Sea Life, Exploring and the End of Year Party!

The boys and girls have been enjoying the puppet theater in the Exploratorium starring "Sea Life Creatures."

Being a puppeteer or part of the audience were both a hit and then of course deciding on show times so we could set the clock correctly!!

From the paper plate we painted in Exploring the children cut an octopus body, chose 8 legs and then rolled them around a marker or their finger to make it curl. After rolling it was decided that some of the legs looked like the letter "J."

Several little dots of glue were used to attach the legs to the body.

Before adding googly eyes and other details with cray-pas it was important to make sure we had 8 legs!

We recently celebrated two very special Lively Ladybug birthdays!

Those Lively Ladybugs have learned so much about working together as a team this year. One of their most favorite things was solving floor puzzles like this one and then celebrating it with a big "HOORAY!"

Another group activity enjoyed by everyone was building with blocks such as these hexagon blocks used to build an aquarium for sea life.

 

Some delicious pizza was being served in housekeeping!

Some of us really dressed up to have pizza!

What a warm greeting to a friend that had missed a few days of school.

Last week during Exploring the boys and girls experimented drawing a picture on a piece of paper taped under the table.

Some of us bigger kids had fun demonstrating how to fill up fish squirters in the water table and squirt the sea anenome.

 

 

Testing objects after predicting whether or not they would sink or float was quite a popular activity as the children learned through discovery.

The children classified sea shells and shark teeth by viewing them under a magnifying glass and matching them to classification chart.

After reading "Over in the Ocean" by Marianne Berkes the Lively Ladybugs decided they wanted to make a stingray with their bubble print paper plate like they saw in the book. So the children carefully cut a traced spiral from Eric Carle paper for a tail and added eyes and a mouth.

We were all very proud of the finished product!

 

The End of the Year Party was off to a great start on the playground with all types of water activities such as playing with beach balls in the pool or making bubbles with large bubble wands.

 

Catching fish or feeding the pelican a mouthful of fish was lots of fun!

Out of the water the children made shaving cream cakes and played hopscotch.

What a challenge to try and catch a gummy worm hanging from a pole pretending to be a fish!

Caught it!

Then off to the grab bag for a little surprise!

What a joy to decorate a sun visor with peel and stick sea creatures.

The children had lots of fun using sea life stamps in paint to decorate a towel for the beach this summer.

Picking a duck swimming in the water table and matching the number on the bottom to its corresponding pond was a great activity.

 

All enjoyed choosing and painting miniature birdhouses with glittery paint.

 

Using stickers, letters and jewels to design their very own treasure box was oh so FUN!!!!

What a fantastic End of the Year Party! Thank you so much parents for helping us make that possible!! It was the BEST!

Wednesday May 30th - Last day of school - You may pick your child up in the classroom at 11:30 or we will begin car line at noon.

Sea Life, A Guest Guitarist and The First Grade Show

After viewing a fantastic slideshow from our recent Pier Aquarium field trip the children drew some of things that they enjoyed and learned about. Then they shared their ideas with the teacher. This picture of their fond memories will be added to their journals.

We began the week by celebrating a special birthday. Enjoying the pictures of the birthday book and eating yummy treats is always fun!

You never know what sea creature that you might find hiding beneath the sand. The children examine, compare and contrast the many characteristics of crabs, fish, sea turtles, lobsters and so much more!

After rolling play dough into a large mound it was then transformed into a beautiful piece of art by adding colorful fish swimming in, over and around it!

Color is also being discovered in the light table as the boys and girls use yellow and blue to make green and green and orange to make brown.

The children have been quite creative with the "Mat Man" lines and curves! A large, extensive race track was designed with curvy exit ramps and even some lakes!

Even a family portrait was made using the many shapes we have learned for the abdomens!

The students in Mrs. Mundell and Mrs. Samuel's Alpha classes enjoyed a performance by one of our very own parents as he sang and played the guitar. The children enjoyed keeping the beat by clapping their hands and moving to the music!

It was fun to hear fun songs and how this Daddy enjoys making music with his family!

After cutting out their jellyfish the boys and girls used all their strength to make several holes using a hole punch.

Next we had to find the middle of the string, fold it in half and thread it through the hole. Then we used pincher fingers to place the two end strings through the loop making tentacles!

 After enjoying the first grade show, "Commotion in the Ocean" the boys and girls enjoyed matching pictures of various sea life to a puzzle board where they used visual discrimination and one to one matching. The children loved watching the first graders sing and dance on stage as they learned more about the creatures of the deep.

Exploring was one of the many highlights of the week! Blowing air through a straw into a pan of soapy colored water made big, BIG BUBBLES!! Then a paper plate was placed over the bubbles making quite a delightful print!

Sea life puppets were used to create shadows for shadow dancing!

Headphones were used to hear the music the children made on the keyboard.

For snack the children spread blue cream cheese on a graham cracker creating the water for an aquarium.

Next they added licorice for seaweed.

Finally gummy fish were added amongst the seaweed before diving in to this yummy snack!

BUT, that is not all as Mrs. Samuel says!!!!! The children enjoyed painting a real fish... tail, fins and all and then printed it on a t-shirt.

The children will wear their fish t-shirts at the End of the Year Party on Friday May 25th!!