On the Pond

 We spent last week learning about ponds, and I have to say that while I wasn't excited about pond curriculum at first, I ended up really loving this whole week. There was so much to learn and we enjoyed all of our activities.We started with ducks this week. Pre-K 2 read Duck on a Bike while Pre-K 1 read Make Way for Duckings. They were both wonderful books!

 

Pre-K 2 made duck masks!

 

Next, both classes journaled about ponds.

 

Pre-K 1 read this book several times. Do you remember it? It's forever old and I remember it from when I was a child. It was actually just featured in my Children's Lit class as an excellent example of a wordless picture book. I agree! It provides a great opportunity for children to dictate the story as you walk through the pictures and it's guaranteed to cause many giggles.

  

Next, we learned about the life cycle of frogs.

 

Pre-K 1 journaled about frogs.

Then we made a lily pads with thumbprint frogs.

I really, really love those frogs.

Both classes set up some pond water tables that the peas really enjoyed.

We added foam lily pads to ours and they floated!

Pre-K 2 did some torn paper ducks....I love how they are listening to Ms. Rhonda give directions out of sight.

 

Pre-K 1 made water resist turtles. They were so much fun for the kids to create and they turned out adorable.

First, they used oil pastels to draw a turtle. We discuss drawing the lines for the shell, and shapes for the head, feet and tail.

Next we watercolored over them, filling in the shells. We used whatever colors we liked, so these are some very flashy turtles!

Finally, we cut them out and glued them on blue paper. I would have loved to have them crinkle up the paper and do a blue wash to look like water, but it was an afterthought. Maybe next time. :) I think they are adorable!

We read a few more pond books....

Then we learned about beavers.

 For morning message I found beaver facts and then the kids had to guess all my facts. They did really well, they guessed all the "Can" and "Are" facts below.

They loved learning about beavers, so we made some at art!

It was a little complicated, but we finished them!

While one center worked on beavers, I thought another center could finger paint a pond. You know those ideas that always sound better in your head? Well......by the end of the second group, the pond was done and there was blue paint...., well, everywhere! So, after a little brainstorming we decided that the next group could tear brown paper to make a dam on the pond. It was a great save! They loved it and looked up pictures to try and make their dam accurate. Fine motor, collaboration, and critical thinking skills? Yes, please.

Here's the even better part....the peas love to clean. So I gave them baby wipes and the smocks and they polished them right up!

Here's our pond. I love it!

 

And one of the adorable beavers.

Pre-K 2 rounded off their week doing some listening center phonics.

They worked on rhyming...

What a great way to end the week!

I loved this theme and if my Pinboard is any indication, it's a new favorite on our theme list!

Weather Bugs

We started our weather unit learning about clouds. We read this favorite:

 This year Ms. Amy decided to make a class book and we thought that sounded like a great idea! So both classes began working on their pages. Ms. Amy had a pre-printed sheet that the kids could write what shape their cloud was, and a small blue square. She offered the peas q-tips and white paint to draw their shapes.

"It looked like a horse, but it wasn't a horse!"

They did really well with the q-tip drawings.

 

Next, we continued to read and learn about clouds. We read:

 And....

 Then we worked on making an assortment of the clouds we learned about with cotton balls.

We glued them on and added the terms that describe them.

Ms. Amy's class brainstormed and wrote weather words.

They illustrated each weather word. I love these.

 

Next, we made cloud dough from a recipe we found on Pinterest. It was so cool! It has the properties of moonsand and it smells wonderful! All you need is 8 cups of flour and one cup of baby oil. Mix and enjoy!

This was probably the most successful science concoction so far this year!

Pre-K 2 painted umbrellas at art.

 

Next, both classes talked about rainbows. We read this book:

 It's a board book, but the kids still love it and it walks up through the color spectrum in order.

Then Pre-K 2 colored rainbows at art...

And Pre-K 1 did some rainbow science with markers, coffee filters, and eye droppers with water.

Then at art, we made color rainbow from scrapbook squares.

They drew their own rainbow first,

Then covered it with the colored scraps.

Next, we tackled a really cool science experiment. Ms. Amy found this and we thought it was such a great activity! We learned how clouds hold water until they are so full that they release the moisture in the form of rain. To do this we added shaving cream on top of water in clear glasses. Next, we gave the peas blue water and droppers.  They added the blue water to the cloud until it was so full it began to "rain" into the clear water below.

They loved squeezing the droppers.

 

So we ended our weather week with some amazing science, fun crafts and two new class books. That's a successful week in Pre-K!