Today we read a nonfiction story about whales. We learned all sorts of neat facts about whales. See if your child can tell you something that he/she learned about whales today. We learned that baby whales are called calves. Whales are not fish because they have a blowhole or spout on top of their head that they use to breathe. We also learned that whales can be as big as an airplane and that there are many different types of whales.
We also learned the song "Baby Beluga." The first time we listened to the song while looking at the pictures in a book.
Then everyone got a beluga whale puppet to use. We stood up and danced to the song with our puppets. It was a lot of fun!
Next it was time to visit our final center for the week. Ask your child which center he/she visited.
The first center made an ocean counting booklet. Each child's booklet had different numbers to identify, trace, and stamp. After stamping the correct number of ocean animals on each page and writing our numbers, each child got to read his/her story to Miss McCabe. We worked on pointing to each word as we read. Ask your child to read his/her book to you at home!
The second center made an octopus Oo page for our alphabet books. It was a lot of fun using our pencils to curl the tentacles! We also had to make sure that each O had 8 tentacles.
The third center used teamwork to paint the last ocean mural to display in the hallway. You will have to stop by soon to check it out! The children are very proud of it and the "big kids" are loving it too! We are getting many great compliments about the beautiful mural. Way to go, 4K students!
Then we played. During playtime, the children were offered the opportunity to make an orca whale to add to our ocean mural. Several children enjoyed painting the face and then cutting out the fins for their orca whale.
During snack, we celebrated a special birthday in the morning session. Happy birthday, Kayla! Thanks for the special treat!
In the afternoon session, we had another special letter O snack - oreos! Thank you for the special snack, Audrie!
After snack, we reviewed the song "Slippery Fish" that we had learned yesterday. Then we got out our puppets that we made yesterday. We sorted ourselves into groups by the type of animal we made. Then we counted how many of each animal there was and talked about some math concepts, such as which group of animals there was more of, less of, or the same of (tie). Of course, we also danced with our puppets. When our animal was named in the song, we got to dance in the middle of the carpet. What fun! The children asked to do it again so we know they enjoyed it!
In the morning, Mrs. Reinhardt asked if our class could teach the song to her friends. We had a lot of fun singing the song together with Mrs. Reinhardt's class!
In the afternoon, we spent some time sorting animals by whether or not they were fish. We learned that fish have gills to help them breathe underwater. There were some tricky ones! We realized that sharks are a type of fish because they have gills, but animals like dolphins and whales are not fish because they do not have gills and come out of the water for air.
Next week we will focus on people that can be found by the ocean, such as snorkelers, scuba divers, and pirates! We have some exciting pirate learning activities planned for next week!
Have a great weekend! :)
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