"Rainforest Adventure"- Forest Floor

We started our day off with Mother Goose Time's Experience God curriculum. We are learning about Adam and Eve. Our learning point for today's lesson was that it was Adam's job to tend the Garden of Eden and name the creatures. God has a special job for each of us as well. Today the kids got to make one of God's creatures, a turtle, Herb the Turtle. They started by painting the bowl provided by Mother Goose Time green. 

We then added pom poms for the head and legs and eyes to the head. We then planted seeds provided by Mother Goose Time and are waiting to see what will grow. 

I prepared for today by setting most of the activities for the kids to discover on their own. They were at work on the activities before I was even ready. : ) 

We started our rainforest adventure with the activity Rainforest Walk. I created a hexagon out of painter's tape on the floor. The kids enjoyed doing just about everything in the hexagon that day. I asked the kids to show me how they can wiggle on the ground. There actions were pretty funny. They then walked around the hexagon and moved in different ways. Next we were supposed to put the Rainforest Animal Cards from Day 1 facedown inside the hexagon. For the life of me I could not find the Animal Cards from Day 1. I realized that I threw them away. Ugh!! So we used the Animal Matching cards we will use on Day 8 instead. Once we placed the cards upside down they picked one at a time and acted like that animal around the hexagon. 

Our next activity was Stick Shapes. I think my kids look forward to these activities every month. I put the supplies for these activities in a drawer in our play room and they often go get them throughout the month. It was a rainy day so we looked out the window and tried to find different shapes on the plants outside. They then matched the pattern blocks to the pictures on the Shape Mats. 

Our final activity for the day was Wet and Dry Art. We started by talking about what the rainforest floor feels like. We decided it was probably wet and warm. The kids then were able to feel some moist dirt in a container. They decided it was wet but cool. 

I then gave them a piece of paper and dry chalk. I asked them to draw on their paper with the chalk. We decided it was very dry. I then gave them a small bowl of water and they put the chalk in the water. When they drew with the wet chalk it was much darker and wet. 

Mason really enjoyed getting the chalk wet over and over again.