Goldfish are a common type of pet fish. They are able to live many years if cared for properly, and prefer to live with at least one other goldfish in their tank.   Many people are surprised to discover that goldfish are quite smart and can display unique personalities.  

We created our own fishbowl today.  They each looked at the Inspiration photo, I gave them a variety of materials to create their own habitat for a pet fish.  They made choices about how many plants to include in the water and if they would use pebbles, sand or other found materials at the bottom. The students also decided if they would draw or cut one or multiple fish for their fishbowls.  

We played a sight word fishing game.  I put the Fishbowl Mats on the table and spread out the Word Fish on the table.  They took turns catching fish, saying the word on the fish and placing on the corresponding mat.  We've been working on is, it and all month  reading our "What Is It?" book. We also use this book to look for the letters we are learning. 

We painted using feathers!  They felt the feathers and rubbed on their faces.  We made a bird nest and the eggs were used for their names. 
They colored, cut and glued birds for fine motor skill practice. 
As a group we sorted upper case and lower case letters.  We also created a number line with birds!  The older kids completed their letter Hh books.  

Birds are often seen in the wild but some are domesticated pets.  Parrots can live an extremely long life, often 40-60 years or more.  Birds can react to music and are able to dance and sing.  
They made a bird collage using, sticks, feathers, markers and glue.  We talked about the inspiration photo; colors, number of birds etc. 
​For our fine motor, we drew Tt's in our journals and then connected the Tt's making a trail.  
As a group, we rolled a number cube, stated the number they rolled and, found the bird with the matching number and fed the birds the same number of worms.  I encouraged them to use the tweezers but also let them know they can pick up the worms with their fingers.  

Cats are popular pets.  They are known to sleep for most of the day but can be very playful as well.  Cats' whiskers help them sense their surroundings and their long tail helps them balance.  We made a cat headband.  Worked on letter Tt for fine motor.  They cut shapes to build homes for their animals. 

We are moving into family pets for our next few lessons! Children love learning about animals. The topic of pets can be especially engaging and relatable for children as they may have personal experience with a pet already. Since pets are animals that can typically be seen in a child's own environment, children may have existing knowledge that they are excited to share and expand on. While learning about pets, children can explore the concept of respecting living things and begin to understand what their basic needs are; just like people, pets need food, water, shelter, and love. 
Today we talked about dogs. Do you have a dog? How many dogs? What sounds does a dog make? What kind of tricks can a dog do? Where do dogs like to walk? Dogs can make many different sounds when they bark. Today we created a Dog Shaker! They drew a face on the dog and put beans inside. They danced and sang songs with their shakers. 
We sorted shapes into dog bowls. I put tangrams in a large bowl and placed the Dog Bowl mat on the table and they sorted by color. They would pick a shape and tell me the color and shape. 
We worked on the letter Tt. The older kids I showed them a fence and created a brick wall with Legos. The fence was the lower-case t and the brick wall was the T, also showed them the type of lines they were writing. I try to give hands on experience for each letter. They can pick up and see what they are trying to create! The younger kids draw lines, and we focus more on the upper-case letters because they are easier to trace for their little hands. 
For fine motor we colored, cut grass fringe, and glued to paper. We glued the numbers 1 and 2 in our fine motor journals. 

They traced letter Hh and used confetti to create letter F & H.  
We used dot markers to make apples, and added the stem using a brown marker.  
We used stamps and paint  to create red circles.

There are many facial expressions I can make such as happy, sad, surprised or mad.  We looked at the inspiration photo, we talked about the different shapes we saw, the colors and if they thought the person in the painting looked happy, sad, mad etc.  They created their own Picasso face.  It was their choice what kind of face they wanted to make.  There is no right or wrong way to make art!  We used shapes and paint to create their master piece.  Once dried, I gave them eyes to place on their painting.
We also worked on letter Hh.  I showed them a ladder on a fire truck; looks similar to an H.  I also put a bunny cut out on the table to make letter h, bunny hops to make the arch.  

Surprised is an emotion or feeling that can be expressed in different ways.  Children can explore this emotion by role playing a surprise party.
Today we made party hats!  They used paint sticks, markers and sequins. We cut up wrapping paper and glued into our journals.  
The kids were encouraged to decorate and have a pretend party for the animals.  They sang happy birthday and decorated cupcakes!  They used streamer to decorate the table.  

Scared is an emotion or feeling that can be expressed in different ways.  Children can learn ways to cope when they are scared, such as hugging a stuffed animal. 
We made shadow puppets and talked about how shadows are made!  
We made monsters using play dough and wiggle eyes.  I asked each child how many eyes they had, how would you feel if you saw a monster with 3 eyes?  They took turns rolling the number cube, identified the number, and then put that many eyes on the play dough monster.  
As a group we made a spider web.  They took turns placing the yarn on the floor to create a spider web.   They had to close their eyes and I hid the spider under a cup and then they had to guess where the spider was hiding!  
We glued letter Hh in our fine motor journals and built letter Hh puzzles. 

Happy is an emotion or feeling that can be expressed in different ways.  Many people show happiness by smiling or laughing.  
Sad in an emotion or feeling that can be expressed in different ways.  Some people show sadness by crying or moving slowly. 
​They were encouraged to draw a happy face and something that makes them sad. 
We discussed things or people that make us happy.  Who or what makes you happy?  Who makes you happy when you are sad?  What makes you sad?  We have been reading "A Bear Hug for Bunny" a story about kindness.  
I scattered the letter Hh pieces on the table and explained Hh was broken and sad.  Hh needs help being put back together.  They all put Hh back together is using the mat or on the table.