Looking after our pets

The children in Group 5 are caring for their pets in class today.  They are so responsible! Look at home they wash, feed and play with their pet rocks.

Pet rocks!

Our art activity this week was a lot of fun.  We made our own pet rocks!  First we painted them and when they were dry, we glued on eyes and feathers, fur or shells.  They looked so cute!!

After they were finished, our pets were given names and we made homes for them in the playground.

Feathers, Fur or Fins

This is the song we listened to in class as part of our PETS theme.  We watched the video and then had to try to remember and name as many animals as possible.  We then watched again to check.

It's a beautiful song so why don't you listen and sing along!

LYRICS

Feathers, fur or fins,

Shell or scale or skin.

If it runs on legs or flies on wings,

If it walks or crawls or slithers or swims.

It's got it's place in the scheme of things.
Feathers, fur or fins,
Shell or scale or skin.

Go, Dog. Go!

This classic beginning reader uses only 75 different words, it features red dogs, blue dogs, big dogs, little dogs—all kinds of wonderful P. D. Eastman dogs—riding bicycles, scooters, skiis, and roller skates and driving all sorts of vehicles on their way to a big dog party held on top of a tree!
We read this as part of our PETS theme.

What animals make good pets?

We discussed what pets are and came up with this definition...Pets are animals that live with us.  We love them and take care of them.  They become part of our family.
The children decided that the animals which make the best pets are...

• turtles
• cats
• dogs
• birds
• fish
• guinea pigs

We played lots of games to learn these words in English and read a funny story.  It's called Go Dog Go! You can buy a copy on Google books in digital format.

In art class, we painted a picture of a turtle and then decorated its shell with smalls squares of green foam.  We also did drawings of animals and played with sensory bags.

Looking at Pets

We started a fun new topic this month...PETS!  Animals are a natural topic of interest to children of this age.  Many already have a pet at home or at the home of a close family member.  During this month, the children used vocabulary and structures related to naming, describing and discussing the care of pets.  The activities and themes we explored also taught them values such as respect for all living things and responsibility.  The theme also provided opportunities for revision of previously encountered vocabulary relating to size, habitat and food.

My Hands

There are so many things that we can do with our hands.  We explored the theme in English class this week and did lots of activities which help develop both our vocabulary and our fine-motor skills.

Fine-motor sensory trays...

  

Playing with finger-puppets...

Lacing cards and puzzles...

Playing musical instruments...

 

Hand printing...

Swatting flies...

Where Is Baby?

This song has been adapted from the traditional children's song Where Is Thumbkin and sung to the tune of Frère Jacques.  I adapted the words to our theme this week - Families.

Here are the lyrics so that you can sing along with your child at home.

Where Is Baby?

(Tune of Frère Jacques)

(Start with hands behind back)
Where is baby?
Where is baby?
Here I am
(Bring right hand to front, with pinky finger up)
Here I am.
(Bring left hand to front, with pinky up)
How are you today?
Very well, I thank you.
(Wiggle fingers as if they're 'talking' to each other)
Run away
(Hide right hand behind back)
Run away
(Hide left hand behind back)

REPEAT WITH THE OTHER FINGERS

Classroom Management

When it gets too noisy or the teachers needs the group's attention, the best way to do it is...

3...2...1....POKEMON SQUASHED ON A WINDOW!!!

Never fails! ;-)

Make-A-Monster Contest

This is a fast paced game that Isadora's class played to practice vocabulary for parts of the face and body.  In teams, they used an app on the Ipad to create a monster.  The team could win a point every time they named the body part in English.  The game was fast-paced, noisy and lots of fun.

Who was the winner?  Everyone!

Monster Bowls

It's Friday again and another chance to leave the classroom and use English outdoors. This week we went bowling.  If you look closely you'll see drawings of the monsters that we drew stuck to the bowling pins.  We had to try and knock down as many monsters as we could.  It was a lot of fun!

Make A Monster

We spent the week reading stories and playing games about monsters so I thought it would be fun to create our own monsters.  We did this in many ways this week.  We drew, we moulded with playdough, we used our imagination AND we also used technology.  On our ipads we have an app called Make a Monster.  The children could choose different body parts to assemble their own unique monster and then share it with the group.  This allowed us to practice language for describing physical appearance using numbers, size, colours and body parts.  "He's got six, big eyes".  "What colour are they?" - "Yellow"

 

Making faces

We explored feelings this week - sad, happy, scared and angry.  This gave us an opportunity to revise vocabulary for the parts of our face - eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and eyebrows.  We looked at how our faces change as we make different expressions and then used playdough to recreate these emotions on our playdough mats.

I'm Happy All Day Long

Here are Fabíola's class singing our song of the week - I'm Happy All Day Long.  We sand this song to learn vocabulary and structures for talking about our feelings.  This week we have learned sad, scared, sleepy, angry and happy.

Here are the lyrics for those of you who would like to sing along at home!

I'm happy, I'm happy
I'm happy all day long.
I'm happy, I'm happy
I'm happy all day long.

Ha ha ha
Hee hee hee
I'm happy all day long.

(Repeat with other emotions)

Muddled up animals

After reading the book Muddled Up Farm, we decided to draw some of our own muddled up animals.  Each child picked two animal cards from the deck and had to combine them to create new, original animals.  There were cow-birds and cat-horses and all kinds of crazy new creatures.

On the farm, in the sea or in the wild?

We have been looking at animals this week in English class.  The children learned the names of the animals and the habitats where they lived.  Using a felt-board, we divided the animals according to where they lived and took turns placing them in the right environment - the wild, the sea or the farm.

We had lots of fun listening to a story about some funny animals in the book Mudled Up Farm ...

... and singing the song Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

Claire reads Muddled Up Farm

The theme this week was animals and as well as singing the traditional song Old MacDonald Had A Farm, we also read a book about a not so traditional farm.  This story, Muddled Up Farm, was a big hit.  The illustrations and sound effects allowed the humour to reach the kids in Cleo's class.  Watch the video and you'll see what I mean.

Muddled Up Farm

Everything that is mixed up on Muddled-up Farm! From the cat to the cow, to the pig and the goat, this book is full of surprises that had the kids at UPUERE laughing out loud.

Happy Mother's Day

We were talking about our feelings this week so I thought I'd make this photo montage of the children at Upuere to celebrate Mother's day.  Congratulations to all the mothers at Upuere.  I hope this makes you smile!

Singing with emotion!

You probably remember the cute video of Cleo's class singing the Hello Song.  Well, here's the Goodbye song - sung with plenty of emotion!