The Honey Bees continued their study of arctic animals, culture, and geography last week. Hopefully we’ll return to school tomorrow after our Arctic ice storm. So nice of mother nature to participate in our theme. This past week we read penguin and polar bear fictional stories as well as non fiction books about polar animals. We played in “ice floe” sensory bins with animals and people. We created the aurora borealis with oil pastels on black paper and learned about the creation of the “night rainbow”. WE talked about polar bear families and made life sized polar bear feet. Because many of us have been out with colds and family travel I’ve been circling back around with these ideas since we returned from the break. We have talked about our star, the sun, and the influence it has on the earth and it’s magnetic poles. It takes forty days for light to reach the earth from the sun, and the magnetic pull of the earth creates the northern lights… and the southern polar lights, the aurora australis. Just talking about the northern lights has sparked a desire in the children to learn about “the day rainbow” and also about the solar system, so I’m planning future investigations.
We had giant belly laughs reading the book Penguin Problems by Jory John. We’ll read it again this week. A penguin’s problems are a lot like any preschooler’s problems…. It’s cold, where’s my mom? It’s too early, too bright….A walrus interrupts with some empathy and thoughtful advice. Along the way we learn some real facts about penguins.
On Friday we created an igloo and will do that again this week. We’ll watch a short documentary video about building an igloo ad start talking more about people who live in snowy regions and how they adapt. I have some books about Alaska, and we are going to talk about the Iditerod. The race is coming up on Saturday, March 2 in Anchorage. Our class loves dogs, and had a sweet dog visitor on Friday. The nearly mythical Calvin was very happy in circle time with L’s dad. We’ll also watch and learn the Ookyook song.
We enjoyed a hike with Storyteller Bob on Thursday, and then Bob read us a great story about Fragility the hippo. Make sure your child has a hat and mittens along with a warm coat each day. We go outside every day even if just for a short time.
In the coming week we’ll talk about snowflakes and how they always have six sides. We’ll play with the numbers 1-6 and make our own snowflakes on the light tables,
