Sea Sponges and X-ray Fish

          I will be adding more painting activities with sponges. The kids really took to the " Sponge Stencils " activity. All I kept hearing was " This is fun ! "  When I asked the discussion question " Do you think a sea sponge is living or non - living ? Why ? " , I got non -  living because it is a plant.  I still have some work to do in t his area to show the kids that plants are living too . With X-ray Fish I asked the question " What do you think is inside of a fish ? " This question got me answers like  food and snakes . We did the X-ray Fish Painting  and the kids loved it. The more I am able to let the children do on their own with the Mother Goose Time Curriculum the more they enjoy and learn from it.

Sea Stars , Plankton , Jellyfish , Seahorses

              Monday brought us to learning about Plankton and Jellyfish.  I started off with the discussion question " What might you see floating in the ocean ? " The answers I got were dolphin , car , and  a whale. The kids have such amazing personalities.  I do not think I will ever figure them out. The " Jellyfish Hat " was a success for everybody in my house. My youngest daughter even wanted to make one . My middle daughter and her friend just wanted to wear the shower cap. The " Sea Star  discussion  question " How do you think a sea star moves ?" got me an answer of " floats around ".  I love the " Bumpy Sea Star ". There are a couple of children that still need to make this yet because they were not at my house when we made them . With the question " Why do think a seahorse has a tail ? " The kids showed me that they have been paying attention.  They said if he does not have a tail he can not swim. The concept review was fantastic. It really helped work on numbers. The " Daddy Seahorse Game " was a hit. We are going to do that again on Monday.

Turtles and new words

          We have continued our undersea adventure.  We learned about sharks .  I asked the children the question on the topic poster " How would you feel if you saw a shark ? " and I got some interesting answers . I  got mad , grumpy , and because the shark is going to eat me .  I also asked the children " How do you think a shark skin feel . The answers I got to this were sharky and smooth .  The kids loved making the shark fin . They rubbed the sand all over their hands . They liked the feel of the sand on their hands . The kids had a blast with the " Who is Hatching Game ? " . They were able to recognize letters and the words . I would to keep using this game because I think it can help the children learn more words and letters . We even worked in our Mother Goose Time Workbooks. The kids surprised me because they  wanted to keep going and do more pages even after we got done with the page that went with the lesson .  I am ready to dive into next week !!!!!!!!!!

Animals of the ocean

        The kids and I have been exploring the ocean this week . We have talked about whales and octopuses. We have learning how to write a letter  " W " .  We played the counting suckered game which challenged the kids to find the and to count it out correctly. The " What Am I " book was a blast . The kids were starting to recognize letters and words. That got me and the children very excited. We have more swimming to do so we can find more ocean animals !!!!!!

Ocean Water and Coral Reefs

   It has been a great and peaceful week of learning . All the children are definitely ready for Easter . We did a lot of talking about ocean water and coral reefs yesterday. The children did a lot of exploring with the theme poster for this month . I did something different with the theme poster. I attached each magnifying glasses to the hanger that I have the theme poster on . I feel this gave the children more freedom to explore the theme poster on their own . I want to find more ways for the children to have more "Hands On " experiences .  Next week is going to be a blast too because the children love animals .  I am excited and can not wait for next week !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oceans everywhere

      We have been starting to learn what makes up an ocean this week. This time I decided to try something the other bloggers have been doing which is not doing the Mother Goose Time Curriculum in order. I was wanting to see if it would help any of the kids learn better .  I will see where the kids are at the month after doing this. I still need to do the science experiment with sweet and salty water. It will very interesting to see the children's reactions to this. With the various discussion questions in each lesson I have been writing down the children's answers. One of the questions is " What do you know about swimming in the water ? " .  They told me it was blue, dark, has fish , salty, and the water is yucky.