Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis is a really big word! But we learned all about it this year while watching our tadpoles turn into frogs! (well, one has turned).

(This is what Ted looked like today -- May 31)

Now we have the difficulty of finding food for Ted. We have dumped in lots of pill bugs and ants, but we're not sure if Ted has eaten them.....

Ted gets scared really easily these days. He spends most of his time sitting on his flower pot, which raises him out of the water. When someone bumps into the table that the aquarium is on, Ted jumps across the whole length of the tank!

Rainy Day play

One of my favourite early childhood education blogs is Let the Children Play. One of their recent posts is about playing outside in the rain.
10 things to do outdoors on a rainy day (click the link)
It includes playing with paint; going on a worm hunt; sitting in a tent and listening to the rain (my favourite) ; painting with mud; drawing with chalk on a slope and watching the coloured rivers flow.

I wish that we could spend more time outside!


See this video (it's a long one) about an outside preschool in Norway. (I'm not sure if I could teach outside all day :)

Or you can watch this video by Douglas John -- who also happened to be my (our) ukulele teacher every Friday at lunchtime (at Earl Beatty) for the past few months!
It's called "Do Your Socks Get Soggy? -- and is quite a catchy tune :)

How exciting!

Check out Ted:

(click on the photo to see it larger)

He's got front legs!!!
His mouth is big and wide and not sucker-like!!!
He is almost a FROG!!!

(uh-oh -- a trip to the pond will be happening sooner rather than later -- he'll need to be eating flies and climbing out onto a rock soon :)

Also -- Ted seems to have regenerated his missing foot -- it is growing! No longer just a stump -- but a webbed foot!
And what about Bill (our other tadpole)? He seems to be happy with just his tiny back legs. He's in no hurry to eat flies for dinner, and is happy just eating his salad.....

We are really good pet keepers! Not one child has tried to stick his or her hand into the aquarium. And the children are very interested in the tadpoles. Not so interested in the snails though. Funny, it's only me that finds the snails fascinating.....

Little White Duck

We have lots of books to read and sing -- here's one that we have been singing lately. We love to role play!


Little White Duck

There's a little white duck sitting in the water,

A little white duck doing what he oughter.
He took a bite of the lily pad,
Flapped his wings, and he said,
"I'm glad
I'm a little white duck sitting in the water."
QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!

There's a little green frog swimming
in the water,
A little green frog doing what she oughter.
She jumped right off of the lily pad
That the little duck bit, and she said, 'I'm glad
I'm a little green frog swimming in the water. "
GLUG! GLUG! GLUG!

There's a little black bug floating on the water.

A little black bug doing what he oughter.
He tickled the frog on the lily pad
that the little duck bit,
And he said "I'm glad
I'm a little black bug floating on the water."
BZZ!, BUZZ! BZZ!

There's a little red snake playing in the water,
A little red snake doing what he oughter.
He frightened the duck
and the frog so bad,
He ate the little bug , and he said, "I'm glad
I'm a little red snake playing in the water."
HISS! HISS! HISS!

Now there's nobody left sitting in the water,
Nobody left doing what they oughter.
There's nothing left but the lily pad.
The duck and the frog ran away - I'm sad
"Cause there's nobody left sitting in the water.
BOO! HOO! HOO!

Here's a link to Burl Ives singing it so you can hear the tune (if you don't already know it).

Who Let the Dogs out?

Where are the children?

Today is a PA Day -- It's a day that the teachers work on their report cards. It seems so early -- there is still almost 6 more weeks of school left!

When I look at this picture it reminded me of the song "Who Let the Dogs Out?" which was one of our favourites at the Dance a Thon (well, in the morning class). The afternoon class didn't get the same songs because they had a "professional" DJ. I only knew one song that the DJ played! However, I was the DJ for the morning Kindergarten Dance-a Thon. I'm going to take the PM class to the lunchroom (our gym) to have a dancing time with "my" songs. Which they may like better, or not as well as the other songs :)

We warmed up with The Hokey Pokey and then did a Conga Line to The Hoppity Song. Then we marched and had free dancing to the Proclaimers 500 Miles (which they know from Terry Fox Day).
More freestyle dancing to "I Gotta Feeling"
Next was YMCA -- always fun
Then Who Let the Dogs Out
And onto some Limbo fun!
Then we played "I like to Move it"
Chicken Dance
And we cooled down to Wavin Flag.
Whew. 35 minutes of all out dancing. It was SO FUN!

Forts

Who knew that a few sheets and some clothes pins could be so much fun!


The afternoon class begged me to let them stay outside all afternoon -- even though it was windy and kept blowing our forts away! (fyi -- we didn't stay outside for the WHOLE afternoon :)

We're learning how clothes pins work (I wonder if they remember the simple machines lessons -- the lever, the fulcrum....).


We're still looking for more sheets -- and if you have any old blankets that you were going to get rid of -- we'd love to have them too. Crawling around on the asphalt isn't so nice on the little knees.
We are SO HAPPY that the weather is finally cooperating!!!!

update on our tadpoles and snails

So much has been happening in the aquarium!


Bill and Ted have started growing legs! Unfortunately -- Ted, our big tadpole has one perfect leg and one leg that just seems to end.... The children are waiting for the other toes to appear but I don't think that they will. On the upside, this will lead us to a discussion of "differently abled" animals and people. I worry about Ted's eventual release back into his pond.....


The Princesses (our snails) are doing a great job of keeping the aquarium clean and algae free.


They have many more helpers -- someone has had babies -- we have at least 30 baby snails!

cans

We're looking for cans!
Smallish cans -- soup can size or pizza sauce size (corn or mandarin orange size?). But not as small as those little tomato paste ones... We are making something special...... We can only use them if the rims aren't sharp -- i.e. if they have been cut off with a can opener that just cuts the lid out, not the rim off.....
We need them this week (by May 5) -- so if you have any cans that you are recycling -- please send them in!
We'll show you what we're doing with them next week :)
THANK YOU!!!