Buzz Buzz Buzz!

Another day without Ryan!  We really miss our buddy and hope that he is back in action next Tuesday!  Ethan started his super busy day playing with flowers and yellow and black puff balls in the touch and feel pool.  We talked about the types of flowers that were in the pool, their colors, and the parts of a flower (stem, petal, leaf).  We pretended that the puff balls were bumble bees that landed on the flowers.  Some of us teachers were also allergic to the flowers, and they made us sneeze. Achoo! During touch and feel time, we also all took turns getting our hands painted for our bumblebee hand craft.  We added the wings and antennae later on in the day.   

  Ethan is making incredible progress with his calendar concepts.  Today, during morning circle he was able to name all seven days of the week, and he can count all the way to 30.  Good work!  

One of Ethan's favorite things to do during centers now is to practice his cutting.  He has great attention span during this task and is very self motivated to try to get it right.  I continue to prompt him to open and close his fingers, and he is starting to be successful at this fine motor task.  

 It was chilly but dry enough for us to hit the playground today.  Ethan was clearly missing his friend Ryan today and initiated play with me on several occasions saying, "Come on, Annie." and "Cook" to tell me that he wanted to make me something at the "take-out window."  We went through the tunnel.  We played with balls in the playhouse, and Ethan had fun playing with some new friends as they went down the slide over and over again.  I also brought bubbles out today, which are always a huge hit among all the children, and we worked on requesting more bubbles by saying, "I want more bubbles."  

I am making pizza for Annie!

Up, down, and around over and over again with my friends.

For our language lesson today, we read Buzz Said the Bee by Wendy Cheyette Lewison.  This story begins with a bee who sits on a duck.  When the duck can't get the bee to scat, the duck sits on a hen who sits on a pig, who sits on a cow, who sits on a sheep until there is a tall tower of animals stacked on top of each other.  Then each animal rolls off the other while saying their animal sound (moo, oink, cluck, quack) and the bee ends the story with "BUZZ!"  This story was a great review of farm animal vocabulary and their corresponding sounds.  We used plastic farm animals as our story props and then re-told the story using the animals once we had finished the book.  

After we finished the story, Ethan enjoyed making his own bumble bee at the art table.  As we were making the bee, we reviewed that bees have black and yellow stripes.  They use their wings to fly, and they say, "buzz!" 

First, he painted the paper plate yellow.

Second, he glued on the head.

Third, he gave the bee some stripes.

Last, he added wings, eyes, and antennae.  

 As usual, we summarized out "Bee lesson" with this short video.  

We had just enough time before lunch to end our day with some much loved water play.  Ethan enjoyed playing in a tub of water that had all the bugs that we learned about this month (spiders, frogs, caterpillars, butterflies, bees, flies, ladybugs, and beetles) and some other ones too!  It was a great review of the vocabulary that we have been targeting for several weeks.  Ethan pretended to give the bugs a bath and also enjoyed pouring water from a teapot into cups and mixing some bug soup!

Ethan was a busy bee and was super tired by the end of the day.  I can't wait to start another fun week on Tuesday as we learn all about transportation...specifically things that fly in the air!  Have a great weekend!

 

The Grouchy Ladybug

It was so great to be back after being gone all week.  I so missed sweet Ethan and Ryan.  Ryan was sick today, so Ethan had to work extra hard given all the one-on-one attention!  This week we are learning all about bugs that fly.  So to kick off our flying bug week, the touch and feel pool was full of sheets of red construction paper that Ethan tore into strips and rolled into little balls to use later for an art project.  We used our fine motor skills to tear the paper, and we talked about all the different sizes of balls that all at the kiddos were making.  Today, Ethan preferred to dive into the pool full of paper!  

During centers today, Ethan and I worked hard learning our shapes using a puzzle that required us to match and fit the shapes together.  I was pleasantly surprised when Ethan verbally labelled circle, square, triangle, diamond, octagon, hexagon, heart, and star.  Wow! I think he may have taught some of these shapes to me!  Great work at home!  Ethan is making incredible progress!  We then moved to the easel, and I had Ethan imitate the prewriting circle, horizontal, and vertical strokes.  He did a great job with this as well saying "down" for vertical and "across" for horizontal.  Ethan was also very interested in using scissors today.  I showed him how to hold the scissors appropriately and coached him with the words "open/close" as he opened and closed the scissors.  For practice at home, it is easier for children to cut in an upward motion.  Tape a piece of paper to a table, and have Ethan sit on the ground so that he is below what he is cutting and see if this helps him be more successful.  He was very motivated by this activity and attended to using scissors for a long period of time.

It feels like it has been forever since we haven't had red noses and frozen hands on the playground!  Is this weather ever going to end?  The rain soaked the playground today, so Ethan and I went on a nature adventure around the block and collected all sorts of treasures.  We found acorns wearing "hats," and talked about how squirrels like to eat acorns.  We felt the soft, green moss around a tree trunk.  We spotted a beautiful rock, which we dug up with a stick, and we found patches of clovers that would satisfy a bunny for days!  When we came inside, we glued our treasures to a piece of construction paper and labeled them to show mom and dad at home!

For our language lesson today, we read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. This book starts off by teaching us that ladybugs like to eat aphids, and aphids are small white bugs that like to eat leaves, which eventually hurt trees, shrubs, and other plants.  By eating the aphids, the ladybugs help the trees.  A grouchy ladybug in the story starts his morning by not wanting to share aphids with another ladybug.  So he flies off in a huff and a puff and every hour tries to pick a fight with insects and animals that get larger and larger as the hours get later and later.  In true Eric Carle style there is a great repeating line on each page ("Hey you," said the grouchy ladybug. "Want to fight?" and "Oh, you're not big enough." said the grouchy ladybug and flew off.)  As always, we can use this repeating line to stimulate language in our little ones and see if they can fill in the blank when we leave out words.  We were also able to target new vocabulary of a variety of insects and animals that are not very common to the typical 2 year old...stag beetle, praying mantis, sparrow, lobster, skunk, hyena, whale...to name a few. We also talked about concepts related to size as I asked the Ethan which insect or animal was bigger...the ladybug or the elephant, the ladybug or the yellow jacket, etc.  We used picture cards of all the animals that the grouchy ladybug met, and these cards were sent home in Ethan's book bag.  Use these at home and see if he can re-tell the story using the pictures or observe whether or not the pictures stimulate other language related to his day and our ladybug theme.  Ethan can also practice clapping the syllables of the insect and animal names on the cards.

After we read the book, Ethan headed to the art table to make his own ladybug.  First, he painted a paper plate red. Second, he added a head. Third, he glued on wings and some spots.  Last, he stapled pipe cleaners as the antennae.  Use these pictures on the blog to see if Ethan can re-tell you the steps he used in making his ladybug.  

First, we painted our ladybug red.

Second, we glued on her head.

Third, we added some wings and spots.

Last, we stapled on her antennae.

As usual, we ended our language lesson with the following short videos.

See you on Thursday, as we learn all about bumble bees!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

I was so sad to miss out on today, but I had two sick kids at home; and my best "go-to" babysitter (my mom) has Shingles.  Ugh! I can't wait for winter and all of these bugs to be gone!  My blog today won't have pictures or as many specifics, but I heard about all of the events of the day...and it sounds like Ryan and Ethan both did great!

The touch and feel pool today was full of multi-colored puff balls that all the kiddos sorted and used to make patterns.  They talked about all the colors and how the puff balls felt.  

Both boys stayed with the rest of the Speech Garden for morning circle and apparently had great attention spans for all of the songs that they sang and calendar concepts that they learned.  They then headed to the big playground and enjoying the change in scenery and playing with the older kids.

For our language lesson today, we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  This is a famous preschool book and great for teaching how caterpillars turn into butterflies (metamorphosis).  The reader follows the caterpillar through each day of the week as he hatches from a little egg on Sunday, eats through one apple on Monday, two pears on Tuesday, etc....until he builds a chrysalis around himself and emerges as a beautiful butterfly.  There are a million concepts that you can target with this one simple book - days of the week, numbers, colors, vocabulary of a variety of different foods, temporal/sequencing concepts, and the science lesson of metamorphosis, which we told the children means "change."  The book also has great repeating lines to stimulate language learning..."But he was still hungry!"  So as I have said before, use these repeating lines and see if your child can fill in the blank when you leave off the word "hungry."  Also, as Ms. Kelly read the book to Ryan and Ethan, she used sequencing pictures to further comprehension and to also  stimulate their attention to the new vocabulary being introduced.  These cards were sent home with Ryan and Ethan. See if they can help re-tell the story using the picture cards for support.

After the book, Ryan and Ethan went to our classroom with Ms. Margaret to make their own very hungry caterpillars, folded into little books that had each stage of the metamorphosis.  First, a little egg lay on a leaf.  Second, the egg hatches into a caterpillar.  Third, the caterpillar builds a chrysalis around himself.  Last, the caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly.    

We watched the following short video to summarize our language lesson today.  

Questions for your kiddos today:
1.  Review the stages of metamorphosis putting emphasis on the temporal concepts first, second, third, last.  See if Ryan and Ethan can use these words expressively by using them as they explain the pictures or...if that's too tricky see if they can understand these words receptively by answering your questions What happens to the caterpillar first? etc.  
2.  Have Ryan and Ethan count the fruit in the book and see if they can use one-to-one correspondence as they count.
3.  As the caterpillar goes through each day of the week, remind Ryan and Ethan of the days of the week song and see if they can either sing the song or say the days of the week without the song.  (We clap our hands instead of snap).

Again, I'm sorry that I missed such a great day, but I hope that you all have a good week.  We will see you next Tuesday as we learn all about bugs that crawl!  

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

Oh my goodness!  The touch and feel pool was a bustle of excitement this morning as we observed (but didn't really want to touch) real worms in real dirt!  We talked about how they were a bit slimy and wiggly.  We learned that worms like to eat dirt which helps the plants, and trees, and vegetables that grow in the dirt.  Who knew that we could even shape the worms into letters to make our names?  It was pretty cool to watch our names move!  After we were finished observing the worms, we set them free in the flowers out in the courtyard so that the flowers would have good, fertile soil.  

Our open center time was also all about wiggly worms and bugs.  Ryan and Ethan thoroughly enjoyed playing with more worms (cooked spaghetti noodles) in a big tub.  I hid additional bugs in the noodles for Ryan and Ethan to find.  We had endless language learning opportunities as we talked about the names of all the different bugs...ladybug, caterpillar, scorpion, butterfly, cricket, flies, grasshoppers, long worms, and short worms.  Of course, as we said the name of each bug, we also clapped the syllables.  The worms were a bit slimy and sticky, but that didn't stop either one of the boys from diving right into this sensory experience!

The playground was chilly today, but Ryan and Ethan had their usual fun crashing things into each other...today it was a lawn mower and a shopping cart.  They also enjoyed zooming balls down the slide over and over again.  After thirty minutes, both boys' noses and hands were red, and it was time to go defrost inside for our language lesson.  

For our language lesson today we read The Very Clumsy Click Beetle by Eric Carle.  This is the story of a young beetle who goes for a walk and falls out of a tree, landing on his back. His dilemma is that he does not know how to turn himself over onto his feet.  After a wise, old beetle hears his cries for help, he teaches the young beetle how to "click and flip" over onto his feet.  The young beetle tries numerous times to click and flip after encountering a worm, a turtle, a snail, and a mouse; and he is finally successful when approached by a human!   

If you didn't get the book sent home with you today, here is a great video that tells the story almost exactly!

For art today, we made our own clumsy click beetles.  First, we colored one side of an oval piece of paper.  Second, we added eyes and antennae. Third, we glued a clothespin to the other side; and last, we tried to "click and flip" our beetles using the clothespin.  Our beetles did not click quite like we wanted them to, because the glue was still wet, but please see how far you can get your beetles to click and flip at home!  

We summarized our lesson on click beetles with the following short video:

We concluded our activities for the day with a rhyming puzzle.  The puzzle has a variety of pictures and Ryan and Ethan had to find the pictures that rhymed in order to get them to fit together.  It was a challenging activity but great for early phonemic awareness and vocabulary development.  They both seemed to enjoy it.  

Wh-questions for today:

1. What was in the touch and feel pool today? worms

2. What do worms like to eat? dirt

3. How do worms feel? slimy

4. Where do worms live? in the dirt

5. What sound does the click beetle make? click 

As you can see, it was a typical busy day at the Speech Garden.  Next Tuesday, we will be learning all about caterpillars and butterflies as we read, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."  Have a great weekend!

Creepy Crawlies!

As you know, this week we are learning all about creepy crawlies.  So...you can probably guess what was waiting for Ryan and Ethan in the touch and feel.  That's right....BUGS!  We learned the different names of the bugs - preying mantis, beetles, ladybugs, caterpillars, spiders, scorpions, and a few that didn't belong in the bug family....turtles, snakes, and frogs to name a few.  We talked about their various colors and counted the legs on most of them.  Everyone seemed impressed with our pool of bugs!  

After morning circle, Ryan and Ethan worked on matching a variety of different geometric shapes to pictures made of all the shapes on a board.  It was a great review of some of the simpler shapes like triangle and square, and fun to learn the names of new shapes like hexagon and diamond.

Because of our plan to go on a bug safari in Latta park today, we followed a little bit of a different schedule this morning.  Instead of going on the playground, we stayed inside to complete our language activity.  Today we read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle.  What better way to introduce creepy crawlies than by learning all about spiders!  This book is about a female spider who is invited to play with multiple farm animals.  However, with each invitation, she is "very busy spinning her web."  This is not only a great book to teach about spiders but also a great review of farm animals.  The repeating lines are also a perfect opportunity for you to pause and see if Ryan and Ethan can fill in the blank with the correct word.  As always, I encourage you all to read the same books at home that we read at school and try to turn reading into more of a conversation by sitting face to face so that your boys can see your face and the way you pronounce the words.  It also encourages eye contact and may help increase his attention to the book.  Also, repeat the same books over and over again.  The more Ryan and Ethan hear us talk about the topics/words in the book, the more growth in vocabulary will take place.  (The Hanen Program, 2004).

As I read the book, we counted the spiders' legs, and felt her "thin, silky web" get larger and larger as the book went on.  We learned that spiders spin webs in order to catch flies and bugs for them to eat.  We also reviewed the farm animals that try to engage the spider in play and their corresponding animal sounds.  I used picture cue cards of all the different animals in the book for Ryan and Ethan to hold in order to enhance their comprehension and attention to the book being read.   

After we finished the book, we headed to the art table to make our own special spiders.  We used pipe cleaners for the legs and counted out eight for both Ryan and Ethan.  Then we pushed the legs into a styrofoam cup, reviewing once again that spiders have eight legs, and last we added some googly eyes to complete our spider.  The spiders turned out super cute!

We summarized our lesson with the following song:

It was a beautiful day for a bug safari at the park!  We reviewed all of our park safety rules prior to our departure.  All the kiddos were instructed to hold the rope during the entire walk to the park, and everyone had to stay within the playground parameters (within the black mulch).  On our walk, we only spotted a few bugs.  One ant crawling on a turtle statue, a ladybug on Ryan's hand (so I'm told...I did not witness this particular bug!), and a bumblebee that did not make us very happy.  The lack of bugs on our hunt didn't get us down as Ryan and Ethan had a blast running, climbing, sliding, and going through the tunnels with the rest of the kiddos in the Speech Garden.  We pretended to be pirates on a pirate ship as they steered their "boat" and said, "Ahoy Matees!"  Then we settled down to some picnic tables for a picnic lunch.  Ryan and Ethan were worn out after lunch and the walk home seemed a lot longer and hotter than when we first left for our park adventure! But lots of fun was had by all!       

Wh-Questions for today:

1. How many legs do spiders have? eight

2. Where do spiders live? in webs

3. What do spiders like to eat? bugs/flies

4. How do they catch their food? in their sticky webs

5. Why didn't the spider want to play with the animals? She was very busy spinning her web.

6. On each page of the book, where is the fly?

I sent home "My Itsy Bitsy Spider Book" for you to read and color at home for additional review.  See you on Thursday to learn all about the clumsy click beetle!