It's Friday and we have beautiful weather so that means we are outside!!  
Today we created  Xx is for xylophone and X-ray.  For fine motor they traced numbers and practiced cutting shapes.

They played with the truck/rock sensory bin.  I added some rocks with letters, adding literacy will always spark conversations!  I was asked how to spell words and how to spell names.  For the younger children they can find familiar letters.  A very simple activity with so much learning involved.
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They love playing with the nesting birds, they can sort by size, color or just line them up!

Sea stars are invertebrates, meaning they do not have a backbone.  They have hard, bumpy skin, that protects them from predators.  Sea stars have five arms that can wrap around their prey and squeeze it.  Sea stars can be a variety of colors.  A Sea star may lose one of its arms, but don't worry it can grow back!  We used shaving cream, glue and a squeeze bottle to create bumpy star.  

Ranibowfish are small and live in tropical waters.  The older they get, the more colorful  they are.  They usually swim together in a school.  They are not born colorful; rainbow fish become more vibrant as they age.  During this Invitation to Create, children designed their own rainbowfish with paper and large sequins. 
We made the letter Xx puzzle and for fine motor we made thumbprint ants on a log.

Seahorses are small fish that breathe through gills.  They have tiny, spiny plates on their bodies and their head resembles a horse.  The female lays her eggs in the males seahorse's pouch.  He carries the eggs before they hatch.  Seahorses have small fins that propel them forward in the water.  Each child created their own seahorse puppet! 
For fine motor we cut triangles and glued in fine motor journals. 

Happy Earth Day!  We discussed taking care of our earth by reducing, reusing and recycling.  We created beautiful planet earth using a coffee filter, eyedropper, blue and green water colors.  Children used their fine motor skills to squeeze the dropper, suck up liquid, then release it over their filter.  Once they dried we glued to black paper and each child was encouraged to write "earth" and they did an amazing job!     

Despite their name, jellyfish are considered plankton, not fish.  They have no bones, and do not have a brain or heart.  These umbrella-like sea creatures are translucent and have tentacles that can sting. We made jelly fish using crepe paper and ribbon and also made jelly fish hats!  For fine motor skills, we drew jellyfish in our fine motor journals cut shapes and glued into our fine motor journals and traced lines. 
As a group we played a Shark Teeth game.  Each child took a turn rolling the die, then counted that number of mini noodles and placed the teeth in the sharks mouth, we used play dough to be able to push in the teeth.  

Sea turtles are members of the reptile family.  They lay their eggs in the sand.  Sea turtles have a large shell on their back to help protect them.  They are great swimmers and can swim far distances.  We looked at the inspiration photo and discussed what we saw on the shell.  Each child cut out shapes to create the shell on their turtle.  
For fine motor we used Q-tips to paint.  

Sharks are considered fish because they are cold blooded.  They don't have bones; instead they have cartilage that makes up their skeleton.  They have a great sense of smell.  Sharks lose and regrow many teeth over a lifetime.  We created our own school of fish.  Fish swim together to protect themselves from predators, such as the great white shark.  They glued a shark shape to paper and then created a school of fish with colorful confetti and used markers and crayons to add anything else they wanted.  
For fine motor we cut shapes and glued into our journals and we used dot markers.  

Happy Easter!