Worm Day

We started our wonderful worm day reading this clever, silly book by David Pelham and Michael Foreman about worms everywhere.  On the steps, on the sidewalks, on the porch, and in the grass.

Then we, of course, wiggled like worms.  We wiggled to the left.  We wiggled to the right.  We wiggled on the floor.  We wiggled when we walked.  We wiggled while we crawled just like a worm.

Now it was time to make some serious connections with our wacky worm day and our letter W.  What better way than to glue some worms onto a giant W?

Writing his Ww before gluing on his worms.

Gluing gummy worms to giant W's.  They get the extra benefit of writing that W with their glue as well.  

 And there you have it, worms on W.  Of course you can't set out an entire pile of ooey, gooey, gummy worms and not expect the children to

 eat a few, now can you?

Now for some fun wormy math learning.

We talked about camouflage and how worms blend in with their environment so that larger animals such as birds won't be able to see and eat them.

I shredded green construction paper for grass, then made green and yellow worms by cutting up pipe-cleaners, then mixed them in with the grass.  

I made simple counting mats, 1-8, patterning card, and color sorting cards. 

I only put out the counting mats today, saving the rest for later in the week.

Now we are all set for some math fun.

Clearly, they had a blast.  

And they even learn a few things to boot.

The children were very absorbed with this activity and spent more than forty-five minutes playing.

Time to move on to some writing and oral language.  Each child created their own worm gluing pom poms to paper.

Then they told me the story of their worm's life.  Pretty cute stuff.

Weird and wacky worms.  On every letter related art I dot an upper and lowercase letter for the children to write.  This slips in writing skills and letter recognition several times through out the day.  

We talked about how helpful worms are.  How they help plants to grow and make the soil rich.  Why they enjoy living in the damp darkness--why they love mud.

SO, how does one go about making mud?

First,

pour milk into a bowl, then,

Add pudding mix, then,

Stir and,

stir and,

whisk and,

whisk.  Then you pour the mixture into cups and add

What else but worms.

Now we needed to add a bit of dirt to the mix so we,

smashed up some cookies and poured over the top.

giving us this wormy, muddy, dirt cup.  Put in the fridge until snack time.

With our mud nicely made it was time to get down and dirty so we,

plopped some pudding, aka mud, onto paper and got busy finger painting.  The kids giggled and laughed the entire time they were painting their mud.

How do you know you've had a good time?

When you end up looking like this.  

We glued down a few pipe-cleaner worms and here you have wonderful worms in wacky mud.

The morning flew by and before we knew it, it was time for lunch and  nap.

Noodles with meatballs, mixed veggies, orange slices, bread and butter,and milk.

Well fed and rested, the children awoke eager to eat their worms and mud.

 

Slurping down our worms.  

After we ate snack we practice writing our names and did a Ww writing sheet then it was time to head outside to enjoy our mid seventies, late January weather.

Playing with worms in water.

The children used wonderful language at the tactile table full of water and worms.  Squiggly, squishy, slimy, weird, wet, cold.  Wonderful descriptive words.

Wonderful Wacky Worm Wednesday!

See you tomorrow.

Ms. P