Loulie had another busy and productive day. Since the home-made playdoh shapes were dried and ready for decorating, she spent part of the morning decorating them with jewels and glitter. She was very proud of them and decided that they would be gifts for each family member. She carefully chose an ornament for each person and decorated it accordingly. She was very excited to be able to bring them home today.
Next, she did some mathematics using manipulatives. She used glass stones as counters to do subtraction problems within 10. When she found the answers to the subtraction problems she wrote the answer on the space provided. She then followed a key to color by number and created a whale picture. Loulie shared that she hadn’t done subtraction before today, and she was very proud that she was able to figure out all the answers on her own.
After lunch, we shared a book called, “A House for Hermit Crab”. This book by Eric Carle is a story about a hermit crab who has outgrown his old shell and moves into a new one, which he decorates and enhances with the various sea creatures he meets in his travels. We used this text to learn about ocean creatures, to practice story sequencing, and to share an oral retelling. Sequencing and retelling are both primary level literacy standards. Loulie retold the story by creating a collage much like the illustrations that are in the text. As she retold the story she added details to a collage she created of the Hermit Crab.
We then compared the information in the story by Eric Carle with information in our “Encyclopedia of Ocean Life” book as we recalled the sea animals that the Hermit Crab added to his shell. After completing that project, we watched a BBC video that showed live hermit crabs leaving their old shells and moving into new shells. Loulie is a quick study and is easily able to compare and contrast the information that we have learned about various ocean creatures.