Around and around....

You probably have many circle drawings that have come home with your child. We have an old record player that has been transformed into "spin art" and children really enjoy it. They have gotten really good at turning the dial on and off and adjusting the speed to make it go really fast, not as fast, slower and really slow. Sometimes there are many children around it at one time! 

How many hands do you see?
This is definitely a team effort. It actually
went pretty smoothly, but after awhile
there was some discussion about colors.....
It's interesting to see how children fall into
different roles even when they aren't
"role playing." One child took the lead
and decided when they would start a new circle,
and the rest of the group went along with that
decision.

15 little monkeys.....

We told stories this week in different ways - using flannel pictures and "acting" them out, like pretending to be monkeys "jumping" on the bed (We actually just bounced up and down). We did discuss actually jumping on a bed and whether that was a good idea; we all agreed that it's not the safest thing to try. Hopefully you won't have any monkeys trying to jump on the bed! 

In a jar!

Even a week later and we are still discovering more about bugs, or at least finding them around. Last week we found a bug crawling around the classroom, and so I found a glass jar with a lid that had holes in it to put the bug in. The children were fascinated and watched it for quite awhile (I think I blogged about that last week). They found an interesting bug outside on the playground on Thursday and asked for "the jar." I went inside to retrieve it and so the bug was again looked at by all!

That's what I so enjoy about preschool - the curiosity that children have - they are always seeking and finding interesting things.

Before the bug went into the jar,
this gal bravely picked it up and
tried to hold it.
It was quite wiggly.

Here's our new friend.

This one has nothing to do with bugs,
but all of these gals were sitting on the bench
together. I asked them what they were doing....
"hiding from the monster!"

Monkeys

Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree.....We learned some fun facts about monkeys today and then I had the children help me tell the story about Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree. This is a simple story, but is great for repetition, counting backwards, anticipation, re-telling and enjoyment! There are multiple books by Eileen Christelow that we will be reading this week. 

                  

It's just my size!

The monkey is getting a makeover.

Four monkeys in the bed.

One for each child.

Re-telling Five Little Monkeys....

These monkeys are falling off of the board.

BUGS!

We've had live bugs crawling around the preschool for a few weeks, so I decided that we might as well learn about these creatures invading our space. 

Some facts we learned about bugs this week:

• They have 6 legs (spiders have 8)
• They have 3 body parts (head, thorax and abdomen)
• Some have wings, fly, hop, eat, drink, build, hide (camouflage), and maybe even scare us, but they are basically pretty harmless.

During choice time, there were several children counting the legs of the plastic bugs, to be sure they were insects! I was thrilled that they remembered that fact about insects and were testing it out!

It's hard to tell, but there were
bugs taking a ride on his train!

Look closely and you'll see a bug in the
bowl - it was her "pet bug" and she
carried and petted it!

We discovered a live bug in the class.
Ms. Larisa put it in the jar and they enjoyed
watching it crawl around. We did let it
go at the end of the day.

Bug Pizzas!! Yum!

Counting bugs during small group.

Yeah for robots!

In all of my years of teaching, this is the first time I've attempted the theme of robots. Hadn't really thought that much about it before, but thanks to one of the preschoolers and his incredible ability to build "magnetic robots" with cardboard brick blocks, the spark was started! And it has exceeded my expectations. It has been very enjoyable for me to watch how the children create something with a variety of materials! We finished off 3 rolls of duct tape!

Here are some pictures from our week....

Using a variety of materials to create robots.

Sponge painting robots

This was a layered painting.

Building with Legos!

Wouldn't you like to know what these
cuties are up to?

Robots! (TR)

Round #2 of robots. The children seemed to enjoy learning about them and creating their own. And I pulled out a tub of Legos and there were some that really had a blast with those! 

Duct tape is great and now there
are cool colors like orange, purple and gold!

LEGOS!!!

Adding their own touch to the
robots. 

Ready for the day!

Busy guy!
He tried to swim in the cornmeal! 

Small group activity
(rolling a dice; counting and placing objects on the
robots. Idea taken from pocketofpreschool.com)