Rumble in the Jungle Day 3

 You just  never know who is going to be sneaking up on you in the jungle!  

It was a seriously snakey day at SDS.  

We started off by stuffing daddy's tie with fluff, and turning them into snakes!

This was a fun challenge for everyone!

Just like usual, no 2 snakes were the same.  

For snack we had pattern snakes.  

Our whole group math lesson was on patterns.  

Then we make pattern snakes with strawberries and bananas.

Don't forget the eyes...

We also explored patterning with these pattern block puzzle snakes.  

Finally, it was time to sing and dance with our snakes.

Instead of the Bean Bag Boogie, we did the Boa Constrictor Boogie!

Can you put the Boa Constrictor on your head???

Rumble in the Jungle, Day 2

Today was a really fun, froggy day at SDS summer camp!  Our morning choices were centered around our theme for the day: frogs.  We made frog prints in Play-doh...

 And fun little froggy scenes!  There was a time when I had a "don't mix the play-doh colors rule" (gasp), so glad those days are over.  If that rule was in place, this piece would never have been created.  I think that in the end, the colors were not mixed, but if the rule stood, the child who sculpted the work might not have wanted to take the risk of possibly getting them mixed up.

I was happy to capture this sweet moment when the boys were helping each other clean up after morning choices.  Team work is the best work!

We started circle time with a short animated sing-along, "5 Speckled Frogs". 

 We practiced counting down the frogs and learned this fun new song.  

During centers, we spent some more time exploring our Jungle Tree.  

We are always spotting new things there!  WB was trying to determine what type of snake was on the bottom limb.  He grabbed a magnifying glass to get a better view.  Once he had some time to look, he determined that the snake was indeed a "coral snake".  Yep, just had to google it to check and he was right.  I thought I had just painted a cool snake with fun colors...  

Today we spotted these two wild cats sneaking around our tree!

These 3 pictures depict a neat learning experience that occurred in the block center today.  It all started with a thirsy elephant who needed a place to drink.  To solve the problem, we built him a pond using blocks and blue paper water.  Then the zebra was hungry, so we built him a pasture with green grass to graze.  The next creature that needed sustenance was the giraffe.  We talked as a small group about what a giraffe might eat.  We discussed how he was made with such a long neck, and what that might be for.  The children decided that it must be to reach tall things.  We brainstormed what tall things a giraffe might eat.  Once we decided on leafy trees, we had to figure out how to make one.  A little tape, scissors, and team work later, we had 3 trees for our hungry giraffe.  Sure, it would have been easier to just tell them that giraffes eat from trees, but it was a much more valuable experience to see the children considering the form and function of the animal's body.  Studying habitat and ecosystems doesn't sound like it would be too much fun, until you try it in the block center with some thoughtful preschoolers! 

Today, as promised, was our junk food snack day.  I am thinking that with 3/4 of the days featuring healthy snacks, that one wouldn't be too bad.  We had gummy frogs on a log, and some ants for good measure!

Our second day with the stream was still fun!  I am thinking that when it is 100 degrees on Friday, we will just have to get in the thing!

We culminated our froggy day by making a set of 5 Speckled Frog puppets and story-telling math manipulatives.  We painted egg cartons green, applied 2 eyes and a pink tongue to each one.  

Then we sat them all on a log and practieed removing each frog along with the lyrics to the song.  We counted with one-to-one correspondance, we added and subtracted, and continuted to build number sense.  

A fully integrated lesson incorporating art, music, math, literacy, science, play, and fun!

A River Runs through our playground!

Mr. Nate has almost banned me from Marbles, the children's museum in Raleigh.  Each time that we go, I come back with some impossible idea.  Well, maybe not so impossible...  Last year I was fascinated by the "river" water feature that they have in their courtyard.  A stream of water flows down a hill with the invitation to float things down the just-right-height platform.  It is just a neat experience to watch children play, splash, learn, and discover in water.  When you add the extra dimension of moving water, it is even better.  Honestly, Mr. Nate was impressed too, so much so that he has been helping me figure out how to have one at school.  My jungle themed camp was the last straw, I just HAD to have one.  

I purchased this cattle feed trough at the feed store.   I knew that in order for the water to flow, there would have to be a pump.  I thought of using a pond pump, but they are not rated for swimming pools, then I tried it with just a garden hose.  It didn't force enough water to push the boats, and it was not environmentally sound to waste so much water.  That is when I thought of using a swimming pool pump.  After a trip to a Lowes pretty far away, finally, it was time to hook it all up.  You have never seen 2 adults scratch their heads like Nate and I have over this thing.  We have both been to college, studied physics, and other things that really should have helped us with this, but we struggled. We had eddies, we had whirlpools, we had too much friction, we had everything but a stream of waster.  We literally worked on it for 2 whole afternoons.  Finally, I said, "Are we going to let this thing beat us".... well you can probably guess the answer!  One manifold, 3 hoses, 2 destroyed plastic tubs, 3 bags of rock, a sump pump and a pool pump later, we got it!  

We now have a lovely stream that meanders through our playground.  It is the perfect height.  It provides endless opportunities for discovery and sensory play.  I was delighted to see the children enjoying it today. 

First they looked...

Then they put on their smocks and started "playing".  

 We sailed frogs on boats, 

practiced balancing our boats,

and experimented to see what happens when you put a lot of creatures on one boat.  

It even inspired a little singing...

It was a lot of work, but a dream come true for me.  So excited to make this a part of our outdoor classroom.  Also thankful for the process of creating it.  

Rumble in the Jungle Day 1

Finally, the day we have all been waiting for, Rumble in the Jungle Camp! Today I will blog our first session, the 9-12 class, tomorrow, I will feature the second session, the 1-4 group.  

 We started out this morning on safari, looking for jungle animals in our special tree.  We saw a macaw, monkeys, beetles, butterflies, a spider, and 2 snakes.  

Later we spotted a tiger, a leopard, and a zebra!

You will not believe what we found in our sensory table... reptiles!  

These girls are not afraid of anything!

We did a DIY snack today of Rain forest Pizza.  Each child topped an English muffin with items that originate from or grow in the rain forest.  We had chocolate chips, bananas, pineapple, and coconut.  

Our safari guide and scientist working at the "SDS Jungle Research Station".

One of our stories today was The Umbrella.  Several jungle creatures end up floating in an umbrella down a river.  We extended our story outside with our new "river" table. 

The childred loaded the boats up with all kinds of creatures, like these salamanders and frogs!  

The river table was just as cool as I had hoped it would be.  They loved it, behaved responsibly, and even stayed dry!!!

Finally, we read Caps for Sale, a silly book about a peddler who has caps for sale.  He stops under a tree to take a nap and some mischevious moneys take all  of his hats.  When he wakes up, he finds his hats missing and feels very angry.  We decided to act the story out.  Each child colored their own hat to use as props.

Here the peddler is napping under the tree.  The monkeys are sneaking up to take her caps.  

The pedder was so angy that she shook her finger at the monkeys, and what do you know, they shook their fingers right back at her.  This continued on through arm waving, feet stomping, and finally cap throwing.  Once the peddler through her hat down, so did the monkeys!  After all, monkey see, monkey do!

 For our math lesson today, we used geo boards to play Monkey See, Monkey Do math.

The children worked in pairs.  Each had a geo board and a supply of rubber bands.  Their job was to create a design or shape, and then let their partner try to recreate it.  

Look at these ts, how cool?!?

We has a super morning and a super afternoon.  Tomorrow I look forward to sharing with you how our afternoon session enjoyed "Feeling Froggy" on Day 2!

Peace, Love, and Kindergarten!

Today was one of those wonderful, yet rare days when everything comes together just like it did in my imagination!  The children participated in 2 powerful learning experiences and had the time of their lives doing it.  

First, we made our Pete the Cat project, in response to reading our very cool Pete the Cat books.  

 I wouldn't classify it as art, because they were all supposed to look similar, but we practiced skills that will make us better artists. Each child was responsible for collecting the materials that they needed for their "Pete", then they had to assemble them to look like a cat.  Each tray was labeled with the number of "body parts" they were supposed to take.  1 body, 2 ears, 1 nose,  6 whiskers... 

They did an amazing job collecting their pieces.  They were very careful and diligent in their work. It takes some serious spatial sense to be able to turn random pieces of paper into cats!

 Although they all had the same pieces, the cats all had their own "flare" (like a fifth leg!)

"Miss" Georgia inadvertently failed to provide tails for the cats.  No problem, they just made their own.  One child used triangles, one used a whisker, and one a blue leg.  

Our special book today was Pete the Cat, Rocking in my School Shoes.  

This was a great time to talk about music and sound and the science of how it is made.  To visually explain sound, we placed beans on the drum and beat it.  Those beans just jumped all around!  Then we hit the rhythm sticks together and really tried to feel the vibration in our hands

We listened to several instruments and talked about how we thought they manipulated air to create sound.  

 Then is was time to make our own noise!  

 Each child was charged with creating their own instrument,  the only qualifier was that it has to make noise.  

Each child used their imagination and all the tools provided to build their instrument.  They has access to rubber bands, tape, hole punchers, steamers, balloons, stickers, markers, beans, rice, funnels... and anything else they needed.  

It was so neat to see them working together, experimenting, hypothesizing, testing, and retesting, and collaborating with other scientists.

 It was far less chaotic than I though it would be!  Everyone was so engaged in the process.

 In the end, each child shared the sound their instrument made, and told us how they made it.  Some instruments, like this one, were very versatile.  You can play it right side up, or upside down, or even shake it!

It was a joyful noise in our classroom!

Amazing how a recycling bin can turn into a fabulous lesson...

How cute are we in our Peace, Love and Kindergarten Tees!

We ended our time together with a parade, celebrating our send off to kindergarten!  I am so sad to see them go, but happy for them as they head of to "Rock" in Kindergarten!!!