Puppets!

 Check out these gorgeous sock puppets! 

We made them the other day during our 'puppet' Discovery session, along with lots of other puppets....

I especially loved the shadow puppet shows.

Dr Seuss Discovery and ..... Crazy Sock Day!

 Even the teachers were ready for our Crazy Sock Day to celebrate Dr Seuss Discovery. 

Dr Seuss' Fox in Socks was our inspiration for our crazy socks.

We also designed our own crazy socks.

We used the Cat in the Hat and his amazing super tall stripy hat to make ....

.... our own stripy Cat in the Hat hats, ....

.... and write 'at' words.

We made The Lorax mustaches ....

 .... cotton ball and pipe cleaner truffula trees ....

.... and planted bean truffula seeds.

Our Horton ears are good for listening ....

.... and helped us practise our cutting skills.

 Then we used them to listen for the Whos from Whoville, located as a speck of dust somewhere on our clover flowers.

Our oobleck or gloop was great fun to play with. Gloop is a non-Newtonian fluid, something that is a solid and a liquid at the same time! Hit the oobleck hard or try to pick it up it acts like a solid, hold it in your hands and it drips slowly through your fingers.

You can make it at home with cornflour and a little water. Mix the water in slowly until it turns into gloop.

 

Elmer the Elephant

We have spent the last few days making these gorgeous collage Elmer elephants.

I've made these patchwork elephants last year too. Click here to find out how we made them.

 

We also wanted to tell other people facts about elephants they might not know. So we wrote some reports about elephants too.

Here are some of our elephant reports: 

Elephants are animals. They have long trunks. Elephants play in the water. They are grey. Elephants balance balls on their trunks like basketball players. 

 Elephants are animals. They are bluey-grey. They have a long trunk. Elephants have a short tail. They live in India, Africa, and Asia. Elephants are strong like weight-lifters.

Elephants are animals. They are brown. They have a long trunk. They have four legs and have four toes on their back legs and three toes on their front. Elephants have a short tail. They live in Asia, Africa, and India and in Zoos. Elephants chase people when they get close. Look out!

Elephants are animals. They are grey. They have 2 tusks for digging up grass with. Elephants like the mud to cool down. 

 Elephants are animals. They are big. They have a long trunk. They use it for picking up food. Elephants have strong legs. Elephants like to push down trees. They are strong like weight-lifters.

On Safari

We had a fantastic time On Safari for Discovery this morning. Here are some of our safari activities:

 

Hand-print lions.

Hand-print elephants.

Super long beaded snakes.

Mask making.

Binocular paper craft. 

The children are doing a fantastic job making sure they explore all of the different activities available. And I am super impressed to see our school children looking after and working with our Mountaineers (that's what we call our pre-school visitors). It can be quite scary when you first come to school, a kind friend or familiar face to work with can make the transition from kindy or pre-school much smoother.

The Fantastic Work of Dr Seuss

The books of Dr Seuss were our inspiration for our Mountaineers Discovery session this week. 

 

Lots of Dr Seuss reading.

 Catching doughnuts with our Horton trunks - we borrowed this game from the toy library.

Cat in the Hat addition.

Imaginary play with Horton Hears a Who elephant ears.

 

Truffula trees from The Lorax. I used powdered tempura paint to colour our cotton wool balls.

Cutting and gluing practice with stripy cat hats from The Cat in The Hat.

'at' words on cat hats - from Cat in The Hat.

 Bean The Lorax truffula tree planting.

Great sensory play with oobleck from Bartholomew and the Oobleck. 

 Oobleck (or gloop) is a non-newtonian fluid - it hardens when pressure is applied to it. That means it is both a liquid and a solid.

Watch this clip to see how you can make your own Oobleck and learn about the science behind it.

Visit this amazing website to learn more about Dr Seuss and his books.

Five Big Elephants

We have been reading our 'Five Big Elephants' poem all week, and now that we are experts at reading it we made our own elephants. I used this website for inspiration.

I have really been enjoying doing some art and craft with my lovely children this year. It has been a pleasure to see their cutting, painting, gluing, and other fine motor skills develop over the year.

First - paint some pegs gray (two pegs for each elephant). We painted ours earlier in the week so were dry when we needed them.

Cut out an elephant body and ears. We folded silver paper in half so we could save time by cutting only once around for the body and ear.

Glue a half a pipe cleaner on one body shape for the trunk, and a small piece of pipe cleaner (or wool) on for the tail.

Glue on the other body shape and the ears, one on each side. Don't forget googly eyes.

Use your pegs for the legs of your elephant, it should stand up.

We lined our elephants on the window-sill, so that we can see them when we eat lunch.

As part of our 'Absolutely Amazing Animals' inquiry learning theme this term we also looked at mammals this week (because we decided that elephants were mammals). 

We learned that:

• Mammals have live babies come out of their tummies.
• Mammals drink their mothers milk.
• Mammals breathe air.

 We have also been writing reports about elephants. We were able to share lots of information with each other.

Here are some of our reports:

'Elephants are mammals. Elephants have big ears for flapping to cool down. They are big.'

'An elephant is an animal. They are mammals. Elephants wash their face with their trunk. They can make big sounds because they are big. They have grey bodies with grey skin. Elephants are special.'

'An elephant is a mammal. Elephants are afraid of mice. Elephants can run. Sometimes you see elephants at the zoo. They have big legs and they are ginormous. They have big ears. Elephants have long trunks.'

'Elephants are mammals. They are big. Elephants have trunks. They are cool.'