Ocean Explorers!

Today our 4s embarked on an Ecological Marine Adventure, down at Topsail Beach.  This is my favorite field trip of the year, and one that our 4s have come to look forward to.

Our first stop was the fossil garden.  

 We found lots of shark teeth!

Next we visited the aquarium.  

Miss Kathleen showed us some very cool sea creatures.

Everyone was SO brave!  Just look at K holding a Sea Spider!

We even got the daddies involved!

Next we explored a seaweed surprise.  Partners dissected a tray of seaweed,

We found blood worms, shrimp, crabs, and even some fish.  Then we looked at each specimen under the television microscope.

Off to the beach...

We used the scoop nets to collect sea creatures. 

The pier seemed like a good place to start.

The water was cool, but they didn't seem to notice. 

We caught some very cool crabs that each child got to hold...

and release.

It was great day together!  I sure am not ready to say good-bye this sweet group...

Sunshine 3s Tea

What a treat we had today at SDS!

Our 3s gathered with their moms to celebrate Mother's Day.

Each mom received a plenty of hugs and kisses,

as well as a sweet little hand-print vase.

We ended our time together with the sweetest little performance.

So thankful to be a special mom in this group!

Mother's Day Tea for our 4s

Our 4s were a big help as we prepared for out Mother's Day Tea Parties.

They folded the napkins...

Swept the path...

Set the table...

and did a once over to make sure it was all perfect!

While the moms enjoyed their "tea", and a very special guest speaker, the boys and girls got ready to present them with their gifts.  

Each one made a pillow with a nest hand-print and just the right amount of birds to represent their family.  

They were SO proud of themselves!

Lots of hugs and kisses to go around.

It was a great day to share with our school family.

Finally, we entertained the moms with 2 sweet songs!

Just a small way to show our appreciation for our moms and thank them for sharing their children with us!

Rub-a-dub, dub!

You may be familiar with the nursery rhyme, Rub a dub dub, 3 men in  tub..

Well we made our own version!

Rub-a-dub-dub,

Three friends in a tub;

And who do you think they be?

There's C......., and P............, and N........., too;

And all of them gone to sea!.

It was a blast trying to squeeze all those friends in a tub!

The boys and girls used the skill of cooperation to make this lesson successful!

We spent some time to explore water today.

We learned how to clean up after ourselves when we made a spill.

We scooped and poured, stirred and splashed throughout the morning.

The children were so careful and thoughtful of their neighbors as they played side by side.

Our final water play for the day was painting with watercolors. 

It is always fascinating to watch young children as they interact with new art materials.

The Red Ripe Strawberry

This week we  have been enjoying this old favorite with our 4 year old preschoolers. 

It is the story of a little mouse who is desperately trying to keep a "Big Hungry Bear" away from his strawberry.  He tries to bury it, lock it up, and disguise it, to no avail.  Finally, he decides to just eat it all up and avoid the bear all together!

After the first reading of the story we discussed what a "disguise" is, and then decided it would be funny to disguise our own handmade strawberries   

We used our fresh, homemade strawberry play-doh to make our strawberries.

 

Then we borrowed Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head's accessories to complete the perfect disguise   

I am sure that no BIG HUNGRY BEAR could find these strawberries!

How about this cowboy strawberry!

An Aquarium Adventure with our 3s

It was my pleasure to accompany our sweet 3s on their end-of-the-year field trip to the aquarium.

Mrs. Renee' and Mrs. Jill arranged for us to have a special lesson in the aquarium classroom.

We gathered to listen to a story.

Then we touched lots of spiny sea creatures.

We were SO brave. We toughed a sea star, a spiny sea urchin, and even a spider crab!

We completed a craft together.

After our class, we visited the aquarium and completed our scavenger hunt.

Look at these cool fish!

There was a touch pool for sharks!

And a touch pool for other interesting creatures.

These 2 really enjoyed spotting turtles living in the open air exhibit.