WILD ABOUT ANIMALS

From Africa to Antarctica, we became part of the wild animal kingdom. We took an imaginary safari across Africa and looked through binoculars to see zebras, lions and more. We waddled like a penguin in the coldest place on Earth then we hopped on over to a continent with some unusual Down Under residents.

Visiting the African Savannah through our special binoculars!

Making snow for the Antarctic Habitat!

Carrying baby penguins on our feet just like a mama penguin!

Exploring the animals from “Down Under!”

What does Eucalyptus smell like and who LOVES to eat it?

What is a Marsupial?

Who can jump as far as a Kangaroo?

The Cincinnati Zoo came to our classroom today and brought two amazing animals to share with us.  The K prep students who attended all day were able to see two DIFFERENT animals in the morning with the Preschool Class…it was such a fun experience!  This afternoon we met Ghana the Hedgehog from Africa and a red footed tortoise from South America.

The final animal we added to our African study was the Dung Beetle…what a curious and icky creature!  Click the photo below to view a video of this insect in action.

We have been building a folder of Africa Animals during writing workshop this month.  The children have been introduced to three new animals per week, watching a simple video clip of the animal in its habitat and learning interesting facts about them.  Writing Workshop is on Monday and Friday.  On Fridays, the children add the animals they have learned about during the week to their folder and get to collect their animal post card containing the facts we’ve learned.  The folder will be sent home at the end of the month of April.  They are doing an amazing job..they are fantastic writers!  Remember that “inventive” spelling is okay.  Encourage your child to listen to the sounds in each word as they say them and write those letters instead of spelling the words for your child.

For a GREAT article on inventive spelling click the first picture below.

How do we solve word problems in math?  Pictures of course…the children were introduced to word problems during our group time Math Minutes.  These will be introduced in Kindergarten as well and are one of the most challenging tasks for young mathematicians.  The key to solving math problems is to teach children strategies to solve them.  The first strategy will be drawing pictures, which we began today.  The second will be a math “sentence,” but I’ll leave that up to the Kindergarten and First grade teachers 🙂