January 28th, 2010

Blog Manager:
"We painted a burrow. The hardest part was that we had to paint the ground. We knew what a burrow looked like 'cause we had picture of them. We played kitty cat in the playroom. Iris was a kitty cat, too. We hibernated - it felt good. When I woke up I got to eat. It felt good because I slept alot. We got to be animals that were in North and then we went to South. It felt good because we got to be warm." -naomi

Today we continued our animals in winter unit.

We completed another graph. We chose which way we would prefer to migrate - either flying, swimming or walking/running. We noticed that two columns (fly and swim) were had the same number of math babies in them. This means the two columns are equal. We also noticed that the largest column (walk/run) had four more babies in it than the fly and swim columns!






In the atelier today, we worked on painting caves and burrows for us to put up in creative play as we plan to be bears, bats and other small hibernating animals. We worked for a whole hour to paint a safe, warm place to practice hibernating! We knew what caves and burrows looked like from books we have read and pictures from the internet.



We played a migration game. First we examined a globe to study the ideas of north and south. We talked about how some animals usually live up North, but migrate south for warmth and to find food more easily.


After we examined the globe, we practiced migrating like different animals. Mr. John showed us pictures and facts about migrating animals, and we acted out their migrations. We started North in one area of the classroom, and walked, swam, flew or crawled to reach South in another corner of the classroom. When we reached our destination, we were able to eat lots of food and bask in the sun.

We are caribou migrating!

We are spiny lobsters crawling!

In Creative Play, we used scenery created by the MWF Dolphin class to reflect on what we know about hibernation and migration. We talked about how it would feel to migrate and hibernate.

A bunch of bears hibernating in their den! They are eating lots of food to fuel up for winter!

A migrating cat.

Hibernating bears.

Furious at Ms. Katie for waking us up from hibernation! This is how a bear would feel if they got woken up from their sleep!

Hibernating in our underground burrow.

We also continued working on our environmental print walk book. Soon we will be published authors!

January 27th, 2010

Today we continued our animals in winter unit.

We completed another graph. We chose which way we would prefer to migrate - either flying, swimming or walking/running. We noticed that two columns (fly and swim) were had the same number of math babies in them. This means the two columns are equal. We also noticed that the largest column (walk/run) had two more babies in it than the fly and swim columns!


We also sang our animals in winter song as we pretended to be animals that migrate, hibernate or adapt.

We are hibernating!

We are migrating!

In the atelier today, we worked on painting caves and burrows for us to put up in creative play as we plan to be bears, bats and other small hibernating animals. We worked for a whole hour to paint a safe, warm place to practice hibernating! We knew what caves and burrows looked like from books we have read.




We played a migration game. First we examined a globe to study the ideas of north and south. We talked about how some animals usually live up North, but migrate south for warmth and to find food more easily.

After we examined the globe, we practiced migrating like different animals. Mr. John showed us pictures and facts about migrating animals, and we acted out their migrations. We started North in one area of the classroom, and walked, swam, flew or crawled to reach South in another corner of the classroom. When we reached our destination, we were able to eat lots of food and bask in the sun.

We are caribou migrating!

We are spiny lobsters crawling!

We formed a v-formation before we migrated south as birds.

We also started working on our environmental print walk book. We painted the illustrations last week and now we are writing the words to our book. Soon we will be published authors!




It was Jacob's birthday today! We enjoyed celebrating him and sharing special treats!

Remember! No school on Friday because of teacher in-service!

January 26th, 2010

Today we started our Animals in Winter unit.

We started our day by making a graph based on our animal preferences. We put our gingerbread babies in the column that represented the animal we most wished we could be. We talked about how many people voted all together, which column had the most votes, and which had the least. We also talked about differences between columns (how many more, etc.)



We also read new books about how animals change their behaviors to survive winter. One book we read is called The Mitten. We had new felt board pieces from The Mitten to reflect on our reading.



We sang and danced to a song about hibernation, migration and adaptation.


Here are the words to our song so you can sing along with your child (to the tune of Wheels on the Bus):

The weather's getting cold so bundle up, bundle up, bundle up 

The weather's getting cold so bundle up, winter is here. 


The bears in the cave sleep all the time............ 

The squirrels in the trees get lots of nuts............... 

The frogs and toads go deep in mud....... 

The ducks and the geese go flying south........ 

The people in the town wear hats and gloves..........

We also started painting a cave to hibernate in when we play in Creative Play. We looked at pictures of real bear and bat caves and tried to draw what we saw. We used colors that we thought would camouflage the cave in the forest, so while we hibernate we stay safe.


To deepen our understanding of why animals need to hibernate, migrate or adapt, we tried eating pineapple frozen in ice during afternoon centers. We noticed that we couldn't smell the pineapple when we were eating it. It would be difficult for animals to find food when it is frozen because they can't smell it. We thought they might rely on other senses to find food, like sight.

We also had to work very hard to get one little piece of pineapple from the ice cube. It took a long time and was uncomfortable to hold the ice in our mouths and hands. We figured that animals would have to work much harder to find food and fill their bellies in winter than during the other seasons.


We also started writing our environmental print book. Last week, we painted illustrations for our book, and now we are busy starting to add words. We use our alphabet sheets to help us form letters, and STRETCH out each word using our rubber band hands to listen for each sound. We write whatever sounds we hear! We can't wait for our book to be published and put in our library for our friends to enjoy!




P.S. Any seamstresses in our community? We need help crafting faux fur vests and animal costumes for creative play. We will use these when we act out hibernation, migration and adaption through our play! Please email Ms. Katie if you are able to help!

January 25th, 2010

Today we started our Animals in Winter unit.

We started our day by making a graph based on our animal preferences. We put our gingerbread babies in the column that represented the animal we most wished we could be. We talked about how many people voted all together, which column had the most votes, and which had the least.




We also read new books about how animals change their behaviors to survive winter. One book we read is called The Mitten. We had new felt board pieces from The Mitten to reflect on our reading.


We sang and danced to a song about hibernation, migration and adaptation (sorry we don't have a better picture!).


Here are the words to our song so you can sing along with your child (to the tune of Wheels on the Bus):

The weather's getting cold so bundle up, bundle up, bundle up 

The weather's getting cold so bundle up, winter is here. 


The bears in the cave sleep all the time............ 

The squirrels in the trees get lots of nuts............... 

The frogs and toads go deep in mud....... 

The ducks and the geese go flying south........ 

The people in the town wear hats and gloves..........

To deepen our understanding of why animals need to hibernate, migrate or adapt, we tried eating pineapple frozen in ice during afternoon centers. We noticed that we couldn't smell the pineapple when we were eating it. It would be difficult for animals to find food when it is frozen because they can't smell it. We thought they might rely on other senses to find food, like sight.



We also had to work very hard to get one little piece of pineapple from the ice cube. It took a long time and was uncomfortable to hold the ice in our mouths and hands. We figured that animals would have to work much harder to find food and fill their bellies in winter than during the other seasons.