On Monday’s woods walk, the children were hoping to make it all the way out to a pond in the town forest. We spent so much time exploring along the way that we ran out of time to get there. Our first stop was at a tree that had fallen over years ago, leaving it’s roots exposed. The children walked along the tree and climbed up the roots, testing their balance and strength. They wondered what could have caused the tree to fall, and what might be living in the small tunnels at the base of the roots. As we continued on, there were more small pools of water to search. Emily pointed out leaf buds developing on young trees that were at just the right height for everyone to get a close look at. Just before turning back the children took turns climbing up on some big rocks on the hillside to enjoy the high vantage point.
The warm temperatures kept us outside a lot this week, biking, kicking and throwing balls, jumping up and over the dirt mound, digging in the pit, creating mud, coloring, hunting for fairy house materials and making fairy houses, making flower soup and oobleck with corn starch, playing tag, cooking in the mud kitchen, drawing and coloring, playing superhero families, climbing, digging in the sand, excavating dinosaur bones, and enjoying the rain and sun.
During sign language with Rose we practiced signing each other’s names, sang and signed Hurry, Hurry Drive the Fire Truck and Tingalayo, and read the Piggie and Gerald story Let’s Go For a Drive.
We had fun with frog songs and games and introduced a fresh water version of the Phytoplankton song. We read The Wide Mouth Frog and Salamander Room. One of our friends introduced two science experiments – pulling a metal rod out of a cup of water with a magnet, and dissolving salt in cold water and hot water to see which dissolved first. We then tied rocks to string and looped them over a stick to hang into the salty water and set them up on the windowsill to evaporate and see what happens with all the salt in the water.
We took out the parachute and played some new games. We sang Ring Around the Rosie and Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. We made a mushroom and all stepped in, pulling the parachute around us to make a tent. We called out two names, and those students ran under and gave each other an elbow bump. We counted off by 3’s, and when our number was called we ran and switched places. We played hair dresser, rubbing the parachute over heads then pulling it up to make everyone’s hair stand on end. Then we played the shark/alligator/wide mouth bass game, where the bass goes under the parachute and pulls under a frog, who then becomes the bass.
Kindergarten students worked on reading, writing, geometric solids, and pin punching their continents for their continent maps.
For Friday science we read Balancing Act and Just a Little Bit, about making a balance level. They then built their own balances and selected a large animal for one end, then added smaller animals to level it out, then recorded their findings using pictures and/or words.
