Butterfly Symmetry Paintings

To go along with learning about the letter B, bugs, and butterflies, we created butterfly art! We talked about how symmetry means the same on both sides, a mirror image. When the children decided that they were finished painting, we folded our papers and pressed them to attempt to get a symmetrical design. After drying, we cut a butterfly shape from the paper. These made lovely decorations for our entry door.

B is for baby...(and more photos from letter Bb week)

B is for baby:

Finding Bugs in Beans


Our word wall for the letter Bb:


A completed bean collage

B-b-b- Bean Collages!

The children completed this literacy activity at various levels.  

The preschoolers wrote the letter B with glue independently:


The older toddlers had help with writing the letter B, and then they put the beans on by themselves:


...and one of our toddlers preferred to complete the project her own way, putting beans inside of the glue lines, rather than on them.

Happy Mother's Day

"Once someone touches your heart, the fingerprints will last forever." -Unknown

The children were delighted to surprise their wonderful mothers with the presents that we worked on this week!

Field Trip: Kidpalooza

This was our 6th year attending the Kidpalooza community event.  A few of our group's favorite things this year were going inside of a real school bus (to see what the "big kids" do), watching the balloon artist work, and the train ride.

Sensory experiences:

Exploring on a real school bus!

Inside of a fire truck:

 

And the train ride:

 

One of the many treasures we brought back to school was a creation from the balloon artist.  Spiderman, complete with webs:

Meeting Mr. M

This week, we met a new friend, letter M!

We painted "magic" M paintings.

Mr. M told us he makes the "mmm" sound, and we helped him search for things that start with that sound. We found Monster trucks!

We constructed our own letter M's using tangrams.

We made macaroni M's... mmm, mmm, mmm!

We looked around and found other letter M's just like Mr. M.

We practiced writing M's and discovered we can write MOM! (Just in time for Mother's Day!)

By the end of the week, we had made a list of many M words!

Nice to meet you, Mr. M!

Learning About Clouds and Rain

This week, we made rain jars to go along with our "April Showers" theme.



The children used pipettes to drip watercolor paint into shaving cream clouds.



We used language like squeeze, drip, heavy, fill, and saturate.



We learned that when a cloud gets full of water, rain falls!

After we were finished working with our rain jars, we used the leftover (now colorful!) clouds to make lovely prints.

Hunting for Letters (Mini Sensory Bin)

This week, our mini sensory bin contained split peas and a foam alphabet puzzle.  The children took turns feeling their way around the bin, finding letters, matching them up with the frame, and manipulating them to fit in the appropriate places.  It was great for exercising those fine motor skills!

Friday Funny - 40 Ways Kids Ruin Everything Good In This World

A little parenting humor as we head into the weekend.  :)

40 Ways Kids Ruin Everything Good In This World. This Is Painful...But So Funny!