We have had a busy past two weeks! We started a new unit about continents and countries. We learned our continent song and created passports to “travel” to each continent and collect stamps from each place. We began by talking about what maps are and exploring globes, atlases, and other maps. We then made New York City with building materials and talked about what we might see there. We learned a little bit about the Chinese New Year and created our own fire breathing dragons, watched videos of dragon and lion dances, and tried to pick things up using chopsticks! We studied the country of Brazil and the Carnival festival that takes place there by making our own sparkly masks (sorry for all that glitter)! We learned about the Amazon rainforests and explored sensory bins with rainforest animals. We built castles inspired by some of the beautiful castles in Europe, and made play dough pizzas from Italy. We learned about the Maasai people and painted our own patterned necklaces inspired by their elaborately beaded necklaces, and studied capillary action by painting giant paper towel giraffes! On our final day, Ms. Lauren (from Sally’s class), came over to teach us all about Australia where she has lived. Ms. Sadee taught us about where her mom is from Trinidad and Tobago! We have loved learning about our great big world together!
Last week, we shifted our focus onto snow! The children were naturally very interested in this topic since we had so much snow outside! We learned that snowflakes have 6 points and each one is unique. We played with rice and instasnow sensory bins, built snowmen out of play dough, and created some beautiful winter inspired paintings. We had a fun music class with Ms. Marci and played outside in the real snow with Storytime Bob!
We teachers, had an amazing lunch on Friday, thanks to all of you! We want you to know that we so appreciate each and every one of you and your children.
This coming week is only two days! How did we get here? We will continue playing, learning, and having fun together for these last days before break.
After school resumes, I will be on maternity leave but will be bringing my daughter to class and picking her up each day, so I will still be seeing all of you. Wynne will be taking over as the lead teacher while I’m not there, and I am so excited about all of the wonderful things she has planned. Sadee will still be with us, and Ms. Lori will be joining in as another assistant. All are fantastic teachers and people, and I’m thrilled with the teaching team that will be stepping in for me! I’m looking forward to these last few days with the children, and wish you all a lovely winter break!
Thanks so much,
Hannah, Wynne, and Sadee 🙂
