Migration

As the weather turns cooler in southern Indiana we learned about migration.  We learned that in addition to bird, lots of other animals including insects, mammals and reptiles migrate for a variety of reasons.  They move en masse to stay warm, find food or have babies at a traditional location. 

We started with the touch box which included a compass. 

Next we got some flight lessons from our friend Mainerd the mallard with the help of this little rhyme:

“Fly with the Birds”

Fly high, fly low

Fly fast, fly slow

Let’s dive for a drink

Let’s rest on a hill

Fly high, fly low

Fly fast, fly slow

Up, up and away!

Tired from our migration we took a break to read "Great Migrations" by Elizabeth Carney which includes amzaing photos of a variety of animals in migration. 

Next we practiced our flying some more to the song "Red-Winged Blackbird" by Debbie Carroll.

Next we did a fun flannel board story about five little geese flying south for the winter:

Five Little Geese
By Amanda Scurry

Five little geese flying in a “V”
The last one says, “Come on, follow me!” 
Down he flies to find food for his mouth
Four little geese continue flying south.

Four little geese flying in a “V”
The last one says, “Come on, follow me!”
Down she flies to take a little swim.
Three little geese ignore her little whim

Three little geese flying in a “V”
The last one says, “Come on, follow me!” 
Down he flies to have a sip to drink
Two little geese continue on without a blink

Two little geese flying in a row,
The second one says, “Are we getting close to home?”
Down she flies.  She needs a little rest.
One little goose flies on without the rest.

One little goose flying all alone.
He says to himself, “Look!  I’m almost home!”
Down he flies to a meadow of clover.
Home until he has to do it all over. 


We then read a lovely story about a girl who migrated with a flock of Canada Geese in Mick Manning and Britta Grandtrom's "Honk Honk:  A Story of Migration." 

We finished our day by making our own little paper bird to migrate home with us. 

Worms!

Kids love worms and it was no different at this week's Toddler Tales. We learned everything worm. We danced worm, we read about worms and how they live and we even helped our new friend Edna the Earthworm "dig" her burrow and hide from the big robin! We ended the morning by making our own worm friends to take home and enjoy a worm snack. Yum! Here is the outline of what we did:

This week's touch box really brought surprise as kids reached into a box of cooked wet spaghetti.

To get our worm wiggles out before a story we danced to “That’s What the Earthworm’s For” by the Earthworm Ensemble.

Our first non-fiction story was "An Earthworm's Life" written and illustrated by John Himmelman. An excellent story of what an earthworm does, how it lives and a reminder to NOT squish them!

Next we met our new friend Edna Earthworm. A worm made with rags wrapped around part of a wire clothes hanger and encased with several suntan knee high stockings. We put Edna on a large brown blanket that the kids shook parachute style to help Edna "dig" while singing this song:

This Small Worm - sung to "This Old Man"

This small worm, wiggly worm
She goes creeping through the dirt
With a squirm and a squiggle and a dig, dig, dig
Hide from the robin, oh so big!

Our second, fiction story was "Inch By Inch," a Caldecott Honor Book by Leo Lionni. Beautiful art and a fun story about a worm outwitting a bird.

Next, the kids met their own worm friends made a brown pipe cleaners. We danced with our worms to “Walter the Waltzing Worm” by Hap Palmer a fun tune that talks about various parts of the body that the worm dances on.

For our craft we made a burrow for our new worm friends using a small cup and paper grass.

We finished up our busy morning we a chocolate pudding and gummy worm snack! YUM!

Sources:

Craftbits.com

Step by Step Childcare