The Friendly Frogs welcomed in the new year playing the drums, cymbals. triangles and bells with Mrs. McIvor in music class!
Over the holidays several little frogs have been traveling to many fabulous places. After locating our state of Florida, we buckled our seat belts and journeyed the globe to see just where they had been. First we went to Colorado and Utah in our own country. Next to Trinidad, before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the continent of Europe to find Austria and Romania. How exciting!
"The Jacket I Wear in the Snow, " by Shirley Neitzel was a great introduction to the season of Winter. Even though it doesn't snow in Florida, it sometimes gets chilly enough to need some mittens! The boys and girls carefully followed the line, cutting a traced mitten from a folded piece of paper. After discovering they had TWO, they had to distinguish the left from the right, while matching their hands to their mittens.
After learning about symmetry, the children used a variety of shapes to decorate their mittens while making them symmetrical. This took quite a bit of planning and concentration, but how proud they were of their matching pair of mittens!
"The Biggest, Best Snowman Ever" by Margery Cuyler was a wonderful book about a little girl who was always told she was always too little to do anything. Even though she was unsure of herself at first, with the help of her friends she built the best snowman ever! What a great lesson in determination as well as teaching sequencing of size from largest to smallest. During Exploring, the boys and girls built and decorated their own snowman, because they knew they could do it!
Mrs. Samuels's class gathered leaves and sticks making a nature collage. They placed the items in a pan of water. Then the pan was placed in the freezer. The children were amazed how water moving in it's liquid form, transformed into a solid that did not move. Next the children observed the solid as it melted back to it's liquid form, while hanging in a tree.
Others enjoyed building habitats with Dr. Drew and windowpane blocks for penquins and ducks, adding a little shaving cream between each layer.
To kick off our discussion on transportation, we took a fabulous trip to the Master Fire Station! The boys and girls watched a video about fire safety and saw a fire and rescue truck, an engine truck with lots of hoses and watched as the huge ladder truck climbed 100 feet into the air.
Then they learned about the important gear that a firefighter wears when fighting a fire and how firefighters are always there to help us if we were ever in a real emergency.
Oh what fun, pretending to be real firefighters as the children sprayed the "PRETEND" fire painted on the windows of the Exploratorium, not to mention a strengthening of their fine motor skills!
The children explored mixing a little black paint with a little white, making......many shades of grey.
BUT...... that is not all! We enjoyed the books shared by our mystery reader, "Mac and Cheese" by Sarah Weeks and "The Giraffe Who Was Afraid of Heights" by Davi A. Ufer.
We also celebrated a very special 4th birthday this week!
Upcoming Dates:
1/21 Martin Luther King Holiday
1/25 Grandparents and Special Friends Day / Noon Dismissal
2/14 Valentines Day Party 10:00
If you have not signed up for a parent conference on Thursday Feb. 7th, please do so! You may stop by the classroom, email or call me at 508-524-1162. If this date does not work, please let me know. THANK YOU! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
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