Creativity Takes Flight

Elephants were on parade in our classroom last week!  We had such a fun week learning all about those large, lumbering creatures.  We made crafts, read books and sang songs all about the elephant.  We also observed real elephants without leaving our classroom with a clip from Youtube, click here to see and hear a real elephant!

Story Time

We read “Elephants” by Sydnie Meltzer Kleinhenz and “National Geographic Kids, Great Migrations, Elephants” by Laura Marsh.  These were fascinating up close books all about real elephants.

Sing With Me

Edna Elephant

(to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot”)

I am Edna Elephant.

Watch me play.

I play with Ed Elk every day.

When we sit beneath a big elm tree,

We will have eggs and tea.

Eloise Elephant

(to the tune of “Yankee Doodle”)

Every morning Eloise

has hard boiled eggs for breakfast.

She never eats them fried

’cause boiled eggs are the tastiest!

Eloise the elephant

thinks that eggs are dandy.

She eats eleven every day

and says they taste like candy!

Arts and Crafts

Paper Plate Elephants

We used grey paint and made elephants out of paper plates.

Hand Print Elephants

The children’s hands were also transformed into elephants too!

Game Time

We had a blast playing Elefun!  The kids scrambled to catch butterflies as they flew out of the elephants trunk!

Snack Time

My assistant, Ms. Lia brought in Spanish Oreja pastries or elephant ear cookies!  The kids loved sampling these yummy treats.

A child in our class also brought in Edamame to share with the for the letter E.  A few adventurous children tried these beans.

The bulletin board has changed one last time for the year. It is hard to believe that in a few short weeks the school year will be over and my little ones will be soon on their way to VPK!

We learned all about giraffes and the letter Gg too.  We read a book about real giraffes and learned many facts too.  They live in Africa and have very long tongues, about the size of your arm.  I showed the children a video of real giraffes so they could see them in action!  Click here to see the giraffes.

Sing with Me

The Giraffe and the Tall Tree

(to the tune: “Apple Tree”)

Way up high in the tall, tall tree

Three little leaves looked down at me.

I stretched my neck as far as I could,

I stretched my tongue,

Slurp,

Mmmmm, they were good!

Story Time

We read “Giraffes” by Catherine Ipcizade.  This book gave a lot of real facts all about giraffes and the environment that they live in.

We also read “Giraffes Can’t Dance” by Giles Andrae.  I love this book about a very clumsy giraffe who proves the whole jungle wrong by dancing to the beat of his own drum and learning to dance his own way.  The story teaches all about being yourself and being unique.

Craft Time

The children made hand print giraffes for craft time.  When they were dry they  added brown spots to the yellow giraffes.

We learned all about the letter Gg and goats last week!  We sang songs, made a craft, read books and even acted out the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  I showed the children a clip of a video of real goats, so they could see and hear real goats in action.  Click here to see and hear a real goat!

Sing With Me

Billy Goat, Billy Goat

(tune of “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”)

Billy goat, billy goat,

As hungry as can be.

Eats and eats,

Everything he sees.

You can eat the grass.

You can eat the leaves.

Just make sure,

You don’t eat me!

(repeat first verse)

Story Time

We read “No More Biting for Billy Goat” by Ford and Sam Williams.  This is an excellent story all about using your words to express yourself when you are frustrated or angry.  The little billy goat learns a good lesson and so did the children as we read this story.

We also read “The Three Billy Goats Fluff” by Rachael Mortimer.  This story is a take on the traditional Billy Goats Gruff.  The goats make friends with the grumpy troll when their mother makes them soft booties to wear when they trip trap across the bridge.  The goats don’t disturb the troll sleeping under the bridge, and they can get to the other side to eat the green grass.

Dramatic Play

We acted out the original story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff!  They loved playing the parts of the goats and troll and pretending to trip trap over the bridge.

Craft Time

For craft time, we made paper plate goats.  All of the parts are from the paper plate.  The children painted them and added google eyes and horns.

Our Billy Goats are proudly on display in the hallway!

We celebrated Earth Day this week in our classroom.  We talked about how important it is to take care of our Earth by picking up litter, saving energy, turning off lights and water when not in use, recycling and planting trees.  I showed them a photo of what  Earth looks like from space so that they could see how beautiful our world is and that all you see is blue and green.  We need to protect our Earth so it stays a beautiful and clean  place to live.

Sing With Me

What Can We Do?

(to the tune of “A Tisket, a Tasket”)

It’s Earth Day, it’s Earth Day

What can we do on Earth Day

To make the world a better place,

Let’s [pick up trash] on Earth Day.

Continue singing and add the following: plant a tree, recycle, save water, save energy

Recycling Song

(to the tune of “The More We Get Together”)

The more we all recycle

Recycle, recycle,

Oh, the the more we all recycle,

The better Earth will be.

Aluminum and paper,

Glass, cardboard and plastic.

These all can be recycled

By you and by me.

Poetry

An Earth Day Helper

Be an Earth Day helper

Do a little bit each day.

Remember not to litter,

But to throw your trash away.

Be an Earth Day helper

With recycling plans.

Once cleaned, these come back to you-

Bottles, papers, cans.

Story Time

We read “It’s Earth Day” by Mercer Mayer and “Miss Fox’s Class Goes Green” by Eileen Spinelli.

Craft Time

We made a large hand print Earth to celebrate the world we live in.  We all took turns making green and blue hand prints to fill in the circle.  Once dry I hung it in the hallway for all to see!