Artists

We had fun learning about  artists this week.  We read two really cool stories by Peter Reynolds called The Dot and Ish.  Both of them are about kids learning to be artists.  If you want to learn more about this award winning children's writer and illustrator here is his website: Peter Reynolds

We also learned about the artist Claude Monet.  We found France on the globe and heard a wonderful story called A Blue Butterfly about Monet.  At art center we've been making our own water lily paintings and blending colors, just like Monet!

Mrs. Jenkins came in on Wednesday for music and Mrs. Swietlik came in on Thursday to help us out. We also had 2 birthdays this week!  Sam and Hadley both turned 4!

On Tuesday,Sam brought in a birthday treat of teddy grahams and yogurt dip with sprinkles...yum!!  Thanks Sam!!

On Wednesday, Hadley brought in super delicious cupcakes for her birthday treat!  Thanks Hadley!!

We went outside and used sidewalk chalk after we heard The Dot.  We had fun making dots, lines and all sorts of other designs with our chalk!

Tuesday was extended day.  We made leprechaun (pistachio) pudding as a special afternoon treat!

Hadley was our Maple Leaf this week!  She invited G.G to come and read stories to us on Wednesday.  We heard 2 of Hadley's favorites!  On Thursday her Dad came in and read us a story about Crayons...we loved it! Here's the link: The Day the Crayons Quit . One of Hadley's favorite things to do is puzzles so her dad brought in a bunch to share with all of us!!  We had lots of floor puzzles to work on.  We all worked together to create different puzzles...so fun!!  Thanks Hadley and family for helping make our week so special!

Listening to The Day the Crayons Quit

Fun with floor puzzles!!

Shamrocks

We started the week talking about St. Patrick's Day, shamrocks and leprechauns! We read the story What is St. Patrick's Day?  We found Ireland on the globe and learned how to make a shamrock by putting 3 hearts together!  We made crystal shamrocks by mixing boiling water and borax together in a mason jar.  Then we added a pipe cleaner shaped like a shamrock.  By the following morning crystals had grown all over the pipe cleaners!  The kids loved this experiment!!

Our crystal shamrocks!

Here's the link in case you want to try it at home

We had fun singing about leprechauns.  Here are the songs we sang this week:

I'm a Little Leprechaun

Dance, Dance, Leprechaun

We made a leprechaun ladder at art center.  We can't wait to see if the leprechauns climbed them on St. Patrick's Day!

Ellie was our "Maple Leaf" this week.

Yummy lemon cookies, gogurt and orange juice for our Tuesday snack...so good!

We had lots of fun meeting her family!  On Tuesday Grandma Debby came in and did a movement/exercise class with us...so fun!! Wednesday Mom and Dad came in to make a special craft with us and read us stories, on Thursday Ellie's grandparents came in to tell us about running a dairy farm!  We saw real live footage of a farm, calves, and dairy operation!  We even got a bag with a coloring book about dairy farming and string cheese to eat!  Thanks so much Whitcomb family for helping make our week so special!

Our St. Patrick's day snack.  Shamrock cookies, a fruit kabob with green grapes, and strawberry/banana smoothie! (kefir)

Exercise class with Grandma Debbie.

Making our crafts...bracelets or racecars!

Learning about Dairy Farming!

Storytime with Ellie's Dad!

Rainbows

Saanvi was our Maple Leaf of the week.  On Tuesday her mom and sister came in to teach us about India and show us how to make paper airplanes!  Saanvi goes on a long airplane ride when she visits India! We found where India is on the globe and learned about a spring festival that is held in India where the kids have fun decorating themselves with different colors.  The Thakur ladies all wore beautiful colored clothes to school and we each got a chance to put some yellow powder on our faces! Saanvi gave each of us a colorful spinner to remind us of the colors of spring!! On Thursday we had a delicious treat from an Indian Food store in Chicago.  We all loved it...thank you Saanvi and family for helping make our week so special!!

Our delicious treat.  The cashew diamonds were so yummy!!

Learning to fold paper airplanes.

Locating India on the globe.

Having fun flying our planes!!

Rainbows was our theme for the week.  We had fun making rainbows out of Fruit Loops and using vinegar, baking soda and food color to make rainbows.  We heard several stories about colors and rainbows this week.  Ask your kids if they know what makes a rainbow?  (rain, sun, and colors)

Fruit Loop rainbows.  

This turned into an exploding rainbow.  The kids loved pouring in the baking powder to watch it bubble and fizz!

We used rainbow colored scarves to dance and move!

Another exploding rainbow!  We used the colored water and a pipette to squeeze water droplets onto baking soda!  

A rainbow week wouldn't be complete without rainbow songs!  Here are the ones we learned!I Can Sing a Rainbow  and The Rainbow SongBarney's Rainbow Song

Dr. Seuss

We had fun talking about Dr. Seuss and reading his stories this week!  On Tuesday we heard Great Day for Up,  Wednesday we read Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now and Thursday we read 10 Apples Up on Top. The kids love his books.  We giggle and the patterns make it so easy for the kids to join in the reading.  We used Dr. Seuss snack cups to hold teddy grahams and we each got a little Dr. Seuss blank book to take home. (Thanks Tannar!!) We also had fun finger painting and using stickers to help us count as activities to go along with the stories we heard.  Thursday we had our Dr. Seuss party.  The kids each brought a Dr. Seuss book from home (or borrowed one at school) and we went around in a circle and told about the book.  We had a super cook Cat in the Hat snack (thanks Max!)Then we had fun reading Dr. Seuss books after snack.  In addition to the books the kids brought in, Maple Leaf has about 30 Dr. Seuss books and we set all of them out for the kids to look through! 

Our Cat in the Hat snack.  Thanks so much Ashley for making this for us!!

Reading our Dr. Seuss books!

Wren was Maple Leaf of the Week.  He shared his poster with us on Tuesday and on Wednesday his Oma came to visit with us.  She lives in Holland and showed us a powerpoint presentation on Holland!  Then we heard a wonderful story about Miffy written and drawn by the Dutch artist Dick Bruna. We had a chance to try some dutch cookies and color in our own versions of Miffy.  Thank you so much Wren and Oma for helping to make our week so special!!

Wren and his Oma teaching us about Holland.  We love learning about different countries!!

The finished version of our class tree!

We do have a class full of sweethearts!!