Up, Down and Around

     Our focus for the past two weeks has been on planting, growing and gardens. The book we focused on was Up, Down and Around by Katherine Ayres. The book offers a look at the direction different garden plants grow as well as an introduction to the garden plants. We had an opportunity to eat different vegetables and fruits over the past two weeks and really look at those that are the root of the plant (potato, carrot) as well as those that are the flower or fruit (tomato, cucumber). We also looked at some garden helpers like earthworms, butterflies, bees and lady bugs by exploring the job they do. The apple tree was in full bloom during this time and we were fortunate to see a large number of Cedar Waxwings. We even had the opportunity to get close to one that stayed a little longer on the ground.

     Our table activities for the unit included the following games. These print outs were found at Making Learning Fun.

     Other activities included painting with vegetables, printing with dandelions, creating garden stones and making grass seed caterpillars.

 

 

 

 

     For our look at the root system and how water is transported through the plant, we explored the root system of the dandelion and then watched the food coloring and water travel through celery. This look was followed by an art activity found on Pinterest. We also walked around our neighborhood to look at all of the plants and flowers that were growing and talked about their colors and the different uses for the plants.

 

 

 

     Our sensory activities included bubbles, playing with oats and planting. We completed an activity with sunflower seeds and planted our own in the garden.

 

 

 

 

 

     The light table activities included coloring on the light table and creating with stones, gems and other items.

 

 

     Some of the games we played this week included our Cootie and Don't Break the Ice games along with fun with hula hoops and an egg carton version of Mancala created by my daughter.

 

 

 

     Dramatic play activities not photographed included playing grocery store, community and experiencing a "fashionista flash mob" with the dress-up clothes. We also simulated the growth of a pant by starting out as a seed on the ground, becoming a shoot and rising to our feet as our plant grew. Other highlights of our week included new supplies in our personal pencil boxes, building with Legos and smelly sticker art.

 

 

 

 

 

     I will leave you with a video we enjoyed from The Learning Station during our look at plants and how they grow. Next week, we are exploring items in motion due to the Carnival rides that will be in town. Have a great week!

 

 

 



 







Dinosaurs

     This week, we began our look at Dinosaurs. The books we used for our theme included Dinosaurs from "A Child's First Library" series and I Dreamt I Was A Dinosaur by Stella Blackstone and Clare Beaton. One of our favorite activities included natural and other materials that were in our sensory table. Many different dinosaur "habitats" were created.

We explored volcanoes through our books as well as with a simple science project. We used non=hardening clay to wrap around our snack cups. In the cup, we used a coupe of scoops of baking soda, red food coloring, a drop of Dawn dish soap and 1/4 cup of vinegar.

We also explored fossils by creating our own with a simple salt clay recipe. The children shaped the dough and then pressed their dinosaur in the dough to make an indentation. We baked the dough at 250 degrees for up to 3 hours to harden our "fossils".

The light table had a lot of activity this week. Every time somebody asked if they could lay with the light table, we had at least 2-3 children creating together. The results were absolutely beautiful and the creativity of the children seemed endless this week.

Another sensory activity included dinosaurs, eggs and fossils in colored rice.

Our art projects included making dinosaur tracks and making dinosaur imprints in play dough. We also referred to a video I will post at the end that taught us how to name our own dinosaur. The children drew their own dinosaur and chose their own names.

Through our books, we learned about Paleontology and learned how to classify dinosaurs as either herbivores or carnivores.

We finally had nice weather at the end of the week so the children spent large chunks of time outdoors. I know we will be doing the same next week as we continue our look at dinosaurs. I will leave you with the video we watched as inspiration for our dinosaur names.