Welcome to the Zoo

Today we talked about zoo animals that belong to the cat family.  We learned about tigers and their cubs.  We also learned about the fastest land animal the cheetah.

During one center today the children made a torn tiger.  They used orange or white paper to tear out a head, neck, belly, tail, and four legs for a tiger.  They used black paper to tear out stripes.  They then glued all of the parts together and drew on a tiger face.  What seems like an easy project is actually very difficult for many children.  When you tear paper you use your thumb and pointer finger.  At 4 and 5 these fingers are not very strong.  By tearing paper we are able to strengthen these fingers.  This in turn will help your child hold a pencil when they have to write sentences, write numbers in math, and draw pictures when they have to illustrate stories.  

 At another center the children played tiger roll and stripe.  The children were given one or two dice based on assessments.  They rolled their die or dice and counted the total number of dots.  They then drew the corresponding number of stripes on their tiger.  Some children worked on writing an addition sentence to go along with their roll.