start of ocean week fun

We are busy painting our mural which will be shared with the other 4 year old classes- Purple and Yellow! Mr. Sobkowiak was a very big help today. We had lots of fun painting with him. Thanks for helping today. Mr. S!

Our story was "The Rainbow Fish." The story goes like this...

The story follows the beautiful Rainbow Fish, who is covered in colorful shiny scales. Proud and vain, and bragging, (when I used the word bragging - Isa said - "that means He was cheering for himself and not others!" What a great way for children to understand bragging) he thinks he is better than all the other fish and will not play with them. When one small fish asks the Rainbow Fish for one of his scales, he rejects him. The other fish then refuse to talk to the Rainbow Fish at all, (that reminded us of Zaccheaus in the Bible - no one wanted to be his friend, until Jesus came into his life and taught him about real love) so the Rainbow Fish visits the wise female octopus for advice. (we thought that part was a little spooky, but good) The octopus advises him to give away his scales to the other fish.

When he encounters the small fish a second time, the Rainbow Fish gives him one of his precious scales, and is very soon surrounded by other fish requesting scales. Eventually, the Rainbow Fish has only one shiny scale left, but he is no longer vain. He spends his days playing happily with the other fish. (it's a good book to remind of sharing and being kind to others)

We talked about the ocean.

• looked at the globe and saw more water than land
• I drew a circle and cut it into 4ths
• 1/4 would be land and 3/4 would be water
• showed them on an abacus - if all the beads were like the earth...71 beads would be water and the rest would be land
• a little abstract, but they got they idea of more and less, and lots more
• we also talked about the ocean is salty
• Lake Michigan and the other lakes are fresh water
• I would be interested in any comments they brought home
• We made some beautiful rainbow fish with watercolors and cra-pas (oil pastels)
  

We sang:

• Down in the meadow in an itty bitty pool - ask the grandmas about that song.
• Goliath
• Wa Wa song
• Love Letter

We danced:

• Good Night Irene
• The Irish Jig

We heard about and saw:

• Haley's baptism photos
• Natalie's owie from the water park slide
• Ethan's reward from the dentist...no cavities! Go Ethan!

Other things went on also. Have to go and bake some bread yet this evening for our church Lenten dinners here in Munster. Hope you are reading this and that you are sharing it with your children. It will add lots of conversation about the day.

More fun to come!