Big Sea Creatures

Dear Parents,

We started our week brainstorming big sea creatures. The children listed: killer whale - aka orca, fish, killer shark, electric eel, turtle, dolphin, manta ray, octopus, and colossal squid. We researched and found out that some of these are small, not giant, and some swim in freshwater, not salt. We narrowed down our list to four, and voted. 

Orca won with five votes. We found a picture of an orca whale in our book My Trip To The Aquarium. We drew a huge whale and set about feeding him to make him giant. We read all of our lists and activities that had accumulated on the walls all year, and then we crumbled them up, and fed them to our whale. He was delighted. We reminisced about our school year, and all that we’ve done. 

We painted his belly white and his back black, just like the one in our book. 

Music with Alex was musical. Everyone had turns playing wooden xylophones. 

Have a lovely long weekend,

Therese

The Ocean

Dear Parents,

We began our week in the yard creating sand pictures to use as the beach for our ocean mural. We covered our paper with glue and then sprinkled sand. Everyone chose between red, yellow, black, white, and a more authentic look of sandbox sand. We admired everyone’s pictures drying in the sunshine. 

In the yard looked for insects, played Duck, Duck, Goose, and made a long train by holding hands and letting the conductor lead us around the yard. We took turns being the conductor and the caboose.

We read The Bears Go To The Beach, The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark, The Grouchy Ladybug, Life In The Sea, and 1001 Things to Spot In The Sea. 

We talked about what colors the ocean was in each book. We went to the big room and used rollers and large paint brushes to paint an ocean mural. Someone said while we were painting, “This is going to be the best ocean ever!” We used blue, white, and a little bit of yellow to get some green hues. The next day we added white caps to our waves using glue, sparkles, foam, and some old Velcro pieces. 

Benji’s birthday fish came off of the wall and took a swim in our ocean in preparation for his trip across the sea. We sang Sixteen Little Fishes in the Deep Blue Sea, and went out to play in the yard.

Have a full weekend,

Therese and Nicole