Adom אדום (Older Toddlers)
The kids were so engaged and enthusiastic about birds last week we extended our focus into this week. Each week when I write our lesson plans I think of the skills I want to work on with the kids. These are the skills for this week:
Identify a blue jay, cardinal and robin.
Learn birds' houses are nests, they lay eggs (robin eggs are blue) and they keep the eggs warm with their tummies.
Work on shape recognition, number recognition, basic counting practice
Create a nice father’s day gift for their dads
Reinforce classroom expectations - asking for a turn, gentle touch, only throwing things outside or in the Big Room
Here is a little synopsis of what we did each day:
Monday we saw the first bird in our bird feeder! It was a chickadee. There was much excitement and now if you hear your child say chickadee-dee-dee you will know why. Our activity time was spent creating birds out of a variety of shapes. We identified the shape names and the kids chose which shape they wanted to use to create a bird. Gluing feathers was a little bit frustrating, but they did a great job! They got some scissors practice by cutting “clouds” for our bird display. It turned out really cute and is outside our classroom.
On Tuesday we started the day with a photo shoot for our Father’s Day gifts. You all have such cute kids!! During our morning circle time we sang Hickory Dickory Dock and counted as the mouse ran up everyone’s “clocks”. This always makes the kids laugh. They love watching the other kids have the mouse run up their arms and sit on their heads too. We played in the sprinkler during our large motor time and our activity was related to our Father’s Day gift. We also read a book about how much our dads love us!
On Wednesday we enjoyed music time with Cantor and also having Mariyn, our volunteer Bubbe, spend the morning with us. The kids love to see her and she does such a nice job supporting our classroom. After talking about birds laying eggs and how they keep the babies inside the eggs warm by sitting on the nest, we worked on egg counting. As you can see in the photos they kids matched the correct number of eggs to the circles in their nests. We counted together. Then they put their bird on their nest to keep the eggs warm.
Thursday we started the day wrapping our gifts. Tape is tricky. We went outside for water play and then quickly changed before our practice fire drill. The kids did a good job walking out of the building with us and lining up in the parking lot. It’s good to have these practice drills so we are prepared in case of an emergency. After the drill we went right over to the gaga pit for a little playtime in the grass and then went on a walk looking for birds. This time we placed our stuffed birds around the Bet Shalom grounds so we had the fun of actually finding some birds. We saw a cool turtle and checked out some pinecones on my favorite Larch tree.
Friday will be filled with Shabbat, water play, sensory play and lots of books and puzzles! I don’t always mention it but we read lots of books throughout the day and always put together puzzles after lunch.
I am out of town next week at family camp with my husband and kids. The camp is up past Ely and is our favorite place on earth. It should be a great week for me, but I will miss the toddlers. Eric will hold down the fort with the help of other teachers. He is going to focus on bugs next week!
Have a great weekend! Shabbat Shalom,
Teachers Katie and Eric
