U is for Under the Sea

We made lots of waves this week!  Had fun going 'U'-nder the "Sea" by having two kids make waves with the beach towel while the rest of the class took turns going under.  We switched so everyone got a turn.

O is for Octopus

During our letter O and ocean week we learned about the sea creatures octopus.  We learned about their defense mechanism of squirting "Ink" and all about their tentacles and how they have little suction cup like parts on them.  We used real suction cups to show the science behind suction and we used some black paint mixed with water in eyedroppers to help the octopus "hide" and "get away" from potential predators. 

O is for Ocean Songs

This is pretty much the cutest song EVER!  The kids LOooOOve it every year and I'm sure you will too!

Letter O

We counted and graphed "O's" (Fruit Loops)

We learned about Opposites and played a matching game and sang Dr. Jean's Opposite song. 

 We did an obstacle course.  It included a balance beam, Hopping to the letter O, Weaving in and out of cones with a ball, making a basket in our hoop and then sitting and jumping back to the beginning of the course on our hopper ball. 

 We played an Ocean ABC fishing game where you match the capital letters to the lowercase.  I had them give letter names as well. 

Hawaii Sensory Tub

We did an ocean theme to represent Hawaii for our sensory tub this week.  It included blue aquarium rocks to give it an ocean like color/appearance, some hibiscus looking flower disks, some sea creatures (floating cartoon looking ones, and more realistic sinking ones), we had sea shells, a turtle scoop, clear marbles (bubbles), flat aqua stones, and some strainers. Oh, and  I couldn't resist throwing in some Little Mermaid stuff for all my princess loving girls in the class. Hawaiian happiness! 

Color Blue: Blue Whales

For this cute window art project I cut a whale from a template online.  Then I cut a square out of the whales belly and attached a plastic baggie to the back.  The kids got to add clear or blue hair gel and pick foam fishies to put inside of it.  They then decorated the faces.  I think they turned out very cute and were pretty easy to make.  I know terrible picture and it doesn't look very blue here, but I figured you would get the idea.  This also tied into our all about my summer theme.

Summertime Fishing Game

For this matching game the kids took turns "fishing" for a number on the blue lids and dots to count on the pink lids.  If it was a match they got to take the fishies out of the water until all the matches were found. 

Summer Seashells

This is part of our "All about my summer" theme.  We counted seashells and sorted them into the proper spot on the number graphs. Very hands on learning fun! 

Ocean Games

We played a lot of learning games this week including Ocean Memory Match and Whale Size Comparisons (largest to smallest).  

O is for Orange Octopus O's

Another fun Octopus art project we did for our ocean unit.  These turned out adorable and I think the kids really enjoyed making them. Found these little darlings on pinterest HERE.

O is for Orange Octopus

These really brightened up my day, and our classroom!  I love how even structured art projects turn out so different and creative! So fun and perfect for fine motor development!  

Got the idea HERE.

Sink or Float?

Since we focused on oceans this week we did our science projects around water themes. This week we tested items that sink and float. I have loved this activity since I was a young child.  As always I had the children make predictions of what they thought would happen and then they tested the items and graphed them into the appropriate spot on our paper graph.  We then sorted the items into the proper containers depending on if it sunk or floated.  We had a great time! 

O is for Ocean Octopus

For this activity we talked all about octopus and how they squirt ink to hide and protect themselves from sea creatures that are trying to eat them. The kids took turns squirting "ink" to recreate what this may look like in the ocean.  For the ink we used eye droppers and slightly diluted black tempera paint. 

Magnetic Fishies

For our sight words this week we used "Magnetic" fish to help us memorize the words.  I believe it's always funner to learn when you think you are playing a game-which we are of course! Another bonus is that we got to explore magnets again and in return reinforced the things we learned in science this week.

Rainbow Fish

In our 4 year old class we listened to the story of the Rainbow fish which you can find here.  This was part of our friends unit and was a great way to teach the kids about the importance of sharing and also the color silver since that was the color we focused on this day.  Afterwards they had a chance to make their own rainbow fish and eat fishy crackers for snack time.  I love how cute the pictures turned out!  We also sorted silver and gold objects into separate bins to help the kids learn to differentiate between the two colors.

Color Fish Size Sequencing

For this activity I had the children all help put the fish in order from smallest to largest.  When the children picked the proper fish I would also have them tell the class what color it was since we are focusing on the colors right now.  You can also have the kids count the fish for extra learning.