our shades to school! Here's Ms. Angela with some cool kids in our class sporting their shades. :)

 Ms. Amy also had this awesome starfish craft. She had the peas trace and cut out a starfish shape. After, they used q-tips to spread on glue, then they sprinkled cornflour over them to resemble the texture of real starfish.

 

Here we are making them...

Ms. Amy shared a fun fishing for phonics/numbers game for our literacy and math centers.

 

 At the science table, The Crafty Classroom had some great free shell classification pictures. You can print them here. I brought some shells we have collected from home and we sorted them and identified them. The peas loved this center!

 

 Sometimes finding games that are truly appropriate and fun for preschoolers is a challenge. Either they are way too complex or way too boring. This one is neither, it is a wonderfully creative twist on memory. It is so awesome in fact that it won the Openhiem Best Toy Award. You can check it out here.

 It is easy to teach the peas to do on their own and they love the element of hidden objects inside the game.

 

Next we read this classic:

 We have a literacy bag with manipulatives to retell the story. Everyone worked together to put the fish in a school!

  

 Then we each stamped a fish to make a giant co-operative swimmy!

 

  

On Friday, which was our Splash Day, we had a special snack. We used blocks to crush a small bag of Nilla wafers.

 When it looked like SAND,

 we poured it over vanilla pudding and ate our "Sandy Beaches!" So simple, but they loved it and it helped get our attention on something other than waiting for our splash time.

 

 After splashing, Pre-K 2 had a dance party outside to dry off!

 Friends just hung out and had a great time together.

 Everyone was full of silliness!

 

Pre-K 1 splashed last, and boy were we ready to get wet! They loved every minute of it. Ms. Molly came out and supervised all the classes, the kids showed off for her!

 We decided to have a picnic to dry off. It worked out perfect. It was shady and breezy right outside our classroom, so we just spread out our towels and ate.

 

 Sandwiches, yum!

 

 We had the greatest day ever!!!

 And Ms Angela manned the door while each pea went inside and changed. We had it down like clockwork! It worked out perfectly!

Under the Sea

Last week we studied the ocean! There are SO many ocean and beach activities, it was difficult to choose what to do. But we found a few things we loved and got started.

Ms. Amy had this fun game that you could shake and search for items. When you found them, you matched them to a list of words. So this was great for beginning sounds, and sounding out words.

We also studied seashells and characteristics of different ocean creatures in science.

Pre-K 1 studied seahorses inspired by some amazing pinterest ideas.

We made some seahorses of our own. And not to get as geeky as all get out, but see those dishes with glue? Ms. Priscillia let us use them. Annnnnd, they are in the shape of fish. Themed glue containers? OhyesIdid.

Pre-K 2 studied sharks and read a few cool shark books.

I keep hearing the Jaws theme song every time I peeked over there.
Da na, da na, da na na na na na.

 They also experimented with sand.

Both classes did a color by number ocean sheet, and I was SUPER impressed by how well they did. Below is a picture of one of my sweet peas explaining the directions to her friend. So precious.  I love it when they ask a friend for help. It reinforces their knowledge as they share it verbally.

Pre-K 1 also read A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle.

Then we got busy making our own hermit crabs. This was a full on project that took all week. Inspired by pinterest, we wanted to each make our own hermit crabs similar to the one in the story. However, we took our time discussing and brainstorming how to make each piece of the project, so it took awhile to put together.

Here's part of the thinking and and working at the messy table.

And here's one of the finished products!

 

I know it's like this post will never end, but I can't help it that we are so busy in Pre-K.

Here are some fish Pre-K 2 made. The object? Tearing paper for the water, strengthening fine motor through bilateral coordination.

 A super duper cute morning message with a dose of literacy and parts of speech. I can't get enough of that emerging handwriting. I LOVE it.

Okay, lastly, we read this book, which is one of my absolute favorites for this unit. If you are a book collector, it is worth having. Beautiful illustrations mixed with gorgeous photos and a lovely story.

To wrap up the week, Pre-K 2 made a mural. This is one of my favorite things these incredible teachers do, and I would love to do more of them in my room. They do collaborative artwork. Each table works on a different part of the mural and then they piece it together and the kids write labels for it. It is such a versatile activity since it includes teamwork, artistic creativity, fine motor, learning about proportions, so many things. 

 

Here's the end result. I love it.

Finally, the end. Next week we are talking about cooking, but we are also slowing down to catch up on some projects, do some assessments, and prepare for graduation.
Happy Wednesday!