Our Fine Feathered Friends

It may not seem like an exciting unit to some people, but we spent last week talking about "birds" and I'm not sure if our class could have had any more fun.  We have flapped our wings, tweeted and even tried to fly around our room, all while talking about our winged friends.  On Monday we made our "garbage birds", this was what one of my students called it when he realized we used an empty toilet tissue roll.  "T" said that toilet tissue rolls were suppose to be in the garbage, hence the name "garbage birds".

 

 

The are rather funny looking but we didn't mind because they were so cute.

On Tuesday we talked about the different types of birds that we see near our homes and school.  Soon the discussion turned to where birds like to hide to protect themselves.  Everyone agreed that a tree is the best place for birds to be.  So . . . . we decided to put a bird, or two (or three) in a tree!  First, we painted the sky.  We used several different colors of blue paint to make our sky look "real".

 

 

Next, we painted a tree branch and rolled a paper towel tube, wrapped with yarn, over our tree.

As soon as it dried, we put everything together!

If you look closely at our little birds, you may be able to tell that their wings and tail feathers were made with our finger prints.  Everyone was so proud when they took this home.

We also decided that we needed to "feed the birds", so we made our very own birds feeders.  Everyone strung "Fruit Loops" cereal onto pieces of yarn.

We added a straw so the birds would have a place to sit.

 

Hopefully, the birds will like Fruit Loops!  One of my sweet Mom's sent me this photo of the bird feeder in their tree!

I hope the birds liked it as much as we did!

We talked about baby birds leaving their nest and how the momma bird knows when it is time.  After much (MUCH) discussion about birds learning to fly (everyone had their own idea of how birds learn) we made one of my "saddest" art projects.  This one always makes our parents sad.

 

The children made the nest by using a ruler to draw the lines.  We had so much fun with the rulers that we set-up a center just to let everyone experiment with them. 



 

Our "Fabulous Fun Friday" got really crazy this week!  Since our letter of the week was "Y", we decided to explore YARN!  I simply went to our supply closet and grabbed ALL the yarn I could carry.  Next, I cut it into VERY long strips.  There was only ONE rule - do not tie anyone up with the yarn.  What happened next was a WHOLE LOT OF FUN!

 

 

These pictures truly do not do justice to the excitement and fun we had.  Of course there was a huge mess to clean-up (but when is that NOT the case?).  As a matter of fact, it was so much fun no one wanted to stop to go outside!  Now THAT is the sign of a good time!

 

Thanks so much for stopping in and visiting with us.  I hope you come back again!

My Class Soared with the Birds

This past week was very interesting to say the least.  Our topic was "Birds" and letter of the week was "Y".  That sounds pretty normal for a preschool week, right?  Okay, now throw in our class photos AND our annual Spring Concert and you have the makings for a humdinger of a week!  SOOOOOOOO. . . . here is our week in review!

On Monday morning I introduced the class to our new friends, worms!  My teacher-buddy, Mrs. Christi, dug up some good 'ole earth worms from her yard and I made them a cozy little home.

We added some old coffee grounds to the dirt and gave them lettuce and yellow squash to eat.  By Tuesday morning they were happily tunneling and seeming very content.  Each day we check on them.  Everyone loved them so much that I decided they would stay with us the rest of the year.

Like I said before, we had to have our class pictures made and Monday was our day.  I usually don't do messy painting projects on our picture days (it seems to upset the parents when we get paint all over those "special" clothes), so we enjoyed a simple bird art project.

I hope that you can see the yarn on the nest.  We talked all day about how birds build their nest and the different things they use. 

 

One of our favorite things has been rulers.  To a preschool child a ruler is totally fascinating!  I love to put rulers, markers and paper on our writing table then just sit back and watch.  Using rulers is a great way to work on our fine motor skills AND our eye/hand coordination at the same time.  We used our ruler skills this week with one of our art projects.  I gave the children half of a circle and a ruler. 

Everyone had a good time drawing lines and making our hand prints.  I added my big 'old hand print too and the final piece is really very sweet.  

 

The words read, "It is almost time to spread your wings and fly!  But I will always be here for you!  I love you, Mrs. Karen".  We spent the remainder of the day talking about how mother birds have to be brave and let their baby birds learn to fly and be out on their own.  Personally, I'm already missing my "baby birds".

I have an old book entitled "Weird Birds".  I don't even remember where or when I got it, but every year I pull it out and we all get a good laugh at the different types of birds all over the world.  The hands down favorite each year is the Blue Footed Booby Bird.  We had a wonderful discussion during our circle time as to why he has blue feet.  I loved it when some said the birds looked like "God dipped his feet in blue paint".  Hmmmm . . . they could be right! 

We also made a few simple birds this week.  First, we water colored a BIG parrot.

 

Now, if you read my blog regularly you know I do not like worksheets or color sheets.  But, this big bad boy is fun and I will periodically pull him out.  I don't think you can tell by the picture, but he is really BIG.  He was copied onto a piece of 14 x 17 inch piece of paper.  After he dries, I cut him out.  No instructions were needed, we just painted.

I love hand prints!  Maybe it is because my son is all grown-up.  Or maybe it is because I see those few hand prints of his and wish I had more.  Who knows???  Whatever the reason, I love them.  This week was the perfect time to squeeze in a hand print peacock.

Everyone had a fun time picking out their favorite colored sequins!  I just love him!  We spent the entire day talking about how the daddy bird is the one with all the beautiful colors and the momma birds are plain. 

Our big spring concert was Thursday and we had to squeeze in one more rehearsal.  But that didn't stop us from doing a fun and interesting alphabet craft.  I cut out some large "Y"s from scrap poster board and handed everyone some yarn.  Away they went . . . .

Yarn wrapped "Y"s!

 

Our Fabulous Fun Friday had to be special.  It had been a rather unusual week and I knew we all needed something "extra" (and I include "ME" in that statement!).   First we made a beautiful spring wall hanging.  We traced and cut out the children's hands and part of their arms.  We used half of an old plastic Easter egg for the bird and the children added some feathers and flowers.

The results were very sweet and definitely cute!

Okay, that was fun but it was NOT special enough.  Here is when things got totally FUN!  After our circle time I ask each child to go and get a chair.  They could put the chair ANYWHERE they wanted to in our classroom.  Next, I cut long pieces of different colored yarn and sat back to watch.  Here is what happened . . . .

 

 

 

The children had an amazing time wrapping and tying the yarn around everything in our classroom.  We even had yarn tied around our door knob.  Nothing was off limit and everyone had a great time!

After lunch we headed down to the kitchen to "eat dirt and worms"!  Yes, I had been hinting all week long that we were going to "eat dirt".  Luckily my class is use to me so they usually giggled and told me (more than once) that they "trusted me".  Of course we ate . . . . dirt pudding!

Complete with a couple of gummy worms.  I cheated a little and mixed up the pudding earlier in the day but the children really loved crushing up the chocolate cookies and adding their worms.

All in all it was a fun and exciting week.  Thanks for stopping by.  Next week we will be discussing the letter "Z" and "Zoo" Animals.  I hope you come back and see what we did!

"V" Week and Spring

This week turned out to be Very interesting and Very fun! I knew it was going to be a short week for me since I had to be out on Friday to take my husband to for a medical "thingie", so I had to make the most out of my condensed week. We started on Monday talking about the letter "V" and we discovered it WAS a fun letter after all! We had the best time making letter vests. I got the idea from Dr. Jean http://www.drjean.org/html/monthly_act/act_2005/02_Feb/index.html and modified it for our needs. We used old paper bags, cut them, turned them inside out and decorated them. As you can see from the picture, the first letter of each child's name is on the back (we used a free sample roll of blue electrical tape) and the children decorated the front with old stickers and markers. I even found some old alphabet stickers and everyone had a fun time trying to find the letters of their names. Since I knew I was going to have to be out on Friday, we went ahead and did our weekly science experiment a little early. I am so glad we did! It was a big success! Of course since it was "V" week we HAD to do the "Vinegar and Baking Soda Volcano Experiment". I'm really fortunate that my Mom saves all different kinds of containers for me. Because I have SO many, everyone got to do their own experiment. First everyone got to color their vinegar any color they wanted. Next we gave everyone a small cup of baking soda. I wanted the children to understand that we were using everyday items and especially to know that these items are completely safe. Unfortunately, I decided to taste the baking soda to prove my point. NOT a very smart idea! But everyone did get a good laugh out of it! Next, I counted to three and everyone dumped their ingredients into a cup. FUN! The noise level was unbelievable! Then we realized that we had more vinegar and baking soda left over. Well, that simply will not do! So of course, we did one more BIG experiment and WOW it was BIG! We also added a little dishwashing detergent to give it a little more WOW factor. I think it worked!


Tuesday was spent talking about Spring and the our wonderful letter "V". I think we incorporated our letter and our theme very nicely.



Our flowers were made from tissue paper scraps that we wadded up and glued to stems made from scrap paper. I loved how the flowers turned out. Everyones was different, some wanted LOTS of flowers, others only a few.

For the past 15 years I have tried unsuccessfully to find a violin to use during "V" week. I have had NO luck, well, no luck until this year! Yep, that's right on Tuesday we were officially know as "the class making that funny noise". Now not only did we GET a violin, we got to PLAY the violin! We loved it!

We also discovered that it was a little bit harder to play then we thought!

Wednesday was a wild day! It didn't help that we made a vulture and talked about it ALL day! Everyone was fascinated about a bird that "eats dead stuff". Nothing gets a young child's attention like talking about very gross things. Our "Very Valuable Vulture" was a big hit with everyone! I'm not sure you can tell by the picture, but his neck is a piece of construction paper (about 2x5) that the children accordion folded. This way his head kind of bobs around.

Thursday was spent talking solely about Spring and the wonderful changes that are going on now. We all agreed baby birds were one of our favorite things so we made a little handprint baby bird nest. Here are the instructions - BIRDS IN A NEST Have your child paint their hand blue this time. Next, have them spread their fingers and make an impression in the middle of a piece of paper. When the print is dry, give them a nest shape (1/2 circle), cut from a tan piece of paper. Have them glue the nest across the bottom of the blue impression. Next, take shredded paper and glue it to the nest. You now should have a nest with 5 blue birds in it. Let your children add eyes and v beaks with a thin black marking pen. I hope this makes sense. Since my poor camera died I am relying on the kindness of others for pictures. Hopefully, one of my Moms will be e-mailing me a photo soon.
LOOKIE WHAT I FOUND! hehehehe! One of my students wasn't at school on friday either so I took a picture of her bird's nest.Well, like I said, this was a short week for me. Today was spent at the hospital with my husband but I did leave a fun scissor project. We made palm leaves in honor of Palm Sunday this weekend. I cut giant leaves out of green construction paper and the children made diagonal cuts to make the leaves. They were to glue on a stem made from cardboard. Now, they will be ready to tell their parents the wonderful story of Palm Sunday.


Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you will come back again next week and see the fun and hopefully exciting ways we will studying the letter "W" and Easter.