A Little Olympic Spirit

Our school will be hosting an Olympic fun day this Friday so to get in the spirit I
               found a couple of songs, on line, to sing.

For the first song we made Ribbon Rings.
                    
                       Then marched while singing it.

The Olympians Go Marching
By: Patricia Morrison
Sung to: The Ants go marching
 
The Olympians go marching one by one hurrah, hurrah
The Olympians go marching one by one hurrah, hurrah
The Olympians go marching one by one
The little one stops to light the torchAnd they all go marching down
To the ground
With the torch shining bright
Boom, boom, boom, boom

The Olympians go marching two by two hurrah, hurrah
The Olympians go marching two by two hurrah, hurrah
The Olympians go marching two by two
The little one stops to wave to the crowd
And they all go marching down
To the ground
With the torch shining bright
Boom, boom, boom, boom

The Olympians go marching three by three
The little one stops to lift the flag...
 
The Olympians go marching four by four
The little one stops to bow once more...
 
The Olympians go marching five by five
The little one stops to give a high five...


       
The second song is called Olympic Morning and we added a verse about bobsledding.

Olympic Morning
by: Patricia Morrison
sung to: Here we go ‘round the mulberry bush
 
This is the way we ski down the hill
Ski down the hill, ski down the hill
This is the way we ski down the hill
On an Olympic morning

This is the way we spin on the ice
Spin on the ice, spin on the ice
This is the way we spin on the ice
On an Olympic morning

This is the way we go bobsledding,
Bobsledding, bobsledding.
This is the way we go bobsledding
On an Olympic morning

These songs were found on educatall.com.

Catapults–Castle Defense

The children have been defending the castle by hand to hand combat with swords and shields, arrows and axes.  Last week I set materials and a few pictures of catapults on the art table to inspire them to think of a new way.
      
        The families were busy everyday creating new designs.
 

Here are a few samples of what they created.
  
Wood block, tongue depressor on a clothespin.
  
Tube, sponge, tongue depressor and egg cup.
 
Tube, elastics and plasticspoon.
 
Straws, tape, spoon and elastics.
 
Tissue box, chop sticks, elastics and milk jug lid.
 
I’m not sure what they used to build this catapult but it was amazing.

 
We used the shelf beside the art table as the shooting area. 
          Pom poms were used for the ammunition.
  

Although many were tried right at the table to see if they functioned.
 
It was very exciting to watch the failures and successes.
  

The children carried the idea of catapults over to this week at one
                             of our play trays.
              
             I set up a tray with a scale and little dinosaurs.
             
Each child that played with it placed a dinosaur on one side and hit the other side.  Not what I intended but was thrilled to see the follow thru of what we learned the previous week.

Castles – Block Building

After drawing designs we put them in to practice. 
I borrowed wooden castle toys from the kindergarten
teacher and put them out with some of our wooden
blocks.
          This is what I observed.
            
      

   
Castle building started to happen in other parts of the room

with different blocks and toys.
             
  
By Thursday of last week I got word that big cardboard 

boxes were going to be delivered to the school.  We were 

ready to start to build our large play castle.

Weaving a Tapestry

When we built our castle a clipboard was left out for adding ideas of
               things that were needed to add to our castle.
                    
                         One item listed was ‘tapestries’. 

       I thought this would be a great way to practice weaving.
  
On the taller easel I placed an old picture frame that my husband had
attached vertical twine to and a variety of ribbons in the easel base.
           
       
Parents showed children the technique of weaving the ribbon under and
over each string.  Some children got the hang of it and added their own
                                            ribbons.
 
       Even managing to start the ribbon behind the frame.
         
              This is how far we got after two weeks.
          
              It now sits in the castle by the fire place. 
              The children will continue to work on it.