We love Eric Carle!

The Ladybugs have been learning about Eric Carle, his books and how he creates art.  The kids have had a lot of fun creating creatures in the style of Eric Carle using paper they had painted.  It's no surprise that Eric Carle is one of our favorite authors.

Seattle Children's Theater

This week we visited Seattle Children's Theater,

we had a beautiful day for a picnic outside,

and perfect seats to enjoy the performance.

The ride home on the bus can be a bit exhausting.

The kids are still exploring Newton's Law of Motion,

this time we used balloon rockets on a string demonstrating that for  every
reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction.  (mostly it was just fun!)

When the sun finally made an appearance at the end
of the week, 

we took the opportunity to do a nature survey of the neighborhood.

Is there anything cuter than a bunch of kids with clipboards?

It would be impossible to list all of the activities the kids are working on as the school year starts to wind down.  Just this week we have been learning inside and outside the classroom.  Books are being written, math concepts explored, the beautiful work of Eric Carle has been inspected and reproduced, trips have been taken and science has fascinated us.  We've had mentors and adults in the class to give us a hand and we participated in the school art show.  All of this learning and exploring takes place within the context of being a good friend and being kind to one another.  It's a lot of work in one week!

Butterflies, Eric Carle and the next bestseller

We've been watching the metamorphosis of Painted Lady
butterflies from the larva stage to adult butterfly.  Today we released them! 

We've been working on the art of Eric Carle,

today it was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar".  The kids decided to put
on a show complete with selling tickets.

The kids are making books based on some of our favorite Eric Carle
books.

It requires a lot of imagination,

not to mention scissor skills, to complete these works of art.

The kids started their hardcover books this week,

I can't wait to see how all these stories develop!

The Ladybugs are celebrating spring even if the weather won't cooperate.  We're painting flowers and butterflies and starting our end of the year projects.  Hard to believe how much these children have grown.

Newton's Law

How many ways can you teach science and math to prekindergarteners?  Too many ways to count!  This week we explored the properties of Newton's law of motion-an object in motion remains in motion unless other forces act on the object.  In this case we made spinning tops out of used CDs, bottle tops and marbles.  We discovered that friction and gravity caused the tops to slow down and stop.  It was lots of fun trying the tops on tables, hard floors and carpets.

One of our math activities this week was playing "Go Fish" with our math mentors.  Lots of valuable learning opportunities in this game!  Counting your cards, number recognition, making pairs, waiting your turn, and strategy were all involved in this game.

We love our mentors!  They allow us to do actvities that require more hands and lots of patience.