Spring Celebrations!

With the first day of spring tomorrow, I thought today would be a good day to talk about plants and growing things.

Plant Observations - Our bulb after just one week has lovely roots and is greening up at the top!

Growing - We planted grass seed to see if we could grow our own plants.  We also talked about what a plant needs to grow:  water, sun and some love.

Flower Model - The kiddos created their own model (eyeing the felt board) of a growing flower.  They told me the parts and I labeled them.

Preschoolers - 

Youngsters -

Outdoor Plant Observing - We took a moment at the end of our outdoor play to look around for growing plants.  We saw buds on our big shade tree, bulb flowers opening, grass turning green, and some plants greening up.

Happy First Day of Spring!

Today we went with the springy topic of eggs and what cute critters hatch from them.

Circle Time - Oviparous Animals - An animal which lays eggs.  We sorted our plastic animals into two categories:  oviparous  and mammal.  Snakes, spiders, lizards, frogs, sharks, fish, birds, insects ....

Cute Chicks - The kiddos cut a circle out of craft foam and then decorated it as a chick.  Then we made large eggs for the chicks to crack out of.

 Bird Nest - We chatted a bit about where various oviparous animals would lay their eggs and what kind of nests or safe areas they would want to create.  Then we created a nest for bird eggs.  We talked about what a nest is generally made of (sticks, grasses, string, feather bits etc.)

 

We trimmed the top off a lunch sack, then rolled and scrunched it down until it looked nest like.  Then we added various bits of soft stuff to keep our eggs comfy.
You can also see our fabulous, cute chicks we tucked inside our eggs.

 I found these chicks on sale at Hobby Lobby.

 

Egg Exploration - For our science bit today we cracked open a couple of eggs and investigated them inside and out.

We talked about the parts of an egg and how they help the animal growing inside it.
shell - protection
yoke - food source
albumen - (clear stuff) cushioning
air sac - where the animal breaths it's air (end of the egg, look for a membrane covering an air pocket)
stringy white bit - that is the dna material that becomes the animal when fertilized by the dad (we didn't get this far in our discussion, but I thought you might like to know.)

 

Sidewalk Chalk - With warmer weather comes fabulous chalk drawings.  Here is a great shark one of my kiddos created.