Pets

This week we focused on the letter O. This is a fun one because the kids usually know it already, so we get to do some extra things with it and work on the rest of the alphabet.

One fun thing we did was a game called "Alphabet Explorers" The kids were given a letter and had to find the card that matched around the room. I love this game because the cards show pictures of things that start with the letter for kids who are ready for that, or they can look at the word that is written there or flip the card over to just see the letter on the back. It allows each child to work at their level.

We also learned about pets this week. On Monday we brainstormed what kinds of animals can be kept as pets and discussed what makes a good pet.

We also learned about cats and dogs and how to take care of them! The kids each chose a dog and cat to take care of for the day and went around the room to different stations to wash, brush, feed and play with their pets.

On Wednesday we learned about pets that live in cages and had some special visitors. Speedy and Roo, the gerbils, came to visit and show us what pets who live in cages do all day. The kids had lots of fun watching them!

We had lots of fun practicing our fine motor skills by making some cages of our own. It was hard work to remember which hole to go through next!

On Friday, we spent lots of time on shapes, rectangles in particular. The kids made pictures out of rectangles and I was so impressed with how creative they were! We had a turtle, a gate, a wolf shadow, a person and some letters.

The picture of the turtle was probably inspired by our other topic for the day and out visitor, Myrtle the Turtle! Myrtle is a snapping turtle, the kids loved watching him pull his feet and head in and out of his shell. Myrtle also helped us learn about how to take care of a turtle.

We got to make some of our own turtle shells using our math skills. We made the ridges on the turtle's belly with numbers, that the kids had to put in the right order, and made the pattern on their backs with our own shape patterns. Patterns are hard work and they all did a great job.