Rocks and Scavenger Hunt

This week we talked about rocks and did a nature scavenger hunt.  The kids loved hunting for rocks, learning about different rocks and sizes (sand, large rocks, diamonds, gold, etc).  We also cleaned the rocks we collected in the water tables.  The nature scavenger hunt was fun with Mr. Russell.  We helped everyone gather rocks, leaves, dirt, sticks, pine cones, grass, and pine needles from our back yard.

Strawberry Water and Planting Seeds

This last week we picked strawberries from the garden, and then made pink strawberry water using pink ice cubes!  Then we did our play dough gardening stations, planting "seeds" in the play dough, making flower pots, and even spraying a little water!

Mother's Appreciation Week

This week we wrapped presents for their mothers.  They got to pick a gift from the special prize bag, and wrap one for their moms.  Some of the kids were extremely excited to pick a gift and bring it home to their mother.  Some kids loved wrapping more than others.  We then spent some time cleaning up our chalk messes, since mothers always do so much cleaning.

The next day the kids decorated a bag to bring a cookie prize home.  I made huge chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for all the moms as my special gift to them.  Happy Mother's day!

Week 4 - Outdoors

Week 3: Outdoors

This week we learned about butterflies and seeds again.  We actually did lots of different little things.  On Tuesday we watched a clip of butterfly's life cycle.  Then we went outside and spent some time cleaning some foam butterflies in the water tables.  I only had enough ponchos for the girls to keep them from getting wet.

We did a group activity pretending to be seeds again, using water mist, and I fed them "sunlight" and "plant food."  On Thursday we focused more on seeds, watching a clip of a seed turning into a flower, and then we planted some seeds outside.  We dug out own holes, and could have lots of seeds.

Week 1 & 2: Easter and The Outdoors

One day we decorated Easter baskets made of plates.

We did a play dough station, "gardening" with seeds and flowers.

The week after Easter, we celebrated and did an Easter party, along with some Easter festivities.  We had a lot of fun looking for eggs for our Easter Egg hunt.  I really enjoyed our play dough station this past week, and I showed them all how to plant seeds, water their pots with pretend water, and then using flowers to make arrangements.  We also pretended to be seeds during singing time, and we grew into flowers.  I used mist to "water" everyone, and the kids giggled and ask for more.

Week 5: Numbers

I moved the trampoline last week and suddenly it was the hot item of the day.

I always love it when we do play dough centers.  They are one of my favorite activities. We talked about identifying numbers and used number cookie cutters.  I'm excited for our gardening play dough center next month.