How do animals share food

We continued to talk about upcoming winter and how animals survive through it.
If you look my post before here, you will find a story-noisemaker "Winter in the forest".
To help children better understand it I set up my harvest basket in this way:

"Hey! Look what I bring you today! This is my harvest basket with vegetables and fruits! But I here weird sound...did you?"

I used the same musical instruments as I used with children to tell the story "Winter in the forest"

And children heard that!!! They recognize the sound how squirrels cracked nuts and mice  nibbled (chomped) grain.

So, we look in the basket and find there 

Mouse, Rabbit (Bunny), Hedgehog, Squirrel.

Why they hiding there? Oh, yes! They are looking for the food!

Let's help them to find their food.

What does Bunny eat?

Carrot, Cabbage, Apple (sure!), 

What does Mouse eat?

Grain, maybe Carrot, maybe Pumpkin?

What does Hedgehog eat?

Apples, Apples!!!!

What does Squirrel eat?

Nuts and mushrooms!!!

We were jumping as a Bunnies, crawling as a Hedgehog, singing as a Mouse and knocking wooden sticks as a Squirrel!

Join us and 

Have fun!

Visit my blog to see our new activities!

For planning this lesson I have used story-noisemaker and songs of Catherine and Sergey Zheleznov. 

Bunny on the carrot patch or again about handmade toys

Why Bunny again and again is coming to carrot and cabbage patch???

We are talking with my children how wild animals will survive in Winter... We discussed why the hedgehog collect mushrooms and apples, mice collect grain and squirrels jump from branch to branch and collect pine cones and nuts. Yes, they prepare for long long Winter. They are working hard now so, they will feel safe later!!! And we decided to make it loud!

So, read careful and choose correct musical instruments!

Fall is always coming after summer; and  winter time is always after fall. So, wild animals start to prepare for long and cold winter with no food and no warm sunshine.

Mice run through the forest from the early morning till evening, collecting food for the winter (1)

Squirrels jump from branch to branch, collecting nuts (2)

Suddenly  the sky turn darker and darker  and  then snowflakes  start to fall down(3)

Snow covers the ground like a fluffy white blanket.(Children wave arms)

And prints of small feet  appear on the snow  (4)

Squirrels are building houses  in the trees.(4a)

Mice  are hiding in their holes and making  nests out of grass (5)

Everyone has a lot of food.

Squirrels crack nuts (6)

Mice  chomp grains  (7)

Cold  wind blow  In the forest (8)

But squirrels are warm in the nests (9)

And mice are good in their little holes (10). -

You will need: castanets, cymbals, bell, bells, package, guiro.

1 - quickly shaken castanets

2 - knock castanets palm

3 - Play on the bell

4 - Play on a bells(Triangle)
4a-sticks

5 - package

6 - carry a stick on guiro slowly

7 - castanets

8 - blow and say "Woooooooo!"

9 - clicks her tongue

10 - Pi-pi-pi 

Start with music and let your children tell the story and accompany it with

Percussion musical instruments.
For this class you also can prepare several ziplock bags with different types of grain such as buckwheat, rice, flour, peas; so children can touch it and explore difference visually. 

Do you think we stop? No, we continue to make a Bunny! Look what we made today -

Finger Puppet "Bunny on the finger"!

How to make a bunny:

Detailed workshop from Zoya Pinigina is here. Enjoy the dolls made by golden hands!

For planning this lesson I have used story-noisemaker and songs of Catherine and Sergey Zheleznov. 

Math in Fall

Harvest theme is good to learn shapes, colours and names of fruit and vegetables.
Once upon a time....
there was a little moose Mussi. He was born last spring and just discover the forest confidentially. He was travelling around and explore plants in the forest. He loved berries, but there wasn't berries in the forest any more. And Mammy still did not come.... UUhu!!! cried Mussi. Suddenly he heard quiet noise in the bush.
Hey! Who is there? asked Mussi.
That was me! - two little grey ears appear above the bush.and two bright black eyes looked through the branches. - Why are you crying?- that was little Bunny.
I am hungry!!!!!!!! cried Mussi what I should eat for dinner?
Ok, Let's think... you are moose, you have for legs, you have two ears, you have two horns, you have two eyes and one tail.... Tail is short, but in fact I can tell you that you are a cow...So, you should eat as a cow!- was wondering Bunny
What are you talking about??? Who is a cow? I am not cow!!!- Mussi stopped crying and looked on Bunny.
I think, I know where we can get food for you! But...there is somebody Tall who is waving his arms... so scary...-whispered Bunny
Let's go, I am not scary, let's go get food!!! said Mussi and they moved forward.
Where do you think they came?
Guess who was waving arms there?
Can Mussi find food there?
Where growing vegetables and fruit?
Understanding concept "on"and "in",

Sing and dance together!

Children create circle and walking in one direction. When its starts about veggies, child, who present that vegetable comes inside the circle and dancing. now he or she choose another child who present next vegetable and coming back to the circle. children change direction.

Happy New School Year!!!!

Did you think I died on camping? No, I am STILL alive! STILL because I am hardly working on Lesson plans "ORFF CURRICULUM". There is some tips check it and I will tell you how it is working in my point of view.

We started our new Musical-Singing-Speaking-Dancing Journey! Join us! Everyone is welcome, everyone can play!

Read more :

http://aosa.org/about/what-is-orff-schulwerk/

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emc/orff-approach

http://www.orff.ru/

http://orff-schulwerk.narod.ru/

Rainbow after rain...

I am observing many years that Canadian children drawing rainbow, always, everywhere. And suddenly I understood - because they can observe rainbow during the Summer constantly.Why? because everywhere sprinklers sprays water beside each house! And you everywhere can see RAINBOW!
Recently, we were learning about colours, cogwheel and today we were talking how rainbow appears.
We started with our wonderful sunny day and discussed what happen if wind going blow harder and harder?
Of course, it will bring clouds! Clouds may be very-very small and white, but if wind blow harder, They will "run toward each other and cling each other, so they become a huge cloud!"
So, what happen with clouds further? We cut out of the wax paper a few clouds And put they on the window - they were white and almost clear. After that we put clouds one on top each other and figured out that they not transparent any more!!!"I know, said Eric - they going to make a rain!"
We discussed with children what clothes we should wear in rainy day,

Do you know how to open an umbrella?

How raindrops look like?

Who hiding inside the cloud?

Our Rain orchestra!\

Making a rainbow

Do You like observe clouds?

Let's go to the pond! (Lesson plan for preschoolers)

Hey! The weather is awful, rainy days do not let us even go outside for walk...((

Ok! We have our imagination! Let's go to the pond!

1. First we made a sunny day in our classroom.
Can show how does sun send sunshine to us?
lyrics from here

Oh Mister Sun, Sun.
Mister Golden Sun.
Won't you please shine down on me?

Oh Mister Sun, Sun.
Mister Golden Sun.
Hiding behind the tree.

These little children
are asking you.
To please come out
so we can play with you.

Oh Mister Sun, Sun,
Mister Golden Sun.
Won't you please shine down on me?

Smile each others! Look how sunny our classroom is now!

You also can look and find something special about sun here

We will have a wonderful trip today, we are going to explore a pond. Do you know who is living there?

What kind of plants are growing there?Let's look our picture book "Pond'(The picture book means flesh cards or handmade book or just printed pictures from internet collection, i made like that)

Children guessed who is who, which sound makes each animal or insect and that we prepared for trip!

2. What we need for our trip? A backpack, a sunscreen, water bottle, huts, sun glasses.. During this activity children decide where is boys hut where girls and why, why we need sunscreen, how we can protect ourselves if we do not have the sunscreen.... They are learning how to take a turn, share and other social skills.  Finally everyone is dressed and we choose the leader - he will be first and carry the back pack!

Love this song!!!

 Calamine Lotion 

 Calamine, Calamine, Calamine Lotion 

 (Children repeat) 

 Oh no no not the lotion 

 (children repeat) 

 Itchy, itchy, scratchy, scratchy on my little backy, backy 

 (children repeat) 

 Get the buggy, buggy spray before they get me anyway 

 (children repeat) 

 PSHHHHH, PSHHHHHH  

(Use the spray bottle and pretend to spray)

3.Let's go! We were walking around the classroom and at this time children were improving their skills to walk in line, keep the distance, follow the  leader....

Suddenly we stopped!What is wrong? We lost!!!! and we are tired....Let's go check - where are we?

Listen the sound from that side, tssssssssss.......

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Who is making this sound? Is it living on the pond? What is there? Sure children will know it!

It is the farm!

Listen from that side, tssssssssssss......( here you can add any sound I turn on traffic jam)

NO! Is sound like city!

Listen from that side - quack, quack!( There is great opportunity to discuss with children that ducks does not mean only farm!)Listen again - ribit, ribit! There you go! Line up, we almost there!

4. Usually I have a little rugs, so everyone has personal spot, it helps children sit and listen without any distraction.

Now they telling me how pond should look like:

Water, rocks, grass, reeds, frogs, snakes, lizards, fish, crab?????We discuss if crab lives in pond why not, where actually....Water lilly, hey! that is wonderful story about pond and lake!!!!!

I used bubble wrap to create water and children had a lot of fun to pop those bubbles!

Let's make our pond alive!

Did you hear this sound? Who's that? 

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!

It is mosquito!!!

Mosquito usually appears at night, so it is time to go home!

As a memories about our trip we making a DRAGONFLY with salty dough!

It was a wonderful day and until dragonfly are baking in the stove, my children tired and hungry washed hands, eating lunch and prepare for nap time!

See you in our little community next time! 

You also can see me here

And in other blogs http://www.kzandme.blogspot.ca and http://www.learnwithplayathome.com

Musical instruments

Usually ECEsupervising teachers do not like this activity, othervise children are enjoing A LOT!!!

You will need any kind of beans(peas),paper rolls (I made it before an activity, I did not use rolls from

toilet paper, because...)

and any kind of decorations. 

 Paper rolls, peas, and decorations.....  

                                                                 Decorate rolls...

Put one or two spoons of peas inside and help children cover both sides with paper, glue ribbons, and.....

Turn on Music and enjoy dancing with your Noise Makers!