Snail Garden 2015

One of my favourite projects to do with the children, at this time of year, is to
                                       make a snail garden.

This year we planted it in our see-through sensory table.  I brought a piece of sod
                     from home and we filled in the rest with soil
and grass seed.

We used wheat grass seed because it grows fast and thick.
     
Every day we watered it and in less than a week our grass had grown and I
                         invited families to bring some snails in.
    
We had three; two bigger snails and one very tiny snail that we haven’t seen since
                                          the day it moved in.

                    
  
Everyday we water the garden to keep it moist for the snails.  The grass continues to grow so every once in awhile we cut it.  Making sure the snails are out of the way
                                                first.
                
With the grass growing tall above the soil we could see the roots growing long
                 underneath the soil.  We also noticed a few bugs too.
                     
We keep window screening on top of the garden when we are not observing the snails.
 
                
But we take it off frequently to see what the snails are doing, what they feel like,
        how far they will go and talk about the different parts of the snail.
        
         A table is set up beside the garden with information about snails.

Frog Release

Nearing the end of the school year and time to let all our live creatures free.
This week we took our frogs and tadpoles back to the pond.

It was exciting to take the frogs out of the container and try to hold them.
They were hoppy to be out, literally.  We found it difficult to find the frogs
in the grass they were camouflaged so well.
          
The tadpoles took a little coaxing to come out of the tub and surprisingly they didn’t swim away.  We were able to watch them and noticed tiny fish swim up around them.
 
                         Up close and watching where we step.

Froggy Faces and Blowing

                        
       We had a lot of fun this morning making these froggy faces.
 
At the art table the families found paper shapes, green colouring tools and party blowers.  Buttons and glue gun were off to the side.
 
                         
They coloured, added buttons for eyes and punched a hole to add the party blower for the frog’s tongue.
   
Then at a separate table they could try to blow little balls around some lily pads.
                 
   
It was so much fun to watch them first try to blow through the blower and second to try to aim and hit the balls.
                 
Perseverance was the word that came to mind as I watched some children try and try.  They just didn’t give up.  Sometimes they blew until the blower fell apart.
                  
Then there was the competitive children or the dad that was encouraging them to be.  Either way it was a lot of fun.

There Was an Old Lady Part 2

Last week I shared a video of a story version I wrote on There Was an Old Lady that Swallowed a…Bear.  After I posted about it a local family day care provider that follows my blog decided to make it into a felt board story.  I had to buy a copy.
               
      I love it and had to tell the story to the families this week at school.
             
It was a hit but I realized how much I enjoy someone else saying it while I hold up the pieces.  I guess I’m going to have remember the words better for next time.
                 
For any one local you can buy a variety of felt stories and fingerplays from Janis.  She has her own facebook page.

Collaborative Art Work

Every Wednesday during the month of May we did a collaborative art piece.

Week #1 we started by squirting glue all around the canvas.
                    
     
The freedom to just squirt glue without any purpose except for doing.  They loved it.

Week #2 we coloured it with crayons.
              

The crayons add more wax as well as colour to the canvas.

Week #3 painting with watercolour.
        
   
Spreading and dabbing paint here and there on the canvas, occasionally noticing
                     that the paint wouldn’t cover some areas.

Week #4 gluing collage materials to the canvas.
                
Crepe papers, grocery ads, doilies, mesh and more were ready to add to the canvas.
              Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of that happening.
        
                                  Our masterpiece!