Morning Sign-In Challenge!

What learning opportunity can be found in a variety of empty boxes ?  Each morning this week, the children have been greeted with a different sized box and challenged to find something to fill it up.  The only restriction placed on them was that we had to be able to close the box.  At first, the children found anything that fit into the box with little regard for how much space it took up.  Each day at circle, we discussed why some choices were better than others,using words like length, height and depth.  We also talked about the things that we could use to connect  manipulatives in order to change their size. As you can see from the pictures,on Friday we put tape, pipe cleaners, and wire on the table so the children could experiment with their manipulatives to meet the challenge. We also want to thank Lilly for applying this new learning by bringing in her own box filled with jewelry and other treasures to share with the class at lunch on Friday.  We are very proud of the Curious George class!

The Curious George Celebrates a Birthday and Shabbat!

On Wednesday, we celebrated Ben's birthday.  He was so excited about his 5th birthday that he put the number 5 candle plus 5 more candles on his cupcake!  

On Friday, we were the Shabbat leaders!

The class said the blessing over the Shabbat candles.

We all had some juice as we said the prayer for the wine.

We all came together to say the prayer over the Challah.

Alex, Evie, Lilly and Norah joined hands to dance and sing at the end of the Shabbat service.

While the girls danced, Calvin enjoyed his last few bites of Challah!

Rabbi Robbins came to class to talk to us about Purim.  She read us a Purim book, "Sammy Spider's First Purim."

Every Friday, we end our circle time with a Shabbat blessing.  This week we were lucky to have Rabbi Robbins to join us for this special way to end our week and celebrate Shabbat!

Our New Question Mark Helper

Our new question mark helper's job is inspired by Purim Groggers.  Colorful eggs are filled with a variety of different materials. (marbles,nails, gems, etc.)  Each day, we select two eggs and shake them.  Then both eggs are placed behind the teacher's back.  After a short delay in time, the teacher chooses one egg to shake again.  The question mark helper decides if the noise comes from egg #1 or egg #2.  This activity gives our children practice with auditory memory and auditory discrimination skills.  Both of these skills are important for reading and language.  On Friday, Zac was our question mark helper,and he not only picked the correct egg,but he tried to guess what materials made the sounds in the two eggs.

The Blubber Experiment!

Earlier in the week, we did a science experiment to learn how snowy owls are able to see their prey in the dark.  On Thursday afternoon, we did an experiment to learn how polar bears survive in the cold climate of the Arctic.  In studying the polar bear, we read Gail Gibbons book, "Polar Bears." In her book, she describes how polar bears have a layer of fat called blubber that helps to insulate the bears from the cold.  The children were very "curious" about how the blubber really worked.  So, on Thursday, we prepared two bowls of ice,  and two sets of bags. Three of the bags were empty, and we filled the fourth bag with Crisco.  We explained to the children that we didn't have real blubber, but that Crisco was a fat.  Then we had them test the bags to see which set would keep their hands warm.  The set without the Crisco was cold and the set with the Crisco was warm.  Half way through the experiment, our inquisitive children wanted to see how long they could keep their hands in the ice without any insulation.  As you can see from the pictures,they discovered that polar bears need the blubber to keep them warm in the Arctic!

The 100th Day of School

On Thursday, all the children were so excited as it was the 100th day of school!  We had talked about this day since the beginning of school.  When the children entered the classroom, we had filled the writing center with  markers, stickers, numbers, sequins, glue sticks, and white bags.  Everyone decorated a bag, which they later filled with 100 treats.

The children had fun counting out 100 treats to fill their bags.  We want to thank everyone for sending the requested treats. We enjoyed watching the children choose the various treats for each row of 10 on the number grid. The children got a great deal of math practice on this very special day!

After counting our 100 day treats, it was time for circle.  It was Alex's job to be the caterpillar helper on this exciting day. We counted by tens to 100. Everyone clapped and cheered as Alex put an X on the 100, and added the 100th circle to our caterpillar. Now we are counting backwards towards the last day of school!

The children have been waiting all year to meet Zero the Hero.  Every 10th day of school, the number zero would be in a different place in our room for the children to find. We told them that Zero the Hero left the zero as well as a treat in the shape of a zero. They always thought it was the teachers who left the zero and the treats, but on Thursday the"real" Zero the Hero made an appearance.  Their eyes were wide with wonder, and they were full of questions for the famous Zero the Hero! How does he make it to every school on the 100th day???

A Hunt for 100 Life Savers

On Tuesday afternoon, the children went on a hunt for 100 Life Savers that were hidden in the classroom!  We explained to the children that each Life Saver had a number from 1 to 100. Once they found a Life Saver, they had to come and tell us the number and place it on the number grid. It was challenging to keep all those Life Savers on the grid,but the children worked together to meet the challenge.  After we filled the grid, we sat in circle and counted the Life Savers in groups of 10 until we reached 100.  The hunt was a fun way for the children to practice the math skills of number recognition and counting by ones and tens. Math was definitely a sweet adventure on Tuesday in the Curious George Class!

Artic Sculptures

There are not many building materials available to Inuits except ice.  Mini marshmallows are our version of ice squares---look at the different sculptures the children created.  What a tasty way to get a fine motor workout!