Goats Galore!
It was the last full week of the school year! Summer is almost here!
This was an exciting week because a farmer from Chippin Farm came to visit and brought goats with her! The students were able to go inside a temporary pen on our patio with the goats. The children were able to pet, hug, hold, and feed all the goats. The goats were so cute! There was one named Bob who loved to run and jump around. It was his “happy dance.” The children loved this! A few children jumped and ran around with Bob during his dance. Miss Blum was brave and tried some goat yoga. She went on all fours and the goats hopped on her back!
Then the children got to help the farmer lead the goats back into the truck. It was an exciting day!
I know you can’t get better than goats coming to visit, but we did do a few other things this week.
This week we talked about animals that live in the ocean. We read some books about sharks and a book that talked about all different animals that live in the sea.
The sensory table became a mini ocean! The students quickly named each animal: dolphin, whale, shark, etc. The children noticed that a few of the sharks and whales looked different from each other. The children then made a connection to previous lessons and realized that there are different kinds of sharks and whales just like there are different kinds of penguins and dinosaurs. They quickly asked the type of each toy shark and whale. It is technically called each “species” of shark or whale. I did use the word species, but using the word type or kind of shark/whale is more developmentally appropriate for this age. We had, Blue sharks, Great white sharks, Whale sharks and Hammer Head sharks. We also had a Humpback whale and a Beluga whale. The children had fun in the “ocean.”
The children made an artistic ocean scene for one of our art projects. They had the opportunity to mix together 4 ingredients to make paint. On the paper, a teacher put a scoop of powder pant, a teaspoon of dish soap, a teaspoon of liquid starch and a few spritzes of water. The children then used their hands to mix all the ingredients together and paint the paper at the same time. The next day, after the paint dried. The children added sea animal themed stickers all of their ocean scene. For the different project, the children made paper bag shark puppets!
On our cooking day, the children put together another version of a ocean scene. Instead of using paint, paper, and stickers, they used graham crackers, blue frosting, and goldfish grahams. The children used a popsicle stick to spread the frosting all over the the graham cracker. Then, placed goldfish grahams onto the frosting to look like fis swimming through the ocean.
On Monday, a parent came to visit our classroom and lead a very fun movement break! This parent is a dance teacher and former professional dancer. She led a wonderful movement exercise that had the children move their bodies creatively while using their imaginations. She also taught the class the meaning of “improv” dancing. The children had a wonderful time.
