Globe

During our time of learning about Creation, we added to our class globe bit by bit.  We finished it by adding pictures of us.  It looks like we live all over the world!

This was the first time we had ever made our own globe with the class.  We'll definitely do it again.  It was fun and worthwhile.

Early Writing

During the season of Advent, the Bunnies became very familiar with the key people in the nativity story.  Just to see what would happen, we provided some write-on/wipe-off mats with the names of the key figures.  (These mats could also be used as playdough mats to help children form the letters in a more tactile way.)  To our delight, the Bunnies really liked this activity!

Some children tried to write the letters, and we had one who completely colored each letter.  We even had a few children who normally steer clear of writing activities give it a try.  To us, it was a big win and we will plan to have more of these around Valentine's Day.

Light Table

We borrowed a great activity from another class and the Bunnies really loved it!  We brought in a light table and used markers to draw very simple Christmas related shapes on the table.  The Bunnies put white paper on top and were able to trace the shapes.

This Bunny traced two stars and was ready to try the stocking next.

This Bunny traced a tree and colored it with a variety of markers.

Tracing is a great way to develop eye hand coordination and also give children a little confidence boost.  So often they say, "I don't know how to draw a ___________." and they are right.  They are not yet developmentally capable of drawing something that looks like what they have pictured in their mind.  Tracing gives a little bit of structure and then their creativity can take over.

Paper Chain Patterning

Mrs. Quinn showed a few girls how to make a paper chain, and WOW did she start something great!

Just paper strips and tape are all that's needed to get going on an unplanned, completely spontaneous lesson on patterning.  These girls started with a three color pattern.  Each of them added to each end of the chain, and we learned that it was hard to keep the pattern going in both directions.  The next day, we improved the model by simplifying to two colors.  It was MUCH easier to work from both ends and maintain the integrity of the pattern. 

The girls worked for a very long time.  At circle time, as a group we counted the links in their chain and there were 50!!  We started to get color requests for links, so we will definitely make this activity available in the new year when school resumes.

Families

We wrap up our discussions of the aspects of Creation by learning about families.  It's a gentle way to ease into the season of Advent and stay focused on faith.  We use the time in December to talk about our families and Jesus' family.  We read many, many books about the nativity and also some books that depicted modern day families gathering at Christmastime. 

A simple way to reinforce the concept of families is to make some basic comparisons.  The Bunnies did that by using people shapes to represent the members of their families.  The next day, they followed the same steps to represent Jesus' family. 

We counted the people in each family to make a simple comparison about size.  Each child took their picture home, and hopefully continued the discussions about their family and the Holy Family.

Legos

This class of Bunny Rabbits is particularly taken with Legos.  Anytime we offer them we find a crowd around the tray.  Legos are so open ended that they are of interest to both genders and any age, but usually there are some in every class that are super interested and some that are indifferent.  Not this year!  It's very exciting!!

Stone Soup

Each year right around Thanksgiving, we take the opportunity to read Stone Soup and make our own soup in class.  Stone Soup is a wonderful story and the version we read, by Jon Muth, depicts the most delicate and lovely landscapes.

Each child brought an ingredient for the soup and got to add it to the big soup pot.

They poured and stirred and smelled the soup.  And YES, we even added a stone.
Don't worry, parents.  We thoroughly washed the stone!  (Don't you love that tongue!)

The soup cooked while we were on the playground.  When we came in from playing, we all sat down together and had the soup.  Most people really liked our soup, and only two didn't try it.  Yay!

Super Snake

Isn't this the cutest snake you have ever seen?

We talked about reptiles and used some old playdough to make snakes.  The children used beans and pasta and seeds to make the patterns on the backs of the snakes, and this snake even got a face.

Getting Wild

Everybody likes learning about and playing with wild animals.  Luckily we have plenty of resources at SLC to feed children's interests in animals.

The story of Elmer is one that many children recognize, and it is fun to watch children begin to understand humor through books.  The Bunnies got to make their own version of Elmer by first coloring a habitat and then decorating an elephant shape with colored paper.

Each Elmer looked different and really reflected the personality of its little creator.

It's so easy to link animals and literacy because in addition to jillions of animal books, there are jillions of animal songs.

The Bunnies loved singing and dramatizing the Five Little Monkeys with props.  I love that you can see little hands in motion in this picture. :)

Pumpkin Play

At our school we really don't talk much about Halloween, but we do talk about pumpkins.  Pumpkins, along with many other fruits and vegetables, are plants God made for us. 

We had a number/numeral matching game where the children had to match the number of pumpkin seeds on one pumpkin to its corresponding pumpkin with the correct numeral.  Notice this Bunny using her finger to touch each seed as she counted.

We had an opportunity for non-standard measuring by seeing how many pumpkins tall each child was.  (To our surprise this was very interesting to the children so we will do it again with something else as our standard in the weeks to come.)

Measuring was a great opportunity for counting and recording each child's height in pumpkins on a chart.

We also baked our own pumpkin muffins. Yum!  They smelled really good and most children were brave enough to try them.  :)

Firetruck Fun

Every year our local fire department pays us a visit.  It is such a privilege to interact directly with our community helpers.

We learned about their clothes and where they sit in the truck.

We learned that the front bumper of the firetruck contains a special hose just for car fires.

We learned about the tools firefighters carry on their truck.

We even had a chance to learn about an ambulance.  These firefighters talked about an ambulance being like a doctor's office on wheels.

All of their supplies are in the cabinets around the walls.

The firefighters rolled out the stretcher so the Bunnies could sit on the benches and walk through from front to back.

This firefighter talked about her stethoscope and how she listens to a patient's heart and lungs.

Some Bunnies preferred to learn about the ambulance from a distance, so they got a very close look at the bed on wheels.

Everyone was very brave and even a few asked questions.  Mostly the Bunnies watched and listened and added to their knowledge of the role of firefighters.

Building Big

I found a cool building toy at a local resale shop for only $4.  Turns out it was really fun!

At first the Bunnies had no idea how to play with these.  There was some sword fighting that was not productive (and dangerous) so Mrs. O'Connor or Mrs. Quinn had to be involved at all times.  We taught them to begin with a square as the base (4 sticks and 4 balls) and from there they could build up and out.

There was a lot of trial and error.  Learning how to get the sticks in the holes of the balls took practice.

Notice the difference from the second picture to the third.  After two days of playing with this toy, the construction became more orderly and purposeful ("Can we get in it?!"  "YES!") 
I suspect when we have this toy again, teachers will still need to be highly involved, but the children will take on more control of the direction of construction.  This is a perfect example of the value of learning through play.

The Flower Shop

During the summer, I visited our children's museum with some specific goals in mind.  I wanted to see what kinds of dramatic play they offered that might be different from what we already offer at school.  I was very excited to discover a flower shop.  I knew we could easily replicate this for school. 

When we talked about plants God made for us, the children had a flower shop in dramatic play.

They had vases, lots of artificial flowers, tissue and pipe cleaners for wrapping flowers and even some little gift enclosure cards.

A flower shop is a business so we had a cash register, of course.  The children were highly interested in the flower shop, so we extended their play to give them chances to make their own flowers.

From our wonderful school closet (room!) of recyclable and consumable materials, the children used little cloth circles intended for a "yo-yo" quilt and pipe cleaners to make their own flowers to sell in the shop.

This flowers shop was a simple way to reinforce our learning about plants and the differences between plants you can eat and plants you cannot eat.

Birds

Birds are fun animals to learn about because there are many, many children's books that feature birds.
The Bunnies really like Owl Babies.  We read the book and had props for acting out the story.  It's always surprising to see the children demonstrate through props how much of the story they retain.

These Bunnies used both fiction and non-fiction bird books with the props.

The children made their own birds by painting with a koosh ball.  The koosh ball makes really cool marks in the paint which look just like feathers.  Then the children added their own bird features such as feathers, eyes and a beak.  We are completely UNconcerned with accuracy.  If a bird has seven eyes and no beak and one feather, we are delighted.  The process of creation is far more important than the product.

These Bunnies began some creative play with bird figures and some tree branches.  Look what they made!!

If I were a bird I would absolutely want to live here!

Ocean Exploration

We spent quite a bit of time learning about the ocean and sea creatures.  It's a topic of high interest and a topic in which most children already have strong working knowledge so they get to build upon their understanding with new experiences.

The Bunnies did some sand art and learned how to handle a squeeze bottle of glue.

They used some non-fiction ocean books to help them identify some sea creature toys we had.

They played a simple Go Fishing game (by Fisher Price) in which they used the fishing pole to catch a fish, and then sorted the fish into the proper boats by matching the color on the underside of each fish.

These guys did something really amazing.  They stretched out half-unit blocks in a long row, and then put one sea creature on each block.  They even sorted them somewhat by putting like animals together.  This may look like simple play, but what I see is much more.  These boys (and others who are not in the picture) sorted by attribute and demonstrated understanding of one to one correspondence.  Both of these skills are crucial for the understanding of math and science.  In addition what they demonstrated was perseverance and collaboration.  They continued to work while others drifted away.  It is so exciting when kids dig in and really play hard.

Sorting by Attribute

It is never to early to introduce math and science concepts.  Sorting by attribute is one of the first skills young children can learn which bridges both math and science.
When we talked about lights in the sky, we had an activity to sort stars by size.  All the stars were basic wood, so the only attribute that differentiated them was size.

Another time we had some little frogs that were different colors.  They were all the same size so the only way to differentiate them was color.

There are many ways to practice sorting at home.  Sorting silverware, socks or other household items is an easy way to practice the concept.  We sometimes take our big bin of animals and sort them by very non-standard attributes such as animals with fur vs. animals with scales, or animals with spots vs. animals with stripes, or animals that have sharp teeth vs. animals that don't have sharp teeth.  Try it at home.

The Globe - Part 2

Here is our globe with land and water.

The Globe

For the first time ever, we are going to make our very own globe.  I predict it will be a useful tool to illustrate the world God made for us as we learn about creation.  As we talk about different aspects of creation, we will add to the globe.
Here it is in its beginning phase:

Fingerpainting

We fingerpainted for the first time in Bunny class.  Not everyone was excited about getting paint on their hands, but these girls had no reservations about it.

One of them said, "Look, Mrs. O'Connor!  It looks like red nail polish!"  Indeed it did, and then all three of them proceeded to "polish" their nails by rubbing red paint on each fingernail one by one.  They were so delighted, and it was reallllly cute!

Introducing Games

We have jumped right in with introducing the children to playing games.  In Bunny class, our games have no winner and no loser.  We just play to a natural end.  The game pictured above is called Honey Bee Tree.  The tree is filled with leaves on long stems and tiny bees.  As the children take turns to carefully pull out the leaves, the bees begin to fall out of the tree.  When all the bees are out, the game is over and we start again.  The purpose of games at this age and stage of development is simply to understand turn taking in order, one at a time.  Once that skill is mastered (and it will take a while!), we can move on to some rules of play.

Play games at home!  It's fun and good for the brain.

Light Science Experiment

We did a neat science experiment to explore the properties of light. 

Each Bunny got a sheet of photo sensitive paper and could put four objects on it.  We took them outside and placed them in the bright sum for about 5 minutes.  When we brought them in, they looked like the photo below.  Each item had left a shadow and the surrounding paper was very pale blue.

Each child removed the objects and immersed the paper in water to develop it.

In the following few minutes, the paper turned dark blue and the places where the objects had been stayed light.

Exactly how and why the paper changed was a bit beyond their understanding, but the main point was that God gave us light and light can change things in our world.  Everybody could clearly see change happening on their paper.  Science can be very exciting at the preschool level!

Off to a Good Start!

Our first two days of Bunny Rabbit class are off to a good start.  The children had plenty of things to do in the room to help them begin to make new friendships or renew some old ones.

We had a Back-to-School party set up in our dramatic play area.  There were party hats, party dishes, an ice cream play set and a cake play set.

There was even a teeny tiny present.  The Bunnies were enthused to guess what was inside it and giggled when they realized the box was empty.  A joke!
Having simple props that represent real activities provide a way to get kids talking to each other.

Meanwhile in other parts of the room, there were simple activities that every child could be successful in attempting.

Just look at those little fingers working so hard!

Playdough is a crowd pleaser and we will have it out almost every day of the entire year.

Please check back here often to see the wonderful learning that goes on in the Bunny Rabbit class.