Eggs - Bingo paint bunnies

Today I pulled out the bingo paints (found at the dollar store) and had the kiddos splush dots all over their papers.  Once the dots dried, we drew bunnies.

I pulled this cute idea from this blog.

Eggs - Bunny Noses

 

We made these super cute bunny noses today.  That's me up there sporting my demo nose.  The kiddos (my threes) were so cute with their noses on!

I found this quick and easy idea on this blog.

Eggs - Oviparous Art

The kiddos cut out a large egg and then decided which oviparous animal they would like to have growing inside of it.  I cut a large X in the center of their egg so they could put their critter inside.

We used Easter grass to be the seaweed for the fishes and the reeds for the turtle.

Some kiddos glued their critter in their egg and others just tucked them inside.

Eggs - Oviparous Animals

Today we learned about oviparous animals.  An oviparous animal is any animal which lays eggs.

In circle time we sorted this bag of animals into two piles: oviparous and mammals.

 The beginnings of our oviparous pile:

 The kiddos were surprised about several of the animals which are oviparous:  worms, bees, lizards, spiders.  It was fun to see their reactions.

Learning Station - Alphabet Eggs

Learning Station - Alphabet Eggs -

My fours did this today.  The kiddos needed to first match the two parts of the plastic egg by finding the upper and lower case of the same letter.  Then they got to dig through my bowl of odds and ends and find something that started with that letter, and put it in the egg.

Eggs - Dissecting hard boiled & raw eggs

In class, we have been discussing the parts of an egg.  So as the kiddos peeled their hard boiled egg, we talked about each of the parts they were uncovering.   When they were done, they got to eat their egg, if they wanted.

 

First of course is the shell, and under the shell is the membrane, the flat bottom on a hard boiled egg is where the air pocket was (which is what the critter inside breathes).  The white/clear part is called the albumen (water and protein) and then of course the yolk (protein and nutrients) which the baby eats from while in the egg.

Next the kiddos dissected a raw egg.  They got to crack it open themselves and then as they opened it, we again looked for the parts we had learned.

After we got all cleaned up, then the kiddos created an anatomy of an egg.  Below is one of my four's drawing and mine.  I wrote each part on a dry erase board so they could corrected label their egg.

 

Eggs - Learning Station - Counting Eggs

Learning Station - Egg Count - the kiddos placed a number and the correct amount of beans into an egg.  I did this with my fours this morning, and they had no trouble with it.  They enjoyed playing with the eggs afterward too. 

 P.S. - Just did this activity with my threes and they also did great with it.  I love the one to one counting and the physical movement of the beans.

Eggs - Dissolving the shell

This week we are learning about the ends and outs of eggs.  To start us off, I thought we'd try dissolving the shell off an egg.

Ms. Sara's disclaimer - I've never actually done this experiment, but I've been wanting to.  So we'll see what happens!

We put raw eggs in vinegar to soak.  I've read that:  The vinegar will break down the shell (which is mostly calcium carbonate) over a few days.  Once that has occurred, we will be left with a lovely "naked" raw egg.  It will still be intact because of it's membrane.

Cool, huh!  So we'll see!

Day 1

See the air bubbles all over the shell?  That is all the air escaping from inside the shell.  Eggs have an air pocket inside that the chicken (or other critter) breaths from shortly before it hatches.

Classroom Tree - Spring

A couple of weeks ago, I took down our class snowman by the our tree and the kiddos helped me add a bit of grass poking out of the snow.  It helped with the winter blues to see a bit of green poking out, even if it was just inside and paper.

Even though it is still snowing outside today, yesterday was the first day of spring.  So the kiddos helped me add flowers to our classroom tree today.

Spring - Flowers

For our last day learning about spring, we studied flowers!   Here are a few of the activities I did with my fours.

In circle time we talked about the parts of the flower.  The roots seemed to be a new idea.  So we talked about their job, which is to suck up water and nutrients from the soil.  We also talked about what a plant needs to live.  The kiddos got sun and water then one of them shouted:  "Love!  They need love!"  So you can see below, that they added those things to the white board.

Using the above white board, my fours created their own flowers with all of the parts.  I pulled out a variety of craft items for them to use, hoping to get different textures.

 

We also made flower necklaces.  Using cupcake liners again, we laced the flowers and a bit of straw onto yarn.

The kiddos also got to take home a pansy to plant in their garden at home.

Spring - Worms

To continue our spring theme, we learned a bit about worms.

We of course made the traditional chocolate pudding and gummy worm snack...

 I had both regular gummy worms and sour gummy worms for the kiddos to try.  I was surprised that they liked the sour ones just as well.

  

 I also cooked a pot of spaghetti noodles for the kiddos to play with.  My fours pressed them gently onto brown paper and drew tunnels around them.  My threes just played and munched (below).

 

 A fabulous book to share:

 

Spring - Learning Station - Eating Worms

For our learning station today, I had the kiddos use a clothes pin (bird beak) to "eat" as many worms (pipe cleaners) as they could get.  This was great for their fine motor skills and they enjoyed trying to gather as many worms as they could before the timer went off.

Spring - Bird nest with chicks

I made these little nests with my threes today.  They turned out pretty cute.

The chicks are glued on tongue depressors and that's Easter grass we shoved in there.

Spring - Birds - Nature walk & nests

Because Thursday is the first day of spring, we are learning about springy things this week.  We started off with birds.

In circle time I asked the kiddos, my fours, what they know about birds.  I prompted them on a few bits, but here is what we came up with.

We also talked about what birds use to make their nests, then we took a walk to gather those nature bits.  The kiddos were most excited about the copious pine cones, but they got a few other small bits in their bags too.

 This is a fabulous nest left over from last year that we spotted in a neighbor's tree.  It was great to actually find a real one!

 When we got back to the preschool we dumped out our nature bags and looked at what we collected (mostly pine cones), then using a lunch sack (cut the top half off and roll down a bit) we made nests. We used pom poms as eggs.

For our snack we made edible nests (chow mein noodles, choc chips, peanut butter, marshmallows).  We filled them with jelly bean eggs and a peep bird.  One of my fours does not like chocolate, so he nested his eggs in his hand.  Ha ha!

 

Books:
    

St. Patty's - Rainbow and a Pot 'O Gold

Today my fours created these with yummy fruit loops. 

I was excited to realize fruit loops now have all the colors of the rainbow!  Wahoo. 

I was going to do this with my threes yesterday, but we ran out of time. 

I always love doing a craft with snack-ablity.

St. Patty's - Paper Plate Leprechaun

Today my fours made these cute leprechauns from small paper plates.  They turned out really cute.