Desert Museum Field Trip

We had a lot of fun at the Desert Museum last week! The kids did an amazing job of keeping up, staying with their partner and listening. It was PERFECT weather for our trip!

Our Class (minus 1 Israel), Ms. Jaymee and Junior Chaperones Baylee and Devynn

We started off going through the Desert Grasslands and continued our way through the Mountain Woodland. 

Prairie Dog Watching

The View!

Gabe- Looking at the Black Bear... and sun in his poor eyes

Billy and Prestton

Our friend Jace (age1)  also joined us on our trip.

Feeling what a bear's coat is like.

Walking, walking and more walking

A much needed snack break!

THANK YOU to these girls for helping keep the little one's safe and having fun with us. 

Prestton loving his snack

A number one favorite during our visit: the fossil dig!

Chris with his safety goggles

Elizabeth WAITED for these pink ones

Excited to be getting dirty

Working hard to get out his fossil

"Finding" larger bones

"Look Elizabeth! It's a dinosaur, let's get him!"

Mineral exploration

Trynnity finding her treasure

In the "mine"

Junior Chaperone Rylee modeling the bat ears in the cave.

Junior Chaperone Devynn had to try too!

Listening and learning about meteorites

We took LOTS

And LOTS

of THIS pose to try and get EVERYONE to look at the camera!

Hmmmmmm.... well we tried!

Jace in the Hummingbird exhibit

A momma hummingbird on her eggs!!!!!!

 And finally our picnic lunch!

 ALL of the little ones fell asleep in the car on the way back to DBP. We really enjoyed our day and are looking forward to our next outing!

March 7-11

 

Letter: Rr

Sight Word: the

Color: green

Theme: St. Patrick's Day

I LOVE to do any kind of holiday, because it also means we get to do CRAFTS! It is also a reason to celebrate and another opportunity for learning at Desert Blossoms. This week we started by watching an old cartoon by Paramount Pictures called Leprechauns Gold. (you can click here to watch it!) It is cute and got the kids VERY excited about the idea of little Leprechauns coming to visit us (more on that as you scroll down). The students also enjoy doing anything on the computer.

 

Watching Leprechauns Gold

We then took a "trip" to Ireland. They got an introduction to maps and colored a flag of the country. 

One of our sensory centers this week was "lucky" homemade play dough. This is one of my favorite recipes because it is a no cook. We then added green dye and gold glitter for "luck". 

The recipe for No Cook Playdough is SUPER easy! Here it is if you would like to make some at home with your little one:

3 cups of flour

1 cup of warm water

1/4 cup of salt

1- 2 tbsp. oil (add more if too sticky)

Food Coloring 

Mix Flour with salt; add water with food coloring of your choice. Slowly add oil . If dough is too stiff add more water. KNEAD, KNEAD, KNEAD! Store in air tight container for up to 2 weeks.

Kneading...

Kneading...

Letter, Number and sound practice with playdough and cookie cutters. 

Elizabeth finding the letter Rr

Gabriel singing the letter song as he plays with the dough

Coloring our Leprechauns

Everyone LOVES the sensory box. This month we (surprise!) did a St. Patrick's Day theme. 

Chris and Trynnity at the SEnsory Box center; counting and sorting.

Elizabeth and Israel exploring

Whole Group Lessons:

Using geo pattern blocks we matched the shapes to make the letter R and to make a rabbit. 

Identifying upper and lowercase R's. 

Reading Groups:

Kinder Prep kids worked on their letter Rr book. A typical reading group meeting with them is a mixed review of letter names/ sounds, writing practice and a leveled beginning reader book. 

*At home tip: when reading with your little one at home, have them continue to practice reading from left to right, tracking and page turning.*

Tot Kids Reading Group took turns completing an online interactive book.

Centers: 

Cutting Practice 

Reading Big Books

Puzzles

Free Choice Centers:

All time FAVORITE- Cars

Little People 

Coloring 

Play Time!

St. Patrick's Day at DBP:

Our little visitor left us a note and his tracks! 

Rainbows made with Fruit Loops

Recognizing colors

Counting

Sorting

Making jello

Measuring

Pouring

Taking Turns

Stirring

Smells... "Yum!" Gabe. 

"It's gween!" Elizabeth. 

"I want some." Prestton. 

Spooning

More counting

 4 hours later...

Green, orange, and white "Irish" jello

Enjoying our hard work

So good!

Digging for "gold"

We had discussed Abraham Lincoln on President's Day. The kids remembered learning about him!
Here they are counting and recognizing the written number with their coins. 

Another activity using our Sensory Bin

Counting out coins to match up with shamrock numbers

Hope everyone had a

Thumb print shamrocks