February- Animals Classes

February was such an exciting month as we learned about many different animals and the main animal classes and culminated our studies by going on a field trip to BYU’s Bean Museum!

First, we learned about fish.  We learned that they have scales, live in the water, breathe under water using gills, and that most fish lay eggs.  The children thoroughly enjoyed this fishing game as they practiced their eye-hand-coordination to catch a colored fish!

Next, we learned about mammals.  We learned that mammals have fur or hair, they breathe with their lungs, their babies are born alive and drink mama’s milk.  We used our puppets and sorted the animals into the different mammals and other classes.

This class loved dancing with the mammal puppets!

Even the 3-year-old classes worked on their cutting abilities as they made their very own mammal book!

Here the kids are practicing writing the letter “Z” which was one of the letters we learned this month.

For our “Z” project, the children made Z-shaped zebras.  We learned that each zebra has a unique stripe pattern in real life so the kids enjoyed making their zebras unique too!

During reptile week, the children learned that reptiles have scaly skin, lay eggs, and are cold-blooded.

Reptiles and mammals make for a fun music time!  These kids are singing and acting out “5 Little Monkeys” who tease Mr. Alligator!  What fun!

One of the favorite things we did during bird week was listening to the songs of many different kinds of birds.  Each day, the children looked forward to opening our bird book and listening to their songs and sounds!

What a lucky day!  One of the days we were learning about birds, these 4 cute girls all had birds on their shirts!

Our Pre-Kindergarten kids worked really hard on this project as they practiced writing the letters that were in the birds’ names.  They are getting so much better at writing letters and using those fine motor skills.

With much excitement and anticipation, we made it to the Bean Museum!  

I love field trips!  They enrich a child’s learning experience so greatly.  After learning about so many different types of animals in each animal class, the kids were fascinated by seeing the real animals up close.  It was so fun to see their excitement and hear all of their expressions as they saw all the animals!

Many of the children even got to touch a few of the museum’s live animals!

We will be learning about insects towards the end of the school year, but this butterfly collection is always so impressive!

I love watching the children look closely at the animals they saw at the museum.  They are always thinking, observing, and learning from the world around them.

Seeing an elephant so closely is amazing and the kids got to see that elephants really do have hair which makes them a mammal!

The kids got to go on an animal scavenger hunt while we were going around the museum.

We also got to enjoy the Nature Photography exhibit that was just temporarily on display at the museum.  It was fun to look for the different kinds of animals we had been learning about.

These kids weren’t so sure about this little cockroach!

This class got to see a special kind of frog during a live animal show.

Of course, we had to take a few minutes to enjoy the museum’s little slide and play area!

A big thank you to all the parents who helped make our field trips possible!  We had a wonderful time!

The children always look forward to music time.  These kids really love playing our bean bag game as we sing a song and pass the bean bag around our circle of friends.

As part of our rug time, we stand up and do some wiggles and stretches each day.  This darling class LOVES going on bear hunts just like the story “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”!

Our Pre-K kids are working hard to get ready for Kindergarten as they say the Pledge of Allegiance as part of our “jobs” each day.

Outside time is important at Treasure Tree Academy!  We set aside time to go outside every day and after the big snow storms in February, these kids took advantage of the great packing snow and made the biggest snowballs they could!  They were so proud of themselves!

Letter review time!

In the middle of February, we took a little break from animals so we could celebrate Valentine’s day!  The children loved playing Valentine memory match as they worked on taking turns and strengthening their memory skills.

They were also very excited to make their own Valentine to give to someone special to share their love.

Preschool is a wonderful time to learn and grow in all areas of development!  Thanks for letting us enjoy your children and be part of that growth and development.