Birds and Plants

    We took time this week to focus on birds and plants. We will also touch on these next week as we explore life cycles. The children loved the following video as they watched a chick leave its shell. The books we used this week included Birds and It's Spring!

One of our sensory experiences included materials for nests that could be placed in containers. We discussed why birds choose soft materials for their nests and brought some of our sensory items outside for the birds to use.

 We also made our own nests and birds and we looked at the hatching process.

Our flower shop was created and sales were good. Our "sticky easel" included fun foam flowers and pool noodle blocks. Although there are many versions of these on Pinterest, I was introduced to this activity at a Child Care Aware training conference last year. I had a few children stick their backs, arms or hands on the easel as well. Clear contact paper is a wonderful tactile experience.

One of the toddlers made a little path with the flowers.

Painting with plastic flowers proved to be fun and created different designs. This activity was inspired by Lisa Murphy's use of different items as paint brushes.

I offered choices at the light table this week and the children were able to create their own designs in the process.

Golf tees, gems and ping pong balls were added to play-dough to create "flowers." This activity was inspired by a Pinterest post.

Zinnias were planted this week and one child spent over twenty minutes exploring the garden soil. The soil provided another great sensory experience and will be re-visited next week as well.

Dressing for the weather was explored in our dramatic play areas as well as with our magnetic wooden dolls that I picked up at Target last year.

Part of our time was spent building and the Legos provided an opportunity to work on small motor and spatial skills.

We were fortunate to have cooperative weather this week. Time was spent exploring and "cooking" soup in the water puddles. We also took turns jumping over the puddle.

Join us next week as we explore life cycles.