Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You See?

This week we dove into our Polar Bear unit.   We explored together through non-fiction stories, videos, activities, and a blubber experiment!

In Morning meeting, we discovered that polar bears have a thick coat of fur and blubber under their skin to keep them warm in the Arctic environment. We made blubber gloves using Crisco and tested to see if they could keep our hands warm in icy water. One hand had ‘blubber’ and the other did not.  The kiddos were quick to see how the blubber glove kept their hand warm and insulated.

Centers

Math- Addition race where the polar bears had to race to their iceberg based on the number they rolled on the dice. 

Reading – Beginning sounds and letter recognition.

Language Arts— We filled in the blank.. Polar bears can, are, and have.  The children did a great job brainstorming words together and compiled a list of the words. 

Art- The children used shaving cream to make an Arctic environment for the polar bears.  Also, on our door you will see the kiddos creations of polar bears using cotton balls and pipe cleaners to make fur and a face. 

Fine motor- play dough

Journal-  The journal questions was, “How do polar bears keep warm?” This question stemmed from our blubber experiment. 

P.E- Learning new gross motor skills for the Palio performance.  

  

Reminders/ Upcoming events

EXCITING news! We will have a new friend, Kai join our class on Monday.  I am sure the PK kiddos will take him under their wings and make him feel welcome in our class J

Conferences- February 10^th and 11^th

Check out our week in PK!

 

FUN working together building snowmen outside :)

Centers

Language Arts- We read the story, Hey, Mr. Snowman!  The kiddos found popcorn words and had to complete each picture with a winter clothing item to dress the snowman. Also, they matched uppercase and lowercase letters, reinforcing letter sounds and identification. 

Math- The children used snowballs (cotton balls) to count the corresponding number and  match it to a tens frame. 

Art-  We completed our monthly self-portraits. I have seen the children’s independence progress with this project and it is impressive! 

Fine motor- Used plastic tweezers to strengthen their fine motor grip and eye and hand coordination. The children used these tweezers to count marshmallows and match to the correct corresponding number. 

Free choice:

P.E:

The children are making their way through an obstacle course with tunnels, scooters, and trampolines.  

 

Music: The children are learning to keep the beat and play new instruments. 

Upcoming events

Preview Night- Wednesday, January 20.  Come to the JK room to meet Judy Wahl, the Junior Kindergarten teacher and hear about the exciting upcoming year. 

Next week we will be learning about Polar Bears!

Winter Fun!

What a fantastic first week back to school after Winter Break.  The children were so excited to see their friends and it was a smooth transition getting back into the routine of school. 

The theme for this week centered on the story, The Mitten by Jan Brett.  During morning meeting we discussed what characters were in the story and what events happened at the beginning and the end. At the end of the week when we were more familiar with the story the children retold the story using animals they made. 

Fun in the snow!

Centers

L.A.- The children completed a letter sort activity with pictures and had to recognize the beginning sound of the word. 

Math- This hands on activity focused on one to one correspondence when counting.  The children each got a snowman and took turns choosing a different hat to dress their snowman. Each hat had a number on top. Next, they had to correctly count the number of buttons to match the number on the hat.  It was fun to see some of the children want to challenge themselves by picking a larger number and seeing if they could count that many buttons! 

Art- The  kiddos made snowman and on each snowball they practiced writing letters in their name. The children were making comparisons to the size of others snowman and seeing how many letters they had in their name.

Fine motor- The children made snowflakes using a collage of colors for tissue paper and placing these pieces on their snowflake.

Journal- The prompt, ‘What is your favorite thing to do in the snow?’ spurred the kiddos ideas about fun winter activities.  Some of their responses were, “Throw snowballs with my dad! We get a a bunch of snow and then we throw it! SPLAT! It is fun to play in the snow!”  It is exciting to see what creative stories they share. 

Independent- Matching memory game with winter clothing

Next week

We will be continuing the theme of winter and be doing a few science experiments as well!  J

Please remember to have snow pants and boots at school each day!