The Kite

In celebration of spring and Mother's Day, the touch and feel pool was full of pictures of animal mothers and their babies.  All the kiddos enjoyed looking at the pictures and then trying to match the appropriate baby animal to his mother.  There were skunks, elephants, cats, kangaroos, turtles...almost any type of animal mother and baby you can imagine.

I need a mommy skunk. Stinky!

Where is the baby hippo that goes with this mama?

During open center time, I reviewed that Mother's Day comes during the season of Spring and that our families will be celebrating our moms during Mother's Day this weekend.  So, we spent our open center time creating beautiful cards for our very hard working moms.  In keeping with our springtime theme, Ryan and Ethan glued a stem, a leaf, and some petals to make a beautiful flower on their card and added their pictures as the center.  We practiced saying, "Happy Mother's Day!" and hope that they are both successful with this on Sunday!!

During language circle we read, The Kite by Mary Packard, which explains that a kite can fly high in the sky and wonders if it will touch the trees, the birds, the clouds, the sky?

After we read the book, we learned that kites fly high in the sky because the wind blows them and keeps them lifted.  Ryan and Ethan also learned about the different parts of a kite...the string and the tail.

We talked about other things that might fly or blow away.  To demonstrate how the wind can blow things, I brought a hair dryer and several objects varying in weight...a cotton ball, a tissue, a feather, a block, a boat, a stapler, and a paint container.  We talked about why a cotton ball, a tissue, and a feather "flew/blew" away.  These objects were light and did not weigh very much, while a paint container, a stapler, and a boat were too heavy to get blown away.  Both boys were a little hesitant as the loud hair dryer turned on, but once the feathers started to fly high into the sky, Ryan and Ethan were hysterical...smiling and laughing so hard.  So adorable....

Feathers flying everywhere!

The stapler won't fly into the sky because it is too heavy!

After we experimented with the hair dryer, we headed to the art table to make our own kites.  The boys painted the front of the kite using sponges, and then we added a string and some bows to make the kite's tail.  

We then eagerly headed outside to see if we could get our own kites to fly.  Ryan and Ethan had  a blast and were very successful too!

As you can see, we had a really fun day with all of our kite adventures.  I hope that you all have a great weekend and a very Happy Mother's Day.  Thank you for giving me the blessing of your children to teach each week.  Looking forward to seeing Ryan and Ethan on Tuesday as we "go fishing!"...another fun springtime activity!