Hi everyone! I’ve made a video to help explain everything that will be sent home in the next couple of days as well as the general plan moving forward.

On Monday, we celebrated Dr Seuss Day by reading “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.” We also had a lot of fun with rhyming throughout the day, just like Dr Seuss did every time he wrote! When we went outside, we added more sticks to the sides of our fort to reinforce the walls. The students did an excellent job of problem-solving and working together to build the fort.

On Tuesday, we enjoyed the warm weather in the forest! Students explored new areas of the forest classroom and engaged in amazing imaginative play with each other. With the students’ new interest in exploring different parts of the forest, we decided to take a walk through a new area of the forest that we had never been in before. We called it an “adventure” and we felt like explorers. We discovered countless tracks, and we even found deer scat! On our way back to school, we saw a train pass right in front of us on the train tracks! It was very exciting and loud!

On Wednesday, we continued learning about dinosaurs. We read the story “The Dinosaur Who Lived In My Backyard” and began working on a writing and art project related to the story. Children made a picture of the dinosaur that they thought might have lived in their backyard, and then they wrote or dictated what kind of dinosaur it was, what it ate, and something that it was bigger than. These projects are still ongoing, and the ones that have been finished are hanging in the hallway.

On Thursday, we read a fun story called “We’re The Noisy Dinosaurs.” This story includes many adjectives that describe the dinosaurs, like noisy, sleepy, and quiet, along with actions that those dinosaurs do. The children acted out the story by pretending to be the dinosaurs. We also learned the vocabulary words “carnivore,” “herbivore,” and “omnivore.” On the playground, children had fun playing in the new puddles that appeared under the tires.

On Friday, we learned that dinosaur scientists are called “paleontologists.” Later, we read “Curious George’s Dinosaur Discovery” which follows Curious George as he joins in on a paleontological dig and ends up discovering dinosaur bones accidentally!

This week, we started learning about dinosaurs! On Monday, I was not at school, but the students read “Dinosaur, Dinosaur” with Mr. Matt, Mrs. Sue, and Ms. Paula.

On Tuesday, we had fun in the forest classroom. We discovered some areas in our outdoor classroom that we had never explored before, including a vine that was perfect for swinging on and an undiscovered fort! We also read “Under the Snow” and talked about the animals that spend the winter under snow, inside of trees, or under the ice in a pond. When we went on our walk later, we thought about the creatures that might be hiding along our path. The students were up for a challenge, so we walked further on the path than we ever had before!

On Wednesday, we read a story about a frog that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. This launched us into a very interesting conversation about extinction and how it happened. The students had so many questions, and some of them formed their own hypotheses about how and why the dinosaurs went extinct. Preschoolers are amazing scientists!

On Thursday, we borrowed stacking cups from Mrs. Irish for a bit of extra morning fun! Since it was pouring rain outside, we played in the gym. We also read a very silly story called “When Dinosaurs Came With Everything.” It is about a town where they gave away free dinosaurs with everything; hair cuts, donuts, doctor visits…you name it! A boy and his mother end up with 4 dinosaurs by the end of the day and have to figure out what to do with them. Students had fun imagining what they would do with 4 pet dinosaurs!

On Friday, we read “How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food.” We talked about fiction versus non-fiction, and how we know that a book is fictional (i.e., dinosaurs don’t really sit in chairs and eat with a fork and knife). When we went outside, we noticed a fallen branch that was draped over our fence. We decided to use that branch and all of the other fallen branches around it to make a fort!

This week, we read folk tales and fables from around the world. On Monday, we read “Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella.” This story combines Cinderella stories from countries all over the world to make one, beautifully illustrated story. It was interesting to see how the basic story stayed the same, but the details changed based on the country and it’s culture.

On Tuesday, we spent our morning in the forest. Mrs. Sue brought bubbles for us to play with, and we had fun trying to pop them! The students also engaged in wonderful pretend play in the forest. They made their own ice cream shop, pretended to be pirates, and created a fort for superheroes. We also worked together to gather 100 items from the forest for our friends to count at school on the 100th day of schools. Later, we read a story about children who go on a walk in the woods in winter and find many different clues that animals have been there. Afterward, we went on a walk and noticed those same clues! We saw a tree with bark rubbed off of the bottom of it, which, according to the story, could be evidence that a buck had been there! We also decided to go across the bridge and venture farther on the trail then we had ever gone before! The children were excited to see a new part of the forest, but the long walk definitely challenged their endurance.

Wednesday was the 100th day of school. Children came to school to find 100 things from nature displayed on the tables in groups of 10. Some children counted every single object, some counted the groups, and others just had fun using their senses to explore the objects. After everyone had been given enough time to count and explore the objects, some children brought up the idea of building with them. We decided to make a house for the 3 little pigs using the natural objects. Someone grabbed the pretend tools from the dramatic play area to help us with the project. Children were “sawing” large pieces of bark into smaller ones, “hammering” pieces together, and “measuring” how long the building materials were. It proved very difficult and messy, but it was fun! Later, we read “Abiyoyo,” a lullaby and folk tale from South Africa. We were going to read 2 more international folk tales on Thursday and Friday, but we were surprised with 2 snow days in a row!

On Monday, we talked about the Chinese New Year which had been celebrated over the weekend. I pointed out China on a map and we talked about the ways that the Chinese New Year is celebrated and compared it to the ways that we celebrate New Year’s Eve at the end of December. We also read a book about a little girl who’s PoPo (grandma) comes to America from China to celebrate the Chinese New Year with her.

On Tuesday, we had fun in the forest classroom! We used spray bottles full of water and food coloring to “paint” the snow! By the time we were done, the forest classroom looked beautiful! We also read The Little Red Hen and saw a lot of different animal tracks on our walk.

On Wednesday, we read another version of The Little Red Hen and compared it to the version we had read on Tuesday using our story map. We determined that many of the characters were different in the second story, but the setting, problem, and solution stayed the same.

On Thursday, we read The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza, and then we made our own little pizzas! Children followed a visual recipe and made their own pizza which we ate at lunch time. We all agreed that the preschoolers were excellent chefs!

On Friday, we celebrated the 100th day of school (which is technically next Wednesday) with our sixth grade buddies! We made cereal necklaces with 100 pieces of cereal, built using 100 blocks, and made 100 dots using dot painters!

This week, we focused on the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. On Tuesday, we read an original version of the story. On the playground, children had fun acting the story out on our little bridge-shaped climbing structure. Some children also made artwork inspired by the story!

On Wednesday, we read another version of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. At choice time, we brought in some pieces from our playground climbing structure to make a bridge. Children took turns playing different characters from The Three Billy Goats Gruff and retelling the story. Many children enjoyed being the troll!

On Thursday, we voted on our favorite fairy tales that we have read so far. The Three Billy Gots Gruff was the most popular. Many students had fun making their own books and choice time and reading them to their classmates.

On Friday, Ms. Rice was at professional development, but Mrs. Becka, Mr. Matt, and Mrs. Sue had a lot of fun with the kids! Mrs. Sue played her guitar and sang with the kids, and Mr. Matt read a story about the Chinese New Year.

This week, we focused on the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. On Monday, we read an original version of the story. Students also got a chance to read and play with Mr. Lindemann (our principal) while Ms. Rice was out at a meeting.

Tuesday was a forest classroom day! We learned about habitats by sorting animals that live in a forest habitat, and animals that do not live in a forest habitat. We also compared the fictional habitats of the Three Little Pigs and the Three Bears to the real habitats of pigs and bears. At the end of our time in the forest, we took a walk on the path to see if we could find any animals that live in a forest habitat. We were as quiet as sneaky ninjas, but we did not see any animals. However, we did see evidence of animals like tracks and holes in trees.

On Wednesday, we read James Marshall’s version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears which follows the original story, but adds some silliness. Students had fun retelling the story with the puppets in the reading center.

On Thursday, we read Jan Brett’s “Three Snow Bears” which tells the story of The Three Bears in an arctic habitat. Outside, we had an arctic habitat of our own! We had fun playing with all of the freshly fallen snow by making GIANT snowballs and putting them together to make a climbing structure!

On Friday, we read “Rubia and the Three Osos,” a bilingual version of The Three Bears in Spanish and English. At recess time, the temperature was below zero, so we went to the gym to play! We had fun throwing and catching soft balls, playing chase, and jumping on a trampoline!

This week, we started our Fairy Tales unit by reading different versions of The Three Little Pigs! On Monday, we read an original version of the story. We also learned new Morning Meeting songs with sign language! I recently purchased the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness curriculum which is a research-based curriculum that helps preschool-aged children develop pre-reading skills in developmentally appropriate ways. We started using it on Monday and the children love it!

On Tuesday, we spent the morning in the forest classroom! It was cold outside (in the upper twenties), but that didn’t bother us! We read another original version of the Three Little Pigs, and then children worked together or independently to build a house for a little toy pig out of materials in the forest! There were 2 criteria for the house: it had to protect the pig from the weather (specifically snow), and it had to withstand a huff and a puff from the “Big Bad Wolf” (me). The students came up with very inventive ideas and used critical thinking skills to build a house that would fit the criteria. Once all of the houses were built, we all walked around to each house and put the pig inside of it. First, I sprinkled snow on top of the house to see if the pig stayed dry, and then I blew on the house (with help from the students) to see if it would fall over. Every single house passed both tests! After our Three Little Pigs STEM activity, we went on a hike on the trail to look for tracks. We saw a lot of deer tracks!

On Wednesday, we read an original version of The Three Little Pigs that ended differently than the other versions that we had read. We compared and contrasted the two stories. Some students used the puppets in the reading area to re-tell the story with their friends! A few students also enjoyed dictating very silly stories for me to write down.

On Thursday, we read “The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig,” a silly story that switches the characters of The Three Little Pigs. Students noticed many similarities and differences between this story and the original story. Many students had fun with math on Thursday! Some worked hard on the hundreds board, some worked on their spatial reasoning skills with puzzles, and others used the number spots to hop on and count.

On Friday, we read “The True a Story of the Three Pigs,” another silly version of The Three Little Pigs that is told from the Wolf’s perspective. We talked about what perspective means and how it changed the story.

I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Winter Break! Mine was so relaxing that I forgot to post about the week before break! So here’s a quick summary:

Throughout the week, children had fun creating bead snowflakes, making pine cone bird feeders, and learning about the Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanza, and Christmas. On Thursday, we took a walking field trip to town hall to donate non-perishable goods to the food bank! We got a tour of the food bank and our wonderful guides told us all about how it works. The children worked together to take our donations out of the bags and give them to the food bank. It felt great to give back! Friday was Polar Express Day. Children wore pajamas and were surprised to find a train track (made out of tape) on the floor of our classroom when they arrived! We worked together to decorate a cardboard box that had the bottom cut out of it to make it look like the polar express. Children took turns “riding” the polar express around the train track. Later, we had a hot chocolate party! It was a very fun day!

After winter break, we had a very short, 2-day week. We had fun seeing all of our friends again after a long break, and all of the children looked so much bigger to me! Many children enjoyed using the moveable alphabet this week, working on initial sounds or sounding out words. We also had a lot of fun outside, building a giant wall out of snow chunks!

This week, we started talking about winter holidays! On Monday, we read “The Runaway Latkes,” a story that touches on some Hanukkah traditions and has the same patterns as the Gingerbread Man stories. We also found an ice ball and a snow ball outside, and brought them in to do a science experiment! Our question was: “Which will melt faster: ice or snow?” Each student made a prediction (and we talked about what that word means), and wrote their names on a chart. At the end of the day, we checked on the ice and snow, and found that the snow had melted faster!

On Tuesday, we spent the morning in the forest classroom! It had rained the day before and a lot of the snow had melted, so we had fun playing in the mud and seeing the fog lifting off of the leftover snow. At Morning Meeting, we read “The Snow Tree,” a book about a bear that works together with his forest animal friends to decorate a boring, snow-covered pine tree with natural items of every color! After that, we took a walk on the trail to find a Solstice Tree (the origin of today’s Christmas tree). Once we had found a nice pine tree, we found colorful items from nature to decorate it with, just like the characters in the story.

On Wednesday, we had our Winter Craft event! Some awesome family members came to make special crafts with the students! We made picture frame ornaments, painted pine cones, reindeer food, and paper plate Christmas trees! It was a fun morning and the students were very proud of their work.

On Thursday, we read “The Snowy Nap” by Jan Brett, a story about a hedgehog who does not want to hibernate because he is worried that he will miss all of the wonders of winter. Students also had fun playing with Mrs. Becka!

On Friday, we learned about Santa Lucia Day. Some students created Santa Lucia crowns in the art center. After snack time, our sixth grade buddies came to visit us and we made “Forky” from Toy Story 4 together!