Babe the Blue Ox...

On Wednesday our Mother Goose lesson was all about Babe the blue ox and Bessie the yellow cow.  Truth be told, I never heard of Bessie before today.  I had fun learning with the kids though!  Our question of the day was "What animals make good pets?  What animals cannot be pets?  and Why?"  This prompted a great discussion about animals.  I even learned that one preschool family has a pet lizard at home!  The kids thought a bird would make a good pet, and although they are correct, I respectfully disagreed. ;)

 During circle time I passed out our colored stick counters that Mother Goose Time provided us this month.  We reviewed our colors.  I named a color and invited the child/ren with that color stick to sit down.  We continued until everyone was sitting and ready to learn.

 For our song I asked the kids to find a partner.  They took turns pretending to be Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.  We sang "Big Blue Ox" to the tune of "Mary Had  Little Lamb..."

"Paul Bunyan had a big blue ox.

Big blue ox,

big blue ox.

Paul Bunyan had a big blue ox.

His name was Babe!"

 Next, we discussed what colors we see outside.  We learned that everything looked blue to Paul Bunyan during the very cold weather.  I set out our science viewers from Lakeshore Learning.  The kids explored looking through them to see how things looked differently!

 Looking through the blue lens and imagining we could see like Paul Bunyan!

 I read the following story to the kids...

 Mother Goose provided us with these story telling pieces to go along with the story above.

 I passed out the pieces and we listened to the story again on CD.  When the kids heard the part of the story they were holding, they held up their piece for everyone to see.

 Next, we did a few small learning activities with Babe the blue ox.  I invited the kids to try and put Babe in different sized space or containers throughout the room.  I asked the kids to discover if Babe was too big, too small or just right to fit in each space...

 Next, the kids used the story-telling pieces to follow listening directions that had positional words in them...

• Put Babe under the toy table, and walk around the table.
• Put the green glasses on Bessie, then moo like a cow.
• Pretend to drink the milk, then put it inside the toy refrigerator.
• Hold the logs above your head, then bring them to Babe.

 Before our next activity the kids shared what their favorite season is and why.  In the story today we learned that Babe loves winter and Bessie loves summer.  Each child was given a new "I Can Read" book titled, "Babe and Bessie."  We read the book a few times together as a group.  Then the kids wrote their names on the cover, and read with a friend somewhere of their choice in the classroom.

 I love watching the kids do a "Buddy Read" with their friends.  They always choose the cutest spots to read!

 Next the kids were given these story cards from their literacy workbook.  They cut apart the cards, put them in order and were asked to retell the story from today in their own words.  They could color a new ending to the story on the blank card.

 The kids were also given these Memory cards from their math workbook...

 Being that Paul Bunyan was a lumberjack, I thought it was a good idea to take out our Lincoln Logs for today.  The kids had so much fun building!

 This was our story for today...

 After nap time I gave the kids some finger-painting paper and finger-paint.  They discovered new colors as they mixed the three primary colors together with their hands.  I love finger-painting!  It is such a fun and cool sensory activity for preschoolers!  As they mixed the colors blue and yellow together, I told them to imagine they were mixing Babe the blue ox, and Bessie the yellow color together!