Busy, busy, busy!  Every day we are busy playing, learning and continuing to build upon the foundations we have been building.

This week we have been working hard on so many concepts.  We have been exploring letter A, working on the appearance and the sound of the letter as well as the writing strokes.  I have been showing the children the shape of the letter and breaking it down into movements/writing strokes (Up, down…life your marker up and then go across.  Circle, tail.”)  The children have been learning about the lines on the paper and where to place their markers (bottom line, middle or top) in an effort to help them gain awareness and assist in their ability to create the letter.

Wednesday’s group spent allot of time exploring the inside of their bodies.  The children began painting life size cut outs of themselves that had been created the previous week, adding bones that I drew on each paper.  I taped the cut-outs onto the wall and each child took a turn painting the bones while looking at actual x-rays to help illustrate the concept.  During group time we help some actual bones to help expand upon the concept and help the children understand how hard bones are and how the “hold up your skin”  (yes, that is an actual quote of a child in the class!).  We had “blood” in the sensory bin, made from expanding gel spheres that were soaking in red water (red blood cells), red foam rectangles (platelets) and ping pong balls (white blood cells).  As the children held each portion of the “blood” we talked about how the red blood cells bring air to the blood and feed our organs, how the platelets act like band-aids and how the white blood cells are soldiers that protect us from the bad guys, germs!  We also looked at photos of the circulatory system, used a 3-d puzzle of a body and looked at our own veins too.  Finally, we learned about our lungs.  I created a “lung” from a recycled plastic bottle, a balloon and a straw.  As I inflated the balloon I had the children take a deep breath and hold it.  When the children exhaled, I allowed the balloon to deflate.  We repeated this several times and the children laughed with delight.  Each child then got a straw and a pom pom to help illustrated how their “lungs” create air and can create an energy of sorts.  The children used their straws to blow the pom poms from the classroom and through the lobby.  Not only did they learn about their bodies, but they also learned how the position of the straw changed the direction in which the pom poms moved.

We will continue to build upon the life size bodies we began this week by adding blood and organs next week.  Life size science!