Learning About Opposites

One of our toddler classes has been learning about opposites. Here are some of the crafts/activities they've done while exploring opposites:
      ~Hard and soft with cotton balls and buttons

     ~Up and Down with dot markers on arrows

     ~Dark and Light with fingertips in white and black paint

We do quite a lot of sink and float experimentation in Pre-K. It's always fun to hear what the kids think will float and what will sink. Afterwards, I often set up a little station in our science center for independent exploration. I provide writing materials so students can record their observations.

Sensory bottles are also a great way to facilitate independent exploration for sink/float observations. 

There are some great books about opposites! Here are a few of my favorites:





For more great ideas on opposites, check out these posts from some of my bloggy friends:

                   Teach Preschool: "The Step Ladder Game"

            Craftulate: "Learning Opposites With Sandra Boynton"

Be sure to check out my "Opposites" board on Pinterest for more great ideas for learning about opposites!





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Sharing the Love from Pay It Forward

I am so excited! We received a lovely package from Flights of Whimsy filled with goodies from "Down Under" in the mail earlier this month. This package was part of Karen's "Pay It Forward" post. The idea was originally the brainchild of Sherry and Donna from over at Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning. I am thrilled that I was able to participate, too!!! 


My gift package included: a calendar with beautiful pictures of the animals of Australia, 

And an adorable little kangaroo holding the Australian flag,

We were thrilled to discover "Wombat Stew",  a fabulous picture book filled with animals of the bush!

We've been reading "Wombat Stew" and I'm practicing my Aussie accent and silly animal voices with each reading.

And.....a BOOMERANG!!!!

We spent a wonderful afternoon trying out boomerang throwing. None of us were successful in having it return to us when we threw it, but it sure was fun trying!!!!

Our class wrote this thank you note to Karen that will be in the mail this week:

Dear Miss Karen,

Thank you for sending us a wonderful package. We are enjoying the calendar and book "Wombat Stew". It is very funny! Thank you for sending a boomerang! It is very fun! 

Love,  

Mrs. Ayn's class

I can't wait to "Pay It Forward" to 3 lucky readers in March. Be sure to check back and look for the opportunity to participate and Pay It Forward, too!

Learning about Penguins in Pre-K

As part of our "Polar Pal" unit, we did a mini unit on penguins. We learned all about the various types of penguins and the lands they inhabit.

We measured out and colored a life sized Emperor Penguin ...

and then measured ourselves against it.

Of course, we had to include "waddling" as part of our movement activities!

We learned quite a bit about penguin rookeries and how the daddy penguins care for the eggs. We practiced having the mommy penguins pass off the penguin egg to the daddy penguins. We had to remember to only use our feet since penguins don't have "hands". We also had to be careful not to let the egg drop to the freezing snow on the ground so the egg wouldn't freeze. This was much trickier than the children expected!

After the mommy penguins slipped off to find food and swim in the sea,

the daddy penguins had to learn how to stay warm, rotating themselves from the outside to the inside of the huddle. We also practiced waddling as a group, so everyone stayed warm. It was quite a challenge to get everyone moving in the same direction!

Our friend Ms. Christie game us this fabulous cardboard penguin cutout from the movie "Happy Feet". It's been a fun decoration and also helped illustrate how different baby penguins look from fully grown penguins!

(It's hard to tell from this, but it's actually about 2 1/2 feet tall!)  

Our "Perky Penguins" have been a bit hit in our school lobby. Be sure to check out "Perky Penguins in Pre-K" to read more about them!

Thanks for visiting! Leave a little "comment love" ~ I'd love for you to share your thoughts!  :)

One Thing Leads To Another

We have been working on our Polar Pal unit and learning all about the people and animals living in those regions. One of our planned activities included placing a small ball or bean bag on our feet and walking like a daddy penguin while keeping our "egg" safe.

I couldn't remember which (bean bag or ball) that we used last year, so I had both ready just in case. Well, as the best laid plans go, this group couldn't get EITHER to stay on their feet as they waddled! I quickly saw that the fun was waning and the frustration was setting in. This was NOT how I wanted this to go---YIKES!!!

My assistant and I scrambled and pulled out some balloons and quickly got them blown up. The children became instantly excited and the balloons started flying! We talked about how the friends had to be so very careful, if the balloon popped, that meant the egg broke and it would not hatch a baby penguin.

We began to practice walking around our classroom with our balloon "eggs" and had a little race to see which team could go from point A to point B the fastest without dropping the egg.

After the race, the children started parading around the room. The balloons are such a novelty in our classroom, we rarely use them. I worry about the choking hazard a broken and forgotten balloon poses to the younger members of our school.

We decided an impromptu "Penguin Parade" was called for around our school.

When we got back to our classroom, I decided we might as well take advantage of having these balloons, so I pulled out the parachute.

We then paired up and tried to blow the balloon back and forth between partners.

Our final activity before putting the balloons away was to try to keep the balloons aloft without using our hands. We have some future soccer stars in our class, so I knew this would be fun!

This was certainly NOT the lesson I had planned, but what started out as a hiccup in our plan ended in a lot of fun and some wonderful gross motor experiences. Sometimes, you've just got to go with the flow!