Elephant Day

Today was the first day of summer vacation.  I knew last night that I was going to need to have some structure planned so I decided I was going to start planning purposeful educational days.  I asked the kids what there top 5 favorite animals were and am using that list in addition to some of my own ideas.

So, today was a day filled with elephant facts and happenings.  We started off the morning learning several facts about the large beasts.  For example, they can swim very well under water and use their trunks like snorkels, and a baby elephant weighs about 250 pounds and they eat 16-20 hours every day! 

After the brief learning session we played an elephant game...Horton Hears a Who.  Here are a couple pics of the kids enjoying the game:

A little later we also looked on the map to see where the elephants live.  We learned they live in Africa and Asia.  The African elephants are larger than the Asian elephants and have bigger ears too! 

Then, they each colored a picture and wrote a brief story about an elephant.  It was fun to hear their creativity of the stories.  I wrote for them this time as they told their story to me, but for future, Zack will write his.

After our stories we did some elephant races.  Did you know that elephants can not run?  They walk really fast (up to 25 mph) but it all a swift walk.  So the kids "walked" as fast as they could on all fours and raced around the living room.  It was quite entertaining to watch!   Then, to finish off our special day, we read the book "Horton Hears a Who".  It was a cute book with the main point of no matter how big or small, everyone is equally valuable and makes a difference. 

Who knew elephants could be so fun?! :)  Next week will bring some more fun!  There is quite the long list of things the kids want to learn about after today's activities.  Now to decide which thing or animal next...!!