Legendary Reptiles

Olivia and Preston yell "Fall!"

Do you like Lollipops?

Not surprisingly--all students answered "yes" to the above question.
We reviewed the Alphabet (singing, writing, A-L).

Toys: Free play was spent with puzzles, cars, race track, and the Little People village.

Snacks: Peanut Butter crackers, apples slices, and Cheez-It crackers.
We looked at a book on Reptiles and talked about what they remembered from the BYU Monte L. Bean Museum Field Trip. It was fun to see the frilled lizards, the colorful lizards,a nd the purple tongued lizards. We talked about animal defenses, camouflage, habitat, and what made the Reptiles in the book similar and different.

At snack time on Tuesday, the students began doing simple Mathematics with their square crackers...counting up how many they had, adding 2+2, subtracting crackers from their numbers, 2-1, etc.

We enjoyed looking at the pictures and talking about A Snake in the House. In this story, a little boy catches a small snake by a river and brings it home only to have the snake escape it's bottle and roam the house and eventually make it's way back to the river.

We learned about L the lizard who lazily licks a lemon lollipop, "l-l-l" is what she says as she licks.

Arts and Crafts: The children had fun licking lollipops (Dun Dums) while learning to follow directions (color the lizard legs and face green), cut out the L shape, glue and paste onto a colored paper, and tape a lollipop in Lizards mouth. (I thought it was cute that many students told me they were going to give a sibling the extra lollipop).

Recess Time was spent outdoors--chilly but sunny, yea! The children were riding the airplane to "Cowabunga" looking for lizards! We went down through the "jungle" to the deep back yard where the children loved throwing the fallen leaves up in the air and laughing.

We enjoyed reading Crictor about a lady who is sent a snake by her son studying reptiles in Africa and send her one for her birthday. Crictor is an amazing snake and becomes a loyal companion for the lady and helps save the town from a thief.

Lizard and Reptile Books:
Crictor by Tomi Ungerer
A Snake in the House by Faith McNulty, Ill. by Ted Rand Reptiles
Reptiles, Oxford Scientific Films by Mike Linley
Snakes (Usbourne Discovery, Internet-Linked) Rachel Firth & Jonathan Sheikh-Miller
Snakes (All Aboard Reading, Lvl. 2) by Patricia Demuth, Ill. by Judith Moffatt
Snakes by Seymour Simon
Geeko Hide and Seek: A Counting Book From Hawaii By Gill McBarnet
The Goodnight Geeko: A Bedtime Story from Hawaii by Gill McBarnet
Claire and the Friendly Snakes by Lindsey Tate, Ill. by Jonathan Franklin

Our Thanksgiving Feast

Our Thanksgiving Celebration included:

Friends and Toys: Playing with Fisher Price Little People Village, Linking Blocks, Emergency Vehicles, and Baby Dolls.

The boys enjoyed noisy vehicles.
We read the poem, On Thanksgiving Day, by Rochelle Nielsen-Barshun and talked about how they too could help their families at home in small ways.

On Thanksgiving Day
By Rochelle Nielsen-Barsuhn
I put rolls in a basket,
crisp and warm,
stirred the gravy,
buttered the corn.
I watched the turkey
cook golden brown.
I mashed the potatoes
while Mom sat down.
In fact,
I was such a big help today
that before we bowed our heads to pray,
Mom whispered, "I'm thankful for you."

We talked about following a recipe (again) and got out our ingredients.
We enjoyed making Marie Calendar's Corn-meal Muffins.

We learned how to use two spoons to drop the sticky batter into the paper cups.

FUN!

We reviewed the First Thanksgiving with these pictures (colored by my daughters). You can find and print them out them here (click on the purple link) or here: http://printables.scholastic.com/printables/detail/?id=28485

Indian Corn helped save the Pilgrims after their first crops did not grow. Samoset, Chief of the Massasoit Indians, and Squanto, an Indian who had traveled to England and spoke English well, taught the Pilgrims many things and helped them survive after the first harsh winter*. (Some credit him and the Indians for saving the Pilgrims and being sent by Heaven). Squanto taught them how to tap the maple trees for sap, differentiate plants were poisonous and which had medicinal powers, and how to plant the Indian corn by heaping the earth into low mounds with several seeds and fish in each mound. The decaying fish fertilized the corn. He also taught them to plant other crops with the corn.
*Over half of the 102 Pilgrims died the first Winter in America. There were four women alive in the spring and most of the fifty people remaining were the children.

Our Class Fruit Salad: Each child was asked to bring a fruit. Then, each child helped prepare the fruit for a fruit salad. Each child adds to our special preschool here.

(Thank you, Olivia, for the pineapple and special cutting and juicing tool.) Thanks to the students for apples, tangerines, bananas, and grapes. We enjoyed a delicious salad and had even more fun cutting, picking off, peeling, separating, adding, and mixing our salad all by ourselves!

Slicing grape halves and banana wheels.

Hugh said, "Ahh, a kiss (of cream)!" (before licking off his finger and washing his hands)

Miss Julie

Turkey Cookies!
(Indian and Candy Corn, sandwich cookies, caramel Kisses, and
melted chocolate and candy eyes)

Our Feast: Popcorn, Corn-meal Muffins, Broccoli Au Gratin, Yams,
Turkey,
Cranberry Sauce,
Apple Cider, Fruit Salad, and Pumpkin Delight.

Alphabet Adventures Fruit Salad!

Now, for a prayer and it's time to eat!

Yum!

Today was a special preschool because we worked together to make a feast and remember the First Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and the Indians (Native Americans--especially Chief Massasoit, Squanto, and Samoset ).

** Thanks you, parents, for your patience with me when our feast ran over time and for contributing the fruit for our fruit salad!

Some of our favorite Thanksgiving Books:
Thanksgiving Books:
The Most Thankful Thing by Lisa McCourt, Ill. by Cyd Moore (Scholastic)
The Story of the Pilgrims by Katherine Ross, Ill. by Carolyn Croll
Arthur's Thanksgiving by Marc Brown
It's Thanksgiving by Jack Prelutsky, Ill. by Marilyn Hafner
Thanksgiving With Me by Margaret Willey, Ill. by Lloyd Bloom
The Night Before Thanksgiving by Natasha Wing, Ill. by Tammie Lyon
The First Thanksgiving Feast by Joan Anderson, Phots by George Anacona
The First Thanksgiving by Jean Craighead George, Ill. by Thomas Locker
Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell, Ill. by Lizzy Rockwell
Sarah Morton's Day; A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl by Kate Waters, photos by Russ Kendall
The Pilgrims of Plymouth by Marica Sewall
Brother Eagle, Sister Sky Ill. by Susan Jeffers
I Am The Turkey (I Can Read! 2) by Michelle Sobel Sprin, Ill. by Joy Allen
10 Fat Turkey's by Tony Johnston, Ill. by Rich Deas
All the Places to Love by Patricia Maclachlan, Paintings by Mike Wimmer
Thank you, Grandpa by Lynn Ploude, Ill. by Jason Cockcroft
Grandad's Prayers of the Earth by Douglas Wood, Ill. by P.J. Lynch

Online fun--Thanksgiving Websites:

• Hubbard's Cupboard--The First Thanksgiving
  
• Scholastic page on The First Thanksgiving (great wealth of information and pictures)
• First School--Alphabet Printable Activities, "Turkey"
  

Reptile Show at Monte L. Bean Museum (BYU)

For our Field Trip this month, we were invited to a live Reptile Show as part of the preschool continuing education series at The Monte L. Bean Museum on BYU Campus. Our instructor was the ever patient Meg. (I have included some of what we learned for your enjoyment).

Meg began the show by asking the students "What is a reptile?" A reptile is defined as: "Any of various cold-blooded, usually egg-laying vertebrates of the class Reptilia, such as a snake, lizard, crocodile, turtle, or dinosaur, having an external covering of scales or horny plates and breathing by means of lungs." (Definition from Answers.com)

[Pictured above: Meg, our Educator, crocodile skin facsimile, a legless lizard, a crocodile skull, bottled snake eggs, a sea turtle's bone shell, a rolled up boa constrictor skin, a cart of plastic containers housing various reptiles.]

Then she asked them "what is a Mammal?" A Mammal is defined as: "Any of various warm-blooded vertebrate animals of the class Mammalia, including humans, characterized by a covering of hair on the skin and, in the female, milk-producing mammary glands for nourishing the young." As well as, most mammals give birth to their young.

She began by showing us a bottle of eggs. "Do these look like the eggs you normally get from the store?" "No!" the children chorused. "Why not!?" She continued. They were off white, soft skinned eggs in a bottle of clear liquid and you could see through the soft, pliable egg shell into the darker embryo inside. "These are snake eggs. Snake eggs have soft skin so that the female snake can bury them in the sand or dirt and people can walk on them and they will not get hurt. How to they hatch then? Snakes babies have an egg tooth on the end of their snout that appears and helps the snake to crack and escape it's shell and then after a few days the egg tooth falls off for good (because it is not longer needed).

Our class, Alphabet Adventures, on the front row, with Mrs. Andrea Marley, Andelin, and Jaxon pictured on the left. (Thanks for helping to chaperone.)

Petting the box turtle, Flinders. We talked about the color of our eyes. Did you know you can tell the gender of a Box Turtle by his/her eye color? Red eyes are males. Brown eyes are females.
A turtle shell is like a bony ribcage. A Box Turtle can draw itself up into it's shell when afraid.

Land turtles are slow, sea turtles are fast swimmers.
Also, why is it bad for a turtle to be flipped on it's back? The turtle's lungs are up under it's shell on the top of it's body. Flipped upside down the turtle cannot breathe.

Meg is reminding us to touch the reptiles with two fingers on the tail so as not to frighten them.
This is Bruceskee, a yellow Fat-tailed Geeko from the Sahara dessert (note the coloring like sand). This guy stores fat and nutrients in his tail and can go days without food. That is an adaption to his habitat (environment where he lives). If he, or another lizard, come under attack and their tails are seized--they can drop their tails and get away. In a few months, they will regrow a tail (but it is always different from the original tail).

Talking about the amazing tail!

The Constrictor Cuddles.

"What is the difference between snakes and legless lizards?" Meg asks us. "Lizards have external ears. Snakes do not have external ears at all but "hear" through body vibrations."
There are two different types of snakes, venomous (poisonous) and non-venomous. This is a non-venomous (Boa) Constrictor named Cuddles. The constrictor do have fangs but do not have poison to paralyze their prey--instead, they coil their skin around a victim and squeeze. Cuddles is fed two mice every two weeks at the museum.
Cuddles, has no ears (like a lizard does) but "smells or sniffs" using olfactory glands in her tongue. When a snake slithers it's tongue in and out it is smelling the environment for clues.
This is the snake skin of a large constrictor. Snakes shed their skin in order to grow larger. (This is the actual skin of a dead and skinned snake).

Snake skin feels smooth, dry, and scales are satiny (similar to leather) to the touch.
It is not slimy or sticky as one might expect.

Nathan, Hugh, and Olivia loved looking at the large mammals on display!

After the Reptile show, we washed our hands with soap and water. We then enjoyed wandering through the many museum exhibits and stopping to ask questions or participate in a hands on activity. There is so much to see! Please visit the Monte L. Bean Museum on BYU Campus. Their address is 645 E. 1430 N. in Provo (because of construction, please enter the museum from the west side of campus). Here is a link to their homepage: Monte L. Bean Museum

Our classes in front of the Butterflies sign made up of butterflies!

Hugh, Susie, and Nathan enjoy the birds display.

Looking at the birds: ducks, swans, geese, etc.

We enjoyed seeing the big game animals, wandering through various habitat displays, shells, butterflies, insects, birds, cats, seeing fish and sharks, even seeing the legendary Hogle Zoo Shasta, a Liger, whose father was a tiger and mother was a lion.

Thank you, Hugh and Olivia, for the fun snacks today.
We feasted on golden apples and Animal Crackers and Goldfish crackers.

Always full of energy, the children wanted to play together with toys when it was time to go.