It Was an Egg-cellent Day!

I introduced the incubator to the class yesterday. 

I asked the children what they thought we might put in it, and I heard one answer above the rest- "Easter eggs!" When I further questioned what might grow in Easter eggs if we placed them in the incubator, "jelly beans!" and "chocolate!" were excitedly called out. It was precious!

When I told them we were going to hatch baby chicks, I think they were just as excited!

Today, I brought in the eggs. They are many different colors- light blue, green, olive, brown- I can't wait to see what hatches!

I cracked one open so we could see the inside before the chick begins to grow. No baby chick yet- we are going to have to wait! We talked about the jobs the shell and the yolk have in the development of the chick.

And, we drew our observations of "Day 1" in our "Egg Observation Journals."

Stay tuned for more egg-citing updates!

Community Helpers in the Discovery Lab

We had some Presidents Day themed centers last Monday in honor of some of our greatest community helpers- our Presidents! We flipped a penny and recorded how many times it landed on tails vs. heads with tally marks.

We painted presidential portraits...

with our creative 4K twist!

We had Zookeepers,

Dentists (open wide!)

and many Scientists, of course, 

who conducted an experiment with yeast, sugar, and warm water...eeewwww... (We talked about what lots of sugar can do to our teeth).

And we recorded our observations.

We had carpenters in class,

and construction workers ready on site,

gentle reminders of our faith

and engineers that took their space rover to Mars!

Blast off!

Use Your Imagination

In the literacy lab, we are learning how to make 
mental images while we listen to read alouds.

The children in 4K have been learning to use their 
imaginations and also gain a better understanding 
of what that means in relation to reading. 
When readers can create mental images they are connecting with the text in a personal way and thus will have a better memory of it. 
To better help us grasp this concept, we have 
magical masks that can SEE inside of our heads. 

We wear these masks when we are listening to 
descriptive poems and focus on listening to the words 
while creating the image in our minds. 

We look pretty cute too!

When we are finished listening, we draw what we saw in our heads. It's almost like painting a picture or making 
a movie inside our heads.

Children use all of their senses to make a vivid picture in their minds during reading.  When teaching young children to read we shouldn't get caught up in the accuracy and mechanics alone.  The reason we read is for enjoyment and we need to understand what we read. When one has the ability to fully utilize his/her imagination, visualizing becomes easier and fun too and this leads to stronger, more fluent readers.

This week we made imagination hats to help us 
become masters of our imagination.  

Beware if you see your child wearing this hat at home:)  
Strange and wonderful things can happen!

 I close my eyes and I can imagine anything!

I can imagine even without MY hat:)

(Ask your child to sing this song:)

Imagination hat, can you imagine that? 

I put in on and then I can pretend. 

I can go here or there, I can go anywhere.

I'm never bored you see, I have myself for company:)