Tracks June 18, 26-29

We headed down the tracks with trains of all kinds. Woo woo! All Aboard!


We lined up chairs to make a pretend train in which to ride. We had a conductor's hat and a train whistle to blow...

We made a human train and followed the track around the room. We took turns being the engine and the caboose.

As we moved, we sang an oldie, but a goodie:

Here comes the choo choo train
(bend arms at elbows)
Chuggin’ down the track.
(move arms in circular motion)
Now it’s going forward, (forward motion)
Now it’s going back. (backward motion)
Now the bell is ringing, (pretend to ring a bell)
Now the whistle blows. (pretend to pull whistle cord, making whistle sounds)
What a lot of noise it makes everywhere it goes! (hands over ears)


We enjoyed readingTracks by David Galef, I’ve Been Working on the Railroad by Nadine Bernard Westcott, Freight Train by Donald Crews and our favorite- Down By the Station by Will Hillenbrand.

We played a game called "The Railroad Connection".

We had to roll a dice and move to collect cars of different colors. We printed with tracks, spools and play trains.

We printed with tracks and spools and dipped train cars in paint and ran them back and forth across the paper for an interesting effect.

Using the wooden train tracks, we worked together to create a route for our train.  

It was fun to visit Tiny Town and ride the train.

Mighty Pachyderms June 11-15

The pachyderm family includes elephants, rhinos and hippos. We learned all about these "tough skinned" animals on our safari through Africa and Asia. 

On the tabletop, we played in the mud just as pachyderms do to cool themselves off in the hot sun! (It was really chocolate pudding.) 

We sang to the tune "Itsy, Bitsy Spider":

The great big elephant went out one day to play.

Down came the rain and then he couldn’t stay.

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.

Then the great big elephant played in the mud all day!

The great big rhinoceros...

The great big hippo... 

We had elephant trunks made from flexible tubing (cut to arm’s length) to dramatize how proficient an elephant is with his or her trunk. We put an arm through it and tried picking things up. Elephants like peanuts for a special treat
so we tried picking up peanuts.

Ever heard the saying, "You’ve got a memory like an elephant"? Elephants are known to have amazing memories. We played a memory game to test our memory. We placed 4-5 items (or pictures) of simple items in the middle of the circle. We talked about each thing and then closed our eyes. One item was taken away.We opened our eyes and had to try to figure out which item was missing. I have a memory like an elephant!
We chanted:
An elephant goes like this and like that
(Use arm and swing as a trunk)
He’s very big and he’s very fat
(Reach up high; Hands and arms out in front of body as in “fat”)
He has big ears, and he’s got toes,
(wiggle fingers by ears then point to toes)
And he has a very long nose!
(Swing arm way out in front)We read Hippo Goes Bananas by Margorie Dennis Murray and Kevin O’Malley,

and then we played a game called "River Jump". We lined up two jump ropes and pretended it was a river with hippos swimming in it. We had to jump over the river without stepping in it, because hippos can be very aggressive and they might bite. As we mastered the task, we moved the jump ropes further apart.

We had a spider web in which to play!

We stretched a long piece of yarn or string between the fence and the tree to be like a spider web. We pretended to be elephants as we sang to the tune of “Five Little Ducks”:
One elephant went out to play
Upon a spider’s web one day
He (She) had such enormous fun
He (She) called for another elephant to come.
Two elephants...
Three elephants...
Etc...

We read, "Stand Back,” Said the Elephant, “I’m Going to Sneeze!” by Patricia Thomas and Wallace Tripp,

and then we went on a safari in Africa to look for Elephants, Rhinos and Hippos. We had binoculars to see them up close. 

They were hidden throughout our play yard.

The Jungle Edition of If You’re Happy and You Know It by James Warhola, is such an entertaining book. We not only read it, but we followed along with all of the animal actions as well.

Our trip to the zoo was loads of fun.

We saw some elephants, hippos and rhinos.