Dear Earth...

Earth Day!

 

This week we have been talking about Earth Day and ways to take care of our planet.

 

 

We decided to write letters to the Earth.

Dear Earth...

 They came out great and the children really got excited about using their writing skills which is always a nice thing to see!

 

 

Each child then helped to make the Earth for our display. We painted egg carton cups and discussed that the green signifies the land and the blue signifies the water. We also talked about the importance of not only recycling but reusing as well! : )

 

 

Thank you to carrotsareorange for the fabulous egg carton Earth idea. 



Constellations

Constellations!

 

Using marshmallows and toothpicks!

 

We first discussed that a constellation is a picture in the sky made up of stars. We then looked at pictures of some of the famous constellations such as the Big Dipper and Orion.

 

I then explained how for our activity the marshmallows are going to be used to represent the stars and the toothpicks are the connectors which make the stars into a picture.

 

 

Before we began this activity we first went over the importance of washing our hands before we handle any type of food!

 

So we went to wash and we sang our hand washing song! (To the tune of Camptown Races) Germs on hands can make you sick. Germs are ick, germs are ick. Soap and water fixes it, I am washing.



The children then got to work building their constellations. It was great fine motor practice and of course any time children get to play with their food is always lots of fun! : )



 

Each constellation came out very unique!

  

We then made constellations using pastels and star stickers for a follow up art experience.

 

 

Putt, putt math game

Putt, putt math game!
 

 

Materials: Golf putter and ball from the dollar store

Red plastic cups also from the dollar store

Recycled tissue box or any small box

Pen and paper

 

To prepare for this activity I added the numbers 1, 2 and 3 to the cups and taped them inside a tissue box to keep them from moving. I then set up a simple chart for the children to track their points.

 
 

I then invited the children to come play the game!
 

  

I had the children work cooperatively by taking turns to hit the ball into one of the three cups. Depending on which cup the ball rolled into, that was the number they had to record on the chart. Play continued until each child reached their goal of ten points.

 The children had lots of fun with this game and I absolutely loved watching them enjoy all the learning that was going on! They were using their hand eye coordination to aim and hit the ball into the cup, their gross motor skills to have to retrieve the ball each time, their writing skills to make the numbers and their names on the chart, their math skills to perform the basic addition concepts and their social skills to work together with their peers.

 

Lots of great learning concepts from the 2 dollars I spent at the dollar store! : )



Pollution

Earth day with The Lorax!

 "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." ~The Lorax

 



 

Pollution Jar!

We discussed what happens when people pollute the water. First, each child had a chance to put a piece of trash into the bottle. We then observed the results over the course of a week. The children discovered that it got dirtier and dirtier everyday and it began to smell really bad when we opened it up. The next week we had an oil spill (black paint). We discussed how and why oil spills occur and how hard and time consuming it is for people to clean it up after. We continued to observe the results for a few days and then we discussed ways to clean it up. The children decided that if we put some soap in, that would clean it right up, so we tried it. The children were very concerned when it did not seem to do very much to clean it up. We then discussed how important it is to take preventative measures and to educate people about how harmful polluting is.

 

3-D Truffula trees!

 Since we are discussing ways to take care of the Earth, it only seems right that we use recycled paper towel tubes to make the truffula trees!

 

 

More truffula trees! I put a small amount of powder paint in a bag with some fiber fill and had the children shake and squish them with their fingers to mix the color in! They then cut out their tree trunks, illustrated the background of the picture and glued on their tree top. So cute!

 



Outdoor musicians

Outdoor musicians!

 

 

 

Although I have a music area in my classroom (complete with many instruments) I still think it is so important to provide the students with many rich musical experiences in a variety of settings.

 

Now, I know what your thinking...that I just wanted to bring the instruments outside so that it is not so loud in the classroom...well sometimes that's certainly true haha but my hope was simply for the students to realize that music can be appreciated anywhere.

 

So my co workers and I attached a variety of instruments to our school fence with twist ties! We also added a variety of recycled goods which produce great sounds such as gallon milk jugs and various pots and pans. We sometimes bring out rhythm sticks to play these instruments but a plain old stick from the playground or just their own two hands works great too. In fact, we have found that this is a great way for some of our more "handsy" children to get out some aggression in a healthy way.

 

The children love using the instruments and singing loud and proud on the playground.



Patterning at the easel

Creative easel idea!

 

I found this idea from playfullylearning and just had to try it out with my class!

 

I attached a sheet of contact paper to the easel, cut out some foam shapes and invited the children to come make some patterns at the easel! For this lesson I decided to focus on four shapes stars, diamonds, hexagons and trapezoids.

 

They were delighted to pattern the shapes onto the contact paper and I was even more delighted to see them use their fingers in pincer grasp to peel them off the paper and get a real fine motor work out.

 

This was particularly great for my more active students where to get them to sit down to pattern can sometimes be a chore and amazingly enough they were the first ones to want to come over and try this activity. I just love when that happens! : )

 

 

 

 

 The next day we added yarn to this area for the children to create various pictures and experiment with the use of lines in artwork.

 

It was a hit!



Galileo

In honor of our space theme, we have made this little tune our line up song for the week!

 

 

The kids were singing it over and over and over!

I don't think anyone will forget who invented the telescope because this was stuck in everyone's head today! LoL!