The deepest part of the ocean floor reaches down to about 36,000 feet. The floor consist of sand, rock, and even volcanos. There are coral reefs, plants and animals that live on the ocean floor. When a piece of sand gets inside an oyster shell, it might turn into a pearl over time.  We made Oyster Pearls using pipe cleaner, beads, paint and paper plates.  We added sand and shells to our writing trays and practiced writing numbers and counting shells.  Some of the kids used the shells to write the numbers. 
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The Earth's five oceans are enormous!  They cover about 70% of the Earth's surface and are home to thousands of plants and animals. There are five oceans; the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern Ocean.  The oceans consist of salt water, which can help objects float better than fresh water. The ocean is very salty!  We explored with watercolors, salt and an eyedropper.  We made interesting designs with these materials and discovered what happens when salt and watercolors mix.  We filled five bowls with water and put an ocean label next to each bowl.   We took turns rolling a dice, identifying the number and counting out that number of shells.  Each child was encouraged to choose one of the five oceans to drop the shells in.  We set out two bowls of water; fresh water and salt water.  They discovered some things will sink in fresh water and the same item will float in salt water; adding salt increases the density of water, making it easier for some items to float.  We also played in some water and water beads with ocean animals!


This week we read Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae.

Mini erasers make excellent manipulatives.  We use them for making letters, making numbers, counting mats, and so much more!  I found these Spring/Easter mini erasers at The Target Dollar Spot.

Today we celebrated Earth Day!  We talked about planting trees, recycling and reducing waste as ways to protect and take care of our Earth.

We used paper plates, paper and paint to create Planet Earth Art.  We painted the paper plate with blue and green paint and then pressed onto the white paper.  While the earth painting was drying we added stars to black paper.  Once dry we cut Earth into a circle and glued onto a black piece of paper.  

We cut out story pieces to act out the Earthworm Lunch Rhyme. 
Five little worms went out to play, 
Looking for lunch on the Earth Day, 
An apple core is what one found, 
And he said, "We can take this to our home 
in the ground!"
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Four - junk mail
Three - rotting leaves 
Two - cracked egg shell 
One - old tea bag 

Those five little worms took it all underground, 
They wiggled their bodies around and around. 
Soon they ate all the scraps; munch, munch, 
​And they made some dirt from their garbage lunch! 

Let's all do our part to protect the Earth. Happy Earth Day!

Directed drawings!  4 & 5 year olds.  Fantastic job!

This week we wrapped up our space unit.  The kids did such a great job with their rocket ship drawings!  We reviewed shapes, made a shape collage and reviewed some letters this week.  We also played with sand and play dough.  
We have a new fairy garden sensory bin!  This sensory bin has split peas, gem shapes, metallic eggs, tweezers and a few other treasures for them to explore.
We were able to make it to the park a few times before the snow storm!   
Have a fantastic weekend!