A Jolly January!

We started out the year with Chinese New Year. We learned about where China is on the earth and watched a video showing how they celebrate Chinese New Year. We decorated red (China's lucky color) lantern's. We stamped on the number 2016 and the word China. It was letter Q day this day as well and we learned about a fun tradition that the kids do in China. They each have red envelopes that they take to family members homes and receive money. I gave each of the kids a quarter to put in their envelope. For snack time the kids got to eat noodles with chopsticks.  Each child also got a turn to be the front of the dragon parade and lead the rest of the kids. They loved this day!

We also studied different polar animals and learned about the arctic this month. We made a polar bear craft and learned about the blubber a lot of animals have to keep them warm in the cold temperatures. We did a science experiment with crisco to show how the blubber helps the animals to feel warmer. We learned about emperor penguins and made penguins out of water bottles. Some of the kids wanted to put an egg on their penguin to show how the mommies and daddies take care of the egg and protect it from the cold. They love walking around like real penguins and holding the eggs between their feet. At snack time they fed their penguins the correct amount of goldfish crackers to work on their numbers. We also played a partner game with penguins and snowballs made out of felt to practice number recognition and one to one correspondence. We made igloos to practice cutting more and they were able to add some northern lights with colored ice that they painted in the sky. 

Sliding on the "Ice"like a polar bear. We used wax paper.

M is for Mail: We read this fun book that has envelopes in it and and letters to read. The kids loved seeing each one. The kids got to make a letter for their families and put a stamp on their envelope. We put our letters in the mailbox with a letter for the mailman and a bag of M&M's. We also watched a video of a field trip to learn what they do at the post office. We watched how they organize all the letters and packages and how they get them to the correct house. I hope you all got your letters. The kids were so excited to send them to you. This day Mrs. Chelise came and did some Polar Yoga with the kids.

This month we were able to go to the Bean Museum for a scavenger hunt and a reptile show. Before that day we learned about reptiles and how they are cold blooded, have scales and lay eggs. We did different centers this day that were really fun for them as well. We read the book A Color of My Own that tells about a chameleon that wants to just stay one color and stop changing colors. The kids were able to feed their chameleon flies. They had to roll a dice to see how many flies to feed him and used clothes pins to help with fine motor skills. They also made snakes, turtles, and alligators out of tanagram shapes. They made different reptiles with play dough and had to melt a snake out of an ice cube. For art we mixed blue and yellow to make green and then rolled bubble wrap in the paint and painted it onto a paper plate. Once the paint was dry we cut it into a spiral shape and made them into snakes. 

S is for Snow

For our snow day we played snow bingo with mini marshmallows and worked on our numbers more. The kids got to "drive in the snow" with white paint and a play car. We gave them a carwash at the end. We played a couple different games. We made a a snowflake out of different shapes and also matched snowmen uppercase letters with the lowercase letter matching hat. One of our puppets came as well this day to ask us some funny questions that all answered with something that started with the letter S sound. At the end of the day the kids got to get some snow from outside and make it into different colors with markers. 

S is for the Sun and Stars

For the last day this month with my older class we learned some fun facts about the sun. It is the closest star to the earth. It is 10,000 degrees F, It is needed for light, warmth and energy and it could hold 1 million earths inside of it. 

The kids poked holes in black paper and we made telescopes out of them that looked like stars were shining in. We learned the poem Star Light, Star Bright and made stars with white and yellow crayons and then painted over them with blue paint. We also worked on a journal page this day and writing. My older class is putting together a book for graduation day and are so excited for their parents to see it. :) 

It was a great month! Thank you for all your support and help at home.