Obstacle Courses and Snails

Today we explored direction words in math.  We read a book about elephants who soared in a hot air balloon over, under, between, below, and next to objects.  The best part of our lesson came next with an obstacle course where the kids practiced moving, using the direction words, through the classroom.  When a student was stuck, and not knowing what to do, the class loved telling the child how to move through the obstacle.

We also met our new class pet, a snail.  We read a non-fiction book about forest animals, using the index to figure out where we would read about the snail.  We compared and contrasted what the snail would need to survive to what people need to survive.  Then we went outside and found some natural materials the snail would need to survive.