Gan Children, Gan Children, what do you see?

We see lots of animals starting with letters from A to Z!

Looking at this week:

We started our three week theme on animals. We are still using Eric Carle books to lead us through this discussion, but we are adding in other things too! This week we introduced all the animals that can be found in "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" We used these animals to do matching card games where the children matched the animal picture with the animal name. This was a great way for many of the children to work on letter sound recognition, even if they are not able to read yet. We also did this with color words and pictures this week! In writing, this week, we looked at ourselves in the mirror and decided what we wanted to write about. Then we filled in the blanks to: ______, _______ what do you see? I see __________ looking at me. The children could write about something on their clothes, their eye color, their hair color or anything else they saw in the mirror. While focusing on animals in general, we had many animal activities going on throughout the classroom. In art the children made an "animal print" by finger painting/ mixing colors of paint on half a piece of paper. Then we folded the paper and pressed it together to repeat the print on the other side. Many of the children enjoyed doing the animal pattern block cards this week. We also had the chance to be a zoo keeper in home living where the children prepared food for the animals. In blocks we built a zoo (cages) for the animals. And then as a special treat the children were able to play with the visiting animal alphabet zoo. This toy zoo will be in the room throughout our study of animals, allowing the children to do multiple activities with these animals! And of course, we can not forget about the display that we have been making in the classroom! We have been creating our own zoo by making animals out of colors that begin with the same letter as the animal name. So far we have a black bear, a brown bear, some teal turtles, some purple penguins, a pink penguin, a red rooster, a black bat, a blue bat, pink porcupines. I am sure our zoo will continue to grow!

Listening In:

For our animal card match game this week I took all the animals mentioned in the two books we focused on this week. The children spent some time with me looking at the pictures and talking about the words (names) on each card. Then they worked on matching them. Many of the children had not heard of some of the animals in "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?" I started reading this book on Wednesday. About a third the way in, Mussie looked at me and smiled. I had her wait until the end of the story before I let her tell me what she realized. "Those animals are on the cards!" I think they finally figured out where I get a lot of my teaching materials from!

Looking Ahead:

Next week we are going to continue looking at animals. We are going to be talking about the speed that animals move at and how in our lives we rush through some things and slow down on others. We are also going to be talking about names of adult animals and baby animals.

Reminder:

We will be closed next Wednesday and Thursday in observance of Shavuot. We have been talking about this holiday in the classroom. The children have learned that this holiday is 49 days after Passover (as we count the day between the two holidays) and it is when we received the Torah on Mt. Sinai

Just to show how the children take what they learn and move it into other activities, last Shabbat, when we were making challah, Levi decided he wanted to make a challah in the shape of a butterfly.

Animal word card match
Looking for matches to the animal card
Making animal paint tracks

Building a zoo for our animals

Making a teal turtle and a blue bird
Playing with the alphabet zoo

Two zoo keepers preparing the food for the animals.