Bears, Bears, Bears! Letter B & Learning About Bears

Much to our surprise, Letter B came to visit our classroom! He brought with him TONS of bears books! This week, we will be reading Informational Texts about many different species of bears including Polar Bears, Grizzly Bears and Panda Bears. We will be writing FACTS about bears in a bear journal. This week is going to be bear-y fun!

Please don’t forget to bring in your Mystery Bags for letter B with 3 hand-written clues by the students.

Please play, sing, and dance to the letter B song this week:

Reader's Theater- The Hat

During our centers a couple weeks ago, each table performed a Reader's Theater after reading the story The Hat by Jan Brett. Each child became a character (or two) from the story about a curious hedgehog who gets a sock stuck on the bristles on his head. Feeling embarrassed, he tells the farm animals who ask him what he is wearing that it is his new hat. He tells each animal reasons for wearing the hat like "it keeps me warm" and "all animals should wear hats." Little did he know he was sparking a very funny interest- all of the animals end up putting clothes on their head! This was such a great opportunity not only for the students to recall/retell a story, but to also practice their performing skills! (Mr. LaGuardia sure has some future senior chorus prospects in this class!)

Here are some snatshots of a couple of our plays. Enjoy!

Jackson as Hedgie the Hedgehog.

One of the curious animals asking Hedgie about his funny hat.

 "What is on your head, Hedgie?"

Look at all those silly animals!

Layla as Hedgie and Matthew as one of the animals.

Anthony, really getting into it with his hand gesture. I can hear him saying, “What's on your head?"

Jake as the cat in the "tree".

We had such a great audience everyday!

Eva played Lisa, the human in the story tryies to catch Hedgie to help him get the sock off his head.

Great job to this group!

Mason as Hedgie.  

Great job, Red Table!

Sebastian as Hedgie.

Peyton the pony.

At the end of the story, all of the animals parade around wearing their new "hats" that consisted of all of Lisa's clothes that were hanging out on her clothes line.

Great job, Blue Table!

Oh yes, there always has to be a silly one!!!

Penguins!

We just concluded our week of learning about penguins.

Please ask your child to share some of the facts they learned about these brave and unique birds that live in the frigid cold of Antarctica.

During the week, we read many Informational Texts, watched videos about penguins, and saw them swimming and being fed live on an aquarium webcam. We also pretended we were freezing penguins huddled in our colony with wind blowing on our backs. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it but I had all the students huddle in the middle of the carpet as I ran around touching their backs symbolizing the harsh hurricane-like winds. For PE, we did penguin waddling relays! The kids had to hold a large foam dice between their ankles as they raced the other team to complete the activity. Finally, all of our centers were based on either math, science, writing or art with penguins. 

We created these cute math penguins, using their food as an addition problem.

We wrote in our journals about where penguins live and what it is like in Antarctica.

Here is a sneak peek of one of the art projects you will see at the Winter Art Gallery on Thursday, January 29. We will have 3 projects on display.

Here is the link to the video we watched in class. There are two daily “feedings” that we were able to watch one day. Monterey Bay Penguin Webcam

Funny Feet Letter F

We are also focusing on teen numbers. Here is a super fun song that your child LOVES!

Gingerbread Houses

On Friday before winter break we commenced our Holidays Around the World traveling with one of our favorite traditions from Germany- building gingerbread houses! There was much fun to be had, both with the kids and the very helpful parents who joined in on the festivities!

Elves hard at work!

Check out that two-story house! And if you look closely you'll see Zach's snowman!

Eva's roof was engineered using a natural architectural design that resembled a log cabin! Such a creative little mind!

Layla hard at work making a Christmas tree.

I couldn't believe all the creativity I saw. These kids loved making gingerbread house (and I think the moms and dads did too- I hope!!)

Thank you, once again for all your help!