2013 TSGI Busy Beginners: Learning About The VET

The Touch and Feel this morning was full of animals. Some were farm animals and some were animals you might have as a pet. We talked about some of the differences between the animals by comparing where they live and what they eat. But.....when they get sick....they all go to the VET!

Ms. Michele was here today. She had a super fun obstacle course for us. Each child walked across three circle cushions, then across the balance beam. They picked up a bean bag, crawled under a table, then tossed the bean bag into a target on the floor. The next step was to pick up a colored bean bag and toss it into a matching colored bucket. It was wonderful practice sequencing and waiting your turn. Once everyone had several turns, we moved on the finger fun. Ms. Michele had a series of games that required lots of fine motor skills. They worked on building with wooden screws and tools, making patterns with colored shapes, nesting shapes to make bigger shapes, and a magnetic matching game. It was obvious the favorite games during this time were all about building, considering the protests to move on and give someone else a turn!

Today's story was Bark, George by Jules Feiffer. When George's mother tells her son to bark, he meows. She patiently explains that "Cats go meow. Dogs go arf. Now, bark, George." But he quacks! Then oinks. Then moos. Becoming less patient and more exasperated, George's mom takes him to the vet, who reaches deep down inside the puppy, and, much to everyone's surprise, pulls out a cat! Then a duck, a pig, and finally a cow. George is cured, and barks at last! On the way home, his proud mother wants to show off her son to all the people on the street. But when she says, "Bark, George," he simply says, "Hello." The kids really enjoyed this story and laughed the whole way through!

For our language activity, we talked a little about this new vocabulary word....veterinarian. We defined it, as a pet doctor, and then spent some time talking about different pets people might have. The kids were able to name quite a few, and even though we agreed that we wouldn't want some of them living at our houses....there are people who like snakes and lizards!

Art was all about making George puppets. We decorated and colored envelopes to make our very own dogs. We added eyes, noses, tongues, and long ears. The kids spent the next few minutes making ALL kinds of animal sounds and laughing at each other when they were not dog sounds. Great pretend play and interaction with each other!