Bunnies Visit

Our school speech therapist brought in her bunnies today.

We sat in a big circle and Ms Franklin explained the rules

to visiting with the bunnies to keep them safe.

She shared with us the food the rabbits like to eat.

She had hay, lettuce and carrots for us to explore.

Then Ms. Franklin let the bunnies out of their carrier.

Meet Bun Bun (grey) and Donut (white with brown markings).

The children were very excited but were very careful moving

close to the bunnies.

They really tried to encourage the bunnies to come close to them

by enticing them with food.

It worked some times. 

As the children watched and touched the bunnies they were hearing new language

from the grown ups around them.

Describing the bunnies: how they feel, how they move, what they eat.

It was a great opportunity to expand the children's vocabularies.

Then Donut hopped into his carrier and Bun Bun followed.

It was time for them to go.

Bye bye bunnies, thank you for visiting.

Thank you Ms. Franklin for sharing and teaching us.

What Other Animals Burrow?

As we were playing with our rabbit warren I picked up this book,

called "Who Lives Here?'

The book shows many animals that live in a burrow.

It inspired our next step in learning.

We took down our big rabbit warren and in it's place we created

mini burrows for many animals.

With the children's help we thought of clues to describe which

animal would be in each burrow.

With each animal in their new home and clues to read aloud,

the families play and learn together.

I find it exciting when a lesson unfolds.

I believe if we keep our minds open, our eyes watchful

and listening to what is being said then

delivering a program becomes organic.

A Rabbit Burrow

I put my husband to work again building another toy for our rabbit play.

Predators

The children continue to play with our rabbit warren toy.

One day I overheard a family playing and talking about 

a fox chasing a rabbit.

I looked in my basket of animals but couldn't find a fox.

But it started the idea of 'predators'.

I did find a wolf, a cougar and some dogs.

All would either chase a rabbit to play or chase to eat it.

The rabbits slid down to hide in their burrow

while the predators barked above at the holes.

Over the weekend I went thrift store shopping 

and found a few more animals to add to our play.

One being a fox.

More Rabbit Play

This morning we went on a rabbit hunt.  There are lots of rabbits living around our
                           school but they are not always easy to find.

   We spotted one rabbit across the field so decided to walk the perimeter of the
             school yard to look for others and hopefully not scare the first one.

We saw a variety of tracks, like this dog print, but no bunny tracks.

What we did find from rabbits was lots of droppings.  As we followed the fence we followed the poop too.

The bunny we saw across the field heard us coming and squeezed under the fence.

There is a big bin in our yard that sits on wooden pallets.

We've seen bunnies come from under it before but not today.

Back in school the children discovered the renovation to our rabbit warren.  

Tunnels were added over the weekend.

 

In one end, straight through to come out the other side.

Lots of rabbits were crawling through our warren this morning.

Our Rabbit Warren

We have a lot of rabbits living in our school yard.  Whenever we are out to play or go for a walk in the woods we see them out on the grass.  But where do they live?  Especially in the winter time.

This is the beginning of our first project for 2016.

Rather then removing the big cardboard box from our room I renamed it a Rabbit Warren.  Inside there lots of rabbit stuffies. 

Today one little boy spent most of his time in the warren with his mom.

Every once in a while he would pop out and ask me a question.  “Maureen can I stay in here and sleep?”  I responded, “Sure could you use some fabric to wrap up in?  On a near by table I had placed large pieces of fabric and he took one in to the box.

A little while later I heard my name being called, “Maureen we’re rabbits!”  I offered him some ears to wear.

His mom encouraged his imagination and participated in the role play that he was developing.

A little while later, from across the room, I heard, “Maureen do you have any carrots?”  I suggested he check in our play kitchen.  He found carrots and lettuce.

                          Next week we’ll add some tunnels to the warren.