Oops I'm a Week Behind on Trays

Here are the trays from a week ago.

Little shaped containers which the lid comes off.

Works on fine motor and mathcing but also shapes.

The next tray contains a flower shaped ice cube tray with flower rings

 and a tweezer.

 Works on colours, patterning, sorting

 and fine motor.

But also curiosity and wonder.

I have a set of these books, all with different topics.

Each page contains a riddle and a matching puzzle piece.

 Focus is on literacy, puzzle solving,

and matching.

This final tray is a favourite.

 Coffee can with lid that has holes cut into it.

The holes are the same size as the hair rollers.

 The children figure which hole the curler fits into best.

It was interesting to watch the trial and error of figuring out the right hole.

Even if the smaller curler fit into the bigger hole they would keep trying till they found the correct hole.

It also lends to sorting.

I found this last idea over at Alljoinin

In the Tall Tall Grass on the Light Table

Love this book.

The children love bugs.

So I laminated tissue paper in the shape of the grass from the book.

Then added bugs and other creatures that are found in the book.

As the week progressed I added fact books about some of the creatures.

Measuring Caterpillars

This week while we watched our caterpillars grow, 

I challenged the children to measure them.

Each day a child would pick a caterpillar and after looking at it,

they would thread beads onto a pipe cleaner.

Then record the number in our journal.

 First we would estimate how many beads we would need

then after measuring, remove or add beads as needed.

It won't be too many more days before most form their chrysalis.

Dragonflies

We made dragonflies for a craft.

I saw this idea over at Sun Hats & Wellie Boots.

The children loved it and the parents appreciated that their child could do it on their own.

All you need are pipecleaners, pony beads and wings cut from a clear material.

I used overhead transparencies.

This is what we did.

 Fold a pipe cleaner in half and thread a bead to almost the end.

 Slide the wings between the pipe cleaner.

 Thread another bead onto both sides of the pipe cleaner

to hold the wings snug.

Add as many beads to the body as you wish.

Then finish it off by decorating the wings with permanent markers.

Then make your dragonfly fly.

Spirals

Buddy day and I found a book

for a great activity.

This book is not about snails but about spirals.

How they can curl up tight then stretch out long.

The illustrations are wonderful.

It is a great book to talk about lines in art work.

The children designed and coloured their spirals.

Using different techniques, like putting two markers together to colour,

or zig zags were just a few.

I love how the children get involved with each other.

And confer about what they are working on.

The big buddies cut them out while the little ones waited.

A spiral starts out small but can stretch out far.

Almost taller than some.

Next few pictures show a little one playing with the spiral like a spring.

 Placing it together

 then quickly pulling it up.

And others made it spring around themselves as they walked back to our class.

The big buddies liked it so much that they made their own later in the afternoon.

Tea Party

Today we celebrated family.

We shared tea together.

I decked out our snack table elegantly with tablecloth,

flowers and

tea sets.

 The children loved drinking from the tea cups.

I think a few grown ups were, at first, nervous.
But they relaxed when they saw how the children used the cups
with care.

 The children drank water in their cups

or some ventured to try tea.

I made special tea cups too.

I was inspired by the Edible Tea Cups at FamilyGo.com

But instead of filling with candy, 

I popped a mini cupcake inside

then the children iced them.

Then ate them.

It looks like he's drinking a latte.

Cheers to families!