Zz is for Zebra

This week, we talked about zebras, zoo animals, and the letter Zz. 

Last week, we reexplored patterns and this week we continued talking about them, because zebras have a black and white pattern. 

I gave the children a coloring page with a zebra in the shape of a Z.  I put a "B" in each section that needed to be colored black.  This was a difficult task for many.  I don't do a lot of coloring pages and I don't emphasize staying in the lines, because research shows that children at this age are not developmentally ready for that kind of task.  It has something to do with the development of their eyes and their fine motor skills.  I wanted to see if the research is wrong (I know - I'm a rebel) and as I closely watched them, I could see what the studies talked about.  Plus, coloring pages are not what I call "art"; it's more like play.  That page (without the letter B's written in it was found here.

For our center, we went back to the lacing animals and this time, we tried a different stitch - "over, around, over, around..."  This stitch was a lot easier for the children to manage than last week's stitch - "under, over, under, over...".

Our "real" art project was to make a picnic placemat.  I found that idea from The Mailbox, which is a teacher site that sends me ideas every day. I cut slits in a white piece of paper and cut out red strips of paper.  The children had to weave the red strips of paper through the white paper loom in a pattern and then flip the pattern: "under, over, under, over..." and the next strip - "over, under, over under...".  My pre-ker's were very capable of doing this task.  My preschoolers struggled with this, so I helped a lot.

We had beautiful weather this week.  Here are some pictures of the children playing together:

There were all examining my big red roses (on their own).  The buckets had something to do with what they were pretending.  I think they were collecting pixi dust.

Here is one of my classes working together to build:

This week we celebrated one of my student's birthdays:

selecting a gift from the birthday box

Next week is our last week of school!  Then we're off for one week and finally - we graduate!!!

Qq is for Quilts

This week, I taught the children about the traditional American quilt.  Apparently, they are different than the European or native Hawaiian.  The American quilt is made up of of different shaped fabric - sewn together to make one big blanket.  On the back is one piece of cloth and in the middle is batting (cotton or polyester fibers to make it soft and squishy).  Most of the children didn't know that these blankets were called a quilt, so they learned something new.  (Thank you moms who let me borrow these quilts).

We learned about the letter Qq.  When written, the capital Q has a cute tail like a cat "meow" and when we wrote the lower case q, I said: "Make a circle, then a line like the letter 'a', keep going and end with a curly 'q'."  I explained that the letter Qq needs it's best friend the letter 'u' in order to say it's sound.

building the letters Qq with wikki stix

building the letters Qq with wikki stix

playing with objects that start with the letter 'q'

These children are enjoying the warmth and coziness of the quilts before I read a story about quilts.

Our center was to lace around wooden animals.  I was teaching the stitch: "under - over" repeat.  Since quilts are stitched together either by a machine or by hand, I wanted to teach the children how to put the string in the next hole "over the animal" and "under the animal".  I modeled, had children take turns while watching their friends try, and then had them try.  If they made a mistake, I helped correct them.  I wanted to have them do it on the second day, but the craft project took a long time.  I'll continue this center next week.

 This week's art was VERY exciting!  One of the little girls in one of my classes has a Daddy who is deployed on a ship in the Navy.  The Mother asked if I would sponsor them by having my students do a craft for them that can be sent as a gift to the single sailors.  I jumped all over this!  I came up with a craft (all on my own) that would fit nicely with the quilt theme and would be a wonderful gift to the sailors!  Since many quilts are made up of squares, I decided that the children will make a checkerboard quilt.  Since the children can't sew, they glued the squares instead.  I cut out a ton of felt squares (64 - 1" squares for each student) and luckily had some help from my assistant.  The great thing about felt is that when another felt piece is on top, the fibers stick together.  A felt checkers board with felt checkers would be a great thing to have on a ship.  It can roll up and the pieces won't slide all over the place. (Maybe I should make some more and sell them on Etsy ;) ). 

We have done some centers on patterns in the past, so this was a great review and practice with patterns.  Here are the children gluing their felt pieces to the fabric:

We made sure that the pieces were tightly together, that the pattern was correct, and that the rows and columns were straight.

 The checkers boards are all glued.  The thing I fear is the squares easily coming off of the fabric.  I might take them and quickly sew them on, so they won't fall off.  I also want to sew the edges, so that the fabric won't unravel.  Finally, I want to figure out how to keep the checkers pieces with the matching board.

This week, we had a few really hot days.  Here is a morning class, playing with the water table in the shade:

 In another class, a really neat lizard stayed on the wall for a long time.  There were a lot of ants marching by his little feet and when he felt safe enough, he quickly ate his morning breakfast of ants.  I tried capturing him getting the ant with his mouth by using my speed shutter, but that didn't happen.  He had blue markings on his neck and belly.  The children and I was were very excited about him!

I just missed him catching ants and my camera focused on the background instead of the lizard.

We have two more weeks of school left!  The week coming up, we'll learn our last letter - the letter Zz for Zebra.  The last week, we'll review our letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and have a party to celebrate my daughter's birthday as well as the end of the school year.  One week will pass after that with no school and then we graduate on June 8th!