Lunch counting...

At Lunch we always count people to plates to cups to forks/spoons. We have 8 kids so how many plates/cups/forks/spoons do we need? Lately the kids have been counting in catagories. This is exciting! Today it went like this....
Connor said, "There are 2 girls and 4 boys" so of course I say..."Yes, we have 2 girls and 4 boys, So how many all together?" Connor says 6! ....
We venture further and I say, "Who is not here today?"...Kelly and Jackson..."So we have 6 kids here and 2 kids there, how many all together?" Jence counted the kids here and then in his head added 2 more. 8! Yippeeee! "Thats right, 6 kids here and 2 kids there equal 8 all together....6+2=8.
We do this daily at circle time but using flannel pieces....I am so excited they are transfering it to real life situations!....that right there is Kingergarten math.

Ff is for Frog....counting

Here is Connor and Olivias books this week.

I asked them to tell me about their pictures and I wrote what they said

frogs....around the room...

We made frog masks with frog tongues....They were licking up bugs left and right!

We cut them out, painted them, and blewwww.....We made these yesterday....Super cute little puppets....We got out the 'domino' blocks today. They are not regular dominos, they are building dominos. They used them for sorting, comparing, measuring, etc....Jence has made a pattern and is counting how many he has in a row....Anna and Quincy are just building a long wall....Connor is also building a pattern, with Bryans help....And Olivia is measuring, see below. Olivia started out with a long 'road'. She wanted to measure it so we got the tape measure out. It was 12". "I can make that longer" she said. "Then the number will be different"....."what do you think it will be?" I asked. "I don't know"

So she added blocks and measured again. "Wow...now it says 14" Olivia!" She got a big smile on her face and said, "I can make it bigger!" She added a couple more blocks and she ended up with 16". At that point she was done and moved on to something else. I love that she likes to measure everything. We have several tape measures in the room just for this sort of occasion. :)Thank you to the Olivias family for bringing BIG boxes!! We got one house built and a little painted, I am hoping to build some more next week. It will be the biggest development on our block!

This is a video from Bev Bos....

We have some blocks similar to these in our block area. This is a great video showing the progression and learning going on while building.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZaK6D96oQg

Random outdoor photos.....

Olivia and Connor were having so much fun on the teeter-totter this morning. Connors going to have a sore bum...

Frog Week....

You won't see any messy activites today...I will save that for Wednesdays blog...but I just wanted to show you what we are doing around the room today.
Lilly Padds leading into the room....Blue and Yellow at the Easel....Kellys about to make green....Frog Puzzles...and Jence is counting frogs...."Annie...there are 8 red frogs!"The sensory bin has been transformed into a Pond with rocks, twigs, water, plants, and plastic frogs, worms, and other creatures...Of course....Quinns favorite place...Puzzles....A frog counting game. This is just like the workjobs I make....It shows a number and you are supposed to place the correct amount of frogs onto the pond. The frogs have different colors so they can sort them also.A big lilly pad mat. We were throwing beanbags onto it this morning...This is the song '5 little speckeled frogs sitting on a speckeled log (it's a real log) eating some most delicious bugs...YUM YUM....One jumped into the pool, where he was nice and cool, now there are 4 green speckeld frogs...GLUB GLUB." continue until you have no frogs.
They love this song and they can practice the song using this set."If your happy and you know it shout HURRAY!.......

Ducks....

This is a baby duck...This is one of my few 'directional' projects. Meaning, they had simple directions. :) First the yellow fuzz (from our easter baskets...reuse,reduce,recycle....) Then 2 eyes, then the triangle beak, then the feather wings, all on top of a coffee filter (we didn't have any paper plates or I would have used those to make it a wee bit sturdier.
I think your kids make the cutest projects EVER!Here we are making Duck feet prints....We a few different spatulas and some forks. At the light table we are painting with feathers. We used Orange, Yellow, and Green. We painted on vellum paper (it's transparent). At the light table I also have mirrors all around to add light and to add the cool effect of seeing forever.......There is really only one table :)This is the light table a few days ago...it had pegs and boards...Cornmeal at the sensory table....Counting ducks...and placing them in numerical order.

Duck Week....

D for Duck collage....the older kids can trace the duck from a template, the younger ones I pre-make them. I set out a bunch of yellow and orange collage material. Easter grass, orange pasta, yarn, ribbon, buttons, feathers and streamers....
Cornmeal, ducks, cups, and sifters....

I found these crazy 'body massagers' at the dollar store. They make cool dots!

Yellow playdough....I will add orange on Wednesday...

Random outdoor photos.....

Precious....The new bike trail is sooooo fun, and round...and round...and round....Connor is giving his new snorting laugh....

This is Dylans friend Miles. He usually doesn't come around during daycare hours but has been here a few times this week. He LOVES your kids. He has come up to me several times saying, "This is so cool...these kids are so great!" It drives Dylan crazy because Miles wants to stay and play. :)

The new brick road is super fun and fast! and did I mention round? and around.....Here are these two best buds. Everyone is sitting at the table for snack and I am looking around for Bryan and Anna. Oh, there they are having a great 3 year old conversation. Luckily my camera was near...these two are so cute together!!Snack time on our very lopsided picnic table. The water would not stay in their cups! I will fix it this weekend...maybe.and around, and around, and around........ Clair brought popsicles....Yummy! Thank you!