Things were pretty sour at the touch and feel as we targeted the five senses with a pool full of lemons. We talked about how the lemons felt, what they looked like, how they smelled, how they tasted, and we wondered...can a lemon make noise? We counted the lemons and talked about their shape and color. Who knew lemons could be so fun?!
We targeted our usual calendar concepts during morning circle and also sang our new five senses song that we learned on Tuesday using our puppets to aid in comprehension. After we reviewed each of the five senses, we went to our art table and used Jello paint to paint some flowers. Each color of Jello paint had a different scent. Purple smelled like grape. Yellow smelled like lemon. Green smelled like lime. Ryan and Ethan learned that they had to use their noses and their sense of smell to smell the flowers. We are going to use these flowers to decorate our new spring bulletin board, so do not be alarmed if you do not see them come home in their book bags today.
It was the usual bustle of activity on the playground as Ryan and Ethan continued a good game of chase. This time though, they thought it would be fun to chase each other as they went backwards down the slide over and over again! They also enjoyed cooking at the grill.
Our book today was A Perfect Day: All About the Five Senses by Kirsten Hall. It is another sweet book that does a great job targeting all five senses at once as Pip, Zip, Bee Bop, and some other friends describe all that they feel, smell, taste, hear, and see during a perfect day at a picnic. Ryan and Ethan especially loved the "Bee Bop" character and had fun saying it over and over and over again! But they were talking, so I was happy!
After we read our book, we talked about the sense of feel and how we feel with our hands. I then gave Ryan and Ethan 5 different textures to feel- bumpy (corrugated cardboard), smooth (aluminum foil), rough (sandpaper), hard (popsicle stick), and soft (cotton ball). We talked about each texture and how it felt and then glued the textures onto each finger of a hand drawn on a piece of paper. This art project is a great one to review at home too for further reinforcement and learning of the sense of feel.
What better way to stimulate all five senses than through popcorn! Ryan and Ethan helped me sequence the steps to making popcorn using an air popper. Review these pictures and steps at home to target temporal concepts of first, second, etc. and also to model the appropriate past tense of verbs in your language.
First, we poured the kernels into a measuring cup.
Second, we poured the kernels into the popcorn popper.
Third, we plugged the popcorn popper into the wall.
Fourth, we waited in anticipation for the first kernels to pop. The air that came out felt warm!
Finally, the kernels popped and the popcorn fell into the bowl! (And sometimes flew to other parts of the room!)
Last, we ate our popcorn and talked about how it tasted! YUMMY!
When the popcorn was finally finished, and we had a huge mound of fluffy popcorn in our bowl, Ryan and Ethan thoroughly enjoyed eating the popcorn as we completed our language activity. I made a huge "popcorn" poster with each of the five senses and the corresponding body parts displayed in five columns. As the boys snacked we talked about how the popcorn tasted- salty, yum, good, and delicious!; how it felt- hot, crunchy, how it smelled- yummy!; how it sounded- loud, pop pop pop!; and what it looked like- fluffy, white, etc.
We summed up our very busy morning with this short video:
At home activities:
1. Review the 5 senses using the same questions suggested on Tuesday.
2. Review the steps to making popcorn using temporal concepts.
3. Re-visit the feelings pictures from last week of happy, sad, and mad. (We want to always review so that these new words stay in our brains!)
4. As always, read the blog with your child and see what kind of language comes out all on his own!
See you all on Tuesday and we learn all about frogs! Have a great weekend!
Senses, senses everywhere.
(Sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
So as you may have guessed, this week we are learning all about our five senses. There are enough activities out there that target our five senses to fill an entire year, but we are going to have to do a quick summary in just one week. So here goes....
To start off our sensory experience, Ryan and Ethan were greeted by Floam in the touch and feel pool. Floam is a sticky substance made out of tiny foam microbeads that stick together and can be shaped into just about anything! We made letters, snowmen, fish, snakes....endless opportunities to stimulate our creative juices. Then we used our fine motor skills to try to get the tiny floam balls unstuck from the carpet, which were everywhere!
To change things up on the playground today, I decided to bring our tunnel outside to share with our DUMC friends. All the kiddos had a blast going through the tunnel over and over again, and it tested their turn-taking skills and patience as they waited in line for their turn. As always, Ryan and Ethan loved a good game of shopping cart chase as they zoomed around in circles. I was exhausted just watching them and their endless running!
We started our reading circle today singing the above song while using our 5 Senses Puppets to illustrate each sense. Ryan and Ethan each have a set of these puppets that I will send home in their bags on Thursday when we are finished with our five senses theme.
Our book today was The Five Senses by Leslie Buckol. This book gives a simple summary of our five senses as the little girl in the book feels the breeze and the warm earth, smells the springtime grass and flowers, hears the birds singing, tastes the fresh apples, and sees the sun rise.
After we read our book using our 5 senses puppets once again to aid in comprehension, we made Mr. Potato Heads out of construction paper and labeled each body part as one of the five senses. As we glued the body parts Ryan and Ethan had to answer the following questions: What does Mr. Potato Head need in order to see, taste, feel, hear, and smell? You can also do this at home for additional practice.
We concluded our lesson on the Five Senses with the following short video:
Questions for home:
1. We use our eyes to ......see
2. We use our hands to .....feel
You can use this "fill in the blank" method to reinforce what we learned today with each of the five senses, or you can turn it into a question like What do we use our eyes for....or What do we see with? Also, sit down and read the blog with Ryan and Ethan and see what they have to offer about their day on their own.
Looking forward to another great day learning about our five senses as we pop popcorn on Thursday!
So today we continued to learn all about emotions and feelings. At the touch and feel pool we sorted letters and numbers of all different colors and used the letters to spell words. We spelled our names and all the different feelings that we have been learning about this week. We also talked about each letter and its corresponding sound.
What a beautiful day to play outside! Ryan and Ethan were all about playing together today. They especially loved to play chase as they went through the tunnel, under the play equipment, up the steps, and down the slide over and over again. There was also some fun in the playhouse, some shopping cart races, and soccer. Hmm...I think a playdate is in order for these two peas in a pod!
Our book today, If You're Angry and You Know It!, by Cecily Kaiser did a great job of showing how people express anger. It uses the well know song, "If You're Happy and You Know It" and changes it to "Angry." For example, if you're angry and you know it stomp your feet, bang a drum,take a deep breath, etc. The book does a great job teaching kids how to express their anger in an appropriate manner. As we read the book, Ryan and Ethan pretended to be angry and to express their anger as the book told us to do.
For our art today we made feeling puppets. First, we reviewed the main types of feelings that we have been learning about this week...happy, mad, and sad; and we talked about what these faces look like. A happy face has a smile or laughter. A sad face has a frown and sometimes tears. A made face has angry eyes and mouth, and sometimes mad people stomp their feet, yell, or scream. Then Ryan and Ethan had to match the appropriate mouth (showing a specific emotion) to the the correct eyes (showing the same emotion). We labeled each face with the written word of the emotion given the cue, "Find the word that says sad. It starts with an /s/ sound." Finally, Ryan and Ethan glued these faces to popsicle sticks to complete their feeling puppets. We then used these puppets to act out their specific feelings.
After we finished our puppets, we had time for some sensory fun with shaving cream. We made sad, mad, and happy faces in the shaving cream; and we also worked on imitation of the pre-writing strokes of circle, horizontal, and vertical in the shaving cream. We talked about how it felt and smelled and how it made a really big MESS! Then we had the perfect opportunity to practice our good hand-washing technique while using our temporal concepts of first, second, third, etc as we followed the hand-washing steps displayed in the bathroom.
We had just a few minutes left before lunch to complete a firetruck puzzle. We talked about the front, middle, and back of the firetruck, and the sound that it makes along with a whole lot of other vocabulary as Ryan and Ethan used team work to put the puzzle together. It was another very busy day for us, and we had two very tired kiddos by the end of the day!
For practice at home today, I sent home "My Feelings Activity Book." As you read with Ryan and Ethan, talk about the emotions felt by the animals in the book and the expressions on their faces that indicate those specific emotions. Then you can have your boys color the pictures (paying attention to their crayon grasp :)) and ask them wh-questions as you read the book along with them....What are the ducks doing? How does the kitten feel when he is getting a bath? Who is standing on the ball? How many bunnies do you see? Where is the dragon fly? These are a few examples that might help. It's great to incorporate these types of wh-questions during shared reading with any book.
Have a great weekend! See you on Tuesday as we learn all about the five senses!
So we finally came back to school today, and had a chance to exchange valentines with all of our beloved classmates. We spent what normally would be our time at the touch and feel pool matching the names on our valentines to our classmate's names on all the valentine bags that we decorated last week. If our valentines didn't have specific names, then we talked about each name on the bag and the beginning letter of the name with its corresponding sound. All the kiddos were a bustle of energy and excitement as they peeked in the bags and saw the various cards, trinkets, and prizes.
After targeting our usual calendar and weather concepts at morning circle, Ryan and Ethan enjoyed playing with Mr. Potato Head. This week we are focusing on feelings/emotions. As we played with the potatoes we talked about all of the different faces we could make...we made sad faces, happy faces, mad faces, and silly faces. As always, Ryan and Ethan had to use their words to request the various parts of Mr. Potato Head.
It was a beautiful day to play outside today and all of our friends from DUMC were out. Ryan enjoyed playing chase, hide & go seek, and playing catch with a ball; and Ethan found a left-over snow pile that he was determined to plow with a bull-dozer.
Our book today was The Story of My Feelings by Laurie Berkner. This book has always been one of my children's favorites, as it tells the story of a little girl and all of the different things she does when she feels sad, angry, happy, and peaceful. It has a sweet song that goes along with the book as well. I will email you a copy of the song so that you can play it for Ryan and Ethan at home.
After we read the book, we sorted and matched pictures of people with distinct facial expressions into the feeling categories of happy, sad, and mad. Ryan and Ethan helped me tape them to big pieces of paper on our wall.
Then we headed to art to make feeling "stress" balls. First, we just had fun playing with a big bin of rice and barley. Ryan and Ethan enjoyed feeling the mixture in their hands and dumping it from one cup to another. They experimented with it to see what kind of sounds they could make by banging it, shaking it, and rubbing it along the bottom of the touch and feel pool. Second, we drew happy, mad, and sad faces on balloons and used a funnel to fill the balloons with rice. We were supposed to also fill our feelings balloons with play-doh, but we had such a hard time getting the play-doh in the balloon, that we decided that rice would work just fine! Both Ryan and Ethan personally requested "happy" balloons (so neither one of them must be feeling too much stress! :)). Last, we tied the balloons into a knot and talked about all the different feelings that each balloon expressed.
Practice for home:
Read the blog with your son and talk about what is going on in the pictures. Ask them which face is happy, sad, etc and have him also label the feeling that he sees on each face as additional reinforcement of this vocabulary. Be on the lookout for the song we sang today about feelings attached to your email and let me know if you have any trouble opening the file.
Looking forward to seeing your sweet boys again on Thursday for more activities about feelings.
We have so many fun things planned this week as we continue to talk about germs and the importance of good hygiene...and of course prepare for Valentine's Day.
Ethan and Ryan enjoyed playing with all sorts of different cookie cutters in the touch and feel pool this morning. They saw letters, animals, objects like baseball bats and hockey sticks, dinosaurs, and modes of transportation like helicopters, airplanes, trains, and cars. We talked about the sounds that the different letters and animals made, and we talked about all of the different colors that we saw.
To go along with our theme about healthy hygiene, Ryan and Ethan enjoyed playing in a baby washing station. The three of us each had our own wash cloths and baby soap as I demonstrated how to wash all the dirt and germs off of our baby. We started with the baby's head, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, neck, arms, hands, legs, and don't forget those stinky feet! Then I let Ryan and Ethan go to town washing the baby by themselves. We added dishes and cups from our play kitchen as they pretended to serve their baby tea and also experimented with the water by pouring it from one cup to another and of course by splashing. I've never met a child who didn't like to play with water, and Ryan and Ethan fit right in with this category...hence the need to change into our dry clothes! Vocabulary targeted for this activity: all body parts, wash, wash cloth, soap (I need more soap please.), water, wet, cold...so many concepts to target with this activity. Feel free to carry over with this activity in your own bathtubs at home, while modeling the same vocabulary.
The snow was coming down pretty hard during our playground time, and I had already used Ryan and Ethan's extra set of dry clothes, so we decided to just briefly check on the snow's progress with a quick visit to the courtyard where we jumped, ran, marched, and tip-toed in the snow. We also tried to catch the snowflakes in our mouth with lots of success! Ethan managed to fall in the snow and get his knees quite dirty...which went perfectly with our theme of dirt and germs!
Our book today was a scholastic book called Washing Up by Melvin and Gilda Berger. This is a simple book about the importance of washing our hands after we play outside, before meals, after we use the bathroom, and after we touch our pets. It also reminds us that germs live everywhere!
After we read our book, Ryan and Ethan played with "dirt" in a big bowl (Nestle Quick cocoa powder). It was the most fragrant dirt I have ever smelled! They stirred and mixed the dirt with their hands and just enjoyed the sensory experience. We wiped our hands on a piece of plain white bread and saw all the "germs" that were on our hands after playing in the dirt. We then headed to the sink to practice our good hand washing technique. After washing our hands for just a few seconds, we learned that this "dirt" is very stubborn and won't come off with just a simple rinse of the hands in cold water. I reminded Ryan and Ethan that they had to scrub and scrub for at least 20 seconds to make sure that they got all the dirt off of their hands and so that the germs would go down the drain!
For our art today, we glued two hands to a piece of paper. One hand we left clean and white, while the other hand we decorated with "dirt" (glitter). We labelled the left hand "clean" and the right hand "dirty" and talked about why. Then, we prepared for our Valentine's Day celebration by making our valentine bags. Ryan and Ethan decorated bags with lots of glue (the more...the better in our class!), hearts, and stickers. We wrote their names on the bags in big letters so that all the other kids would know who it belonged to on Valentine's Day.
We concluded our hand-washing theme with this brief video:
So as you can see, we had a very busy day talking about dirt and germs. Here are the wh-questions to ask your kiddos today:
1. What did you play with in the big bowl? dirt
2. Where did you wash your hands? in the sink or in the bathroom
3. Why do we need to wash our hands? so the germs go down the drain!
Have so much fun playing with your kids in the snow today!
We summed up our very busy morning with this short video:
