Mammals! (Lots of them!)

We began our study of our 4th vertebrate last week- mammals!  We begin this by reading the book: Animals Born Alive and Well by Ruth Heller. 

We discussed various features of mammals and asked questions each time one came to visit.  Do they have hair or fur?  Were they born alive (except for the platypus and spiny anteater)?  Did they drink their mother's milk?  We asked the owners these questions and other ones like what do they eat and where do they take baths!  Murphy here is so big, they have to go to a dog wash!   Thanks to Amy R for bringing sweet Murphy in for a visit! 

The children matched mammal cards.  They colored in parts of a dog booklet and we learned words like brisket and stop.  We also made books that describe mammals. 

Thanks to A and T (and dad Scott) for bringing in another mammal!  Mr. Elliot was a really good sport!  The children thought it was funny when he walked around and checked out our classroom!  We asked Scott many questions and decided that Elliot was a mammal.

On Friday, we had yet another mammal visit!  Sweet Squeak the guinea pig!  He came for the morning and visited with us.  Thanks to Lira for letting us take care of him!  He ate some clementines and carrots! 

We asked a lot of questions about Squeak.  Guess what?  He is also a mammal! 

Our fourth mammal visits each day.  We have many in our classroom, some young and some old(er)....

You may have guessed it!  Those mammals are us! 

 

Five Geometric Solids

This week we introduced two more geometric solids.  The children can work with these anytime they wish but we introduce a few at a time to help remember the names.  Last week we learned: cone, cube and cylinder.  Most of the children remembered the names.  This week we introduced sphere and pyramid.  After given a lesson on the vocabulary, we have the children pick a solid and try to find on in our environment.  We were successful in finding a match for each one except that pyramid!

To take this concept a little further, the children can play a matching game with cards.  Here they place cards into columns matching the solid.  This gave us a chance to learn more about real pyramids! 

Light and Shadow

 As part of science this past week, we studied light and shadow.  We have a small wooden shelf that the children place various objects upon.  They shine a flashlight to see the shadow of the object on the wall.  It is fun to explore how the shadows can change when the light is pulled back and forth. 

In the afternoons, we brought in a big light and put paper on the wall.  The children turned out the overhead lights and then took turns tracing each other's shadow on the paper.  This child traced the pink tower's shadow and then colored it in. 

Tying!

 

To teach children the skill of tying, we begin with the bow frame.  We break it down into many steps and it can take a while (!) to learn.  Tying can be tricky but with the bow frame, the children can see what ribbon goes where.  Several children are quite interested in this skill and we now have one child who can tie!  She is quite proud of herself and now other children ask her to tie their aprons for food prep or polishing work. 

 This little shoe was purchased using points from the Scholastic Book Orders.  Once the children have worked with the bow frame, they can tie using this pretend shoe.  The next step is to tie real shoes!  This is quite an accomplishment! The children feel very independent and proud!

 

Third Vertebrate- Birds!

This past week we studied birds, our third vertebrate.  As always, we like to give the children a concrete example of what we are thinking about!  Lucky us, thanks to R and J (and Mom, of course!) we had a Partridge Cochin named "Chicken" visit us for the morning!  She belong to two of our students who were VERY proud!

We had discussed the various characteristics of birds and this beauty had feathers on her feet!  She was very animated and even jumped up on the side of the bin a few times!  This was exciting!  She also made a few noises and the children were able to hear her sounds! 

The children enjoyed making a "parts of " booklet about birds! 

We also matched various bird cards and learned the names of many more birds.  Other activities included listening to bird sounds in a special book, making a life cycle of the bird booklet and making bird feeders. 

 

Again, a BIG THANK YOU to Sarah!!

 

Layers of the Earth

This week in Physical Geography, we presented the Layers of the Earth!  We have a model of the Earth that opens up to reveal the four layers. 

The children gathered around and with a very dull knife we cut into a dough model to show these layers.  We compared with our other model and discussed the layers. 

 We also showed the children the specific science cards  that tells about each layer and the children learned just how hot it was in the middle of the Earth! 

Many of the children chose to make a layers of the Earth booklet to take home. 

Sewing buttons on burlap

This past week we introduced sewing buttons on burlap. 

This child enjoys sewing and always picks the sewing works on the shelves.  Here she sews on many buttons and decided to make a "book" (as we do with many science or language work).  After deciding that stapling the side might not work, she sewed one side of the burlap together to make her button sewing work!