June Day 6 - F is for Fox

So after opening and going through the Day Bag while creating the last post I was at the same time preparing for the lesson with the kids.  When I got the post up and running I grabbed my lesson plan book to get started.  I told Lachlan we were going to learn about foxes today.  I got all excited waiting for his excited response.  But Lachlan was not feeling it and said "I don't want to learn about foxes today."  By this time I was pretty set on learning about foxes, so it took me off guard.  Especially since he hasn't ever not wanted to learn about what ever the topic may be.  I decided to try a littler persuasion by telling him more about a fox.  I was starting to sing the Opening Song "Oh, have you seen the sly fox, the sly fox, the sly fox . . . "  "No! I don't want to learn about a fox."  That's okay, you don't have to join us but I think Grant and Peter want to learn about foxes.  "No!  I don't want anyone to learn about foxes."  Oh boy, we are in one of those moods.  That was internal monologue.  I didn't say that to him.  Just in case you were thinking everything runs smoothly over here all the time, I had to share this part of the story.

At this point I thought, well I guess we could learn about a different animal.  But I will give it one more shot to peak his interest.  So I asked if I could tell him a story.  He agreed.  So I told him about his cousin Courtney.  She lived on an island (Akutan on the Aleutian island chain in Alaska) and they had a few chickens in a chicken coop.  The foxes would try to sneak in and get the chickens.  That's why the foxes are called sly, they are sneaky and smart.

Suddenly, Lachlan changed his mind.  Phew!  I was relieved because I was pretty stuck on foxes.  Honestly, I probably should have just changed gears and tried a new animal with out trying to convince him.  But after I told him the story, if he wasn't convinced I would have.  We made our F foxes next.  Lachlan and I made one first and the other two were off playing.  I had Lachlan use scissors to first cut out ears.  We looked at the picture card with the fox on it and I asked him if he ears were round or pointed.  He said pointed and immediately got to work cutting pointy ears.

In the Little Goose lesson plan book it recommended for them to tear the paper.   Two small and one long piece for the tail.  So when Peter, Grant and I got to work that's what I had them do.  They provide these little double sided dots for sticking on the eyes.  To help out the little ones I place the dots where the eyes should go and they stick the eyes on.

Here are Peter and Lachlan's foxes along with the bottle cutouts we use later in the day.

Next we pulled out the zoo page along with the animals from the storytelling set.  In the preschool lesson plan book it tells you to talk about how some animals get along and some don't.  So I asked Lachlan which animals could be friends.  In the Little Goose lesson plan book it has you first have them pick out the fox cut out.  Next ask them to find an animal smaller than the fox and then bigger than the fox.  The kids really enjoyed the story telling board and cut outs.  I put it at the top of the tower for them to continue playing with through out the day.

Just exploring the storyboard as we sat down.

Peter's answer to finding an animal "smaller" than the fox.

Peter's answer to finding an animal "bigger" than a fox.

The last two activities were somewhat successful.  The rest of the day got pretty busy.  So I had a very small window to ask Lachlan to find the hidden bottles for the Feed the Baby Fox activity.  He found all the bottles and then I asked him to pick one out.  He picked the number 10 and said that there was a 1 and 0.  I told him that it was the number 10 and had him go over to the number line to find it.  Once he found it I told him to start at the number 1 and count up to that number to find out for himself what number it is.  Next I instructed him to feed the baby fox the bottle while he counts to 10.  At that point something came up, maybe baby Cody needed a bottle or someone needed a diaper change. Whatever it was, I had to move on.  I do think Lachlan would like this concept because he is in a big baby faze.  So I might try again this morning.

What is nice about all of these activities is that there is a conversation that goes along with it.  What I like to do is read ahead so that in the back of my mind are these various concepts and conversations we are going to address each day.  Then, if there is a down moment, I can start the conversation with Lachlan.  Prior to trying the activity I talked to Lachlan about what babies eat.  He said "bottle" and then I told him how sometimes baby foxes are fed by bottles.  What's in a bottle? I asked.  "Milk" he answered.  Foxes are mammals and all mammals drink milk when they are babies. 

Even though the activity and incorporating number learning in with learning about foxes didn't work out quite so well.  He still learned something new by the simple conversation we held prior to the activity.