guess what we’ll be making today?

just like 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011..our straw flowers.

get some straws, some paper, scissors, a hole punch and make some!

the flowers are blooming!

happy may day!

if you’ve read our blog for the last while, you’ve seen this guy before.

cooper has grown older just like us.

i practiced calm and strength and carried him from his cage to circle time.

he really is a sweet snake.

clever and funny too!  when at circle time, he’d move quickly to our chalkboard and slither down the chalk track.

thank you for coming again, cooper!  and thank you, john david, for sharing. :)

i love this activity.  the surprise and the guessing and the freedom to explore further.

this time we had cinnamon, lemon oil, vanilla and dill.  after we passed them around at circle time, we left them out for friends to keep on smelling and guessing.

later in the week we added black pepper and vinegar.  mmmmmmmmm!

{imagine you are hearing me whisper this entire post into a tube pressed to your ear.}

after we decorated different sizes of cardboard tubes with mini strips of duct tape, talked about the delicateness of the human ear and needing to keep it safe from too-loud of sounds, the classroom got really quiet.

we listened to classroom sounds like our water ball and the clock ticking:

we listened to a friend whispering in our tube:

we listened to the radio that was only one number 2 out of 40 volume:

we listened to anything we could hear:

we used plastic easter eggs, strips of making tape and parts of paper bags to make mini versions of our big mama snake.

at the beginning of the year i mentioned that in the spring, mama snake (who hangs in our classroom all year) would have babies.  the preschoolers remembered!

yeah, mama snake!

mama snake had 44 babies that week…and all 44 were adopted and went to new homes.