Tuesday, 2/23/10
Finally we were back at school on a Tuesday. :) And to make it even better it was our camouflage day. It was fun to see everyone arrive in their white clothes with huge smiles on their faces ready for our day.
At morning meeting we read more non fiction recourses about the Polar Bear. Our friend Stone had just come back from a trip to Disney World. He was able to tell us fun face to face facts about Penguins and Polar Bears. From our books we learned that Polar Bears have bumps on the bottom of their feet to keep them from slipping and that a Polar Bear can be 10 feet tall when standing. We read that Polar Bears don't drink water and were left wondering why. And of course we talked about why Polar Bears were white. Camouflage is very important for them. Blending into the snow is protection for the Polar Bear.
We then rolled out our butcher paper to measure about 10 feet. Put on our socks and stepped in paint. The kids walked like polar bears across the white paper with white paint in their white clothes. Do you see a pattern? :) It was fun and messy. Then those that wanted to added polar bear tracks to our art work. Once displayed on the wall it was interesting to see just how big a Polar Bear could be if he was standing up.
The ice table from last week was a water table this week. Filled with ice burgs, fish and fishing poles. Our polar bear kids were fishing for fish just like real polar bears. I put up a snow cave in the reading center that has been great fun for our bears to hide in.
At lunch time we brainstormed Polar Bear facts. I was very impressed with all the kids were able to recall for me. What is Camouflage? “When animals blend in for protection.” How big is a Polar Bear? “10 feet tall/ on all four feet he is 4 feet tall.” And how many babies to the mommy's usually have? “Two babies called twins.” Those are just a few examples from our conversation.
And Emmie Rose asked the question again why do Polar Bears not drink water. We found Ms Leigh in the gym and asked her this question since she has studied Polar Bears longer then we have. We learned that they don't need to drink water because they love to eat snow. And when in the their warm bodies the snow melts into water.
After playing in the gym we came back to our room to play in the water table, make polar bears out of play dough and Olympic ski ramps in the block center. :)
We made a camouflage snack. Yogurt covered pretzels, m&m's, white jelly beans, etc. The one thing I forgot were the marshmallows. :( Thank goodness the kids didn't notice. It was a fun way to end our special day. While we ate our snack I read Welcome to the ICE HOUSE. The illustrations in this book showed great example of Arctic animals in camouflage in their natural environment.
Wednesday, 2/24/10 (Ms. Chrissie's Corner)
It was another wonderful Wednesday! We have a lot of those!
As our friends arrived, we played a letter recognition game. We had cards similar to bingo sheets, each with a letter on it, such as Aa, and 9 objects in boxes below. Some started with the letter A, others did not. We worked as a group, but separately on our own sheets, putting snow crystals on the pictures that began with our letter. We did alot of sounding out the alphabet letter that our friends had to help them decide if their object should have a marker placed on it or not.
At morning meeting we reviewed some interesting Polar Bear facts. We discussed things such as how they walked, camouflage, that polar bears were 10 feet big and that they have blubber. We also noted their skin is black under the white fur and this helps them to trap heat and stay warm in the Arctic climate. We then discussed our plans for the day - to learn about freezing temperatures! We learned that at 32 degrees something happens to liquid - it becomes a solid! Lauren noted that somebody left a Gatorade bottle outside at her house and it froze! Great association! And perfect segue to our science experiment of the day. We had an assortment of liquids and with a handy tally we voted on which 4 we would put in the freezer. Syrup, Chocolate Milk, Water, and a little bit of my Coca-Cola were voted to be the experimental liquids! So we labeled our cups and poured the liquids in. Next we made our predictions of which liquid we thought would freeze first.
Next we read Snow Bear, a cute story about a white bear cub who is missing his mommy bear and builds a snow bear mommy with the help of forest animals. In the morning, Snow Bear wakes up and the snow mommy is melted but his real bear mommy is right there with him! Just to see who was listening, I asked them what temperature they thought it might be outside if the snow bear mommy had melted. They did pretty good, saying it was more than 32!
Before chapel, we checked on our science experiment! At chapel, the kids talked about what they would like to be when they grew up. I had fun listening to their answers during out lunchtime chat. We worked on our sound bag objects and writing out the words. We all made our "W" on the dry erase board and came up with words that start with a W.
After recess, we finished our science experiment! We also observed the results of our reverse experiment! It was alot of fun!
At the end of the day we read The Three Snow Bears during snack time. It didn't take long for Lauren and Jack to make the connection that this story was sounding alot like Goldilocks and The Three Bears. It was a silly, fun tale, set in the Arctic with an Eskimo girl venturing into the polar bear families' igloos and trying out their soup, their boots, and their fur beds.
Thursday, 2/25/10
Today was bittersweet. We were very excited about our Olympics day, but sad that it was the last day we had to spend with Alyse. :(
We began our day by creating a flag for our class to carry in the Olympic parade. The kids LOVED having a blank poster board to do as they pleased. It turned out great!
We read Polar Bear Polar Bear What do you Hear? I had picture manipulatives out on the carpet. As I read the kids had to listen to the sound the next mystery animal would make. They then found the picture of the correct animal and put it on the felt board. I could tell many of them had heard this book already. They knew which animal would come next before I made the sound. :)
We reviewed some facts about Polar Bears. Specifically that they have black skin. This black skin absorbs the sun's heat and helps them to stay warm. I gave them the black silhouette of a polar bear. The assignment was to paint the paper white to create snow and camouflage and then if they desired to cover the polar bear with cotton balls to represent the white fur. Every one worked independently on this project with much success.
After decorating their name tags for the afternoon they went to music and then were back for lunch. We gave back sound bag items and over all had a nice lunch just visiting.
The Olympics were so fun. Thank you to every one that volunteered to help and who came to watch and enjoy the event. The children were thrilled to show you all the fun things they do with Ms. Jane each Thursday. She works very hard for our kids and always makes her time with them energetic and educational.
We ended our day with a little going away or as Lauren said a “go away” party for Alyse. :) Cookies and juice were on the menu. Thank you to all the kids for making a picture for Alyse. It helped to make her book very special. We will miss you Alyse. Our days won't be the same with out you.
Next week we will wrap up our winter unit with a study on the snowy owl. :)
Cari
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