Saturday, May 24, 2014

My Body / 5 Senses Thematic Unit


Thematic Unit: My Body/ 5 Senses


My Body


Finger paint – flower

Since we're learning about our body, I wanted the children to learn that they can create art with not only paintbrushes, but with their fingers as well. So I cut out 3 circles and asked the kids to finger paint the flower petals. Then they could add anything they wanted to their flowers, and we had some really neat ideas for their work.




 



Noodle X-ray/ Q-tip X-ray

In our 5 Senses theme, we learned about illnesses and injuries. I thought it would be fun to teach kids about broken bones and X-rays, so I made a photocopy of my arm and hand and asked one class to glue on the noodles for the bones and the other class used Q-tips and Popsicle sticks. The X-rays looked pretty cool!





Dental Health

We learned about how to take care of our teeth in our Body theme and one lesson I taught in class was the importance of cleaning and brushing your teeth. I found pictures of teeth and put one happy tooth on one piece of paper and a sad one on the other piece of paper. Then asked the kids to use puffy paint (white glue and shaving cream) to paint them. Next, I asked the kids to color some of the food that might be bad for our teeth, such as candy, chocolate....etc. Then they glued the pictures on the sad tooth. On the contrary, they glued the healthy food on the happy tooth!
 





Funny Glasses/ mouth

This was just a fun idea I found to get the kids interested in learning about the parts of the face we learned in the theme. I found some pictures of funny eyes and glued them on a pair of paper glasses and also found some funny mouths for the kids to choose. At the end of the lesson, each one of them came up to the front of the class to show their work! Very cute!







Blindfold game

After learning about the parts of the face, it was time for the children to play some games to help them remember the names and the parts and where they belong on your face. So I cut out different face parts and blindfolded the kids and asked them to place them correctly on the face that I drew on the whiteboard! :) It was a fun game for the class!
 



 


Monster balloon

This was a craft they could take home and play with and review the words we taught in class. After teaching the face parts on the first day, I found the pictures of funny face parts and asked the kids to choose and make their own balloon monsters! We saw some funny looking monsters!
 

5 Senses


Making Slime

In our 5 senses theme, we learned how to describe different types of texture and one of the word is “slime”. It was a bit difficult to explain to the kids how it feels like, so we made some slime to play in class. We mixed white glue, dish soap and food coloring, it was messy but the class enjoyed the messy play. :)







Tongue craft

In the 5 Senses unit, we explored different tastes and I wanted the kids to understand which part of their tongue is in charge of which taste, so we made a big tongue map for them to remember. We cut out pictures of food that tasted, bitter, sour, salty and sweet and asked the children to glue them on according to our map!
 



Tasting experiment

After introducing the words sweet, sour, salty and bitter. It was time for the children to experiment what these words mean. I bought some chips, candy, dark chocolate and marinated plum for the kids to try. Kids love tasting different types of food!
 
 

What's inside the balloon?

In this lesson, we learned about different textures, such as rough, bumpy, soft... etc. So I hid different things inside balloon and passed them around and I asked the children to guess what they think is inside the balloon. Great guessing game!









Tuesday, April 15, 2014

HAPPY EASTER!!!! 2014


Chick in an Egg

 
This is one of the crafts we made for Easter! It's really cute and simple! I cut out different colored eggs from construction paper and then cut them in half. Then asked the kids to decorate them using pom-poms, it was fun painting with clothes pins and pom-poms. Then we glued on the chick and attached a split pin to allow the eggs to open and close! :) 
 
 

 

 

 






 

 


Chick Craft with soft pastel
I made this craft with my younger class (3~4yrs). First, I cut out a simple shape for the chick and then used the soft pastel and let the kids smudge the color all over the body. Then added the eyes, mouth, legs and feathers for wings! Very easy and cute!






Egg relay (under the chin)

We got Easter Eggs to paint from the school and before we painted them, we had an egg relay with the kids! They were supposed to bring the eggs from one basket to the other basket without using their hands. They had to keep the egg under their chin! It was a fun activity for the Easter holiday!

 
 





 
Egg Matching Game (upper and lower case)
I cut out different colored eggs and then wrote the upper and lower cases of the alphabets on them. Then cut the eggs in half. The children were asked to match the lower case and the upper case of the alphabets! It doesn't take a long time to prep and it was fun for the kids!
 




 

 

Egg Rolling relay with Fly Swatter
Since it's Easter, we played quite a few games with Easter eggs. Before we painted them, we played a egg rolling game with the fly swatters! The eggs weren't very easy to control with the fly swatters, but that's what made it challenging for the kids! 



Painting Easter Eggs with aluminum foil
  We paint our Easter eggs every year and this year I wanted to do something a little different. We usually just painted the eggs with the paint brushes and we've also dyed them with food coloring, but we painted our Easter eggs with aluminum foil this year! I asked the kids to crumple up the aluminum foil and then put some paint in it and then wrap the eggs around with the aluminum foil. We all loved how they turned out! 





Rabbit headband
  I found this really cute and funny rabbit headband idea online and the kids looked awesome in them!  It's very easy to make and I loved the rabbit teeth on them! :) 






Rabbit hat
  I was brainstorming for ideas to make the rabbit headband, a rabbit hat idea suddenly came up! I used the paper plate as the body, then cut out legs and face for the rabbit and asked the kids to glue on the eyes, nose and a tail for the rabbit. To finish it off, we used the soft pastel for some colors and then attached a string to secure the hat!  They really look like little rabbits sitting on the kids' heads! :) 







Easter Egg Hunt
  After painting the Easter eggs, we had an Easter Egg hunt in our outdoor area for the party! My co-teacher hid the eggs for the kids and they had a great time looking for their Eggs!



Marshmallow Rabbit
  To wrap up our Easter event, we had a cooking class making a rabbit out of marshmallow, candy sticks (ears), chocolate spread for eye, whiskers and mouth!  They looked so cute and the kids loved the snack!
 
 
Happy Easter!