Eric Carle Activities

We have been making lots of connections to Eric Carle books in our study of his work. Children brought home their Today Is Monday books a few weeks ago. We read My Apron and had each child design and color an apron to bring home. We read Walter the Baker, then made pretzels. We set up lots of seed experiments to test out different growing conditions after reading The Tiny Seed. One child is writing about the results of some of our seed experiments. Our final project was to write our own Eric Carle type story, called The Lazy Little Caterpillar, in which the caterpillar finds a good reason to not be so lazy anymore. We will put the book in our classroom library. perhaps you can check it out next year. Some of the illustrations are gorgeous!

Presenting Our Bodies

After researching different systems in our bodies the children created a presentation that was recorded into a computer program. We showed the program at assembly and the kids did a fine job. There are also some pictures of children jumping on a trampoline and listening to the effect this has on their heart rate.

Chick Hatch

We had a less than successful chick hatch this year. Out of three dozen eggs there were only six chicks that survived. Nonetheless those six chicks were very appreciated. We also "dissected" an egg from the grocery store to look at the parts of an egg. Some of the highlights were the air sac, the chaleze, the germinal disc and of course the yolk and the two parts of the white. we also looked at one of the eggs that did not hatch and found that it had stopped developing around day 12 of the 21 day incubation period. We also had a visit from some ducklings that April brought in for the children to see.

May Day and Mother's Day

We had our traditional Morris Dancers visiting on May 1st. The entire school turned out for this and had a great time dancing the Shepherd's Hay. The children made May Day baskets and filled them with flowers to take home to their families. They also made some paper flowers.

Each child cast their hand in plaster and painted them to take home for Mother's Day. They made cards as well.

Eric Carle Study

We began our Eric Carle study in late April. We made Brown Bear collages that are on a bulletin board in the classroom. Children made their own On Monday books based on Eric Carle's story. They wrote a story about what they ate each day of the week and made collages for the cover of their books. BZ made end paper with the children that they used in their books. They used the leftover pieces to make additional collages. Their work is delightful!!. We'll put some of these up on a bulletin board as well. One of the most popular Eric Carle activities is Pancakes, Pancakes. We start by reading his story detailing the grinding of the wheat, the milking of the cow and the churning of the butter. The children each wrote their own version of how to make pancakes. We then made pancakes and the kids loved them. Some have asked can we do it again. We also watched a video about Eric Carle, a Picture Writer.

riter.

From Geometry to Numbers in the Teens

We finished a geometry unit before the spring break. You will see children matching the faces on different shaped blocks, building three-dimensional shapes with playdough, building an equivalent block with smaller blocks and copying structures made out of cubes.

When we returned we began a unit in which we are working with larger numbers. Children measured each other with cubes, with some going as high as 72 cubes. We have played Collect 15 and Collect 20, asking children to add each new number (after rolling a die with 1, 2 or 3 on it), while keeping track of their total until they get to 20. We are examining how people count a count of 21 objects and how they record their count, comparing different strategies on counting. When we copy a tile structure on our board, we talk about ways of grouping the tiles to create different combinations that equal the same number. Children are ready for so many more challenges this time of year. It's an exciting time in kindergarten!