Our Pets!

We started the day with a pool full of feathers!  And before we started our morning circle, they were flying EVERYWHERE!  It looked like a whole flock of birds had been living in our preschool room!

After a brief, and super chilly, time on the playground, we headed off to our very last music session of the year!  Ms. Gretchen and friends always have so many fun things for us to do, and today was no different.  Ms. Hannah had a new instrument that looks and sounds like a guitar, but doesn't have strings.  We used it while we sang about community helpers, like dentists, doctors, and vets!  Each child was given a paper bag dog to help sing a song about puppies at the vet.  We sang about movements that different animals do....stomping like elephants, barking like dogs, slithering like snakes, etc.  We ended with a poem about all the fun instruments we had played during our time in music. Most kids liked the shakers the best....but the tambourine was also a BIG hit!  Thanks to Queens College and Ms. Gretchen for a wonderful partnership.  The kids love it!

Today our story was Good Dog, Paw by Chinlun Lee.  Paw is a busy dog. Every morning April, his owner, gives him his ten-point checkup and then scoots him off to the office where she works as a vet. Paw has an important job there-singing reassuring songs to all the animals as they wait to be seen. But his best song he saves for April at the end of the day about how much he loves her. 

 

The language activity for today was all about body coverings.  People have skin, but animals have different things that cover their bodies.  Dogs and cats have fur, which is kinda like hair.  Fish have scales because they need to be able to swim fast and fur is too heavy.  Birds have feathers because they are so lightweight and they need that to help them fly.  It was funny to think about animals with different kinds of coverings.  What if people had feathers?  What if dogs had scales? 

During art, we used the feathers from this morning to make pet birds.  Yes....another pet for your household!  The kids could choose from all different colors....and many of them opted for multi-colored birds.  They glued the feathers on the bird and then we talked about ways we can help to take care of our animals.