Day 2 - Beavers

So what do your kids wear to school?  Today, mine wore pajamas.  I was just too anxious to start our day to get them dressed first!  So as soon as they finished breakfast, well maybe one was still eating, I started up the Circle Time song.  I put it on repeat so we could do the calendar and weather while we listened and danced to the music.  While at the table for breakfast I had them pick out the correct weather for today and set it aside so it was ready to go.  When the calendar and weather charts were all filled in I brought them over to sit down in a circle on the carpet.  I asked the question of the day "Where do you think a beaver lives?"  Today, Lachlan answered.  He knows animals!  He started telling me that beavers build dams, that they chew branches with their teeth "like this" as he demonstrates and they slap with their tales.  I kept asking questions trying to get to the point that those dams are built in rivers and streams like what we learned about yesterday, eventually we got there.

Next we sang the "opening song" to one of the tracks on the Circle Time CD.  You know how I was raving about their music and how I love that they have one track with the words and one with out so the kids can listen and recall the lyrics on their own.  Well that's not the only reason!  We sang Have you seen a beaver's teeth, the beaver's teeth, the beaver's teeth?  To track 15, The Muffin Man song, with out the lyrics!  How brilliant is that.  Little did I know that my musicality would be tested.  I often started the words at the wrong time, even though the CD makes it really easy on me.  It seems Mom needs to build her skills in this area as well.

Then we started on our Beaver puppet.  I moved them to what we call the "little" table because well, it's a little table.  I gave them their beaver faces, paws and tails to color.  I even broke out the washable markers.  They loved this part.  Lachlan took more interest than in other coloring scenarios.  Either because he was making a puppet (which he loves) or because it was an animal or because his coloring was being used for something, not just a piece of paper.  It was probably a combination of them all.

Here are all the cute faces hard at work.

Sticking out the tongue always helps.

Lachlan really enjoyed looking at the craft instructions sheet with a picture of the finished product on it.  He saw that the one on the sheet had a red nose and he had to add one to his.  This was a little later in the process.

See Mom

Being silly

The finished puppets.

At lunch we read the book that came in today's Day bag called Floating and Sinking.  It was a big hit.  Tonight at bath time I plan on seeing if a pencil floats or sinks.  This is one of the objects I just wasn't sure of.  It is wood but I just don't know.  Last night at bath time we did a sinking or floating experiment.  This is what is nice about knowing what the theme is, you can turn any moment into a teachable moment.  I was actually having a hard time getting my kids to come inside to take a bath.  They were racing back and forth in the backyard.  Lachlan (4) finished the race and walked up proudly to his Dad, I think I should get a gold badge!  So Jeff pulls out a quarter for Lachlan, 1st place prize, and a penny for Peter, for runner up.  This was my moment, I gasped with excitement.  "Hey guys, do you think those prizes will sink or float?"  Sink! Lachlan exclaimed.  Well let's go find out, as we all ran to the bath tub to experiment.

I thought I had it easy for the purple in the water activity.  I still had the blue water from yesterdays river collage art work, all I needed was red food coloring.  Of course, I do not have red food coloring.  So then I went to the craft wall and pulled out water color.  We tried the red water color mixed with the blue water and it did not turn a nice shade of purple.  But it was still fun and the activity turned into something different all together.  I got out 4 more glasses and instead of using the water color to paint, he used the water color to turn the water in the glasses different colors.  We have them saved now on our counter to show Dad when he get's home. 

I have one more activity to complete Day 2.  Going to go wrap up the day now!