In The Bear Snores On, by Karma Wilson, a clueless hibernating bear doesn't realize that his cave is gradually overtaken by other animals, who bring food and have a grand party while.....the bear snores on. In the end, the bear awakes and is sad that he missed out on the party. 'Never fear', his friends say, and they party together until......the bear is awake and all his friends snore on! The kids loved this precious story, even if we read it in the dark!
Ms. Michelle returned with her fun activities today. It's been two weeks since we saw her last (she was in Costa Rica last week). She told us about visiting the jungle. We began today's session by riding through a cone circle on our tummies using a scooter. Then we went around again using a crab walk (facing up on all fours, bottom up)......we found out this was REALLY hard....which means we just need more practice! Working hard was well worth it, though- Ms. Michelle took us for a 'ride' on a scooter all the way down the hall as a reward. Next, she gave us each a large snowflake cut from foam. She had covered each point with a clothespin, which we had to remove using our pincer grasp. We each chose beautiful pom-pom fuzzies to decorate our snowflake, which required fine motor skills to place each perfectly. You'll love this beautiful artwork. As always, a HUGE thank you to Ms. Michelle!
We headed outside later than usual today.....we walked around the block pretending to be on a bear hunt. We sang We're Going on a Bear Hunt- a fun song that uses positional words. We made up our own objects, but here is a sample song for you to sing at home.
Back inside, we joined our Blue Friends (the Three's & Four's Class) to make Animal Igloos (photos below). We glued marshmallows on an upside-down bowl. Covering it completely.....and picking up just ONE at a time....using the pincer grasp.....was hard work. The igloos are adorable!
We also introduced....VOWELS! I've chosen to begin with three vowels- each as separate as possible to avoid possible confusion. By watching and feeling our mouths, we noticed that the first sound- pronounced and spelled like the vowel in 'bee'- resembles a 'smile', so that's what we called it! (Eventually, we will learn about 6 different smile sounds). The second is an 'open' sound, spelled 'o' and pronounced like the 'o' in 'Bob', with the mouth wide open. Finally, the 'oo', as in 'boo', is a 'round' sound, since the mouth is perfectly round. The children were able to tell the difference and readily identify each sound after today's instruction. I'm so pleased with their sound progress! The introduction of vowels is especially exciting because it enables us to create words! What fun!
Tomorrow we begin learning about my very favorite animal.....PENGUINS!
