We have expanded on our winter theme this week by including bears in our play in addition to our polar animals. We were happy to have so many bear (and bunny) visitors from your homes! Our bears joined us in our storytime, singing & center play. We made feasts for them in the bear “den” and pretended to be bears ourselves!
Since we have been talking so much about polar animals, and now bears, we took some time to discuss other animal habitats and sorted the animals that belonged in each habitat.
We read the story The Mitten and named all of the animals seeking refuge from the cold inside the mitten. Many of us painted mittens at the easel using rollers and different types of brushes. We also practiced matching lowercase to uppercase letters on matching mittens (the patterns helped give us clues to which letters go together). We hung the mittens on a clothesline- pinching those clothespins is challenging fine motor work!!
We did some fun science experiments this week, too! We watched a snowstorm form in a jar when we mixed water & baby oil with a little glitter “snow” and added Alka-Seltzer tablets. It was a whirly swirly snowstorm just like in the Going on a Bear Hunt story!! While we talked about the snow and Arctic, we wondered “how do polar animals like seals, whales and walrus stay warm if they don’t have fur”? Blubber!!! (what a fun word! 😂) Miss Jennifer made a really cool blubber glove that we got to use to compare how our hands feel in ice with and without blubber.
Next week we’ll conclude our winter unit with an exploration of animals that hibernate.
Following that we will head into a February valentines theme and explore community helpers, too. There will be lots of discussion about what we want to do when we grow up. We would love to learn about what our Moms & Dads do, if anyone would like to come visit to share about your job during February, Just let us know!!
For Valentine’s Day we ask that everyone please send 11 unaddressed cards signed by your child for them to “mail” to each friend. Bring them by February 12th/13th (our Pancakes & PJs Days). We will make “mailboxes” at school. Give your child a chance to help create their valentines in some way. This can be by adding stickers, drawing a picture, writing their name on their own (or even just a letter or two), or decorating homemade cards. Whatever they do will give them ownership & pride and make the experience of delivering the cards soooo meaningful to them ❤️
Have a wonderful weekend with your Ladybugs!
Miss Sue, Miss Jenn, & Miss Kelsi
IMPORTANT POSTSCRIPT- Please try to be prompt during dropoff & pickup times! We have had a lot of stragglers lately. We try to wait to start our morning together, but it isn’t fair to those who arrived on time to sit around waiting and it also affects our schedule (especially on specials days) if we wait. We also don’t want your child to miss any of the FUN & learning! Thanks so much for your help with this.