Happy Mother’s Day!
What better way to start off the month of May than by celebrating mothers! Working hard to keep our Mother’s Day surprise TOP SECRET, the children showed off their writing skills by practicing letter recognition through making heart tags with the words “Love (and their name.) To make the task easier, we used shrink paper that allowed for the children to write in normal size while challenging their fine-motor skills to stay
within the lines of the heart. Once decorated, we heated the oven to 350 degrees, slid our heart tags inside, and watched as the paper shrunk within minutes. Wanting to create something for our moms that would give them some much needed R&R, the children rolled up their sleeves and went to work making a lavender sugar scrub. To do so, the children labeled and measured three key ingredients: sugar, olive oil, and lavender essential oil. Developing basic math skills through number recognition, each child carefully measured
every ingredient by identifying the numbers on the recipe and the measuring utensil. Using gross-motor skills to stir the mixture, we had to keep reminding ourselves that we weren’t going to be able to eat the scrub. Once our scrub was no longer liquid, we scooped it into individual mason jars to package up for our moms. Then, quizzing ourselves on how well we know our moms, the children answered a questionnaire that required them to think cognitively and recall previous information. We hope you all enjoyed your special gift and shared a few laughs as you read through our “All About Mom” fill in the blank sheet. Happy Mother’s Day!
With our alphabet-inspired curriculum all wrapped up, we noticed that the children had taken a great interest in robots and decided to explore the topic further by integrating math, science, and art through a variety of hands-on activities.
Collecting recycling materials from home and school, and reading a class favorite “Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit,” by Chris Van Dusen, the children were inspired to build their own giant robot using three large cardboard boxes as our base and body. Determining how wide and tall to stack our boxes, we wanted to make our robot as realistic as possible and measured ourselves
against it to make sure it was
life-size. Then, using glue and tin foil, the class broke up into three groups and glued foil over every exposed area of the box so that our robot was “covered in metal.” Once our robot skin was ready, we rummaged through the recycling material we collected and used our inmagination to bring our robot to life. Adding pie tins for ears, bottle caps for eyes and buttons, and plastic tubing for arms, we had our very own robot!
Wanting to reintroduce our manipulative area and give the children the opportunity to create robots through the use of multiple manipulative materials, the class was given free reign and one-step instructions to create a robot using
however many legos, conncecting cubes, and zoobs they needed. In doing so, the children were able to explore different textures, manipulate different shapes, and develop fine-motor skills. Along with 3D representations, the class also worked cognitively to create 2D robots identifying shapes and constructing their own
robot from shapes cut out before them. In doing so, the children used these pictures as a platform for narration and created stories for their robots, narrating where they came from, what their job was, and what emotions they were feeling. Who knew robots had feelings too! And better yet, who knew they could taste so good! As a special project to stimulate creativity using
different mediums, we made robots using large marshmallows, pretzel sticks, raisins, cheerios, graham crackers, and white frosting as our “glue.” Challenging ourselves to piece together a robot using all edible materials, the children went above and beyond as they created their robots with ease and overcame the challenge of making their robot stand without falling. Some robots lost their arms and buttons along the way and suspicion has it that they may have ended up in a few friend’s stomachs. Hopefully some of these robots made it home in one piece!
Practicing basic math and cognitive skills, the children were quick learners when it came to playing a game of dominoes where instead of matching numbers, we matched robots. Laying all our dominoes out on the table, the children took turns adding to our
domino line, understanding we could only match one domino at a time. When a turn came around when we did not have any to match, we practiced good sportsmanship passing up our turn and cheering on friends who had matching robots. After awhile of teacher-guided facilitation, the children were able to facilitate the game on their own, following rules and instructions along with teaching the game concept with new friends joining the game. Way to go guys!
Star Wars has made a comeback and is all our friends have been able to talk about! Overhearing conversations about Yoda, R2D2, and Darth Vadar along with multiple Share Day items revolving around Star Wars, we decided to explore the topic further, with the exclusion of weapons of course. Curious about starships and
what they look like, we recalled on previous information from Star Wars books and used our imagination to create our own 2D representations of a starship on paper. Once all the arms, legs, controls, and traps were added to our starship design, we used our handy thumbs-up technique to cut out our starships and glue them onto black paper to represent “space.” Posted up inside the classroom, the children were able to use these 2D pictures as a
blueprint for the construction of 3D starships out of legos for “Racing for Freedom” race. In this race, the children tested out two locations, inside and outside the classroom and quickly discovered inside the classroom was not big enough. Practicing balance and control, each friend was able to participate in “Racing for Freedom” outside in the big yard running laps individually and with partners. But what is a starship without a
pilot! R2D2 to the rescue! Using fine-motor skills and following 3-step instructions to create our own R2D2 puppet, the class had to first identify shapes and sort which shapes they needed to complete all of R2D2’s body parts and controls. Once sorted, the children worked in pairs to glue and piece together their puppet, coming up with different functions for every “button” on R2D2’s body. Noticing our puppet was too large for our starships, we constructed our own star station out of wooden blocks and created our own Star Wars scene for friends to act out and narrate. May the force be with you!
Happy May!
With Love,
Ms. Lisa and Ms. Keri
