O is for Ocean

"Ocean" was a huge theme. We had a massive whale on the wall, built a submarine and had more imagination-play-kind-of-fun than we'd had since H was for Hot Air Balloons. 

If you looked out he front of the Submarine you could see... Sharks!

The weather was beautiful, so we made sure to get in lots of outside play. 

One of the students brought in a really awesome pop-up book about the Ocean to share. 

Also, the worst craft ever also came to life this week. I had this "great idea" to make an Angler Fish with a couple cups and an LED light. It was much, much harder to put together than I anticipated. Oh well. At least it lit up. 

These two got squeezed out of the submarine and decided to build a castle instead. 

I can hardly wait until nest year when we get to do Ocean week all over again. 

N is for Nocturnal

Nocturnal was a fun theme to teach. We got to talk about seeing in the dark, and how certain animals sleep all day long. It also gave way to some creative crafts and games. 

One of the favorite games was Pin The Mask On The Raccoon. 

One of the kids even caught her own nocturnal animal... a moth. 

One of the cutest crafts was this owl made with real "owl" (chicken) feathers.

Some of this weeks motor skill activities included this 4-hoop version of basket ball,

Playing with moon-sand, 

and playdough,

building cup towers,

and spinning marbles around and around in pots and other round things that make a great sound.

The bigger girls really loved this. On Friday we erased the Nocturnal scene chalkboard wall and let the kids draw all over it. I traced the girl"s and let them fill in the details. They thought it was so cool! (It was)

Not that you would know from the blog, since I am so far behind on updating it, but we have finished the Alphabet and are now learning about some awesome concepts like Opposites and other just-for-fun-themes like Circus. I can't believe there are only 7 weeks left in this school year!

M is for Music

Is there anything cuter than these two squishy, little harmonica playing pirates? Music week brought plenty of sweet moments like this as we sang lots of songs, shook our share of maracas, and even had a trumpet parade. 

The kiddos made there own instruments each day. The photos here are from the shaker that they made with two plastic cups and some colored rice. 

Here these two are again... heart melters. 

 The rain continued and so did our favorite part of the day... group reading time. 

On Friday, a little, local HIgh School parade went by our front gate. The kids were so excited; especially since we were learning about music. So we picked up our instrument of the day and had a parade of our own. 

Everyone was also really excited about the new play kitchen. 

As usaual, we kept plenty of time for silliness and new rotation games. 

We painted the main wall in the common room with chalkboard paint. It is so much more efficient and earth friendly than cutting up construction paper every week to decorate for the weekly theme. And on Fridays we erase everything and let the kids go crazy with the chalk. 

Working on gross motor skills here. The boys loved this game! We have quiet a few flat balls in our collection, so we hung them up and let the little ones take aim and try to whack them with a not-yet-flat ball. 

Another group worked on fine motor skills by stacking cups up in to pyramids. 

Music was such a fun theme! We can't wait to incorporate some of what we learned into our curriculum each week and build on the children's love for music.

Next post to feature: "N is for Nocturnal".