All About Me (...Continued)

This week we continued our All About Me study and focused on our families. For a math activity we used unifix cubes to graph all of the members in our family. Whose family is the biggest and whose is the smallest?

We then constructed our own family trees. In order to fill our tree we labeled the tree’s leaves with all of our family members.

Furthermore, we discussed our individuality. Even though we have so many similarities we are all different and unique. For example, we each have a family, but our family structures are all different. To demonstrate our individuality we made fingerprints. Nobody’s fingerprints are the same! We used magnifying glasses to take a closer look to see how unique and one of a kind we really are. 

This week we enjoyed our science fair. We set up different stations around the classroom where we did various experiments with water. We decided to focus on water because we are in the middle of discussing our bodies and growing. Water is a very important factor in keeping our bodies healthy to help us grow. So, why not learn more about it? 

We did an absorption activity, experimenting with which objects absorbed water and which ones did not.

Use an eye dropper

 For another experiment we selected two colors, mixed them, and then discovered what those two colors would make! We then recorded our results by filling in our data sheet.

Then we had our penny experiment. We had three cups of water. The first cup was filled with tap water, the second was filled with soap water, and the third was filled with water and vinegar. Which cup do you think will clean the penny? 

                                             

For our last experiment we did a sink or float activity. The children predicted if they thought an object would sink in the water or float on top. The children marked their results on their charts indicating whether each objects is one that sinks or floats. What scientist we are! 

All About Me

This week we have begun our All About Me study. We began by reviewing our body parts. First, we listed all of the body parts that we could think of.  How many of each body part do we have? We focused on pairs. Many of our body parts are pairs. We have two legs, eyes, ears, etc. 

As a group we played a game with our friend “Mat Man.” He helped us learn the parts of our body and where they belong. Body part by body part, the children helped put “Mat Man” together so he would be whole once again. We assembled “Mat Man” by using various objects and shapes we found around the classroom. We then revisited “Mat Man” to help us draw our bodies. We illustrated portraits of ourselves, by drawing our bodies step by step and looking in a mirror to view our features, as well as our hair and eye colors. Then we labeled our body parts. We are quite the artists! 

We used our math skills by estimating how many blocks tall we each are and then we measured to see if our estimations were correct. We then drew out the amount of blocks tall that we are.

Tu B’Shvat

This week we focused our attention on the holiday of Tu B’Shvat, the birthday of the trees! We showed the children where New York is on the globe. We then explained to the children even though it is winter in New York and the trees do not have any leaves, on the other side of the world the sun is starting to warm up and it is becoming spring. We traced our fingers across the globe and showed them where Israel is. The children learned that in Israel people start planting trees and flowers start blooming. 

We talked about how trees, flowers and plants grow in the ground. They grow from seeds and grow roots underground and stems that come out of the ground. Trees and other plants need soil, water and sun to help it grow, just like water and food helps us grow. Tree and plants do not have mouths like us, so how do they drink water? As a fun science experiment we showed the children how celery drinks up water. We filled two different containers with water. In the first container we added red food coloring, while in the other one, we added blue food coloring. We then put in stalks of celery in each container and put them aside. When we came back to school the next day something had happened. The stalks of celery were not completely green anymore. One had turned a little red while the other one had become blue. The children were amazed! We showed the children the thin roots in the celery and explained to them how the celery drinks it up through the roots like long straws. 

 

We read The Giving Tree and discussed all of things that a tree provides for us, including: fruits, shade, paper, oxygen, and wood. 

The children also got the opportunity to plant this week. They painted their own flower pots and then added soil, seeds and water. We placed the flower pots on the window sill so that the flowers can get plenty of sun and we will be watching them grow. 

As a fun math activity we played a matching game with leaves and numbers. Each child got a leaf with a number written on it and had to match it to the number on the branches. Since we have twelve children in the class we counted to the number twelve. This activity helped teach the children number recognition and one to one correspondence. 

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)