Gorillas

This morning, I was so proud of the children.  We were transitioning from breakfast to circle time.  The children know to clean-up and meet me on the carpet at this time.  However, I was busy taking care of an issue that came up with a student.  When I looked up, the children had already started our circle time routine without me by reciting our zoo poem together!  I was so proud of them for taking the initiative and starting the day instead of just waiting for me!  Way to go, 4K students!  I can tell they are ready for Kindergarten!

Today we learned about gorillas!  The children were excited to see how big a gorilla's hand can be! We compared the size of our hands to a gorilla's hand!

We read a non-fiction story about gorillas.  The children thought it was disgusting that they may sometimes eat slugs or snails if they are very hungry!

The morning session went outside to help plant red potatoes in the school garden.  They learned that the eye of the potato is very important because that is what is needed for the potatoes to grow!  We also talked about another way worms are beneficial to plants - their poop helps plants to grow! The children did such a nice job of waiting patiently for a turn to plant that we let them play on the big kids' playground as they finished planting.

Centers were different today in each session.  In the morning session we have had two high school students come into our classroom once a week for a portion of centers as part of a class.  They have been observing and today it was their turn to teach!  First, they read a story.

Then they planned three center activities for the children to rotate through.  At the first center, they wrote about an animal that could come to their house if anything went wrong at the zoo and the reason why.  An example could be that the monkeys could come because they have a swing set or the alligators could come because they have a big bathtub.  Students stamped their animal on the paper and then helped write the words.

At the second center, they sorted m&m's by color and then recorded the number of each color before eating the m&m's.

At the third center, the children worked independently to color a picture of a zoo animal of their choice.

In the afternoon session, we reviewed shapes while making a shape gorilla!

Some children in the afternoon also worked on making a zoo animal counting book while using the zoo animal stamps.  See if your child can read it to you!

We played in the classroom.

There were some birthday celebrations in both sessions.  Thanks for the treats! :)

After snack, the morning session had Super Stars.  We will do Super Stars for the afternoon session next week.

The afternoon session got to play giraffe number and letter bingo since they did not play it last week due to their visit to the school garden.

We ended the day by singing our new favorite song of "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Tree" before going outside to play.

Next week I am asking that everyone wear comfortable walking shoes each day (no flip-flops).  I am hoping to go on a walk in the school forest Monday or Tuesday.  Children are welcome to wear beach attire on Wednesday (no swim suits).  Please send a beach towel to school with your child and apply sunscreen on Wednesday.

Have a great weekend! :)