Caves, Crevices and Coral Reefs

We did another day of lessons just the two of us while Littlest napped on Tuesday.  Miss M was just starting to come down with the spring plague (aka a cold) and wasn't overly interested so we just did a couple activities.

When I pulled out the shell manipulatives for the month, she really perked up.  We worked on describing and classifying them by size and color.  I told her how some of them had held small animals like crabs and others had been homes to clams and oysters.  The crab shells traveled around the ocean floors but the clams stayed pretty much in one place.  I compared the clam shells to the oyster project she did on Monday so she could get a better idea of how they would have functioned.  It was a really simple way to get some science in our day.

Next, I wrote the numbers 1, 3, 5 and 8 on post-it notes and we took turns picking a number and then choosing that same number of shells.  This was fun for a couple of rounds and then she was done so we counted how many we each ended up with total and then she put all the shells in a ziploc bag while I counted them (there were 52, which is a little beyond her right now).

A little while later she was ready for some more so I showed her the theme picture for the day, depicting ocean caves.  We talked about how octopi like to live in caves and so do eels.  Then I used the diaper box "submarines", a few couch pillows and a blanket to build her a cave (the boxes were great, given better stability so it didn't fall down every time she lifted the blanket).  She had a lot of fun pretending she was an octopus and then a bear.

Today was supposed to be a preschool day but since we have been struck with the above mentioned spring plague, no one wanted to come play with us (go figure).  Littlest went down for a nap and Miss M and I spent a little time looking at the pictures of coral provided in today's activities.  Her energy level was even lower today but she did have fun doing the Sea Fan Coral art project.  She has recently been introduced to cutting and was very excited to cut the plastic canvas with her new scissors my mom bought for her this weekend (they are Fiskars for ages 3+ and have a little spring in them that makes it a little easier for newbie cutters) but they wouldn't quite do the job so we did a little hand over hand cutting with my scissors.  At this point she got a little sidetracked by wanting to do some cutting "by self" so I gave her a few little post-it notes to cut (small so she could still see and track where her other fingers were in order to avoid snipping them).  She needed reminding to keep her thumb pointing at the ceiling but otherwise did well and enjoyed it.  After about ten minutes she was ready to do the rest of the coral project.  I had to help push the eye of the needle through the canvas but she pulled the yarn through and decided where the next stitch would be.

After Littlest woke up, I remembered that I actually had photos of a coral reef that my husband and I took on trips to Cancun and Hawaii (pre-children) so I showed her these albums.  She really liked trying to find mommy and daddy in the photos and I even had a picture of an eel and an octopus hiding out in caves so I was able to tie in yesterday's subject as well.

I have been grateful to have some fun activities during this time of sickness to break up the requests for Daniel Tiger and Dora (she was pretending to be Dora in the top photos, which is why she's wearing a backpack).  Hopefully next week we will be able to do our Ocean Plants unit with our friends.  I have a fun little science extension to do with that one. :)