Week 19: The Great January Thaw

Week 19:  The Great January Thaw

Dear Parents,

This week is our first full week of school after the Winter Break.  we continued our explorations of amphibians and began our explorations of the Arctic regions in particular Antarctica.  We enjoyed the weather because each day it was a bit warmer than before and we got to explore in the playground's river formation, crossing icy patches and other geological formations.  In the classroom some works are taking a seasonal twist, while other older works are explored in more depth.  

Monday:  Today is the 81st day of school.  We're coming off a very cold weekend with below freezing temperatures without even considering the wind chill.  Therefore this afternoon when it warmed up to 24 degrees, I thought it was practically summer weather and we had to go outside for mid day recess.  At morning circle, we reviewed the calendar and functions of a new year.  Popular work today include many language works, POA turtle, Arctic landforms, the new rubbing works, the painting works and the 6 cube chain came out.  

Tuesday:   At morning circle we read the Life Cycle of a Frog, a book by Gail Gibbons. Many children enjoyed the concrete land form set with added figurines.  Other popular works include painting, snowflake beading, paper cutting, Grammar Lessons, POA frog and POA of a turtle.  At Spanish class Sra. Rosa reviewed the farm animals and sang the Spanish version of  "head, shoulder, knees and toes."  

Wednesday: At morning circle we continued our talk on the Life Cycle of a Frog, and introduce the matching card and figure set.   New works include updated cutting works polar bear counting activity.  Popular lessons include Life cycle of a frog, Stamp Game, Grammar lessons, painting and landforms.  

Thursday:  Morning circle started with a new Amphibians matching lesson to each native continent.  It was well received because of the variety of colors and uniqueness each amphibians. In the afternoon we began our new chapter book, You wouldn't want to be a Polar Explorer!, book by Jen Green.  Popular works include Amphibian Continent sorting work, Stamp Game, Fraction Names, Landforms.

Friday:  We began the day starting our new geography topic: Antarctica.  At circle we had a matching lesson on transportation by air, land, and sea.  The children enjoyed exploring the vehicle shapes.  Other popular lessons include diction, Stamp Game, Bank Game, Dreidel Game, fractions, frog continent, POA turtle and POA frog, and Polar bear counting.  In the afternoon we had another reading on the Polar Explorer book, which the children made good connections to the outside weather conditions and earlier transportation lesson.  

Thank you for another amazing week!

Ms. Becky and the Preschool staff :)