Frogs on a Log

The play started with a book Five Little Frogs Sitting on a Log.

A book that we created several years ago.

A few children sat to read it

while others used the toy frogs to help tell the story.

Then the children became the frogs.

First making headbands to get into character.

Then becoming the frogs.

They crawled or walked across the 'log' then jumped off the end.

Then I saw some children jumping into the pool.

Under the water they went.

Having fun discovering new ways to play, exploring the materials

and learning from each other.

Snail Eggs

Every year we create a Snail Garden.

Most families have snails in their gardens that they are willing to give away

 and we find them fascinating to watch.

To start we sprayed the soil till it was very wet then sprinkled on 

wheat grass seeds.

They grow quickly and thickly.

Each day we sprayed them with water, which the children love to do.

Less than a week the grass was grown.

This morning I went into my flower garden and found two snails to bring to school.

They moved in and we gave them cucumbers for eating.

I cover the garden with screening so the snails won't escape

and to keep them safe from little fingers when an adult is not around.

We watched the bigger snail explore his new home.

We could see his foot moving on the screen and the shiny trail he left behind.

But the most exciting thing to happen was to watch the smaller snail

lay eggs.

I've never seen this happen before and I felt like a proud mama.

We picked up one of the resource books from the library and learned that it will

take 3-4 weeks for them to hatch.

Once the eggs were laid it slimed it's way up the side of the bin.

The children were fascinated.

I borrowed these snail puppets from our district's Learning Resource Centre

to further their interest.

Pete the Cat and Button Play

After our picnic last week where we acted out the story of

Pete the Cat and his Groovy buttons

I set up an invitation for the families to play with buttons

and re-tell the story.

There was a bit of button sorting but the interest was more

about Pete and his buttons.

Re-telling of a story is an important skill for our young pre-readers.

Learning the story by heart and beginning to recognize some repetitive words

was a bit of the work I witnessed this week.

This child was pulling the buttons off and saying "POP! OH NO!"

She didn't attend the picnic but I posted the video on our Facebook page

and her dad showed it to her and her older sister.

Her mom shared with me that after her oldest daughter, who is in grade 1,

saw the video she made buttons and stuck them to her chest with tape and retold

the story for her little sister.

I couldn't ask for a better outcome from acting out and sharing

the story.

One other thing that I noticed is that children are noticing buttons more.

Celebrating Another Project

Each year for the past six years my StrongStart centre has taken part in

 the Spuds in Tubs program.

Each year I share it with at least one other teacher in the school

so we can share ideas and come together at the end

to celebrate.

This year I shared the tubs with Ms Irwin's grade 2 class.

And our big buddies class had their own tubs too.

So today was celebration day.

We started off the morning mashing our potatoes 

to have Mashed Potatoe Sundaes.

Then all three classes met in the multi-purpose room where the potatoes and 

toppings were waiting.

I learned today that the connections between our StrongStart children and their 

big buddies are real and can be a comfort when one is anxious.

One child who is fairly new to my program, but has met the big buddies before,

entered the multi-purpose room for the first time and yelled.

That is a reaction I noticed he does when he is transitioning to a new location.

I approached him and offered to show him around and asked

if he recognized any of the buddies.

At that same moment his big buddy, who was across the room, started

waving his hand at us.

I could see the little buddy's body sag with relief and he

went running over to join his big buddy

with no further concerns.

Perfect!

We started with a brief talk about potatoes 

and shared how many potatoes were harvested.

Then it was time to eat.

For toppings we had shredded cheese, sour cream, green onions, bacon bits,

hard boiled eggs, corn, gravy and dirt.

Students who have participated in the Spuds in Tubs with StrongStart before

remember having dirt as a topping.

Some could keep the real name of the dirt a secret.

Some hesitated to try it until a friend told them it was 

crushed Oreos.

If you work in British Columbia and have a chance to participate in this great

program I would highly recommend it.

Fascinating Frogs

Another creature that we raise at this time of year

is the frog.

This year we've had great success with watching tadpoles

grow into frogs.

Back at the beginning of May we visited a new pond

where we found these tadpoles.

The children have been watching them closely waiting for back legs to appear.

It didn't seem to take as long this year. 

Not sure what was different but we now have several fully formed frogs.

And some that still have a bit of their tail left.

While we watched I set up a frog pond on the floor for the children to play in.

There is water in there as well as rocks, lily pads and frogs.

Even a tadpole and froglet could be found.

This child spent time lining all the frogs along the edge of the pond.

This one rescued all the frogs from the water.

Tomorrow the children will that I changed the pond.

Can you guess what song we might be singing?