“R” Week–Reptiles!

We jumped right back into animals this week learning about REPTILES!

Specifically, we learned about snakes, turtles, alligators and crocodiles, and chameleons.

We learned that reptiles have dry, scaly skin and have lungs.  After looking at real pictures of alligators and crocodiles, the kids enjoyed meeting Mr. Alligator!

 Putting together a dinosaur puzzle as part of reptile week!

 
 To test the children’s understanding of which animals were reptiles, we played a game where the children acted like the animal if it was a reptile and froze in place if it was not a reptile.  Here we’ve got some impressive reptiles being acted out such as snakes, alligators, tortoises and even sea turtles!

 To practice counting, we sang and acted out a little alligator song:
“Five little monkeys swinging in the tree
teasing Mr. Alligator can’t catch me….can’t catch me
along came Mr. Alligator quiet as can be
and snapped that monkey right out of that tree…”

The 3-year-olds were thrilled as one-by-one their monkeys were snatched out of the “tree”!

After learning the song about the monkeys and the alligator, the children were very excited to color and make their own alligator puppet.  I imagine they’ve been singing this little song at home with their puppet!

It is amazing to see how the children’s social skills have developed and grown throughout this year of preschool. The way they play and interact with one another is so much more mature than just a few months ago.  Sharing, turn-taking, and patience are all on the rise!  I love seeing their progress!  Way to go kids!  You parents must be doing something right at home too!

Alphabet puzzle center!

This week we learned the letter R!

We made our own 2-person boats and sang “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”. 

Varying our mediums used, we used toothpicks to punch holes along the letter “Rr”.  This is what our letter “R” project for the Pre-K classes turned out like.   

Since we were learning about “R”, we introduced rhymes to the Pre-K classes this week.  Each child got a card with a picture on it and then they mingled together to find who had a picture card that rhymed with their card.  We had cat-bat, bee-key, rain-train, moon-spoon, etc.  Some of the kids picked up on rhyming down rather quickly!  Rhyming with kids is so much fun!  Be sure to enjoy some rhyming time with your preschoolers!

Next week we will be learning about mammals.  We are all looking forward to our field trip next week!  We’ll get to see many of the animals we’ve been learning about this month that have been so well preserved!  Check back next week for our field trip pictures!