Dragon Adventures May 7-11

The week was filled with one dragon adventure right after another...

The sensory table was the dragons’ nesting grounds. We had dragon eggs which were hatching into baby dragons as we explored.

 We played "Dragon, Dragon, What Time is it?" One of us was the dragon and the others had to listen to directions from the dragon until he/she shouted out "Lunchtime!" We raced around the room, trying not to get caught. The person caught, became the new dragon.

"Chase the Dragon Tail" was a fun outdoor game to play. We each wore a tail and chased each other around the yard trying to catch each other's tail.

Dragons are beautiful, mysical creatures. We had dragon shapes on which to paint scales with water colors. Each dragon was unique.

We discoverd the dragon’s lair. There were dragons who lived there. They were friendly and allowed us to "hang out" with them.

We absolutely loved all of the dragon books of the week: The Egg, The Great Dragon Rescue and The Dragon Snatcher by M.P. Robertson.

We also enjoyed reading The Tale of Custard the Dragon, by Ogden Nash and The Popcorn Dragon by Jane Thayer was a favorite because we got to eat popcorn for snack everytime we read it!

We chanted:
I’m being swallowed by a fire-breathing dragon
A fire-breathing dragon, a fire-breathing dragon.
I’m being swallowed by a fire-breathing dragon,
And I don’t like it very much!
as we crawled through the body of a fire-breathing dragon!

"Goin' on a Dragon Hunt" was a favorite activity of the week.

Goin' on a dragon hunt
Gonna catch a big one
I'm not afraid,
'Cause I'm a mighty dragon hunter...

ROAR!

Mexican Fiesta April 30-May 4

We had a fun-filled week celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a Mexican Fiesta.

We started the week with strips of newspaper and starch to create a pinata. We had to dip the strips in the starch and then place them on a big round balloon. Before decorating, we had to let it dry.

We used diluted glue and pieces of colored tissue paper to make our pinata bright and colorful.

Instead of playing at the sensory table, we had an inflatable sombrero filled with all kinds of beans to pour, measure, shake, etc.

To get into the spirit of a fiesta, we tried on sombreros and serapes.

Playdough was used to make pots like they do in Mexico. Some of us rolled coils and some of us rolled the dough to make our pots.

Our fiesta wouldn’t be complete without doing the Mexican Hat Dance. We kicked and jumped, walked and ran around the sombrero to the Mexican Hat Dance tune.

We read and reread the books by Ann Whitford Paul- Tortuga in Trouble, Manana Iguana, Fiesta Fiasco and Count on Culebra. We learned some Spanish by reading them over and over again.

Maracas make such awesome music. We used paper cups to decorate and fill with beans. When dry, we jumped like Mexican jumping beans and shook our maracas to "La Cucaracha".

All week we practiced making tacos with fun foam shapes. For lunch one day we made real tacos. 

We ended the week with our fiesta. We took turns smacking the pinata as we counted in Spanish. 

At last we broke it open to find plenty of treats for all!

For snack we made sopaipillas and dipped them in honey.

Ole'!