I'm not sure who planned today's lesson....but it sure was MESSY!! There's really no 'clean' way to talk about mud and dirt....or at least that's not the fun way!
We started the day with dirt in the Touch and Feel! This definitely peaked their interest as to what the rest of the day would hold. We talked about the attributes of dirt...what color is it, what does it feel like, what does it smell like, etc. We did a pretty good job keeping the dirt IN the pool, but right from the beginning it was all over the children!
Ms. Michele was outside today and it certainly felt like fall! The first activity was an obstacle course. The kids had to walk a balance beam, jump across several blocks, go through the tunnel, pick out a stuffed animal, and move like that animal to another station. Then....back to the beginning to do it all again! It was super fun and they all wore themselves out trying to take as many turns as they could. When we moved to the finger fun station on the sidewalk, the adults were commenting on how windy it was outside. We couldn't have predicted that Ms. Michele's tunnel would blow into the road and Ms. Margaret would have to run after it. This brief moment of entertainment was funny for the children and hilarious for the grown-ups! Ms. Margaret to the rescue!! Ok....finger fun....buried in some paper grass were all shapes and sizes of pumpkins. The kids first had to find all the pumpkins, then once they were counted, we hid them again.
After the playground, we came inside for story time. Our book today was One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root. In this story, a duck gets stuck in the mud and cries out for help. First, two fish come to try and help. No luck. Next, three moose come to help. No luck. Nobody can help get duck unstuck. Several groups of other animals try, but it isn't until they all work together that duck is freed. The kids laughed at the different animals and yelled out suggestions on how they thought duck could get out of the mud.
For our language activity, we introduced rhyming words. We used the ending -at as our example. We did some phoneme awareness play to make new rhyming words and build our -at family word list. We added /k/ to -at.....and smashed it together to make CAT. We added /m/ to -at....and smashed it together to make MAT. The kids started to get the hang of the game and were really disappointed when we ran out of words to make! Then we talked about other words that didn't fit with our rhyming family....like shoe and pig. The big hit was the Big Pig Song, which is a rhyming video we found. We had to listen to it twice!
For science, we used the dirt from this morning to make MUD! The kids determined that we only needed two ingredients: dirt and water. After we made the mud.....and that took more encouragement than expected.....we compared it with the dirt. Was it a darker color? Was it heavier? Which one was wet? This activity clearly divided the children into two distinct groups....children that like getting dirty and children who think that it's torture to get dirty. No middle ground. They loved it or hated it. As a rule, everyone participates in all TSGI activities, so some kiddos needed a little help finding their way in the mud....but the good news....we all survived!!
Then....because we are "all in" for your children....we did some mud art. We spared you the mess and just made shapes and letters on the table, but we gave them some free reign with the messiness. Now, those kiddos who didn't like the science we not about to be bothered with this "art", so they just observed....some of them not so quietly as they continuously reminded me that their hands were dirty! But again....the good news....we all survived.....AND made it to the bathroom to wash our hands leaving behind one heck of a mess!!
What a fun and revealing day today! We learned so much about your children while making mud! Tomorrow is a big Out and About Day....can't wait to go on a scavenger hunt around Lowe's!
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