Fairy Tales, Super Heroes, and Princesses

We try very hard to make sure our boys and our girls are excited for our weekly themes.  What could be more exciting than getting to wear costumes to school?

First we started off with April Fool's Day.  And while we didn't pull any jokes or tricks on the students, we did do things a little crazy and backwards in celebration.  Like eating with our chairs backwards.

And painting tulips with forks.

We made princess and the pea crafts.  Some of us made "Super Heroes and the pea(s)" as they drew their own princesses/super heroes and then decorated their mattresses.  We've started to use the "squeeze" glue more and their fine motor skills are showing off while squeezing it out!

We ended the week with an awesome obstacle course, show casing their gross motor skills.  Jumping in and out of hoola hoops, walking a straight line, balancing over the lava, under and over top of the ship, and climbing our mountain of victory!  They loved it so much that most of the children did this for their entire outdoor gross motor time.

As one of our students said "Super Heroes work best with a little Princess in them."  And we all have a little bit of both in us!

But we can't forget the toxic slime that our students enjoyed making and playing with.  

Simple Machines, April 25th - 28th

Making learning more fun with Simple Machines.  Here are some pictures of the great things our students did this week during centers.

A screw is a simple machine.  Here our students were able to use a screwdriver and other items to maneuver and explore how a screw really works.  Problem solving which device to use for which piece.

A pulley was placed by the doorway and on nice weather days we put it outside on the basketball hoop.  The children loved putting balls, their stuffed animals, or anything in the pulley and learn how to use their hand over hand to make the basket go up and down, gently.

An inclined plane and a wedge were used to help our students also practice balance.  Starting off holding onto a stable ledge and then seeing if they could balance.  Some of us figured out if there was more stability from the wedge we could stand easier.  We also used the slide (another incline plane) to make our cars and people go up and down.

Probably the children's most favorite part was when Miss Shelly used her body to catapult the students into the air.  No pictures are available as Miss Jamie and Miss Shelly were both involved for safety purposes.  They still ask all the time for us to do it again and again.  This might be a favorite to bring back at the end of the year!  We also used a spoon to act as a catapult to shoot marshmallows up in the air.  Some students tried to work together in teams to catch them in a bowl.

And a little fun with shaving cream is always a great time too :)

It's these moments that make our hearts melt as teachers watching our students share in special moments learning to recognize letters and some words.  Thank you for sharing your beautiful bundles with us!