Tuesday, May 26

Hello friends!

This will be your last blog post!  Can you believe this is the last week of school?  Tomorrow we will have our preschool celebration on Zoom at 3:00.  If you are going to kindergarten, make sure you wear your graduation cap! Thursday is supposed to be our beach day!  We were supposed to celebrate the last day of school by playing in the sprinkler, playing games with water balloons, and having a hula party!  What can you do at your home to celebrate the last day of school instead?  Send us a video on Marco Polo of how you're celebrating the last day of school!

Since this is our last day of school on the blog:

I have loved having all of you in my preschool class this year at The Nest and I have missed you all so much these past several weeks.

Let's spend today thinking about all the great things we did at school!

First, to wrap up our bird project let's check out Magdalina's nest!

Wow!  Look how much they have grown!  Can you tell what kind of birds they are from the picture of the mama bird?  They are baby robins!  Have you seen a robin in your yard?

Here is a sweet video:

What have you learned about birds, eggs, or nests from our project?  What was your favorite part of this project?  My favorite part was our engineering week when we did the egg drop challenges!  My other favorite part was learning to notice birds outside.  Now when I go outside I know the names of many birds that I see and I can identify many of their sounds!  I didn't know very much about birds before this project!  I also am always looking for nests and I really want to find a nest that has one egg or baby bird different from the others.  Remember when we learned that some mama birds will lay their egg in another bird's nest?  I thought that was so interesting!  

Like this!

   

Now let's think about all the great things we did at preschool this year.  Do you remember? What was your favorite?  Here are some of my favorite things that I remember.  Draw/write about your favorite part of preschool:

-First day of school and meeting new friends

-Vet project- turning classroom into a vet's office

-Dr. Bestic taught us about being a veterinarian

-Family field trip to The Vet Center and Hot Cocoa Hike at the Nature Realm

-Family Christmas Party and singing songs on stage

-Walking to the library for Santa stories

-Playing outside in the snow and painting the snow

-Watching The Polar Express in our pajamas with popcorn and hot cocoa

-Dinosaur project- turning classroom into a Paleontologist Research Station!

-Making a volcano erupt

-Making dinosaur fossils

-Learning about famous artists for our art show and creating art like Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, O'Keeffe, and Matisse

-Learning about the Australian wildfires and choosing to give our money from the art show away to help the people of Australia

-Seeing all the beautiful art at our art show 

-Learning Bible stories and watching you act them out

-Taking vacations to Australia, Paris and Ireland

-Turning our classroom into a hotel

-Building hotels out of blocks

-Our Kindness Party and making a kindness quilt

-"Seeing" and chatting with you over Marco Polo, at home visits, Facetime or while picking up Mother's Day craft kits! 

We did so many great things at school! I loved everyday I got to spend with you at preschool.  I know that you have all learned so much.  You have all learned about kindness, patience, giving, self-control, caring for others, and loving Jesus!  Thank you for joining me this year!  For those of you going to kindergarten...

And for those of you coming back to preschool next year...

Virtual Field Trip Day!

In honor of our family field trip that is supposed to be tomorrow, we will go on two virtual field trips today!

The first trip is to an aviary at the Toledo Zoo!  An aviary is a large enclosure for birds.  Ready?  Let's go! 

(Parents, any time we take an imaginary trip somewhere at preschool we also pretend to get there first. We act out packing our bags, getting on the bus/plane/train/etc., arriving at our destination, getting our tickets, and so on.  Try it out!  Getting there is half the fun!)

"Pack your backpack with water, a hat, sunglasses, and a lunch.  Time to drive to the bus station!  Get your bus ticket.  It costs $5.  Now it's time to get on the bus.  Find your seat!  Enjoy the ride.  We've arrived at the Toledo Zoo!  Get your backpack, put on your hat and sunglasses, and head to the ticket booth.  Time to buy your ticket.  That will be $20!  Now go through the zoo gates and enjoy the aviary!"

"Let's have a picnic lunch before getting back on the bus and arriving at our next destination.  Eat up!  Ready? Next, let's get back on the bus.  Now we are headed to the Butterfly House and Aquarium.  What do you think we will see here?  Sit back, relax and enjoy the bus ride.  We're here!  Get you bag and head to the ticket booth.  The ticket is $10.  Take your picture at the entrance of the Butterfly House.  Go on in and enjoy!"

"I hope you enjoyed your field trips today.  Now it's time to pack up your bag, get on the bus and enjoy the ride home.  Have a great day!"

Wednesday, May 20

Hello friends!

Did you find out the difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon for me?   Charlie and I used this video to research the question.  We learned a lot about the differences between butterflies and moths from this video!  What will you learn?

I know it might be a rainy day tomorrow, but if you can get outside here is a fun game to play!  This is called Spring Bingo and it has all the things we have been learning about on it!  Have your grown up print out 2 Bingo boards below.  You will need at least one other person to play with you.  Go outside and try to find the objects/animals on the Bingo board.  When you find one, circle it!  Whoever has a straight line across their board first says "Bingo!"  (Parents, an alternative to this if it's raining is to just print it out, use small objects as game pieces, and call out the pictures like a traditional game of Bingo.)

Now, let's remember the life cycle of a butterfly with this fun song and dance!  It's time to get up and exercise your body!

How long do you predict it will take for Scarlett's caterpillars to form their chrysalises? Get out your notebooks and make a prediction!  Once the caterpillar has formed it's chrysalis it's ready for its metamorphosis.  Wow that's a big word!  What does metamorphosis mean?  

Time to draw!  What do you think the butterfly will look like when its metamorphosis is complete?  Draw it!  Here is a chart of butterflies that live in Ohio.  Do you think they will look like any of these?

Here is something exciting.  Look at the chart above and find the monarch butterfly.  Do you see it?  You can get more monarchs in your yard by planting a plant called milkweed!  Monarch caterpillars eat milkweed and need it to survive.  You can get free milkweed seeds to plant in your yard!

(Parents see the instructions below.)

Website: https://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds/

Tuesday, May 19

Hello friends!

We have another update on Magdalina's birds!  Look at these sweet baby birds!  How have they changed since the last picture?

I see more feathers and some little tiny wings.  Do you see them? 

We are also going to keep track of Scarlett's caterpillars!  Here are the caterpillars she is watching grow.

Did you know caterpillars come from eggs too, just like birds?  Then they hatch into caterpillars.  What happens next to caterpillars?

Caterpillars are part of a special life cycle. We have learned about cycles through watching the baby birds in their nests and when we learned about the creation cycle when we plan a building or creation.

Here is the life cycle of a butterfly!

First, there are eggs on a leaf.

Second, the eggs hatch into a caterpillar.

Third, the caterpillar forms a _______.

Fourth, a butterfly comes out of the ______.

Then, the butterfly lays eggs.

And the cycle starts over again!

Do you know what the word is missing above?  What do caterpillars form around themselves before becoming a butterfly?

Let's read the best book about caterpillars, The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

We are going to finish our day with an activity that will help the muscles in our hands get stronger!  

  When I saw this picture it gave me an idea!  I noticed the holes that the caterpillar ate through in the leaf.  I wonder if you could make holes in a leaf like the hungry caterpillar did? You will need to gather some big green leaves outside.  Next you will need a hole puncher.  Carefully use the hole puncher to put holes in your leaves.  This is really good for your hand muscles!  Then find a long piece of string or yarn.  Thread the string through the holes in your leaves to make a necklace.  This is really good for your finger muscles!  When you are done you will have a lovely leaf necklace.  And your fingers and hands will be stronger too!

Monday, May 18

Hello friends!

I hope you had a great weekend.  Did you enjoy the warm and sunny weather?  We did!  I have more exciting news to share.  The eggs in Magdalina's nest hatched!  There are 4 tiny baby birds in her nest! Look how cute!

What do you notice about these baby birds?  How will they change as they get older?

When they are bigger and learn to fly, where do you think they will go?  Did you know that many birds will fly south when the weather gets colder?  Look at the picture to discover what "south" means.

This is the map of the United States of America. The black x shows where we live, Ohio.  The arrows are all pointing down.  They are also pointing south! These arrows show where birds go when it gets colder.  I wonder why they fly south?  Do you have a prediction?

Here are some clues:

Clue 1: 
Clue 2: 

Clue 3: 

Can you figure out from the clues why some birds fly south?  It is warmer when they go south!  Birds like to go where it's warm, because they can find more food, like the berries in clue 3. That's why you see lots of bird here now when it's warm but not as many birds in the winter when it's cold. This is called migration!

Other animals fly south too!  Scarlett sent us a Marco Polo of an animal she has that will fly south.  Do you remember what kind of animal she is watching grow? Caterpillars!  A caterpillar will turn into a...



Monarch butterflies migrate when it gets cold too!

We have two migration games to play today!

Migration game 1:  Your goal is the get your bird or butterfly to fly from Ohio to the south!  You will need a balloon or a ball to be the butterfly or bird.  Next go outside and mark a starting line and a finish line.   (Parents, put the starting line on one side of your lawn and the finish line on the other side of your lawn.) The starting line will be Ohio.  The finish line will be the south.  You and your family need to pass your balloon/ball to one another starting in Ohio and working down to the south.  Don't let your balloon/ball touch the ground!  If your balloon/ball makes it all the way to the south without touching the ground, you did it!  Your bird or butterfly migrated south! 

Migration game 2: (Parents, you will need a collection of 3 different colored beans, noodles, stones or other small pieces for this game.)  You should have some small objects that are 3 different colors.  First, sort the objects by color.  Next, decide which color will represent food.  (For example, all the green beans will be food.)  Now, decide which color will be water. (For example, all the blue stones will be water.)  Last, decide which color will be something dangerous for the bird or butterfly.  Something dangerous might be a predator or bad weather.  (For example, red beans could represent a storm.)  Now, go outside and scatter all your colorful objects around your driveway.  Just like the last game, have one side of your driveway be Ohio and the other side of your driveway be the south.  You are going to pretend to be the bird or the butterfly that will migrate south!  But along the way, you must pickup food and water!  Careful, don't pick up something dangerous!  Start on your starting line and pickup as many objects that represent food and water as you can until you make it to your finish line.  Have fun!

Thursday, May 14

Hello engineers!

How did your egg drop go?  Charlie's first plan did not work so well. 😆 The egg broke all over our blanket.  So we improved our plan and tried again. The second time his egg survived without a crack!   It's so important to try again if your first plan doesn't work! Every problem has a solution, right?

Remember the song we sing when we feel frustrated and like giving up?

Every problem has a solution, every problem has a solution, high ho the dairy-o every problem has a solution! (Sung to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell.)

Today I have another challenge for you.  It will take patience and problem solving! You can do it!  This challenge is not an engineering challenge, or a science challenge, or a math challenge.  Nope!  This challenge is about being gentle, caring and problem solving when you need to.  This is called the Egg Friend Challenge.  Here are the directions:

1. Ask your mom or dad to help you get an uncooked egg.

2. With help from your mom or dad, carefully draw a face on your egg with permanent marker. 

3. Give your egg a name! This is your egg friend for the day!  Meet Ralph. This is my egg friend! 

4.  Have your mom or dad put your egg in a plastic baggie (or 2!).  Seal it tight.  (Tape the top too for extra security.)

5.  Now wherever you go and whatever you do today, carry around your egg friend and try to keep him safe!  Try not to let him crack!  Bring him with you wherever you go, but set him down gently or put him somewhere safe when you need to! 

6.  Think about what you could do to keep your egg friend safe.  Think about what you used for the egg drop activity.  Could you protect your egg friend somehow?

7.  See how long you can keep your egg friend from cracking!  Draw/write down in your notebook how long you kept your egg from cracking, where you took your friend, and how you protected him.  

(Parents, this activity is one of my favorites.  It's all about teaching children how to care for something else.  It teaches gentleness and to think about the needs of "others". [Even if the "other" is just an egg!] No need for your kiddo to be sad if it breaks right away.  It's just about trying their best to care for something very breakable. A good life lesson. 😃)

Wednesday, May 13

Hello engineers!

How did your egg drop plan go?  Are you ready to build your plan? What materials will you use?  I'm going to list out some of my ideas in case you get stuck and need some help!

You could use...

bubble wrap
newspaper
cushions
pillows
boxes
napkins
plastic bags
tape
straws
feathers
stuffing
foam peanuts
cotton balls
marshmallows
sponges


What will you use to protect (keep safe) your egg from the drop?  Your goal is to be able to drop it without it breaking!   Ready to build?  Go!

Here is the design I created!

Once you are finished creating your egg drop design, it's time to test it out!  Ask your mom or dad to hold your egg with all of it's protection high above their heads.  Now count down with me...

https://vclock.com/set-timer-for-10-seconds/
10   9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1 Drop!

What happened?  Did your egg break? Get out your notebook and draw your observation of your egg!  Remember, an observation is looking closely and thinking about what you see! Do you see any cracks?

If it didn't break or crack, you did it!

If it broke or cracked, it's time to improve your plan!  Improve means to make your plan better! What could you change to make your design better?

Since we just counted down from 10 to test your egg drop, let's end with a song that will teach you to countdown from 20!