Waiting For Babies
January 11, 2020
The kids were very excited for the Baby Animals theme. This post may contain affiliate links. We are enjoying our curriculum from Experience Early Learning. Our first week we talked about babies being born. We couldn’t talk about that without celebrating a birthday. We made birthday hats and the kids sang happy birthday to one of the parents who had a birthday that week. It was a great video to share with that parent. To a preschooler, birthdays are a very big deal. Teaching them that everyone has a birthday was fun. Some had never thought about animals having a birthday. Not all of them have pets. We have a school pet, an Australian Shepherd that will celebrate her second birthday in March.
Mammals were our first type of animals to talk about. They learned that some animals carry their young inside, like humans. Many of the children have family or moms that have been pregnant in the last year or two. They have watched as their belly grows and eventually, a new baby is born. The children talked about which animals they could think of that might carry their babies this way. Our mammal craft was a cat mask. The supplies included the mask shaped paper, some whiskers that they could glue on and some yarn. The children were encouraged to decorate it with whatever colors they wanted. We had some siblings drop in for a couple of days since there was a school holiday. It was great having some older kids join our younger group.
Oviparous animals was our next topic. We talked about which animals they knew hatch from an egg. The children were given an Invitation to Create activity were they decorated an egg shaped paper anyway they wanted to. The way this type of activity works is we put different resources on the table for the children to pick and choose from. We talk things through but in the end THEY each do their project their own way. We looked at the picture of the beautifully decorated eggs as an inspiration. They had markers, colored pencils and we also got our the do-a-dot art paint. Even our 20 month old had a great time with this one. He is really getting excited about doing things with the older kids. That is one reason we love this curriculum, because it is super easy for the children who are learning how to do things AND the older children to find ways to enjoy our crafts and activities.
The children learned that some animal dads are big helpers. The seahorse game was good because they had to learn to stay on the path and not skip ahead to a different square of the same color. They had to go to the one that was next on the path. We talked about how human dads help and how they could help out with a sibling or just helping out at home in any way.
For three of the four weeks we have the I Spy Letter find. The younger kids color whatever they want but the older ones are supposed to ONLY color the three pictures that start with the sound plus the lower and upper case letters for the week. The paper magnifying glass has all of those things on a little punch out that they can also color. The prek and kindergarten classes work in the MORE Literacy books at least one or two days a week. At the end of the month we send them home with the remainder of activities to finish there.
When I saw that we were doing fish and they got to put sequins on them, I grabbed our copy of The Rainbow Fish. This was another Invitation to Create project so the table was filled with all sorts of resources for them to use. I read the story as they started working on their fish. When we finished, they were able to move their fish like it was swimming and the coffee filter fins would move back and forth.
Each month we have a journal that they work in. It has writing practice for each letter, it has the color, shape and numbers for the month, too. The children get lots of practice writing and drawing. I have seen such improvement with the creative part of this. They are learning to express themselves in their drawings and are becoming less afraid that they “can’t draw that”. Instead they are giving it a try and doing quite well.
That’s a wrap on week one. Let us know which activity you found the most interesting. Let me know if you have any questions about our Experience Early Learning curriculum or other activities. We really do have a lot of fun.
The kids were very excited for the Baby Animals theme. This post may contain affiliate links. We are enjoying our curriculum from Experience Early Learning. Our first week we talked about babies being born. We couldn’t talk about that without celebrating a birthday. We made birthday hats and the kids sang happy birthday to one of the parents who had a birthday that week. It was a great video to share with that parent. To a preschooler, birthdays are a very big deal. Teaching them that everyone has a birthday was fun. Some had never thought about animals having a birthday. Not all of them have pets. We have a school pet, an Australian Shepherd that will celebrate her second birthday in March.
Mammals were our first type of animals to talk about. They learned that some animals carry their young inside, like humans. Many of the children have family or moms that have been pregnant in the last year or two. They have watched as their belly grows and eventually, a new baby is born. The children talked about which animals they could think of that might carry their babies this way. Our mammal craft was a cat mask. The supplies included the mask shaped paper, some whiskers that they could glue on and some yarn. The children were encouraged to decorate it with whatever colors they wanted. We had some siblings drop in for a couple of days since there was a school holiday. It was great having some older kids join our younger group.
Oviparous animals was our next topic. We talked about which animals they knew hatch from an egg. The children were given an Invitation to Create activity were they decorated an egg shaped paper anyway they wanted to. The way this type of activity works is we put different resources on the table for the children to pick and choose from. We talk things through but in the end THEY each do their project their own way. We looked at the picture of the beautifully decorated eggs as an inspiration. They had markers, colored pencils and we also got our the do-a-dot art paint. Even our 20 month old had a great time with this one. He is really getting excited about doing things with the older kids. That is one reason we love this curriculum, because it is super easy for the children who are learning how to do things AND the older children to find ways to enjoy our crafts and activities.
The children learned that some animal dads are big helpers. The seahorse game was good because they had to learn to stay on the path and not skip ahead to a different square of the same color. They had to go to the one that was next on the path. We talked about how human dads help and how they could help out with a sibling or just helping out at home in any way.
For three of the four weeks we have the I Spy Letter find. The younger kids color whatever they want but the older ones are supposed to ONLY color the three pictures that start with the sound plus the lower and upper case letters for the week. The paper magnifying glass has all of those things on a little punch out that they can also color. The prek and kindergarten classes work in the MORE Literacy books at least one or two days a week. At the end of the month we send them home with the remainder of activities to finish there.
When I saw that we were doing fish and they got to put sequins on them, I grabbed our copy of The Rainbow Fish. This was another Invitation to Create project so the table was filled with all sorts of resources for them to use. I read the story as they started working on their fish. When we finished, they were able to move their fish like it was swimming and the coffee filter fins would move back and forth.
Each month we have a journal that they work in. It has writing practice for each letter, it has the color, shape and numbers for the month, too. The children get lots of practice writing and drawing. I have seen such improvement with the creative part of this. They are learning to express themselves in their drawings and are becoming less afraid that they “can’t draw that”. Instead they are giving it a try and doing quite well.
That’s a wrap on week one. Let us know which activity you found the most interesting. Let me know if you have any questions about our Experience Early Learning curriculum or other activities. We really do have a lot of fun.
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