Our Travels To Australia?

MUSIC FROM DOWN UNDER
Today, Annette guided us on a musical tour with the animals of Australia. She began by showing photographs of the animals whose movements we would emulate. The photos gave the children a nice reference point for animals not usually found in American books about the jungle, zoo and circus. To the recording of the Shenanigans, we walked like a wombat, glided like a possum, ran like an emu, climbed like a koala, and creeped like a bunnyip. That last one is a very strange aboriginal creature that is part fish and part bull (no photo for that one - perhaps we'll try to draw one!) Then we practiced the care, handling and playing of the hand drums. We learned that the edge of the drum face sounds different from the center. We learned to hold our hands in play position and rest position on our knees. The groups performed very well.

TODAY'S ACTIVITY
We began coloring our kites so we can tell them apart when they are aloft. Tomorrow we will apply sticks to support them and decorative "streamers" for some "bling". No, "bling" was not our vocabulary word for today. That's just for our fun.

CIRCLE TIME
In lieu of a storybook, we passed around pictures of the Blue Angels and talked about them We identified the different parts of the planes. We also discussed what to expect when they fly overhead. We will post pictures inside and outside for reference and to demystify the source of the distracting noise. Page down and click on the image of the airpanes to print out an enlargement for home use, if desired.