April Reflections
We hope you had a wonderful Spring Break. We are all refreshed and ready to finish the school year.
Beginning with the second week in April, we explored Spring and weather. We created spring trees by tearing small pieces of pink, green and brown construction paper and glued them together to make a tree. We constructed kites that looked like fish! We took them outside and flew them. We read the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The children then created their own house and food storm! They enjoyed making their house out of different shapes and then glued different pictures of food falling from the sky. We also had fun making rain sticks.
This month we worked on the letters Vv, Ww, Xx, and Yy. One more letter to go and our alphabet books will be complete!
The third week began with a trip to the McHenry County Division of Transportation Maintenance Garage. There were a lot of interesting places for us to observe. We saw the sign making shop, Engineering Department and the garage itself with all the different trucks. They had many fun activities for the children. They had a chance to sit in a snowplow and had their picture taken. There was also a parade of trucks that circled our bus before we left. Back in the classroom, we followed up with the boys and girls creating their own free form vehicle painting. They chose to paint a dump truck, crane or cement mixer. They turned out fantastic! We also made our own safety vests like the men and women we saw at the garage. We had construction trucks and gravel in our sensory table for the children to play with.
We also had a special visitor. It was the tooth fairy's helper. We learned how important it is to brush our teeth and eat healthy foods.
The following week we discussed and explored "air". We made hot air balloons. The children used water colors and they turned out beautiful. They are hanging in the classroom. We made flying birds out of paper plates and a spoon. We took them outside and flew them on the playground. They really flew too! Some friends also folded fans and decorated them. At the end of the week, we made glue and yarn design hangings. We read the stories Super Duck, Big Trucks and No David.
The month of April ended with a fun trip to the Crystal Lake Jewel. We got VIP passes and a behind the scenes tour. We were able to see the Deli Counter, Meat, Produce and Dairy Departments too. We walked in a truck trailer to see how the food is delivered to the loading dock. Finally, we went upstairs to see the security TVs and look out the window to see the whole store. We enjoyed chocolate chip cookies and milk.
The activities for the end of the week included making popsicle stick houses, cooking with muffin pizzas and making orange juice smoothies. We also participated in the Muscular Dystrophy "Hop-A-Thon" and learned about physically challenged children.
We had a very busy month but we learned a lot and had fun too!! |
