Theme: Patterns Day 3

With the chicks being only two years old, this unit was about introduction and exposure because we’ll be going back to it and incorporating patterns into many other lessons.  I started with the normal routine.  Then we went to the garden.  Their peas and beans have sprouted, so they could see the alternating pattern we made with the peas and the beans. (I was really bad about taking pictures today)  Then we went back inside and the chicks finished patterns I started with blocks.  Sometimes they got it and sometimes not so much.  This is Tank taking the leader role again.

I then gave them pink and yellow felt petals and asked them to copy the abab pattern I was making with my petals.  When they were done, I sewed a running stitch along the bottom and pulled the string until the petals pulled into a flower.  We glue gunned (is that a word?) the flowers to a clip.  Don’t look to closely.  I’m not a very crafty mama.

Sorry about Hal’s kissy lips.  Teenage sister and cousins.  Sometimes I can’t get her to take a normal picture.  And then there’s Uniqua who insists on funny faces.

Thank you Pooh.

Then we made banana bread.  It has nothing to do with patterns.  I just needed to use some bananas that were getting too ripe.

After lunch, it was time to go home.  It never seems like enough time, but any longer is too long for our chicks.  I wanted to paint patterns on their nails with nail polish.  We had a quick circle time to close it all up and we made patterns with clapping and stomping.

Theme: Patterns Day 2

We read, “But Not The hippopotamus!” by one of our favorites, Sandra Boynton.

I didn’t even say anything about patterns in books, but they had a great time saying, “But not the hippopotamus” which occurs on every page.

Next, we I pulled out a book called, “I See Patterns.”  The chicks found patterns on every page.

One of the pages had a piano, and almost immediately they all pointed to the piano in the room.   I gave them a minute to pound on it and find the pattern.  The black and white picture is not an error.  It’s just a great way to hide the grungy-ness of the piano keys.

Right after that book, we talked about how we could make patterns in the room.  I suggested using the chairs.  They caught on and made a pattern using the kid recliners and the wooden chairs.  It’s hard to see the pattern in the picture, but I promise it’s there!  Since the reading chairs were all set up, they insisted on reading for a few minutes which is always a great idea.

After some free play, we played ring-around-the-rosie.

There are a million ways to find patterns with this…especially if you do it about a hundred times!  It was fun to watch and they were getting along.

It was a much happier scene than this one that occurred not too much earlier.

I pulled out some pictures of animals and we found patterns all over the place.  They really had it down.  I cut up strips of paper and had them choose to be a tiger or a lion.  I pre-cut the eyes and drew on the faces for these animal masks.  The girls took a little time to color it and then I showed them what a pattern would look like on their mask.

They did great!  I pointed out a few “two colors in a row” to them and they easily recognized that they needed the alternating color.  It wasn’t easy getting the strips to stay glued down, but they stuck with it and they came out great!  Here are their fabulous masks.

I’m working on a “Five Little Pumpkins” book for Halloween, so I had spent time taking lots of pictures.  They were totally over taking pictures at this point, so I’m glad there were animal masks to cover the faces of two-year-old irritation. (cheeeeese!)

Here’s a sneak peak of their pumpkin book.

Theme: Patterns DAY 1

This week we are starting patterns.  It’s something that we can be incorporating into other themes too but we wanted to have kind of an introduction to it.

Ironically, we always have fights over who gets to say the prayer, so today I had a “prayer jar.”  In the container are 4 sticks each one has a chick’s name on it.  I did a heart on one end and a flower on the other, after the name is picked we flip the stick so we know who has already had a turn.  By the second pick The Tank figured out which one had her name on it and picked that one.  Smart girl!

For more consistency, I printed out a weather chart like Emmie and we checked the weather as part of our opening.  I have a container with 2 caterpillars (I found out the lizards eat them so I have to bring them into the house and keep them safe).  I used them as my intro to patterns.

We talked about patterns being everywhere and then to keep their attention, I made a pattern alternating a chocolate chip then a marshmallow.  I started it with 2 sets and then gave each chick a chance to guess/say what came next.  Then they all got to have marshmallows and chocolate chips.  I did that 2 more times during the day because it got them to participate, sugar is magic that way!

After a play break I brought them back to circle and I had 4 bags with different items for them to make a pattern with.  I had them each pick a bag and let them know that they would be able to trade if they wanted to, after they made a pattern with the things in the bag they picked.  Hal had gold coins and jewels left over from a pirate party.

Pooh bear had yellow hexagons and orange squares, we tried stacking them too like a sandwich but it wasn’t as effective because she couldn’t see the square under the hexagon.

Uniqua had princesses and blocks which was a bad choice on my part because it was more fun to stand the princesses on the blocks.

The Tank had purple and blue foam fish but she liked the pirate booty and Hal was willing to trade after they both had done a pattern with their original choices.Notice they turned into princesses?!

We looked at the caterpillars again and then I had them all paint a stripe pattern on a caterpillar.

It wasn’t much of a pattern but I did hear them saying “Pattern Power” when they were playing outside later!

And for lunch we had peanut butter and nutella sandwiches with patterned fruits.