MOnday 's on it's way!

Our little explorers have there work cut out for them as we go on our nature hunt . They will be using little field guides to search out and collect the samples to take back to our "lab" for further observation.
I'm planning on at least one parent sticking around to help...any volenteers? It will be fun for all of us so the more the marrier. I'm handaling lunch and everything else. I really hust need a warm happy body that is ready to get dirty and keep a head count going at all times.
Make sure your little ones wear sunblock and bug repellant.
If any of you can pick up a magnifying glass at Walmart, like 5 bucks. They are over by the pharmacy. I'm going to try to pick up a couple more too.
This will be fun, but I must insist that you put them in clothes that can be ruined. I would bring an extra pair for them to change into to ride home. This WILL GET MESSY!!!
see you soon!
Gretchen

SPRING FLING LESSON PLAN

HI, I apologize for not getting this posted sooner.
I am actually going to start using the SPRING FLING plan.
BEES and Butterflies
We had our opening songs-Good morning to you-Hello everybody-Here we are together
I brought out my box and the kids got to guess what was inside of it.
It was the letter B and a book
For the Butterfly section we read a little book "Caterpillar to Butterfly"
Then we talked a little bit about Butterflies and caterpillars and the stages of there development.
We then ran a little race where each child got a turn crawling like a Caterpillar to a blanket on the floor where we then rolled them up into a little cocoon and then back out again and then they were Butterflies (we used silkies as wings) and we flew all around the room tasting flowers with our feet. And we drank juice boxes disguised as flowers to gather nectar.
Next we became butterfly researchers and we had to catch some butterflies. We used the "ELLA-Fun" game and with our nets collected many fine butterflies.

BEE time was a lot of fun too. Once again the children had to guess what was in the box, this time it was a jar of honey, the letter "B" and a book about "busy bees"
We read the book and ten made our own "BEE' costumes. We used large paper bags with holes cut for arms and head. We then taped (glue would have been better) black and yellow stripes on the bags to make a 'Bee body". {originally the plan was to have wings and antennae but I was unprepared}
The children then had a great time being bees and gathering pollen from the flowers on the wall ( the pollen was little crumpled pieces of tissue paper) and taking it and sticking it in the hive(just a little beehive on the wall next to them)
I had them all go and have honey and crackers next so that they could taste all of their hard work. This was fun...but sticky:)
We ended with our closing song and off we all went.
I hope the kids enjoyed it!

Spring Fling Lesson Correction!

Thanks for your help today everyone!
I will post my lesson plan soon, but first I need to make a little correction...sorry about this.

Butterflies rest with their wings CLOSED not OPEN.

I must have been tired as I was looking up my facts. I'm sorry.
Today was fun anyway.

Spring Fling was postponed to Friday--it didn't look much like spring with all the snow anyway. Clara, Gretchen, Tate, Norah, Natalie, Sean and Liam were in attendance as well as Kristen and Becci--Thank you for all your help! The theme for the day was Night Time. Following is the LP:

• Opening song--"Here we are Together"
• Language Arts: Showed a picture of a night scene and introduced Mr Star. "S" was the letter of the day and when ever we heard the "S" sound at the beginning of a word as we discussed what happens at night, I held up the letter "S" and we all said "Ssssssssssss." I held up pictures of things that happen at night, like eating dinner, brushing teeth, sleeping...
• Read Goodnight Moon during snack. Thanks to Becci and Kristin for bringing in delicious snacks.
• Science: Nocturnal animals. We listened to night sounds and talked about how some animals are active at night. I had pictures of some of the animals that made the sounds and we played a game. They acted like the animal featured in each picture that I presented.
• Math: Passed out star cutouts. We all counted how many points on the star
• We sang "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"
• Art: Stars and moons were glued on purple or black construction paper to make a night scene.
• Song with actions: "Moon, Moon, Moon"
• Game: We went to the gym and played "Goodmorning, Goodnight" When we turned off the lights and said good night, everyone laid down and pretended to sleep. When we turned on the lights and said good morning, everyone woke up and ran around. This was a hit and we played for quite a while.

That's about it!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Hey everyone. We had a small but really fun day on Friday. I was the MIC. My mom was here still and she helped out as well as Kristin and Jessica. We just had my two hoodlums (Tate & Norah) and also Gretchen and Natalie. We decided that since my mom was still in town we would talk all about families. We started off the day with our opening song. Then I showed a picture of some of my family members. We talked about what a family was and who was in a family (mom, dad, sister, brother, grandma, grandpa, etc.). I read a cute book called "Just Like Mommy" by Megan E. Bryant. Then we did a family tree activity. We had premade the trees and had precut out pictures of moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, sisters and brothers. Each child was allowed to pick out whichever picture they wanted of each family member and then they glued them to their trees. It was really cute. We had a yummy, healthy snack. Thanks to Jessica for bringing that in!! Later we sang songs about family members. We sang "A Happy Family", "It's always fun when grandpa comes", and "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home". They loved that. Then we talked about their specific families. We counted out how many family members each student had. We counted them out on our fingers and then we made a poster of the number with each family member inside the number. That was about it. We closed with our closing song and the jump up and down song. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Kristin and Jessica for the help and a big thanks to my mom for helping out too. We had a blast. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to post pictures too...

APRIL SCHEDULE

Here it is!!!
Ariane is gone this month so we need to fill in a bit. It looks like this may happen to at least two of us a Month so it may be a good idea to rotate. If there is a time that works better for someone please let me know and we will work it out.

March 29th- Melissa S. / Gretchen
March 31st- "Spring Fling" - Everyone bring a treat, and I will bring the games. Dress for spring!!

APRIL
M.I.C/H.M.
4 -Gretchen/ Melissa S.
7- Kristen/Jessica
11-Jessica/Kristen
14-Gretchen/Becci
18-Becci/Gretchen
21-Melissa M./Melissa S.
25-Melissa S./ Melissa M.
28- Any volunteers?