Georgia's Pre-K Program teacher newsletter, Vol. 2, Issue 8 (Apr. 2006)

April 2006

BUNNY FUN! HIP-HOP HOORAY!

Here is a fun way to introduce your children to some "funny bunny" information! Pair up children so that everyone has a bunny buddy. Begin by teaching them the bunny jive. (Mailbox Magazine, Apri l/May 2004).
Hip-hoppin' hooray!
Do the bunny jive this way:
With a bump and a jump and a thumpity, thump, thump.
The bunnies are on the way!
Let's have bunny fun today!
(Partners bump hips.
Jump up with hands in front like bunny paws.
Extend leg and thump foot on the ground three times.)
Now to teach them some bunny basics! From construction paper, cut a class supply of several simple vegetable shapes, such as cabbage, carrots, and radishes. Record each

of the following facts on the a different vegetable shape. Hide the shapes around the room or around the playground area. Direct class to hop like rabbits in a garden to find the vegetables. Have them put their finds into one harvest basket. When all of you bunnies have hopped back to your large group area, read and discuss the facts on the vegetable shapes. For additional fun, have your students sort the vegetable shapes. Add this to your math area with your harvest basket so the children can sort the veggie shapes over and over.
Bunny Facts:
1. Rabbits sleep during the day. At night they look for food. They are nocturnal.
2. Rabbits have long ears that turn in many directions. They are great lis-

teners.
3. A rabbit warns other rabbits of danger by thumping the ground with his back feet. The other rabbits stay very still.

Bright From The Start
Volume 2, Issue 8
April 2006

4. A bunny's eyes are on the sides of his head so that he can see everywhere around him.
5. A boy rabbit is called a buck. A girl rabbit is called a doe. A baby rabbit is called a kitten.
6. Rabbits are herbivores. They eat mostly plants.

Special points of interest: J Bunny Facts J Bunny Pokey J Bunny Changes to your learning
environment J Bunny Poem J Bunny Munchies J Kindergarten Readiness

7. Rabbits have long back legs for running fast and hopping.

8. Rabbits have long front teeth that never stop growing.

9. Some rabbits live together underground in houses called warrens.

Contact information:

Phonological Awareness Activities

Do the Bunny Pokey!

Bunny Ears

This is a fun Music and Movement Activity that helps increase children's listening skills .

Bunny Paws (left and right) Bunny Feet (thump them) Bunny Nose (wiggle it) Bunny Tummy

You can use the following mo- Bunny Tail (shake it!)

tions to take place of the tradi tional ones you would use with the Hokey Pokey.

And any other bunny parts you and the children can think of!

Consultant of the Day 404-656-5957 888-4GA-PREK Suspension/Disenrollment Meghan McNail 404-463-0009 Meghan.McNail@decal.state.ga.us
Visit our new website
www.decal.state.ga.us

KINDGERGARTEN READINESS

Try some of these ideas to help with the transition to Kindergarten.
Practice morning routines such as "moment of silence" or pledge to the flag.
Practice raising hands to answer questions.
Practice carrying cafeteria trays. You can implement this during center time as well as during meals and snacks. If trays aren't avai lable, you can use cookie sheets or serving trays instead.
Learn to open individual milk and juice cartons or "chugs" and condiment packages.
Practice walking as a group from the classroom to other locations in the school/center as they will have to at "the big school".
Arrange to visit "special" classrooms such as P.E. , Music, or Art.
Answer roll call.
Practice getting on and off a bus and go over bus safety rules. Invite a bus to your center

if you aren't at an elementary school.
Visit the school library and practice checking out books.
Learn to sharpen a pencil.
Meet with a kindergarten teacher and discuss anything in the schedule or routine that you could put into practice in your own classroom. Is there a special sign for "quiet" in Kindergarten classrooms? Or a special way to walk down the hall?
Make changes to your daily routine to allow for longer sitting times at small and large groups. Allow a shorter rest period so you can include more instruction in the afternoons of your daily routine. Prepare children and families if the Kindergarten the child will attend does not have a rest time.
Arrange a trip to visit the local school and meet important school personnel and get a tour.
Arrange for your children to meet some for-

mer pre-k students to talk with your chi ldren about Kindergarten and what it will be like. Stock your writing center with writing materials like the ones used in your local school system (lined paper, fat pencils, skinny pencils, a pencil sharpener, name cards, worksheets (as a choice), etc.). Read books aloud about Kindergarten. See the suggested list below.
"Every day your child should bring home Love in their heart,
Knowledge in their mind; And nothing necessary in their hands".

SUGGESTED BOOKS FOR KINDERGARTEN TRANSITION

Annabelle Swift, Kindergarten--Amy Schwartz I Want To Go To School Too: A Story About Kinder-

Boomer Goes to School--Constance W. McGeorge garten--Liza Alexander

Countdown to Kindergarten--Alison McGhee

If You Take A Mouse To School--Laura Numeroff

Curious George Goes To School--Margret Ray Little Cliff's First Day of School--Clifton L. Taulbert

David Goes To School--David Shannon

Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come--Nancy L. Carlson

Elizabeti's School--Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen First Day--Dandi Daley Mackell & Tiphanie Beeke First Day Jitters--Julie Danneberg

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready For Kindergarten-- Joseph Slate
Mouse's First Day of School--Lauren Thompson

First Day, Hooray--Nancy Poydar Franklin Goes To School--Jonathan London

For more ideas visit www.terrifictransitions.org

"Trying to teach children without involving parents is like
raking leaves in high wind." Dr. Kimberly Muhammad-Earl

Froggy Goes to School--Paulette Bourgeois

Bunny Munchies

Set-up a bunny salad bar so the children can discover that they have similar tastes as the bunnies they are learning about. Include dip and several types of veggies for children to try (remember to check for food allergies). Be sure to label each choice. Encourage chi ldren to write their names on sticky notes to vote for their favorite veggie on a class graph as they complete the sampling. Let them try some V8 juice as their drink and tell them it is full of veggies and so good for them. Some veggies to put out for sampling: carrots, cucumbers, celery, cabbage, lettuce

leaves, broccoli, radishes, etc. To put a fi nishing touch on this activity, read these two

FUNNY BUNNY POEM

stories about bunnies who didn't like the usual

bunny favorites.

Bunny, bunny, bunny, you're so funny

1. Cabbage Moon by Tim Chadwick

With your twitching nose (wiggle nose).

2. Rabbit Food by Susanna Gretz

Bunny, bunny, bunny, you're so funny

From your head (point to head) to your toes

You can follow-up by referring back to your (bend over and touch toes).

class graph and discuss what was liked the Bunny, bunny, bunny your ears are funny

most, the least, etc.

(make bunny ears with hands on top of head)

They're too big for you...

Bunny, bunny, bunny, you're so funny...

Everyone loves you (hug yourself)!

Volume 2, Issue 8

Page 2

CHANGES TO YOUR ENVIRONMENT--BUNNY STUDY

There are many changes you can make to your learning centers and to your room to reflect the study of rabbits. Be creative and have fun. Research tells us that four-year old children learn best by having connections throughout their learning environment and activities related to what they are learning about. Ideas for both are included.
Dramatic Play Center: Rabbit ears, gardening supplies, plastic gardening tools, gardening clothes, cotton tails, harvest baskets, vegetables, stuffed rabbits, baskets, gardening hats.
Listening Center: Put a supply of bunny ears in your listening area. Fill a number of film canisters with different materials that make different sounds so that a pair of cani sters has the same material. When visiting the center, children should put on the bunny ears and find the canisters with matching sounds. Also put at least two good bunny stories with corresponding tapes.
Science: Pictures and books with pictures of real rabbits. Add a real rabbit for the science area or plan for a visitor to bring one for your children to see and pet. Pictures of real vegetables and real vegetables for c hildren to explore.

For an extension activity plant vegetable seeds and watch them grow.
Social Studies Activity: Where do bunnies live? Explore this with children and provide pictures about habits and habitat of rabbits.
Block Center: Plastic gardening tools, gardening gloves, small plastic vegetables, stuffed rabbits, plastic fencing, empty seed packets and brown felt for children to create their own gardens.
Sensory Table: Add potting soil. Add plastic bugs, insects, plastic gardening tools. Include tongs and tweezers along with a sorting tray. Have children search for the items and sort into the sorting tray.
Math Center: Add laminated paper bunnies of different colors (brown, gray, white) for counting and patterning.
For MORE ideas, visit page 4
of this newsletter.

Books About Rabbits

BUNNY MATH

Try some of these titles. Put them into a child-sized wheelbarrow stuffed with toys, decorative vegetables and a pastel colored table cloth or blanket to sit on.
The Seed Bunny by Jennifer Selby Home for A Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown Dance Away by George Shannon The April Rabbits by David Clev eland

The ABC Bunny by Wanda Ga'g Bunny My Honey by Anita Jeram Too Many Bunnies by Tomie de Paola Rabbit's Good News by Ruth Lercher Bornstein The Carrot Seed by Jack Krauss

TRANSITION IDEA

This activity is best done in a smaller group. Have your children form a line. At the end of each verse of this song, touch one bunny on the shoulder and have him hop away to the other side of the room. "There were eight little bunnies a-sittin' on a hill. Eight little bunnies were oh-so still. They sniffed the air, and one hopped away. How many bunnies were left to play?
After they get good at this, start to add one back in occasionally. Instead of saying "one hopped away", say "one hopped back". You can also change the number that hop away or back.

Use this little song to help you with transitions during your study of rabbits.
(Children lay on the floor and pretend to be asleep.) All bunnies fast asleep. All the bunnies not a peep. If I should sing my song today, will all those bunnies get up and play? (Children get up and hop around the room.)
Get up little bunnies hopping, hopping. Get up little bunnies hop, hop, hop. Get up little bunnies hopping, hopping. Get up little bunnies hop AND STOP!
Volume 2, Issue 8

STORY FOLLOW-UP

After several weeks in a bright warm place, the carrot top will sprout leaves. AMAZING! Let children then write stories and draw

pictures about the experience.

Follow-up Activity for the story, The Seed Bunny

by Jennifer Selby.

You can also follow-up by reading the story,

In the story, a rabbit loses a tooth and he gets a visit from the seed bunny who leaves a carrot seed to plant and watch grow while the little

The Carrot Seed by Jack Krauss. Try planting some carrot seeds and sharing some carrot facts: Did you know we eat the root part of the carrot?

bunny waits for his new tooth to grow in. After

reading the story, try this activity to put in your

science area. Put a carrot top on a saucer of

warm water. Replenish the water when it dries up.

Page 3

MORE CHANGES AND IDEAS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM

Art Center: Rabbit stamps, rabbit cutouts, pastel water colors, pastel colors on the easel, white cotton balls, brown and white felt pieces (fur), wiggle eyes, ribbon, silk for collage materials. Flowers and rabbit shaped sponges, class-made pastel play dough, cellophane grass.
Writing Area: Add in egg or rabbit shaped writing pads, pastel paper, bunny pencils, bunny vocabulary words, bunny or Easter stickers, pastel colored pencils, spring stationary, gel pens.

Outside: Take books about rabbits, spring, Easter, etc. outside. Change up your writing materials by adding some of the ideas above. Have children jump to line-up, do hopping relay races, color bunnies with sidewalk chalk, put bunny ears in your outside materials along with a nice blanket, do the bunny pokey, take pastel colored paints and butcher paper outside. Remember sunglasses for reading and writing outside.
Estimation Station: Fill a small clear container or jar with jelly beans. Have children guess how many jelly beans are in the jar and record their "guess" on paper.

REMEMBER TO CHECK PAST YEAR'S ISSUES OF OUR TEACHER NEWSLETTERS ON OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE IDEAS.

WE ALSO HAVE SPRING IDEAS FOR YOUR CLASSROOM AS A RESOURCE ON OUR WEBSITE.

EGGCELENT IDEAS
Egg shell pictures. Dry and save egg shells. Crush them and add them to a small bowl half filled with water. Add food color of your choice. Stir around until color sticks to shell pieces. Strain and dry on paper towels. Have children paint thinned glue mixture onto paper. Pour on crushed shells to create a mosaic effect. Tasting Eggs. Let children predict what kind of egg they will like the best: scrambled, fried, boiled, deviled, etc. Let children sample each type and then vote for their favorite on your class graph. Do brown eggs and white eggs taste different? Graph the chi ldren's responses before and after the tasting activity. Hatching Eggs. If you have access to an incubator now is the perfect time to begin hatching eggs and learning about

that process. Egg Rolling Relay. Let children roll eggs (can be hard boiled) with a spoon in their mouth by getting on their hands and knees and rolling the egg along with the spoon! They will want to do this over and over! Blowing Eggs. Teach children how to blow out the inside of raw eggs and leave just the uncracked shell. Dying Eggs. Have fun using all different kinds of egg dying techniques. Missing Shell? You will need 1 small jar, 1 raw egg, vinegar. Place the raw egg into a small jar. Pour enough vinegar over the egg until it is completely covered. Watch the egg for several minutes. You will notice that the shell on the egg appears to bubble. After three days, remove the egg from the jar. Gently remove the shell as you

rinse it under cool water. If the shell does not come off completely, return the egg to the jar and cover with vinegar for another day. Now let children examine the egg. Now What? Next fill the jar with corn syrup. Place the egg you used in the vinegar experiment into the syrup. It will probably float. Observe the egg over a few hours and notice the changes. Keep the egg in the syrup for three days. Remove the egg and rinse it under cool water. Let children examine the egg. Now place the egg in a jar of water for three days. Remove and let children examine the egg!
Some ideas taken from www. geocities.com/sseagraavs/ fromeggtochick.htm