Tracks and Scat

This week Sister Crossley taught the kids about animal tracks and scat! Needless to say the kids LOVED it!

We started off with Dylan accompanying us for the opening song. Way to go Dylan!

 Then it was on to the lesson...

 Sister Crossley had drawn footprints (to scale) of various animals.

Here the kids are comparing their feet and hands to a bear print. Scary!

Then the kids made clay prints of the animal of their choice (or whatever their imagination came up with). I love watching how the different minds create.

After they finished the print many moved on to make nests complete with little eggs inside.

And then it was on to some games. First the kids played "Animal, May I". In order to move forward they had first correctly identify the animal and then they had to make the appropriate steps forward. It was quiet humerous to watch the kids get into this.

 I believe Esther was a raccoon.

I think Hiram was a deer.

 And I am absolutely certain Braden was a Moose.

 The last game was Musical Animal Tracks.

Sister Crossley saved the best for last. To end the lesson she explained what "scat" was and showed us the different types of scat each animal makes. Gross. The kids thought it was great. Of course.

 Thank you so much Sister Crossley for the fun and educational lesson! I know the kids learned a lot and had a great time. That is a success.

 ***the kids also made prints of their own hands using plaster but unfortunately we didn't get any picutes of that.

Harvest Day with Miss Libby

The theme for this day was Harvest! Miss Libby started by teaching us about the colors of the harvest and she even had some examples to show!

Here are the kids holding wheat. It didn't take long for them to figure out the similarities between wheat and swords :)

Next we learned about how wheat berries are ground into flour. This made a loud noise but was fun to see up close.

Next we moved to the table to make a mosaic in the image of a cornucopia. Some of the kids stuck with the traditional colors for each of the fruits and vegetables...and others took many creative liberties! It was again fun to observe their personalities shining through.

Next we moved to the kitchen to create caramel apples. We covered them with pretzels, M&Ms, and Reese's cups. Then we drizzled melted white and milk chocolate over them. Sounds yummy, doesn't it? That's what the kids were thinking too. It took a lot of self-control (and storing them out of reach) for the kids to not devour them on the spot!

While the caramel apples were cooling, we did another art project. We painted our hand and arm brown to make a tree shape. Then we used finger paint to add the leaves.

And that's it! The kids loved it and Miss Libby did a super job!

The Scientific Method

This weeks Little Learners topic was Science, and boy was it fun! Miss Radene taught the kids all about the Scientific Method. They learned that there are 5 steps to the Scientific Method: Step 1 Question, Step 2 Hypothesis, Step 3 Experiment, Step 4 Observe and Record, and Step 5 Conclusions.

Miss Radene showed the kids a chemical reaction by adding alcohol to permanent marker, they made lots of clever hypothesis about what would happen to the marker when the alcohol touched it vs if just water were to touch it.

Next, it was time to Tie Dye! They sure had a ball coloring all over their shirts. It was amazing to see how different all their little minds work. Some only used one or two rubber bands, but a lot of marker, others used a lot of rubber bands but not as marker, and some used a lot of everything! The shirts they came home with were truly all them!

Finally, Miss Radene and the kids made a VOLCANO, and yes, it was as cool as it sounds. The kids were excited and fascinated by science, who knew?! Miss Radene did a stellar job! She went to great lengths to make sure those kids had a ball, and they did, and so did I!

I LOVE Little Learners!