Penguin Awareness Day 2020! We have had an awesome time learning all about these flightless birds this week! What they eat, where they live, how they feed and take care of their babies, call each other, and get around! Penguins have solid bones, whereas other birds have hollow bones which allow for flight!
We were amazed to learn that after the Mommy penguin lays an egg, she carefully passes it to Daddy penguin to keep warm atop his leathered feet. Daddy doesn’t eat for 60 days until Mommy returns from eating at the ocean! We took turns trying to waddle while keeping an egg balanced on top of our feet! Much tougher than it looks! 🐧❤️🐧
Penguin Patterns 🐧 Preschoolers have made patterns with sounds, movement, objects, and other preschoolers!!! Today we introduced positional patterns which involves changing the orientation of the same object to create a pattern! Using penguins they cut out, preschoolers created their own pattern to add to their crowns! They then “read” their pattern to a teacher before gluing the shapes down! Perfect penguin positional patterns, preschoolers!
We ❤️ all your amazing positional pattern crowns!
Our preschool classroom was given this beautiful suet bird feeder by Father Trout! The children are patiently waiting for our first feathered visitors! ❤️
Music with Mr. Showstead! Preschoolers enjoyed using percussion instruments such as tambourines and drums! 🎶
Corduroy’s week with Daniel & Mateo 🐻
Corduroy had a busy week keeping up with these two brothers! He enjoyed going to gymnastics with them, and even getting a bit wet during Daniel and Mateo’s swim lessons! Corduroy met their soccer coach, and had lots of fun at the Lifetime Kid Party! We look forward to hearing all about Corduroy’s adventures with Gianna and her family next week!
Art-in-The-Box: Dr.Seuss
A huge “thank you” to Carlen Medina and Stephanie Swanson for presenting preschool’s first AIB lesson! We learned that this amazing author and illustrator’s real name is Theodor Geisel and he is the king of rhyming! He created Early Readers for young children because he thought children’s books were too boring! We celebrate his birthday each year on March 2nd with Read Across America Day! The children enjoyed listening to “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”, and then created our own art project by painting with colored corn syrup that gave the illusion of water! 🐟 ❤️🐟
Preschool +Plus World Travelers ❄️🐧⛄️🌎Preschoolers listed everything they knew and learned about the arctic regions of the North & South Poles! I loved our Arctic expedition and had such an awesome time learning about this special area of our world.
Snowshoe hairs, arctic foxes, wolves, lemmings and animals that live in the Arctic and are kept warm by their thick fur! We felt how soft and warm animal fur really is!
Hands-on Science Exploration! “How does a polar bear stay warm swimming in icy cold Arctic water? Preschoolers learned that polar bears, seals, and walrus have a thick layer of blubber under their skin that insulated them and keeps them warm! We tested this theory by placing first placing our fingers in the icy cold water. Then put our own hand in a blubber mitt made with ziploc baggies and cooking lard! Our conclusion, it’s true! The hand insulated by blubber WAS kept warm by the layer of fat!
We sequenced last names by ABC order! Preschoolers were surprised to see that 3 friends had last names that began with the letter S!
3-D Shape Hunt/Turn & Talk. Preschoolers searched the classroom for 3-d shapes that matched their model! Turn & Talk with our partner helped us describe attributes of our shape, such as number of corners, if it could roll or slide, and shapes of the sides.
Shapes! We have been comparing flat shapes vs 3-shapes in class! It was so fun combining flat shapes to make our Shape Penguins today! 🐧 Activities such as these help preschoolers follow directions, as well as, understand positional words ( behind, on top of, below, top, middle, bottom) as we progress through each step.
Scholastic’s My BIG World introduced us to animals that live in the Arctic! We learned about their many adaptations that allow them to live in frigid temps! We were surprised to learn that a Beluga whale can use its domed head to break through thick ice! Arctic foxes, Snowshoe hares, harp seals, and ptaragins have distinctive white fur/feathers to camoflage them in the wild.
Preschool+Plus World Travelers
This month we explore the North and South Poles: Arctic & Antarctica! Brrrr! One is a land surrounded by water, and the other is water surrounded by land! Our sensory table includes animals from these two polar regions, and of course, icebergs!
