Animals - Week 4 and 5

Monday's schedule - Birds

Books - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Movement - Nature Walk
They made binoculars for the craft and went on a walk in our neighborhood by the trees and watched for birds.  Collected cool things they found along the trail.  This was there favorite part of the whole day.  They love exploring!

Shapes - Do A Dot
We found the papers on this website.  Free downloads.  http://havingfunatchelleshouse.blogspot.com/2013/01/round-2-pom-pom-magnet-activity-sheets.html

Arts/Crafts - Binoculars
The binoculars were made before hand with toilet paper rolls covered with colored construction paper and attach yarn to make the strap.  Then the kids got to decorate their binoculars with stickers.  Clifton LOVED his binoculars and uses them all the time.  That was a big hit.

Game/Worksheet - Connect
We found a bird worksheet where you had to connect bird to birdhouse.  Clifton really needs to work on his fine motor skills so this was good for him.  He needs to learn to be patient and go slow so its not just crazy.
This is not the worksheet we used.  We had it already in a book but this worksheet will work too and it is a free download.  http://www.greatschools.org/worksheets-activities/6736-connect-the-animal-to-its-home.gs


Wednesday's Schedule - Farm Animals

Books - The Happy Man and His Dump Truck

Movement - Touch an Animal
I posted pictures of different farm animals around the room (on the wall where they can reach).  We then meet in the middle.  I would make an animal sound and they had to run and touch the animal that made that sound.  They liked it but one seemed to be slower then the others and did not make it there.  So to make him feel included in the fun we decided to take turns.  So one kid at a time would run to the animal that matched the sound I was making.

Numbers - Matching
I found a worksheet on Pinterest that matched number to number and had a farm theme.  http://www.tlsbooks.com/countingonthefarm.html  The kids needed a lot of help with this worksheet but I think it was good for them.  They need to learn more fine motor skills and matching skills.

Arts/Crafts - Farm
Before hand I cut out animals and a farm house.  I also cut out brown strips to make a fence.  Then they glued the animals and house to the paper.  Also they made/glued a fence together.  I think they turned out super cute and they did real well gluing.

Game - Uno Moo
I changed the rules a little to make it a little easier.  Just like Uno they have to match the color and in Uno Moo they could match the animal until they have no animals left.  They did well following the rules.  Their attention span was running low waiting to finish.  However they finished what they started.

This last week (Week 5) we had a field trip week! We have finished up the animals theme so we went to the zoo!  The kids had a blast watching the animals:)

Animals - Week 3

Monday Schedule - Elephants

Book - Five Minutes' Peace
A book about a fictional elephant

Movement - Act Like An Elephant
We discussed elephants and their trunks.  We found a clip of an elephant using his trunk and washing himself on youtube.  The kids then acted out the elephant using their trunks.

Alphabet - Do A Dot Letters A-E
We found the worksheets on http://totschool.shannons.org/tag/do-a-dot/.  The kids did a great job of staying on the dots and enjoyed doing it.  I actually threw them away a few days later and Clifton happened to find them in the trash and was so sad that I would throw them away.

Arts/Craft - Elephant Trunks
Materials - picture of a elephant to have the kids color, party blowers (one per child), and crayons or markers.
The elephants were already cut out and the kids colored them in.  After they colored them in we cut a small hole where the elephants trunk was and stuck a party blower in the hole.  The kids LOVED this craft.  In fact they loved it so much they blew on it till it did not work anymore.  A suggestion is to find a party blower not made out of cardboard so that they can use it and use it.  Clifton was very sad when it would not work anymore.

Very cute!

Game - Alphabet Spaghetti Dig
The kids also dug through cooked and cooled colored spaghetti looking for foam letters.  Once they found a letter they had to match it with magnet letters that were laid out on the table.  They enjoyed this one and it was great for their sensory as well.

Wednesdays Schedule - Nocturnal Animals

Book - Animalia
One of my husbands favorite books from when he was a kid.  It is a longer book with very little words. They kids really enjoyed it.  Each page is full of animals and other things that start with the alphabet A-Z.  They would pick out what they recognized and we worked on the sound it started with and what letters make what sound.

Movement - Animal Hunt
I wanted to use stuffed animals but did not have enough.  So instead I printed animals that are nocturnal and cut them out.  Then when the kids were not looking taped them all around Clifton's room.  I also printed animals that are awake during the day and taped them all around McKay's room.  We started by discussing what nocturnal means and what animals are nocturnal.  Then I told them we were going on an animal hunt.  I gave them a flashlight and we hunted in the dark "night" for nocturnal animals.  Then we hunted in the light "day" for other animals.  They really had fun looking for animals with the flash lights.  I learned though to place them out in the open and obvious.  They had a hard time finding ones that I hid.

Numbers - Matching Numbers
I printed a piece of paper with 6 boxes on it and in the boxes was a picture of an animal and a number (1-6).  They took turns rolling the dice.  The number it landed on they had to find on their paper and put a dot on the number.  Once they rolled all numbers/filled in all boxes they won.  I was surprised how well they understood this game and that they waited their turn to dot and only dotted each number once.  I would say it was a hit!

Art/Crafts - Owls
Materials - 2 paper plates per child, brown paint, paint brushes, goggly eyes (2 per child), and a orange beak cut out of construction paper.
Have the kids paint the paper plates brown all over.  Then let dry.  Cut one plate in half.  Have the kids glue or tap eyes and beak in place. Staple wings on side of owl.

They turned out pretty cute.

Game - Barrel of Monkeys
The kids took turns rolling the dice.  What ever number the dice landed on they tried to make that number of monkeys linked together.  They enjoyed playing this game but struggled a little linking the monkeys together.

Animals - Week 2

Monday's Schedule -

Books - Wiggle Like an Octopus

Movement - Follow the leader - with a twist.  The leader had to act out different animals to follow.  the kids liked this but needed so help in picking animals.  So maybe go over different animals and how they act before starting the game.  That way they would have it fresh in their mind.

Numbers - This day I decided to focus on numbers.  So I made fishes out of paper and wrote numbers 0-20 on them.  Then we have an alligator that opens and closes its mouth.  So they took times feeding the alligator numbers.  My kids need to work on their numbers more.  They had no idea what the numbers looked like.  So we spent time just going over each number before feeding the alligator.

Arts/Crafts - We made lion masks.  This was a huge hit.  And was pretty simple.
Materials - Paper plate, yellow or orange yarn, glue stick, scissors, yellow and orange construction paper, and popsicle sticks.
I had the plates centers already cut out along with the ears made.  I planned on having the kids cut the yarn into pieces but it was too hard for them to cut.  So I suggest having the yarn strips precut.  The kids glued the yarn strips onto the the plate.  And then glued the ears last.  I taped the popsicle sticks onto the plates.  Then they played with them.  And they wanted to play with them all day!  BIG HIT!

ROAR!!!!

Game - We have colored teddy bears with the matching cups.  They threw the teddy bears into the cups that match.  It was good for them to learn to take turns and great for their motor skills.  Also working on colors/matching.

Wednesday's Schedule -

Books - Going on a Bear Hunt and Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Movement - (Working on numbers as well) Filled up the water table and put foam fishes in them.  On the foam fish there were numbers.  The kids took turns grabbing fish and they named the number.  Then they would jump the number that was on the fish.  So if the number 4 was on the fish they would jump four times.  They enjoyed that!

Colors - There were different colored circles on a piece of paper.  There was a bag of colored fishes to match the circles on the piece of paperThey were given fishy crackers and matched.  They would take turns grabbing the colored fish out of the bag and then they would place a goldfish cracker on the colored circle that matched.  They did this until the chart was full.  Then they drew colored fish out o the bag and they wee supposed to eat the gold fish off of the color they choose.  But they had a hard time with that.  They just ate the gold fish:)

Arts/Crafts - Polar Bear Face
Materials - shaving cream, glue, paper plates, cotton balls, black pom pom, and goggly eyes.
Mix the shaving cream and glue together (half and half).  Have kids use their hands to rub all over the paper plate.  Then place the pom pom (nose), cotton balls (ears), and goggly eyes on the plate.  Use hair dryer to help dry the shaving cream/glue paste.

Game - Fishing. A fishing pole with a magnet on it and the would catch magnet fishes.