Week f 4/8

Dear Polar Bear Families,
 
Reminders:
 

• Scholastic Book orders for April are due this Monday April 15
• Parent Teacher Conferences are Thursday April 25th and Friday April 26th
• Save the Date: The Polar Bear Theater Week production of “Pete the Cat and his 4 groovy buttons” will be at 9 am Friday May 17th

 
Theme: Spring

Letter of the week: V
 
Some books we read this week:

• Green, by Laura
• It’s Spring, by Samantha Berger
• Weather in Spring, by Martha E. H. Rustad
• Plants in Spring, by Martha E. H. Rustad
• Vegetable Garden, Douglas Florian

 
Classroom Activities

• Our Letter of the Week was “V” and our Scholastic Letter Book this week was “Vera Viper’s Valentine”, by Samantha Berger

 

• Our person of the week was Aarin and we loved learning all about him and the weekend he spent with Icy. Icy loved spending his weekends getting to know all the kids and was so sad to learn that Aarin was his last visit of the year. Thanks for making the Person of the Week such a fun and special time for the kids!

 

• This week we began playing a new movement game during calendar time. We have an ABC pattern on our calendar pieces– Beetles, Bee’s, and Butterflies so we decided to play a memory/movement game. Each insect was given a corresponding movement, decided each day by the kids. Then as we go through our calendar, April 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc, we name the corresponding insect and then do the movement. So for example, one day Beetles was jumping, Bee’s was clapping, and Butterflies was a jump with flapping our arms. The challenge is to listen to the teacher call out the insect and then remember the movement to do. It’s a lot harder to do than you might imagine!

 

• In Gym we introduced a new game called “What time is it Mr. Fox?” It is another listening game. The children call out “what time is it Mr Fox and the Fox says a time, “It’s 3 o’clock!”  Then the kids take three steps closer to the fox (whose back is turned and can’t see how close they are getting). The fox is tricky though, when he shouts out “It’s 12 o’clock!” he can turn around and chase the kids back to the wall. With any luck, he’s fast enough to catch his dinner ☺

 

• The children were expressing an interest in the shells on the discovery box. They wanted to know if any sea creatures lived in the shells. We went to the computer and learned all about the small, snail and crab like creatures that make the shells their homes. We also read Eric Carle’s “ A home for hermit crab” which tells the story of a crab who lives and decorates a home he eventually outgrows. 

 

• Friday we had a big treat, Mira and Nikita’s parents came in to share with us the Hindu holiday of Holi. We read a book about the holiday, saw a video of Indian dancing, tried the dancing ourselves (and had a ball), and then as a treat got to eat some colorful cupcakes in honor of the holiday. Thanks so much to Ravi and Tanisha for coming in and sharing!

 
Have a great weekend!

Karen, Rebeccca, and Marvin