Birthday Sweetness!

What do you do when you turn 5, but school 

is closed due to COVID-19 and the weather just wants to rain???

Well, first you join a Zoom call with your classmates and get treated to a very special and ultra silly birthday song.

Next, you put out a bucket of chalk and a collection 
basket for food donations and hope for the best.

Some friends made it over before the rain came 

and left chalk drawings on the sidewalk:)

Later on when the clouds decided to open up, 
your own special parade comes down your street anyway 
with horns beeping and balloons flying!

Everyone is lined up and ready to go!!

 

The birthday girl had a front row seat!

This sweet little unicorn princess wanted to collect food donations for the St. Martin de Porres food pantry in honor of her birthday. 

Over 100 items were collected from family and friends.

Thank you for making this a special birthday!!
Love makes the sun shine through even the stormiest of clouds!!

Celebrating the Earth!

One day was simply not enough to celebrate Earth Day, 

so we enjoyed an Earth Week.

The prekindergarten children engaged in learning 

about ways they can help sustain the Earth's natural 

resources and how they can be helpful and kind to the planet.
Reusing and repurposing items is very important and you 
can even turn them into beautiful art.

We enjoyed many stories about the Earth: 

both fiction and nonfiction.

  

The children were challenged to create a family promise poster 

to hang in the window that would also help teach 

others about being good stewards of the Earth.

 LOVE this teamwork!

Fun activities included creating an Earth using ANY materials;

using mathematician and scientific skills 
to whip up a batch of Earth Day slime; 

reusing old crayons to make BIG Earth day crayons;

and creating a calming Earth Day sensory bottle.

The most fun was building a MONSTER from recyclable materials.

The little monsters were busy all week switching out their diet of letters, sound cards, numbers, shapes, etc....

The children enjoyed feeding their monsters while 

practicing their fine motor skills at the same time.

The children even found recyclable items 

and turned them into learning games!!

Thank you, God, for giving us this big, beautiful Earth!!

Bird Nest Inquiry

Our school building may be closed, but the 
learning and inquiry have not stopped.

The prekindergarten students explored many real nests via online meetings and stories and then headed outside with their families to
 collect the materials needed to build their own nests.
First, they needed to make a pair of binoculars 
to help them observe up close.

 The children gathered their own natural 
materials just as birds really do.
Creativity and learning were in abundance!!
Natural nests.

The children shared their nests on Flipgrid as our 

April Show & Tell and explained HOW they constructed the nest.

Even toddlers get in on the learning and fun!

Crafty nests.

 

Even siblings joined in the action as a 
nice brain break from their own work:)

Pretend play.

The children also drew scientific 

observational sketches of birds and/or nests.

Even center time games were created to 

practice letter matching and counting.

Shape sorting.

 Even the birds reaped the benefits of this unit.
Homemade bird feeders are the best!

Yay, for sensory bins!!

And even a finger gym!!

WooHooo!!

All I can say is WOW!!!

So proud of everyone for engaging so 

authentically in this unit!