Its a Jungle Out There
When the kids came in this morning they saw pieces of a jungle all over the room . They saw palm trees hanging from the ceiling. They saw monkeys hanging from the loft and many other items of wonder throughout the rooms.
Julia saw a picture of the giraffe costume that I posted last night and she couldn’t wait to get here and get it on. What a cute giraffe she made.
The other kids followed suit and changed from mild mannered preschoolers to swinging chimps and roaring lions.
Early morning we took a break to have french toast with strawberries and milk. Yummy ! ( They also loved lunch which was a grilled chicken salad, crackers and clementine oranges . ) We have been really stressing the whole foods in their most natural state this year and reducing the amount of sugar and additives.
Small groups listened to a story called ” GIraffes Can’t Dance ” and watched a 2 minute video about a real baby giraffe . One of the children asked where Africa was so Ms Dallas was on the ball and grabbed a small globe and showed the kids where we live and where Africa is. You know, teaching concepts of space is hard. A child understands that he or she lives in Siloam Spring and we hear that a lot. But do they know where Siloam Springs is in relation to the rest of the world ?
The children also talked about how tall a giraffe is . 18 FEET !
Ms Dallas and the kids measured out 18 feet and then laid down to see how many kids ( and adults ) it takes to fill in 18 feet. Great learning experiences !
IMG_5957 <—– Video of math experience !
During circle time we heard all new songs for our jungle unit. One was a fun drumming song that introduced us to our new letter – the letter J ! As we thought of things that begin with the letter J Kat said Giraffe ! Well…. yes, it SOUNDS like it does but it actually starts with a G. G sometimes sounds like J as in jelly and sometimes it sounds like G as in girl. Wow… these kiddos were on their toes today and doing some higher level thinking.
The book we read in circle time was ” Rumble in the Jungle” It talked about all the animal at the end of the day when it gets dark listening for the sounds of the jungle. So we went on a listening walk around the block. We heard trains, and BIG dog , and when we got very quiet we even heard birds. Teaching kids to listen ( to REALLY listen ) is an important skill not only for going to school but for life.
And for you as parents listening is important too !
“Listen earnestly to anything [your children] want to tell you, no matter what. If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.”
