Mini Class

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Theme: Easter Party!

Choosing Time: Star Wars Minis, Little People Village, Ponies

Snack: Thank you Noah for yummy goldfish crackers, cheese sticks, and fruit snacks!

Games: Bunny Bowling & Bunny Pop-ups
Music & Movement: "Bunny-Hokey-Pokey" & There Was A Little House

Book: Moonbear's Skyfire by Frank Asch

Activity: Easter Egg Hunt--This was really fun to watch! I instructed the children with some simple rules: 1)Find ONE egg at a time and bring it to me, 2)Eggs are hidden in the Kitchen & Hallways, but NOT upstairs, and 3)No pushing. This was a great activity to practice following instructions and cooperating. Everyone found several eggs and were happy to return them to me in exchange for a bag of goodies :)
Art: 3 Sectioned Easter Eggs--This was a great way to see who could remember to choose one section of the egg for stamping, one for gluing, and one for using stickers. There were no other suggestions as to which section should be for what....and I think they all enjoyed using their own creativity.

Easter Eggs

Theme: Easter Eggs

Choosing Time: Egg Memory, Bunny Stamps, Duplo Blocks, & Tinker Toys

Snack: Thank you Mitch for yummy popcorn with marshmallows!

Music & Movement: Peter Rabbit, Funny Bunny, See Me Run, Oh What A Miracle!, & 10

Lesson: What animals hatch from eggs? We each took turns opening a plastic egg to discover an animal who hatches from an egg. One of our favorite discoveries was that a hummingbird's egg is the smallest of all the bird eggs while the ostrich egg is the largest. Eggs are a symbol of Easter because they are a symbol of new life.

Books: The April Rabbits by David Cleveland & What's In That Egg? by Becky Baines

Science: We looked and touched a real bird's nest. We observed what it was made of. We could touch it because it was no longer being used by a bird. If we see a bird's nest with eggs or birds inside we should leave it alone.

Art: Baby Chicks on Sticks--Can be used as a puppet or to stick in your Easter Grass Cups
Reading: We practiced our class book on Spring today

Spring Planting

Theme: Spring Planting

We are Blooming!

Choosing Time: Flower Arranging, Play-doh, Dolls
Snack: Thank you Jake & Grayce for sharing pretzels & fruit snacks with our class today!

Music & Movement: Oh, What A Miracle! & See Me Run!

Lesson: Together we drew the cycle of a seed. We learned that in order to have a plant, one needs soil, a seed, water, sun, and love. (Mitch suggested love & I am so glad he did)
Activity: Each of us planted some Easter Grass in a decorated cup.

Mini Class

Theme: Spring

Choosing Time: Flower Arranging, Trains, Dolls

Snack: Today we celebrated June's birthday! She brought a super snack today! Thank you June! We hope you've had a wonderful birthday!
Music & Movement: Oh, What a Miracle! & See Me Run!

Lesson: We see many fun things in Spring: New flowers, grass, butterflies, baby animals, rain, & sunshine. A seed needs dirt, water, and sun to grow.

Activity: Pretty Easter Grass Pots
We enjoyed being outside for this activity. We also enjoyed drawing chalk pictures on the sidewalk. June is very impressed with her balloons :)
(Your child's pot only needs water every couple of days. Don't over water. In 4-5 days, the Rye Grass will begin to grow...hopefully just in time for Easter. Give your grass a "hair-cut" when it grows too tall.)

Signs of Spring

Theme: Signs of Spring

Choosing Time: Duplos, Flower Arranging, Dinosaurs, Caterpillar Counting Game, Spider Puzzle


Snack: Peanut Butter Crackers. Thank you Daniel for a yummy birthday treat of fruit snacks!

Music & Movement: Hokey-Pokey, Signs of Spring are Here, Popcorn Popping

Lesson: What are some signs of Spring? We inspected a tree branch & noticed the buds. We learned what a bud is and what is does. We read a story together about some of the signs of Spring. The children are really excited to READ this "book" to you. I will leave it posted in the classroom the rest of the month. My favorite sign of Spring is Life.

Art: "Budding Branches in a Vase"
We practiced tracing, cutting, & painting.


Science:

• We will be watching for our tree branches to bloom.
• We put a celery stalk into some black water. We will watch to see how the water is absorbed into plants.

Book: On Our Way to Market by Dayle Ann Dodds
As we enjoyed the story we also noticed some signs of Spring throughout the book.

Birthday: Happy Birthday to Daniel! I asked Nathan what his favorite part of school was today. He answered, "Daniel's Birthday!" We had a fun follow the leader game while we sang to the birthday boy.

Letter "S"

Theme: Letter "S"

Choosing Time: Blocks, Magnetic Shapes, Tinker Toys, Peg Board Shapes, Playful Patterns
Snack: Thank you Leo for a Sensational Snack! Mini muffins & fruit Snacks were Super!

Music & Movement: Everything has a Shape, Sally the Camel, & Duck, Duck, Goose

Lesson: What sound does the letter "S" say? What are some things that say "S"? We thought of many: Sun, snack, snake, see, seal, sock, shark, six, seven, stop, store, school, skip, shapes, spider, sneaky & sound.

Books: If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff & The Roly-Poly Spider by Jill Sardegna

Writing: We practiced making letter "S".

Science: We looked at a Shark Zoo Book Together. We learned that each shark tooth is like a saw. We also learned that a bee is more dangerous to us than sharks are. The part of the brain that senses smell is much larger on a shark than on a human's brain. A shark has a friend called the remora fish. It has suctions to keep it on the shark's skin. It cleans the shark and the shark shares its food with the remora.

Art: Shapes can Make amazing pictures!