Winter Animals

This week we finished up with the winter unit by focusing on winter animals and how they live. We learned about penguins and their characteristics, blubber and how it keeps arctic animals warm in the cold weather, and many other cold weather animals. We made a penguin of our own, and read lots and lots of arctic animal books.

On Wednesday, we celebrated our 100th DAY OF SCHOOL! I absolutely cannot believe it has been 100 days. It seems to be going by so fast. Is that good? Or bad? I wish this year would slow down a tad. I want to enjoy every day as much as possible...

Thursday was Groundhog Day! We watched a 2 minute video about goundhogs, or woodchucks, and how some people believe he predicts the weather. We sang two funny groundhog songs, and made a groundhog craft.

Here are this week's fun pictures:

We had a new sensory experience with shaving cream! We talked about how it felt, how it smelled, and even how we think it would taste! (Yuck!) This is a great way to build vocabulary skills. Also, it is very soothing. Lots of sensory activities are...water, sand, etc. We can even incorporate phonic awareness and writing practice!

In small group one day this week we played a game called "Don't Break the Ice". They love this game. I think any game in which you give a child a hammer and let them hit something with it is bound to be a favorite. I will say, this game is not very good for teaching independent skills. They kids cannot put the ice cubes back together in the grid. It requires adult help. Over, and over and over, we put the ice back together just to bust is again. They would get the first two rows, and then I came in to finish the set up. But lots of fun anyways!

We learned about "blubber"! We did an experiment during group time with a tub of ice water. We dipped on hand in the water all by itself. It was cold! Then we put the other hand in the water inside a ziploc baggie with "blubber" (Crisco) in it. The had in the blubber bag didn't get cold! Why? The blubber keeps out the cold! Just like the animals that live outside in the cold and that swim in the freezing water.

The next day it was water play with the arctic animals in cold water.

We took the water tub outside to play as well!


Here are a few more outside pictures (STILL enjoying the great temps in January/February)!

Gracie explores magnets in the science center

Joshua painting a "forest".

Lexi is taking lunch orders!

Gabriel LOVES music! He sings and dances all day long!

Marcello....sweet little piggy :)

We had a great week, and I look forward to next week! Will will focus on BEARS and hibernation. (Has your child sang the grizzly bear song to you yet?)

Have a great weekend!