Winter

We discussed the change of weather and different things we do during winter time. We shared all the things we know about winter and then made a list of our favorite things to do during winter time.

We also discussed how we wear many more layers of clothing in the winter than we do in the spring, summer, and fall. The class shared the different clothes that we wear when it gets colder out. To learn all the names of the articles of clothing that we wear in the winter we played a game called "the super duper winter dress up game".  Each child got a turn to put one article on our figure.

We spoke about how when it snows outside one of the fun activities that we can do is build snowmen. We discovered that we needed three sized circles to make a snowman; small, medium and large. Each child  got the opportunity to build their own snowman in class this week and as a literacy activity, each child dictated their own creative writing stories about their snowmen. We also made our very own snowflakes. We practiced our cutting skills to design our own individual snowflakes. All of our snowflakes look different just like real snowflakes. 

 

We read the book The Mitten. We did an activity using the animals from the book, as well as few others, to learn about which animals hibernate and where they hibernate. We learned that hibernation is a way that animals adapt to the environment. Animals hibernate to escape the cold. Animals that don’t hibernate are able to adapt to the cold. We also acted out the story, The Mitten, by pretending to be the characters climbing into the mitten. That was a lot of fun and the children really enjoyed it!

This week we also took the time to teach the children about things that come in pairs, such as, mittens, gloves and boots. We discussed the body parts that we have two of, like, our arms, legs, eyes and ears. We then played a fun freeze dance mitten matching game. Each child was given a mitten, we played music and when the music stopped, the children had to find a friend with the missing pair. The children had to work together to match all the pairs.

For a math activity we sorted buttons by shapes, colors, and sizes. What a fun week we have had!

Thanksgiving

In class we learned about the Teepees (homes) that the Native Americans lived in. We learned that the Native Americans used many colors and patterns to decorate their beautiful homes. To have the children have a full experience of teepees Nursery 3B constructed their own life size teepee. The children helped by decorating a sheet of butcher block paper with different colors and patterns. The children all got a chance to play in the teepee and pretend that they were Native Americans and pilgrims.

Additionally, we discussed how pumpkins are a very common food during this time of year. So, we decided it would be fun to investigate a pumpkin. We each had a turn to feel and smell the outside and inside of the pumpkin and described what we saw and felt. We thought the outside was hard and orange and the inside was cold and wet, with a lot of seeds.  We then used pumpkin to make delicious pumpkin, chocolate chip muffins. 

For our feast we had the children decorate headdresses. Each child got to choose two different colors of feathers and make up a pattern of their choice. All the headdresses turned out beautifully and the children enjoyed wearing them to our Thanksgiving feast.

Song of the Week:

(To the tune of “Yankee Doodle")

The turkey is a funny bird,

His head goes wobble, wobble,

All he says is just one word,

Gobble, gobble, gobble 

Fall

This week we have been focusing on the changing of the season. We discussed how the leaves are changing colors and falling to the ground.We asked the children to bring in leaves and did so many fun activities involving leaves! We sorted the leaves in so many different ways: color, shape, and size. 

We read Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert and made predictions of where Leaf Man was going to travel next in the book. As a fun art project the children created their own leaf man using leaves cut out from fall color construction paper. After assembling their leaf man they got to write where the wind was going to take him. This gave us an opportunity to have the children practice writing.

                               

Since the wind took Leaf Man to all kinds of interesting places we decided to next focus our attention on wind. We explained that when air moves it is called wind. Air is invisible to the human eye and impossible to feel until it moves. We asked the children to hold up a hand in front of their mouth and blow into it. This way they were able to feel the air.  We did a science experiment using straws and various objects. Will our air blow the object across the table?

We made beautiful and tasty fall covered sugar cookie leaves.

Fall Leaf  Song

5 little leaves so bright and gay

Hung on a tree one nice fall day

The wind came blowing ‘round and ‘round

And one little leaf came tumbling down…

Now how many are left?

4 little leaves so bright and gay…..

(And so on until no leaves are left!)

Under the Sea

This week we focused on the theme Under the Sea. We began our week by listing all the things we can find in the ocean.

 The children then each chose a sea creature from our list that they wanted to learn more about. They then went home to do research and returned to school with the knowledge of three different facts about their creature. It was so great to watch the children stand up, in front of their friends, presenting what they had learned. Everyone had a captivated audience and we all learned so much!

Research Board:

For a fun exercise we pretended to be different ocean animals practicing walking/moving around like they do. For example, we practiced a crab walk, a fish swim, and octopus arm movements. We also made our own ocean waves in a bottle. We put food coloring, water, and oil in a bottle and gently rocked it back and forth, and watched the waves form and crash from side to side.  

As a math activity we played an octopus counting game. The arms were numbered 1 to 8 and the children had to place the correct amount of unifix cubes on each arm. 

Noah's Ark

Our focus this week was Noah's Ark.  As a class we built and decorated our own ark for our bulletin board. We focused on the sequence of top, middle, and bottom. We started with the top tier, where Noah and his family stayed, and made people prints. Next, we made our middle level. The children worked in pairs to collage or color an animal for the ark. Then last, but not least, we decorated the bottom level, where they kept the garbage. We ripped newspaper and collaged, creating a messy bottom level.

We also played a matching game with pictures of different types of animals. The children took turns matching/pairing their animals to their friends’. Furthermore, we learned about different habitats of animals. We sorted animals and deciphered whether they live on a farm, in the jungle, or in a swamp. 

We also baked yummy animal shaped sugar cookies!

We continued Noah's ark and we discussed that it rained for forty days and forty nights. When Noah and his family finally exited the ark they saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky. In conjunction with the water of the flood, we did a wonderful science experiment. We filled a container with water, took one of our wooden blocks, and dropped it in the water. What happened? The block floated on top of the water! That is why Noah built his boat out of wood. We chose some other objects from around our classroom and we charted our predictions and results.

 This week we added raindrops to our Noah’s ark bulletin board. Each child decorated their own raindrops with their words; the children shared something nice that they can do for friends and family. We want to make sure we treat others nicely, just like Noah did.

                 

We also focused on colors. We learned that there are three primary colors; red, blue and yellow. We learned to create new colors we need to work with these three colors. As an experiment we decided to fill three empty glasses with water and add red, blue and yellow food coloring. We then used three more empty glasses for mixing. We discovered by mixing blue and yellow we create green, mixing blue and red creates purple and red and yellow creates orange.

Furthermore, we learned about rainbows and the colors of the rainbow. We then learned how rainbows are made. We read What Makes a Rainbow? by Betty Schwartz and did a science experiment, using a flashlight and a CD. We discussed that the sun (our flashlight) contains all of the color of the rainbow and when the sun passes through the water (the CD) the colors separate and we see a rainbow.   We first turned off our classroom lights, and then turned on the flashlight, and then the light refracted off the back of the CD in order to create a lovely rainbow.

We also baked yummy rainbow cupcakes and a beautiful rainbow cake!

 

 

Lastly, the end result of our bulletin board. 

 

Creation

Our next unit was Creation.

We began our focus on day 1. The separation between dark and light. As a fun activity we gave the children black and white finger paint and the let them mix the colors to explore the different shades they create when mixing. We also focused on opposites. We plated a matching game by matching pictures of dark/light, up/down, short/tall, etc. We additionally baked delicious black and white cookies.

For day 2, we read the book Little Cloud, by Eric Carle and talked about the separating of the sky and the water. We also learned about clouds and how they absorb water from the earth and then eventually produce rain. In order to make the concept more concrete we conducted a science experiment. We filled a container with water and blue food coloring and then dipped our cotton balls into the water and watched the cotton ball absorb the water, We then removed the cotton ball and squeezed, we watched as the water emptied out of the cotton ball (looking like rain). 

Next, on day 3, for the creation of grass, trees and flowers we made tree artwork and decided how many branches to use by rolling a die, identifying the number on the die and then counting out the appropriate number of branches. For day 4, creation of night and day, we  took out our class globe and discussed how the entire world does not get to see the bright sun or beautiful stars at the same time of day. The children learned that while some parts of earth are waking up and getting ready to start their busy day the other side of the world is getting ready for bed. To make this concept more concrete we lit a flashlight and spun the globe. The children were able to see that as the globe turned the flashlight stayed in one place, like the sun, and was not able to shine on all the parts of earth. Day 5, when creatures in the sky and water were created we discussed which creatures live where. For day 6, creation of animals and people we made a little animal collage. Through the week we created a place mat, sequencing the days of creation. 

an upside down version 

And, last but not least, for day 7, day of rest we celebrated a pajama day and enjoyed delicious chocolate chip pancakes!

Back to School

The Giving Tree Welcomes 3B!

We returned to school ready for the fun to begin! We introduced ourselves to each other, got accustomed to the room and learned about Rosh Hashana. 

We made honey dishes

We also discussed what we want to wish the world for it's birthday. Every child shared one wish.