Bees have two stomachs; one for eating food and the other for saving food to take to the nest. Bees collect nectar and pollen for food and to help pollinate plants. We had some busy little bees in preschool today. They used colored water, eyedroppers and ice cube trays to suck up the "nectar" (water)  and carry it to the "hive" (ice cube tray).
They took turns rolling the die, identified the number, and counted that many bits (yellow bingo chips)  of pollen to add to the honeycomb. 
They used a "bee" (craft stick colored with black/yellow stripes) to draw letters and lines in the sand.  
They also did some journal work and made kites using squares for the letter Kk. 

From birth, children naturally have the desire to learn and seek out solutions to problems. Children are curious beings and exposure to life science is a wonderful way to further their instinct for discovery. Life science concepts such as animal homes, behaviors and traits are not only interesting for children to learn about; they can also be seen in their own backyard. For example, children can observe the behaviors of bees flying in an out of a beehive or pollinating flowers. These experiences can help children better understand and appreciate all of the living things that share our environment. 
Bees can have different types of homes such as hives, nests or underground. These homes are places to lay eggs and store food. 
Beehives are the homes of worker bees, drones, and the queen bee. Bees do more than just live inside these fascinating domes; they have specific jobs to do to make their colony function. During this Invitation to Create, the children experimented with stamping and creating their own unique beehive designs. They explored using textured materials, and even their own fingerprints, to create a beehive. 

Rattlesnakes make rattling noise with their tail to scare away predators. They hunt for and eat small rodents and lizards. They created a rattlesnake shaker using a cardboard tube, markers and beans. 
We pretended the worm counters were snakes to do some table top math!  We all agreed we are not big fans of snakes!

Many desert animals are nocturnal, which means they sleep during the day and come out at night. 
Deserts are known to have blazing dry heat during the day, but night the temperatures can drop significantly. It can get extremely cold in the desert at night. Many nocturnal animals begin to move around and make noises during the cold desert nights. During this Invitation to Create, the children experimented with wet and dry materials. They observed what happened when crayon markings and stickers are covered by watery paint. Through this process, the children could see changes occurring with their art and explore how materials could be used in different ways.
At this point in the year, children that are able to cut lines cut the shapes for their names!  Children that are not quite ready to cut lines practice cutting scrap paper!

Desert cottontails are named after their tails, which look like cotton balls. They eat grass, shrubs and plants. They can run in a zigzag pattern to try to escape a predator. They created their own Desert Cottontail bunny puppet. 
For fine motor skills they drew lines in their journals. We worked on "-un" words, including run, sun, fun and bun.  They picked a word and found the matching first letter to make the same word. 
​The younger children sorted dot stickers by color and the older kiddos played in sand.

There are variety of small animals living in the Sahara such as lizards, birds, snakes, beetles and scorpions. Many of these animals burrow into the sand to stay cool. We discussed what body parts we have, eyes, mouth, ears, arms, legs etc.  They were encouraged to draw the missing half of their nails and create new silly animals!
They worked in their fine motor journals drawing and making letter Ww with stickers. 

Camels can either have one hump or two humps. Their humps store fat that the camel uses for energy. Like horses, people can ride camels and also have them carry things. They took turns rolling the numbered pocket cube, identified the number and made that many "humps" using play dough on top of the camel. We counted the number of humps.  In their fine motor journals they traced 13 humps and added legs, head and tail to create a camel. They colored Ww and placed in their journals. They also completed their Ww books and played with play dough.

The Sahara Desert is the hottest desert in the world. It covers most of Northern Africa. It is very hot, dry and windy. It rarely rains in the Sahara. There is little water in the desert, so you must carry it with you. They created a canteen today using paper plates, paint sticks, yarn and soufflé cup. 
​For fine motor skills they used stickers to create Ww and traced lines. 

A rodeo is a cowboy sport competition with events including bronc, bull riding and roping calves. They played Rodeo memory! For fine motor skills they colored, cut and used stickers to form the letter N.