Hello all!
What fun we had learning more about the rainforest this week. All of us enjoyed playing in our rainforest arch with all the animals, playing with small animals in our diorama, playing with rainforest animals with blocks on the floor and adding rainforest lizards, toucans, snakes, butterflies, alligators and sloths to our bulletin board in the hallway! In addition, we watched videos about sloths, leaf cutter ants, alligators and crocodiles and howler monkeys. (goals:answering questions, sharing, building-gross motor)
During the week we made lizards, leaf cutter ants and sloths! We glued on pictures of the animals that live in each of the 4 layers of the rainforest. We sorted and weighed worms and bugs. After showing beautiful pictures of the waterfalls in the rainforest, we made rain sticks and made waterfalls using pipettes at the easel. We also experimented with water using pipes, funnels and scoopers. In addition, we learned some interesting facts about the monarch butterfly, then made one using beautiful blue tissue papers. We also used magnifying glasses to play "I Spy" to find rainforest animals in pictures. In our free play time we cut out dark green, light green and yellow strips. During opening time, we patterned these strips and stapled them together to make a boa constrictor. In addition, we played rainforest memory game. On Wednesday, we signed in to which was our favorite rainforest animal. (goals: fine motor, making decisions independently, patterning, sensory, sorting, counting, recognizing numbers and comparing numbers)
Thursday was another busy day in the rainforest! We wrote in our journals about our favorite rainforest animals. The hippos enjoyed playing "The Jaguar says ....The Sloth says...." game. The hippos listened and did the movements. For example, if the jaguar says run in place, the students ran in place really fast, if the sloth said run in place, the students ran in place really slow! We also watched a video that told us the differences between alligators and crocodiles. We then made an alligator/crocodile with our hands in green paint. (goals: listening, gross motor, fine motor, sensory, drawing representational pictures)
During the two weeks we explored the rainforest, we played a thumbs up, thumbs down game based on everything we learned about. If we said something about the rainforest that was true, the children put their thumbs up. If we said something that was not true, the children put their thumbs down. We were amazed at how much they have learned! They listened and demonstrated understanding of the books we read in class!
Today was abilities day! During class we talked about people who cannot see, who cannot walk, who cannot hear and who cannot use their finger muscles as well as we can. We discussed that we are all the same inside and we can all play together. In the gym we looked at different things people use to help, such as hearing aids, wheel chairs, and brail. We were able to discover what it feels like when we have difficulty with fine motor tasks as we wore mittens to color and build. We also looked through different binoculars to show us what it is like to not see very well. In addition, we listened to a hearing aid!
Books We Read:
The Sloth That Came To Stay
"Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth
Over In The Meadow
The Very Sleepy Sloth
Videos:
Questions to Ask:
1. Is the monarch butterfly the biggest or littlest of all butterflies? (the biggest)
2. What does the leaf cutter ant do with the leaf? (brings it back to its home)
3. What is your favorite rainforest animal?
4. Are sloths slow or fast? (slow)
5. Are leaf cutter ants slow or fast? (fast)
6. What is the shape of the crocodile mouth? (V shaped)
7. What is the shape of the alligator mouth? (U shaped)
8. Is the crocodile meaner that the alligator? (yes)
Reminders:
Thursday, May 30th -Last day party at the park! More details to come.
Things practice at home:
Continue reading and finding information on the rainforest.
Next Week:Pizza!
Below are the wonderful pictures showing all the fun and learning we participated in this week!!!
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| We patterned strips and stapled them to make a boa constrictor. |
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| We made leaf cutter ants using corks and tearing gree construction paper. |
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We made a picture of the 4 layers of the rainforest
and added the animals that lived in each layer. |
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| Using pipettes and paint to make a waterfall. |
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| We used all shades of blue to make our morpho butterfly. |
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| Playdoh and animal cookie cutters. |
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| I spy rainforest animals. |
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| Everyone enjoyed making a rainstick using stickers and rice. |
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To make the body of our sloth, we traced our footprint
and cut it out. |
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The students loved hearing me sing the words to the book,
Over In The Jungle.
(maybe I will become a singer in my second life-HAHA) |
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| The hippos loved playing the drums during music class. |
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| We experimented with pipes, funnels and scoopers in water. |
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| Rainforest memory game. |
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| Show and Tell |
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| We went to another class to see their baby chicks! |
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| We made the planet earth in art class. |
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| This is the vision table at our abilities day. |
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| Here we colored and built with socks on our hands, |
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| The hearing table. |
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| Jaguar says, sloth says game. |
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| We added eyes, legs, scales and teeth to our alligator. |
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| The hippos loved playing the alligator teeth game with Brie. |
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| Journal-What is your favorite rainforest animal? |
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| I spy the alligators in this picture. |
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| Working on writing the letter T and L. |
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| Here we cut strips out to make our snake. |
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| Weighing an sorting bugs. |
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| We added legs and leaves to our leaf cutter ants. |
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| Happy Rainforest!! |
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It was a fun sensory experience to have our hand painted
to make our alligator. |
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| We cut out our footprints for the body of the sloth. |
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| What is your favorite rainforest animal? |
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We added legs, feathers, eyes and a tree
branch (popsicle stick) |
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| Show and Tell |
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| Show and Tell |
