pin the nose on the narwhal!

it was mine and max's turn to host wee school this week, and boy did we have fun!  we did the letter N, and the first day we talked about nests and numbers.  we read "the best nest" by p.d. eastman and talked about the sorts of things birds find to build their nests.  leaves, hay, straws, man hair, horse hair (ha ha--love this book!), etc.     

then we went outside and gathered our own supplies to build nests for baby birds.  we found leaves, soft grass, dryer lint, etc., and the kids pointed where they wanted me to hot glue gun their soft nest supplies (not trash...ha ha) on their nest.  we colored a little baby bird and stuck him in his happy home!

next we played the number game.  we worked with numbers 1-10, and had to count the items on the cards and match them with the correct number puzzle piece.  these kiddos did really well with their math skills and number recognition!

on day 2 we talked about Noses!  i asked them if they knew a body part that started with the letter N, and we cycled through a few things (belly button?  no... ears?  no... mouth?  no...) before we all agreed Nose started with the letter N.  this part was pretty hilarious--i asked the kids what we use our noses for, the very first response:  "we pick them!"  

"very good!  we can!  what else can we do?"

 " we sneeze!"

  "that's right!  how about this?" (i make a sniffing noise)  

"we smell!"

so we decided to test our sense of smell--close your eyes!  you can't look, you just have to guess what's in the bag based on what you smell!  cinnamon and vanilla were a little hard--they knew they knew the smell, but not what it was called, and they didn't know the name peppermint, but knew the extract smelled like a candy cane.  and they all guessed orange and banana right away!

then we played the matching smells game--we had to glue pictures of things that smelled yummy or yucky on the right side of the paper.

then we read "the nose book" by al perkins and saw all sorts of different kinds of noses on all sorts of different animals.  we found an odd looking animal called a narwhal, and watched a national geographic clip about them so we could see what kind of nose they have.

then we played pin the nose on the narwhal!  wouldn't you?!