New Yoga Poses

Every day we end our gym class with yoga like stretching.

I've posted before about our yoga but since then we've been adding more poses.

Our school has a big gym with a sliding wall so it can be divided to share.
One day the grade 7s were in the other side and their teacher, who also attends StrongStart,
asked if they could join us for stretching.

The 7s are in the back, against the wall.
These two were showing them how it was done.

I was quite impressed that the grade 7s weren't shy to get down
and participate.

Easter Play Trays

I brought out the little red scale this week.

I placed pink rabbits at one end

and yellow chicks at the other.

She begins by placing a chick on the scale.

Then more chicks, the scale leans heavily to one side.

Once all the chicks are on one side

she begins to place rabbits on the other other end.

 Adding more but the scale is still not level.

Until all the rabbits are on and 

ta-da

it balances.

She does a little happy dance.

Other trays included...

Sorting coloured crystals to matching egg cups.

 Push down hopping bunnies and eggs.

The little baskets are to catch them once they POP!.

Can you see the blurry blue?

That is an egg that has popped.

 Animal decorated eggs

to match to little animals of the same colours.

I can't take credit for this idea.

This little girl and her mom came up with it.

Clothespin Egg Creatures

I found this wonderful Easter craft at Everything and Nothing  and happen to have some 

foam shaped eggs.

Perfect to set out with other bits and bobs to see what the children would come up with.

 

They were busy for some time, sticking and gluing on pieces.

Here are some of the finished creatures.

Then the challenge was making them work,

 
and opening and closing the clothespin.

Magic Beans to Lollipops

What a magical time we've been having this week watching our 

Magic Beans grow.

 After planting the beans on Monday they grew a bit everyday.

 I posted a 'wonder' about would would grow and encouraged the children 

to imagine.

 They drew pictures of apple trees, pancake trees, paper, sun, flower and more.

 By Thursday they had grown with fluffy balls on top.

 What fun it was to watch the children's surprised looks.

 And come up with more ideas of what would grow.

 This morning there were lollipops waiting.

 I changed the words of the giant's Fee Fi Fo Fum to those below.

 When the children arrived and we talked about the lollipops

I let them know that they would be able to harvest them when 

it was time to say goodbye.

 Some tried to remember what colour bean they planted

so they could match to the lollipop.

 I documented the daily growth for the families that missed days.

Oooh!  A freshly picked lollipop.

Marble Mazes

We had the traditional marble maze out this week.

Which is great for challenging the children to build and rebuild 

the pathways for the marbles to follow.

But we also expanded on the marble mazes we did a few weeks ago.

Again, thanks to TeachPreschool for the marble maze idea.

My husband made a bigger one for us to use.

The children loved the challenge.

Many used their fingers to push the marble through the maze.

But others lifted the box to roll the marble.

 They learned how to lift and lower the box from side to side

and end to end to make it roll where they wanted it to.

Another maze challenge we tried was inspired by a post

over at Creative Connections for Kids.

 Instead of rolling the marble around the obstacles they had

to go through the tubes.

The marbles didn't work as smoothly so we switched to 

plastic golf balls.

It took a lot of patience and  control to help a moving object 

go through a tube then out.

This little boy got the ball to roll into the tube but it wouldn't come out.

It was easier to lift the tube to get it out.

Story - A Bunny Called Nat

This story is similar to Joey the Ghost that I told at Hallowe'en.

The bunny isn't happy with how he looks and he wants to be different from everyone else.

So he changes colours and discovers that there are consequences to each

colour he chooses.

Till he finally decides that his original colour was the best for him.

And he's happy with who he is.

Our First Woods Walk

Today we went for our first venture into the woods behind our new school.

We are so lucky to have this beautiful woodland so close.

Our big buddies joined us.

We searched for colours.

 Look at all the orange we found in nature (some garbage too).

 Red was a hard one but we found some leaves.

Lots of black and dark colours.

 We also climbed on the big rock,

played with sticks

and found interesting designs on trees

where bugs had been.

It was an awesome way to enjoy the outdoors

and enjoy each others company.