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.

Mouse Shapes and Mouse Count

This week we ended our look at Ellen Stoll Walsh. The week flew by and the children were so engaged in play this week. One thing I love about the Creative Curriculum approach is the emphasis on social development. The facilitator (teacher) puts the materials in place but the play is directed by the children. This play develops problem solving, creativity, social development and involves small and large motor development as well. Now is a great time to be an early educator as the influence of some of the most creative minds is at our fingertips. Check out some of my "heroes" in early childhood like Lisa Murphy and Jeff A. Johnson.

Here is a version of Mouse Count:

I find my ideas on Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers and through preschool blogs. If you follow me on Pinterest you will see that my boards are overflowing with ideas. I will share the activities from the week, saving the video from our look at the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the end.

Here are the activities we completed as we ended our look at Mouse Shapes. The "soapy shapes" were inspired by the sensory sink idea found here:

We also searched for magnetic shapes in popcorn as inspired by this link and here.

Our shape activities included familiar games and manipulatives.

Our mouse project was found here:

We concluded our look at Mouse Shapes with a sensory table inspired by Teach Preschool. It moved from shapes to counting "mice" the next day:

We had a great time with our Mouse Count story props inspired by this link and here:

As you can see, we grouped the mice according to the story, which helps children see what a group of three or four looks like according to this link.

Some of our other activities for counting included a game from Scholastic, a number match found here and cube counting found here.

Our mouse game that we made was found here and here.

We also painted with q-tips with primary colors as a review. This activity was inspired by this link.

We had quite a few construction projects as toys we have available were turned into pet homes, a mouse "high rise" and other towers.

We also enjoyed a soapy sensory table and free choice at the light box:

We took time this week to look at the life and message of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The project was inspired by and the video was found at this link. I cannot find the link to the poem we used to post the project, but the results were beautiful. The life and work of Dr. King still inspires today.

Next week we will begin our look at Dr. Seuss. Until then, have a great week!