Circus Books

These are some of the books that we will be reading and looking through this week J

Babar’s Little Circus Star by Jean de Brunhoff

The Day the Circus Came to Town by Melody Carlson

Adding with Sebastian Pig and Friends: At the Circus by Jill Anderson

If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss

Say Hola to Spanish at the Circus by Susan Middleton Elya

Emeline at the Circus by Marjorie Priceman

The Circus Alphabet by Linda Bronson

Who Walks the Tightrope?: Working at a Circus by Mary Meinking

Circus by Lois Ehlert

Contortionists and Cannons: An Acrobatic Look at the Circus by Marc Tyler Nobleman

Under the Big Top

The circus is coming to Discovery Garden! This week’s theme is circus. Each day will be filled with fun and creative activities! We will read books, create projects, engage in math activities, and practice some circus show movements. For the movement portion, we will practice juggling with one, two, or three beanbags/scarves, walk a tight rope (the rope will be on the ground J), balance on a low balance beam, jump/step through a hula hoop, and march like elephants. Also, at the end of each day the students will perform a short circus act!

Here is an outline of what we’ll be doing each day:

Monday

·         Create a clown face

·         Clown face pattern blocks

·         Clown matching

·         Snack: strawberry, cucumber

Tuesday

·         Circus diorama

·         Balloon sort/matching

·         Balloon addition (4 and 5 year olds)

·         Snack: mango, carrots

Wednesday

·         Circus trains

·         Circus train upper case/lower case matching

·         Snack: peaches, peas

Thursday

·         Circus texture art scene

·         Find the difference circus scene

·         Number act (one-to-one correspondence book)

·         Snack: mango, romaine lettuce

Friday

·         Cotton candy art project (from paper towel tubes and cotton balls)

·         Cotton candy count

·         Cotton candy probability (4 and 5 year olds)

·         Snack: snap peas, fruit smoothies

Pictures from Monday!

4 & 5 year old project

2 & 3 year old project

                                              The wolf, pigs, and music accompaniment

                                                    The wolf blowing down the house

Our Day with the 3 Little Pigs

Our day on Monday revolved around the tale of The Three Little Pigs. We read 2 books: The Three Little Pigs by James Marshall and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka. This second book is very cute because the story is told from the perspective of the wolf. Definitely a good read!

For our art project today, we made the houses of the three little pigs. The 2 and 3 year olds glued down straw, toothpicks (sticks), and pebbles (bricks) onto three houses on a piece of paper. The 4 and 5 year olds made 3-dimensional houses and chose whether they wanted to make a straw, stick, or brick house.

We also reenacted the story using drama and instruments. Ms. Salouma was the narrator of the story. One student played the wolf, three students were the piggies, and the rest of the students played instruments to accompany the story. Students played instruments as the pigs built their houses, as the wolf walked up to the different houses, and then as the wolf ran away from the house to move onto the next one. This was so much fun! I think we might try to do this again another day too. J

On another note…our field trip to Jetty Island! We have two dates in mind, and we would like to know which date is best for everyone. We are thinking of Friday July 22 or Friday August 5. Email us your preference and then we will get back to you about the final decision.

Once Upon a Time…Fairy Tales

This week we will be exploring fairy tales!  Each day will be focused on one fairy tale where we will be singing, acting, creating, and doing much more! Throughout the week we will be reading stories of each fairy tale from different authors, as well as from different cultures. We also will have big pieces of cardboard out in the front so that the kids can create houses and castles to use for dramatic play. We definitely have a fun-packed week planed!

This is a brief outline of what we will do each day. We hope that this weekly agenda will help spark conversation and bring the learning homeJ

Monday: The Three Little Pigs

·         Reenact the story with instruments

·         Build houses out of the different materials from the story: straw, sticks, and bricks

·         Learn about different types of homes that people live in

·         Snack: blueberries, bell peppers, pretzel sticks

Tuesday: Cinderella

·         Listen and dance to Rogers Hammerstein

·         Pattern block castles

·         Build castles out of paper towel rolls, popsicles sticks, paper, etc.

·         Snack: mangos, cucumber, goldfish

Wednesday: Rapunzel

·         Drama and music-act and create a song about Rapunzel

·         Build towers out of city blocks, Legos, foam blocks, and then create our own out of paper towel rolls!

·         Discussing measurement and length

·         Snack: blueberries, tomatoes, ABC cookies

Thursday: Sleeping Beauty

·         Observe pictures of a real castle!

·         Learn about/classify forest animals

·         Discuss wool spinning (the spinning wheel from Sleeping Beauty!)

·         Forest animal yarn art

·         Snack: strawberries, carrots, cinnamon bread

Friday: Hansel and Gretel

·         Create gingerbread men and a gingerbread house out of art materials

·         Same and different gingerbread activity

·         Create a trail with pebbles and follow the trail

·         Snack: blueberries, snap peas, crackers

Looking forward to a great week!

Staying Cool in the School

One nice thing about hot days like we've had this week is the air condition.  We also have been spending a bit more time outdoors.  Today the children listened to a story outside, sang songs about America and played a village game.  Over the past three weeks, we have spent a lot of time learning how to jump rope.  Some of the kids like when we sing the Teddy Bear song and Cinderella Dressed in Yellow.  We have transplanted almost all the vegetables into the garden beds.  This was very much discovery gardening.  We had trays that had a handful of seeds planted together and other trays with no seeds.  LOL  All was well though.  We have pole beans growing, pepper plants with blooms and so much more.  All the kids help with transplanting and watering. 

These past three summer camp weeks have been quite fun.  The first week we built campfires and ate smores.  The second week we learned about countries from around the world.  We made crafts and ate foods to learn about the countries.  This week we are focusing on the United States.   We sang A-M-E-R-I-C-A and This Land is Your Land.  Next week, the theme is fairy tales from around the world.  If you have a Cinderella story from your country please feel free to share it with us.  We will build castles from tubes and learn how to make different kinds of homes.

It is about time to plan another field trip.  I would like to plan a trip to Jetty Island.  A few parents like Friday, however, Tuesdays or Thursdays work well too.
Here is the website:  http://www.ci.everett.wa.us/default.aspx?ID=503
I'll make a reservation for the end of July and keep you all posted.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers regarding my little nephew.  He is recovering well and was released from the hospital yesterday!  It was a stressful three weeks and luckily he survived such a horrible illness.  Have a lovely week:)

Ideas and more

The school is slowly turning into an underwater ecosystem.  We have been busy painting all kinds of sea life.  We use books to look for ideas and talk about the animal we are creating.  Then the teachers draw the animals and the students paint away.  If you have any extra old t-shirts at home feel free to donate them.  I am realizing some of the paint we have does not wash out easily.  T-shirts tend to work better than smocks.  I am thinking we can plan a field trip for this unit next month.  Recently, a mom shared with me a wonderful island park near Everett.  I know it might be a drive, but to go on a foot ferry and beachcomb sounds perfect for this unit.  The location is Jetty Island.  They have arranged tours too!  Parents if you are interested and think we should do this let me know.  I'll attach the link too!

Obviously I love field trips!  Yesterday, we packed up the kids and drove out to the Olympic National Forest.  We took the Bainbridge Ferry and drove the rest of the way.  We left the Sequim area around 6pm and arrived home at 9pm.  What a wonderful trip.  I have never been to the National Park.  We drove up about 5500ft!  The views were incredible and we saw deer all around.  There was plenty of snow too!  I am ready to return next weekend.  Apparently, you can fish for free in the park.  I highly recommend this park if you are looking for something fun to do this summer.



This week we are beginning a new unit called Day and Night.  We will explore books, create projects, and do so much more around this topic.  If you have the movie Toy Story 3, there is a great clip by Pixar called Day and Night.    I am going to seek out the book, because the story is too cute.

If you have any questions and concerns let me know.  Have a wonderful week!