Snowmen & Penguins

As you probably have guessed snow was a big theme in our classroom this week. 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. We gave each child three different sized circles; small, medium and large and had them glue them in height order. We then gave the children a pair of eyes, arms, and legs to glue on to the snowman. The children then dressed their snowmen in mittens, a hat, a scarf and boots to keep them warm from the cold weather. 

This week we continued discussing the different animals that we know hibernate and learn about some new ones. Did you know that some birds do not like the cold weather either? We learned that most birds, such as ducks, geese and blackbirds migrate to warm places for the winter; they fly south where the climate is warmer and their feathers won’t freeze and so that they can find delicious food to eat.

Last week we learned that bears hibernate in the winter. Bears fill up on food all of the fall season just so they can go into their warm cozy caves and rest all winter long while they wait for the spring to come. However, we discovered that not all bears hibernate. Polar bears lives in a place called Antarctica, where it is always cold and icy. The polar bear has many layers of skin and fur that help them keep warm in the cold weather. Its fur is like a comfy coat just like we wear outside during the winter. 

We learned that the polar bears are not the only animals that live in Antarctica, it happens to be that it is the home to many animals, including penguins. Penguins are fluffy birds that don’t mind living in cold weather. In class we took a look at pictures of penguins and named all the different parts that they have. They have beaks, flippers and webbed feet. They cannot fly. They have to waddle to where they are going using their feet. We even tried walking like a penguin in class to see and feel what it is like. 

Since the weather is getting so much colder we decided to look at a thermometer and find out how cold it really is outside. We noticed that the lowest number on the thermometer was 0 and the highest 120. As a fun experiment we let the thermometer sit in our room all morning while we played and learned inside but place it outside on the playground while we played in the playroom. When we started the experiment the red line in the thermometer was on 70 degrees. What would happen when we took it outside into the cold air? We had wait patiently and see. At the end of our playroom play time we brought the thermometer inside and check to see if the red line moved up or down. What we discovered was that the red line was now one the number 35. We discussed how 35 is a lower number than 70 and that meant that it was very cold outside. We better bundle up before leaving our homes.

Song of the week:

I’M A LITTLE PENGUIN
Tune:  “I’m A Little Teapot”

I’m a little penguin black and white.
I like to waddle across the ice.
When I reach the water, I dive right in.
I hunt for fish, as I swim, swim, swim.

Hibernation & More Winter Fun!

We continued to learn all about winter; enjoying more winter fun. We crafted our own snowflakes by using our cutting skills. We then decorated them by glistening on glitter. All of our snowflakes look different just like real snowflakes. 

We also did a sensory activity where each child had a chance to play and explore with shaving cream. The children shared that the shaving cream was “smooth, “soft,” and “looks like snow.” We then added glue and glitter to the shaving cream. This created a different texture. Next each child received a piece of paper and pressed it down against the table with the shaving cream, glue and glitter, creating their own snowstorms.

This week we read the book The Mitten. We acted out the story by pretending to be the characters climbing into the mitten. 


They had a lot of fun! 

We then did an activity using the animals from the book, as well as some others, to learn which animals hibernate and where. 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 sorted which animals hibernate and which animals don’t. 

We played a fun matching game. Each child was given a mitten and they had to find the missing pair. The children had to work together to match all the pairs.

As an additionally activity the children decorated their own pair of paper mittens with the colored ice that we froze last week. As the children painted with the ice they watched the ice melt the longer it was exposed to the warm air.

Song of the week: 

Hibernation Song (Tune: "Frere Jacques")

Bears are sleeping, bears are sleeping 

In their caves, in their caves
Wonder when they'll wake up? Wonder when they'll wake up?
In the spring! In the spring!

Winter Fun

This week we started to discuss the changes in the weather and all the things that we are able to do in the winter as opposed to summer. 

 We additionally discussed the different clothing we wear when it gets colder out and how we wear more layers of clothing during winter time. To review all the articles of clothing that we wear during winter we played a game called "The Super Duper Winter Dress Up Game." Each child got a turn to put one article of clothing on Peetey Winter so that he could go outside and play in the cold!

We continued to talk about the change of season. As the seasons change so does the weather. During winter time it gets colder and it snows. We read The Snowy Day and talked about all the things we like to do on a snowy day. 

    

As a fun science experiment we decided to turn a liquid into a solid. The children helped fill up the ice cube trays with water (a liquid) and added food coloring to some of the water cubes. We then had to decide on a place to put the tray in order the water into ice (a solid). We concluded that we should keep them in the freezer. The next day we took out the ice cube tray to find that the water had hardened and it was no longer a liquid. The water turned to ice! To make it even more interesting we left some of the ice cubes in our warm classroom to see what would happen next. The children made predictions to what would happen. Some children thought that it might stay hard. At the end of the day we checked on the ice cubes to discover that after sitting in the classroom the entire day the ice transformed back into a liquid. 

With the remaining ice the children created beautiful ice cube artwork!

Song of the week:

Snowflake Song 

(Tune: I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little snowflake, fat and round

Falling softly to the ground.

When enough of me falls hear me shout,

"Here's a snowball, better watch out!" (pretend to throw a snowball)

Thanksgiving

For the past two weeks we have been focusing on Thanksgiving. 

We learned about the Teepees that the Native Americans lived in and that the Native Americans used many colors and patters to decorate their beautiful homes. To have the children have a full experience of teepees we constructed our own life size teepee. The children helped by decorating sheets 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. 

We also discussed the similarities and differences of Native Americans and Pilgrims. We created this Venn diagram below. 

We also made festive Thanksgiving mats. We decorated them by making a patterned border and then made handprint turkeys. We also continued to discuss what it means to be thankful. The children shared two things that they are thankful for and we dictated their words onto their placemats. 

Furthermore, we also decided it would be fun to investigate a pumpkin. They shared that they thought the outside of the pumpkin was hard and bumpy. After feeling the textures and looking at the skin the children made prediction of what they thought it looked like inside. After cutting it open we discovered that the pumpkin felt smooth and squishy, with many seeds inside. 

We decided that we should take advantage of all of the pumpkin seeds and bake some to see what they would taste like. There were mixed reviews. We also decided to leave a few seeds inside the pumpkin and we added soil and water inside. We are conducting an experiment to see it anything will grow. Only time will tell. 

We ended our Thanksgiving unit with a lovely feast. We wore our Native American headdresses that we decorated by making patterns. 

Our song of the week:

Turkey Song

(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

Leaves

We focused on the changing of the season. We asked the children to bring in various colored leaves. They brought in so many! We were able to sort them by shape, size, and color. We even made a chart of our color sorting. 

                                                       

                        
     

Wind

We also learned about 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 top hold up a hand, in front of their mouths, and blow into it. This way they were able to feel the air. We did a science experiment using straws and various objects, including: pom poms, leaves, Legos, a tissue and a block. The children experimented, by blowing through a straw, to discover which objects they were able to move with their breath (the wind) and which items they were unable to move. 

Apples

We additionally discussed that Fall is the season of apples! We had an apple taste test where each child tasted a red, green, any yellow apple. They chose which color apple was their favorite and then we graphed the results. We then has the opportunity to bake some delicious apple crisp with the majority of the children's favorite apple type.  

We discussed what describing is and then came up with many words to describe apples. We wrote down their words and were impressed with what they come up with. 

We enjoyed some more apple fun by estimating how many apples tall we each are and then measuring to see if our estimations were correct. We also made beautiful apple prints. 

              

Apple Poem:

Apple Tree

Five little apples sitting in a tree

Five little apples smiling at me

I shook that tree as hard as I could

Down fell an apple

Mmm was it good

(And so on until no apples are left!)