Home Depot Field Trip

 Our field trip to Home Depot was loads of fun! We went there to help us wrap up  the letters we learned in April (T for tools, U for Useful and V for Vegetables--yes a bit of a stretch).  Either way it was a very interactive field trip with lots of information and hands on activities!  The kids talked about how they especially loved getting popcorn, making a flower pot, getting an apron to wear and touching some of the tools.

T is for Towers (Sight Word Towers that is)

For this game the kids would read the sight word that was written on the cups.  For each sight word they could read they got to use the cup to build part of a tower.  When they were done with all the sight word cups they got to use the light saber to knock the tower over.  We also used this as part of our Solar System unit (S for Star Wars)

T is for Toilet Paper Roll Art

This was a very open ended process project and I found it interesting how different children tackled the project.  Some were more haphazard, others made patterns, and some doubled up on the colors. Either way, they all seemed to have a good time, and they all turned out pretty cool looking! 

T is for Triangle Tigers

I really adore how these turned out!  The kids worked so hard following directions then adding their own creativity to their individual pieces.  I enjoyed seeing how each child interpreted my words and example so differently.  I also loved the way they were so creative with their jungle leaves! 

Sense of Taste-Yucky or Yummy?

I taught the kids a bit about the way our taste buds work and where the tongue detects certain tastes on our tongues.  We looked at our taste buds in the mirror and found the different parts on our own tongue.  

Field Trip to the Dentist

 We finished up our T is or Teeth unit with a trip to the Dentist.  They really spoiled us, from super hero capes, to toothbrushing kits, prizes, getting our teeth brushed & flossed, tooth brushing demonstrations with fake teeth, dental hygiene info, learning about some of the dental tools (water squirter & "Mr. Thirsty") and ending with a cookie! Our dental assistant Ali did a great job teaching us all about teeth and keeping it interactive for our little friends!

T is for Teeth

We did an experiment demonstrating what can happen to a tooth if exposed to too much soda, juice or acidic foods (vinegar).  We made some predictions and then we used an egg to represent the tooth.  We soaked it in the different liquids for a few days then we observed them.  We next brushed them with toothpaste and observed some more.  Afterwards we graphed the results by coloring in the eggs on our graph.  We showed what the egg originally looked like, what it looked like after soaking in the liquids for a few days, and then what it looked like after we brushed it with toothpaste.  Some of the conclusions we made were that the soda was the most harmful to the tooth's color and strength.  It was stained the deepest and developed a crack.  It was also the most difficult to whiten.  We concluded that the vinegar completely destroyed the shell of the egg (tooth).  It had no external protection left and was entirely softened.  We were unable to brush it without it breaking.  We got internal leakage (the egg yolk started oozing).  The juice was the least detrimental.  It definitely caused significant staining, but it cleaned up pretty decent with toothpaste and toothbrush.  It was never quite the same, but pretty decent.  I really love this experiment and teaching kids the importance of brushing their teeth regularly and making good food choices not only for your body, but for your teeth as well. 

Happy Tooth-Sad Tooth

The kids got to take turns sorting foods that helped teeth stay healthy or promoted tooth decay.   I found the printable HERE.

T is for Tooty-Ta

Another favorite song with my kiddos.  We always giggle lots during and after singing & dancing to Dr. Jean's Tooty Ta!  She is also one of my faves!

T is for Teeth

We sang this song for our Dental unit and the kids of course loved it.  Who doesn't love Raffi---Really!

T is for Toothbrush Drop

We used fine motor skills to try and drop the toothbrushes in the jar by standing up nice and tall, putting the toothbrush up to our noses and then dropping them towards the jar. 

T is for Teeth

For sensory play the kids got to practice brushing and flossing teeth (Egg cartons cut up, real toothpaste, toothbrushes, & Yarn)

Q is for Quack (Pond Life Unit)

As part of our Pond Unit we got to make our own pet turtles.  The kids were very excited to take them home!  I sadly didn't get a picture of our pond life sensory tub, which by far is my all time favorite sensory activity!  I put mini turtles, frogs, floating lily pads, plants, natural rock filler and water, and floating ducks.  This is always a very popular tub for the kids to play in! This week we also sang lots of songs, read pond stories, and did lots of games and activities to help reinforce the letter, theme, and number of the week. 

T is for Tiger

We learned all about tigers this week and learned that they are very interesting animals!  We had a great time comparing weights and lengths of the kids in our class to a tiger.  We measured the length of a tiger using 12 x 12 paper and we compared our own weights to that of a tiger.  We also added the children's various weights to see how many children it took to get the approximate weight of a tiger.  Another interesting thing we did was see how many cans of food it would take to weigh as much as one average tigers meal.  We also talked about tigers camoflauge.  I made a grassy scene using green construction paper and then took orange paper with different patterns (spotted, plain, & striped).  Next I stuck the patterned paper behind the "grass" and we observed which pattern blended into a tigers habitat the best.  The kids favorite activity we did was pretend to be tigers crouching and pouncing on their prey. 

T is for Toothbrushing Sensory Tub

Yeah...so i'm noticing I didn't get too many pictures this week.  I guess we were just too busy having a great time.  So...this is the same sensory tub we did, I just found this picture online so it isn't our actual class, but you get the idea right?  Egg Carton "Teeth", toothbrushes, & toothpaste

T is for Teeth Experiments

This week we did the old cola and egg experiment to demonstrate the effect cola has on our teeth.  The idea behind this experiment is that if you take a nice white clean egg, representing a tooth and soak it in cola for a long period of time, representing drinking too much soda/not brushing our teeth, then it will discolor the "tooth".  I didn't take a picture this week, so the below pictures are similar.  Ours was actually quite a bit worse (nasty huh!) and ours was cracked as well, representing cavities.  The kids generally talk about this experiment a lot and spend a good amount of their free time observing the egg.  

T is for Teeth-Field Trip to the Dentist

We had a wonderful field trip to to the dentist as part of our healthy teeth unit.  The staff were awesome and did a really cute educational tour for the kids!  

 Superhero capes for the boys AND girls. 

 Proper Toothbrushing hands on demonstration & fun "rides" in the chair

" Mr. Thirsty" getting a drink

 Cookies, prizes and toothbrushing kits at the end

 The next group of kids

 Dental Hygiene Movie

I think we'll all want to come back to the Dentist again.