myGanBlog: Wrapping things up

A look at this week:

It is really hard to believe that the year is almost over. The school year went by so quickly. This week we continued our focus on medical professionals as well as started wrapping things up from the year.

Monday a few of our friends made it to the zoo for the wrap up on their long animal theme, as well as their end of year field trip. It turned out to be almost perfect weather and the children really had fun. They were so excited to see the animals and we made it through most of the zoo before they started complaining that they were hungry!

On Tuesday we were back in the classroom and continued our current theme. The students enjoyed talking about eye doctors and dentists. In home living the children took turns being the patient and the eye doctor and the patient had to read the eye chart as the doctor pointed to it. We also talked about how people who are blind read. Then the children had the chance to feel what braille feels like by using a sensory alphabet book. On Thursday some of the students wrote their names with dots to represent braille dots and then we added dots of glue so that they could really "feel" their names!

The children really enjoyed the activities that used the toothbrushes. In art we painted with toothbrushes and dental floss. This was really a fun way to paint. In the block area we used mirrors to look at our mouths and then tried to build our mouths out of blocks. And on Wednesday all the children received a toothbrush and we talked about how often we brush our teeth and then they used the mirrors to practice brushing their teeth. While this was going on, we also practiced our cutting as we tried to cut the line from the stethoscope to the heart that was drawn on a paper.

We also wrapped up a year long project by measuring all the students again. We saw how much they have grown throughout the year in inches and apples. Everyone also took a turn standing on the scale to see how much they weigh (just like at the doctor's office). Then they wrote their height, how many apples and their weight onto a piece of paper.

Listening In:

The zoo was really fun. However, more fun then just being at the zoo was hearing the comments that some of the children made throughout the trip.

At first, just the excited squeals were fun as they saw the animals. But even better than that was when Avery was looking at an animal and said, "we are seeing real live animals!" And Tyrus was thrilled with the dinosaur displays that were around the zoo. While looking at the dinosaur closest to the elephant area he started squawking a little and then looked at me and said, "I am communicating with him." And the dinosaur was programmed to occasionally make noise so it really seemed like he was responding back to Tyrus.

Looking Ahead:

Next week we are going to be enjoying our last few days of school. We will be making special folders to bring home all the art work and our work folders home. We will continue to practice for our graduation/end of year celebration. And then of course, we are going to have a fun celebration at 11:00 on Wednesday!