Peace, Smoothies and Dinosaurs

We talked about Martin Luther King Jr. this week.  We talked about the dream he had for everyone to get along with each other.  We learned the dove and the olive branch are symbols for peace.  We put all of this together and made a dove holding an olive branch and then we wrote the word Peace.  We learned a finger play about Martin Luther King Jr. and a few songs about peace.

We planted an amaryllis bulb because it stands for determination.  We talked about how determination means to work really hard for something to happen.  Martin Luther King Jr. had determination to try to make his dream come true. We'll be observing our amaryllis over the next few weeks.

On Thursday we went outside and looked at our tree.  We talked about how it's sleeping for the winter but will wake up again in spring.

Emma is our Maple Leaf of the Week.  Tuesday Emma's dad came in to class and made smoothies with us.  We each had a cup filled with blueberries, blackberries, and bananas.  We dumped our cup into the vitamix.  

Then we added water, ice, apple slices, and some fresh spinach.  We blended it and had our own smoothie to drink as part of our snack.  Yum...delicious!!  Thanks so much Emma, what a fun treat!!

Later in the morning Emma's Grandma came in to show us how much Emma's kitten, Halloween, has grown.  She also read us a Pete the Cat book while Halloween played with us!  What a great day!

We started our unit on dinosaurs this week.  So far we've heard the books Daniel's Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, and Curious George Visits the Dinosaur Museum.  During activity time we could choose to work on a large floor puzzle of dinosaurs, use play dough and try to make dinosaur fossils, play in the sand with mini dinosaurs, or build a dinosaur world with blocks and larger sized dinosaurs.  Mrs. Chyko had a dinosaur to trace and color and Mrs. Gould started a dinosaur art project.  We also have learned several dinosaur movement rhymes, we're especially good at roaring stomping, and thumping like dinosaurs!!  We had dinosaur fruit snacks for snacktime.  We tried to identify the dinosaurs before we ate them.  Ask your child at home what he/she knows about dinorsuars?  

Arctic Animals

We had fun learning about Penguins on Tuesday.  We read a book filled with penguin facts and real pictures as well as a fictional book about a penguin named Tacky who just didn't quite fit in with the other penguins but saved the day in the end!

Then we had fun making our own penguins during activity time!

Tuesday was an extended day so after lunch we went into the media room and watched the video Happy Feet and ate popcorn!

Zoefii was Maple Leaf this week.  She also had her birthday over break so we celebrated today.  She brought in teddy grahams and fruit cups for our snack. 

Then her mom and dad came for a visit.  They shared their love of music with us and brought in some drums for us to play.

We had so much fun listening to Zoefii's Dad as he showed us how each one worked and then we had even more fun when Zoefii's Mom passed out the drum sticks and gave each of us our own set to use!  We created a drum circle and had a chance to try out each of the drums.  It was so cool!!  We learned that some drums use sticks and other drums use our hands to make the sound.  We also discovered that the sound is made through vibrations on the drum and that the snare drum can be turned on and off!  After we tried all of the drums we had a yummy sugar cookie!  Thanks Zoefii for helping to make our day so special. Happy 3rd Birthday!!

Thursday was polar bear day.  We learned that there are 2 poles, North and South, and Polar Bears live at the the North Pole (or Arctic circle) while penguins live at the South Pole (Antarctic circle).  We heard a book called The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett.  It's a take off on Goldilocks and the 3 bears but in a different setting. 

During art we started making a polar bear by sponge painting with white paint on dark blue paper.  We also finished making our Mittens.

We had music with Mrs. Jenkins on Thursday and started learning a song about the months of the year.  On  Friday, we put on our snow clothes and went outside and played in the snow.  

We had fun running around and making snow angels.  We also found deer prints in the snow and followed the tracks to see where the deer went.  They went into the trees on the side of the church!

Welcome Back

Happy 2015!  It was so good to see all the kids again and see how happy they were to see each other!!  During circle time on Tuesday we sat in a circle and shared some of the things we did over break as well as sharing a favorite gift we received!  

Liam was our Maple Leaf this week.  He shared a poster he made with lots of pictures of him and his family, then his mom and his little brother, Henry, came in and taught us about volcanos.  

Liam made a volcano with his Mom out of paper machie and a bottle.  It was so cool, Mrs. Stowers made it erupt, 3 times!!  She put in vinegar (which smelled really bad), some jello to make it red, and baking soda.  Then  all the "lava" started to come out of the top.  The kids loved doing this!!  On Wednesday, we celebrated Liam's birthday and he brought in ice cream sandwiches for our treat.  Thanks Liam, for helping to make this week so fun!!

After our science experiment, we introduced new centers.  Our rice tub has now been converted to a polar region complete with snow (potato flakes), polar animals, igloos, dog sleds and dogs!  We  have peppermint scented play dough, a new wooden marble run and at the art center we made a winter blizzard with white crayons and glitter glue and now we're working on learning to lace as we make a mitten.

Our unit this week was winter and the weather sure cooperated!!  On Wednesday, we read one of my favorite winter stories, The Mitten, by Jan Brett.  To get ready to read it, we each said something that we know about mittens and then listed the ideas on the white board.  Once the ideas were listed, we went back and read what we wrote together.  Corduroy helped us with this!  

To help with reading comprehension, after we read the story, we tried to remember all the animals that crawled into the mitten.  Then we each got the name of an animal we remembered on a word card and we acted the story out!  We pretended a tunnel and a blanket were the mitten as we all crawled in and tried to stay warm, just like the animals in the story!  

Thursday was pajama day and Mika's half birthday.  Her mom and little brother, Wren, came in to help celebrate.  They brought in blueberry muffins, grapes and juice for snack.  We made birthday crowns out of paper plates too!

Thanks Mika for helping make our day so terrific!!  

Mrs. Jenkins and Mrs. Chyko were our teachers on Thursday, because Mrs. Gould had to drive her son back to college.  Mrs. Chyko read us the story Bear Snores On and Baby Beluga.  After celebrating Mika's half birthday, we had music time with Mrs. Jenkins.  We learned a new song, "You Are My Sunshine".

On Friday, we read the Jan Brett story The Hat.  Then we made our own hats.

We also had lots of fun playing with the marble run together!

We also had fun learning to sing the song Baby Beluga. What a busy week!!