Week of 1/14

Dear Koala Bear Families,

We had a great week continuing our unit all about Winter and introduced Cultures! Here are some of the fun-filled activities we did this week in the Koala Bear PM Room:

Classroom Activities:

• We took turns drawing Mat Man, and the students asked to accessorize him with eyelashes, hair, eye shadow, a heart, earrings, and a belly button. He’s our best Mat Man yet!
• During a science experiment, we hypothesized what would happen if we mixed baking soda and shaving cream. After the students felt both ingredients in individual bowls, they used their hands to mix the two together and saw that the result was a snow-like substance. They then suggested we place all the snow into a large bin, which they then asked for spoons to play with and make small little balls!
• Tuesday was Cave Day! The students arrived at school to see a giant cave in the classroom that they hibernated in. We asked the students to go around the classroom and pick out one item that they’d like to take into hibernation – which varied from a cash register, pretend food, and some small toys/manipulatives. We had so much fun hibernating, and had a special snack of Teddy Grahams inside of our cave.
• We introduced Cultures and spoke about the many different people of the world. The students were fascinated looking at the globe, and learned how to say hello in 9 different languages by listening to the song “Hello To All The Children Of The World”.
• Our first stop on our Cultures tour was Italy! I spoke about how my mother’s family is from Italy. We looked at pictures of the Italian Flag, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Mona Lisa. We completed a Mona Lisa “color by number", and even made pizza from SCRATCH!

 
Books we read:

• Bear Snores On, by Karma Wilson
• Hibernation Station, by Michelle Meadows
• It's Okay to be Different, by Todd Parr

 
Places we went:

• We had our first visit back to the Art Studio with Julia and Janae. It was so much fun to be back in our "old" classroom.
• We practiced Yoga with Lindsay
• Music with Noel 
• We went to Gym 2 and 3 and built a snow cave with the blue blocks

 
Letter of the Week:

• “S”! A Seriously silly letter!

 
Important Dates:

• MCS will be closed on Monday, 1/21 and Tuesday, 1/22 
• The Winter Benefit is on Friday, 1/25 at 6:30 pm. Please RSVP if you plan on attending. We look forward to seeing you all there!

 
We hope you have a warm and snowy weekend!
 
Laura and Desiree