Rabbits...

On Tuesday we learned all about rabbits!  Please take special note in this post to notice just how much the kids are moving their bodies!  The children's brain and body are connected, and Mother Goose Time is full aware of this when planning activities for our monthly theme.  With the curriculum, structure is provided, but the kids are given so many chances to move around the room while they are learning!  Throughout the course of one day, the kids act things out, sing, dance, build, and just plain MOVE.  This is the one of the biggest thing I say when bragging about my use of Mother Goose Time!

During circle time I handed one child our letter R flower, and asked her to find the matching peek-a-boo letter on our circle time display.  She revealed the rocket inside!

Next, we sang the following song to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus."

"The rabbit in the garden goes hop, hop, hop.

Hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop.

The rabbit in the garden goes hop, hop, hop

Look, a carrot stop!

...The rabbit in the garden goes munch, munch, munch.

Munch, munch, munch, munch, munch, munch.

The rabbit in the garden goes munch, munch, munch

and eats a carrot lunch!

...The farmer in the garden shouts GO AWAY!

GO AWAY, GO AWAY!

The farmer in the garden shouts GO AWAY!

Don't eat my food today!"

How does a rabbit move?  I asked the kids to explore different ways of hopping or jumping (on one foot, backwards, in a circle, etc.)  We definitely got our hearts pumping after hopping this much!

Today we reviewed the letter R for rabbit!  Mother Goose provided us with these letter photo cards and hands-on letter R.

The kids took turns tracing the hands-on letter R's with their fingers and placing them on the letter mat.

I taped a giant uppercase letter R on the floor.  After tracing the hands-on letter R's, the kids could choose to hop like a rabbit or run fast like a rocket on the tape lines of the letter R.

While the other kids waited their turn, I challenged them to make the letter R with their body or write the letter R in the air with their arm or finger.  You can tell K was concentrating hard on this one.

She is proud she figured out how to make the uppercase R with both of her arms!

Mother Goose Time provided us with these supplies for our rabbit mask craft!

The kids drew their own ears on white paper and then cut them out.  They attached them to the paper plate, then added cotton balls for the fur.

Some of the older kids are free to use the stapler.  They are very responsible with this, and they LOVE it!

Aren't they adorable?!?!?

The kids got A LOT of exercise hopping around like rabbits as they played together!

How do you think rabbits talk to each other?  I asked the kids to try to have a conversation with each other without words - only movements and gestures.  I explained that rabbits are very quiet when they are hungry, tired or scared.  They communicate with body language.  The kids pretended to be rabbits as they mimicked the following movements:

- Head flat on the floor = Please pet me.

- Kicking = I'm upset.

- Licking = I love you.

- Soft teeth grinding = I'm very happy.

- Back turned to you = I'm ignoring you.

- Ears forward = I'm surprised.

- Ears back = I'm stressed.

- Scream = I'm hurt.

Next, we headed outside to play.  I cut the bottoms off of disposable cups and encouraged the kids to listen with the cups at their ears.  I explained that big ears allow rabbits to hear approaching predators.  We went outside and explored the outdoor area for sounds!

The kids loved using these as a megaphone...

Even I was amazed with how different everything sounded!

For our next activity, I showed the kids our letter R friend...

The kids traced our hands-on letter R in their journal, and then turned it into a rabbit.  They completed the sentence, "My rabbit is..."

"My rabbit is screaming."

"My rabbit is soft."

The kids measured rabbit ears in their math workbook...

Then they traced their feet for rabbit ears, and measured their feet!

The kids also practiced writing their sight words in their literacy workbook...

Mother Goose provided us with these math problem cards....

I asked the kids to work together to make a small garden with blocks.

The kids used their block garden and our rabbit counters (also provided by Mother Goose Time) to complete the math problems.

Our song on our Growing Gardens CD for today was called, "Rabbit Hop!"  The song spelled out the word "rabbit."  I taped our letter R rabbit card up for the kids to read while they danced along.

Here is a video of the kids dancing to the "Rabbit Hop" song.  This is so incredibly cute!

These were our books for the day.  Both were excellent!  "Muncha, Muncha, Muncha" is one of my favorites!  This is not the first time I have rented it from the library.  It is definitely a must read!  It is a story about a gardener who tries to outsmart the bunnies who keep eating the vegetables in his garden.  The book focuses a lot on positional words.

In the afternoon I set out these sound matching containers I made from milk lids and D'nimals yogurt smoothies.  The kids used their "rabbit ears" to listen to what was inside when they shook the container.  They had to find the container that had the same thing inside.  The containers had dried seeds, rice, sand, and cornstarch noodles in them.

The kids also worked on this page in their journal.  I wrote each child's story for them, and then we shared all of the stories with the class.  The kids LOVE these types of activities!