Toucans

Today we learned many fun facts about toucans. Then the children made one and Ms. Emily made an amazing tree to hang them around.

100th Day

Yesterday was our 100th day of school.

The children were very excited to walk through the "car wash" this morning.

 

 

Then the children had a blast sorting different foods and counting each one to ten. I would like to thank the parents for sending in food for our 100th day snack.

 

Then the children rotated through different activities.

Here the children had to make ten dots in each circle for a total of 100 dots!

Here the children used 100 legos to build

The children made 100 year old portraits.

If I had $100 I would...

 

 

 

Thank You

We want to thank everyone for the beautiful handmade cards, gift card and gift basket. We are really blessed to have such wonderful and supportive parents. Each of your children has such a special place in our hearts. We enjoy watching them learn and grow on a daily basis. Thank you again for thinking of us.

Love,

Ms. Nicole and Ms. Emily

Catholic Schools Week

Catholic Schools Week is next week. Here is the agenda for the week:

Monday, January 28th Teacher Appreciation

Tuesday, January 29th Student Appreciation

• Students may wear jeans. They may wear any shirt (no inappropriate words or pictures)
• NO HOMEWORK
• Special treats from the Mother’s Club

Wednesday, January 30th Service Day

• Each class/grade will complete a service project

Thursday, January 31st Celebrate HRS

• Pep Rally
• Student/Teacher Activities
• Students may wear PE sweats and a HRS shirt

Friday, February 1st Grandparent’s Day

• Please have Grandparents or Special Guest go to the cafeteria when they arrive (they will be able to come to the classroom after the event). 
• Preschool has an 11:30 dismissal. 
• Times for the reception in the cafeteria:
• Angels and Preschool 8:15-8:45
• Kindergarten 8:55-9:20
• 1st Grade 9:30-9:55
• 2nd and 3rd Grade 10:05-10:35
• 4th and 5th Grade 10:45-11:15
• 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade 11:15-12:00 (Old Gym)

Monkeys

On Friday we learned about monkeys. But the children were SOOO excited when they saw that they get to make one. 

Then Ms. Emily made an adorable tree for the monkeys to hang on to. 

I LOVED the crafts that children made this week and can't for them to do the ones for our jungle unit next week.

Zoo Jobs

They did a great job completing their zoo themed jobs. 

Here are some pictures:

Latter Match- Here the children had to cut out Z, B, and W squares and match them.

Snowman Counting- Here the children had to count the red dots for the snowman's mouth and find the correct number hat.

Zoo Letters- here the children had to pick a zoo letter, find it on their sheet, color the letter, and write the letter.

Zoo Animal Measuring- Here the children had to measure zoo animals and write the number in the box.

Giraffes

Today we learned about giraffes. We learned:

1. Giraffes are the tallest animal in the world.
2. They love to munch on the thorny leaves of the acacia tree.
3. They have excellent vision that gives them a wide view of the grasslands where they live.
4. A giraffe's tongue can be up to 21 inches long and can grab and hold onto objects.
5. Giraffes can go weeks without drinking water. Giraffes get most of the water they need from the plants they eat.
6. Giraffes make noises that cannot be heard by humans.
7. Giraffes have two to four short, blunt horns on their head.
8. No two giraffes have the same pattern of spots.

Then the children did a wonderful job making a giraffe.

New Incentive

Today we started a new incentive plan for carpet time. We are working on raising our hand when we have something to say. We will start with 5 stars on the cookie sheet. Each time someone does the negative behavior, we will take one star off of the cookie sheet. If we kept 1 star, we will increase as the children master, on the cookie sheet, we get to add a piece to Mr. Potato Head! Once Nr. Potato Head is all put together we will do something extra.

Zebras

Today we learned many facts about zebras. 

We learned:

1. That they have their own unique patterns of stripes, just as humans have their own unique pattern of fingerprints. 
2. It's hard to tell where one zebra ends and another begins.
3. They have powerful kicks with their hind legs.
4. The main diet of zebras is grass. They also eat bark and leaves, as well as buds, fruit, and roots. They graze during the day, sticking together in herds.
5. Within a herd, zebras tend to stay together in smaller family groups.
6. As with horses, male zebras are called stallions, females are mares, and the young are called foals.
7. As a zebra grazes, it uses its sharper front teeth to bite the grass, and then uses its duller back teeth to crush and grind.
8. A group of zebras is called a herd. 
9. Zebras live in parts of Africa.
10. Zebras belong to the horse family. 
11. Zebra noises include braying, barking, and snorting. 
12. Zebras groom one another.
13. A zebra's night vision is believed to be as good as an owl's.

Then the children made an adorable zebra. 

Zoo

Today we started off our zoo unit by talking about what animals we see in the zoo and zookeepers. We talked about how taking care of the animals is hard work. We discussed the many jobs that a zookeeper has, feeding the animals, cleaning their living spaces, keeping them healthy, keeping them active, and teaching others about animals.

 

Here's a picture of the zookeeper that the children made.

Teddy Bear Picnic

The children had fun hanging out with they teddy bears today. We had a teddy bear picnic during snack with a special snack of Teddy Grahams.  

Koalas

Today we learned about Koalas. We learned that they are native to Australia. They are NOT bears but marsupials, which means they have a pouch where the tiny newborns develop. A baby Koala is called a joey and the size of jellybean when born. They eat leaves and almost nothing else. Koalas have sharp claws which help them climb trees. They have think woolly fur that protects them from both heat and cold.

 

Then the children made a cute newspaper Koala.

Jobs

This week the children have done amazing work completing their jobs.

Color Word Bears- Here we practiced recognizing color words and writing numbers.

Brown Bear Numbers- Here the children rolled a die, counted the dots, and wrote the numbers.

How many bears are in the cave?- Here the children colored the cave, counted the bears, and wrote the number.

Alphabet Match up- here the children had to find letters in a magazine, cut them out, and match it with the letters on their sheet.

Panda Bears

Yesterday we learned many fun facts about Panda bears. We learned that Pandas eat almost nothing but bamboo shoots and leaves. They eat fast, they eat a lot, and they spend about 12 hours a day doing it. Pandas are shy; they don't venture into areas where people live. They are generally solitary and are found only in a small part of China.

Then the children did an amazing job making an adorable panda bear.

Hibernation

Yesterday we were able to get through a lot with Mrs. Schmitz coming to finish her safety lesson and the school closing early. I hope everyone got home safe.
We learned about hibernation and that bears live in dens. Then the children completed a cute craft of a bear hibernating in his den.

Bears

Today we started our bears unit talking about black bears. We looked at pictures of them, watched a video of a mother bear teaching her cubs how to catch fish and we counted fish to feed the bear.

Tomorrow we will learn about brown bears and hibernation.

Fun Friday

On Friday we wrapped up our winter animals unit by doing some fun activities.

First we compared ourselves to an Emperor Penguin and then illustrated if we were bigger or smaller than it. The children enjoyed this activity.

Then we did a blubber experiment where we filled two bowls with ice water. We filled a bag with Crisco and sealed it and place it in another bag. Then the children took turns coming up and putting their hand in the "blubbler" and directly on the water.

Finally we learned about walrus' and completed an adorable crafts.

Penguins

Today we read the book The Emperor's Egg. We learned that Penguins live in Antarctica. The male penguins are about four feet tall have have a very important job to do. After the mother penguin has her egg she gives it to the daddy to take care of for two months while she goes swimming for food. The daddy has to keep the egg from getting cold so he rest it on his feet tucked under his tummy. Penguins have thick feather and lots of fat to help keep them warm but when it gets really cold they all snuggle together. Then finally the egg hatches and the daddy has to keep the chick warm and he has to feed it. Deep down in the daddy's throat is a pouch where he makes something a little like milk but it only last a couple of weeks until the mother come home. Once the mother returns it is the dad's turn to go off for food.

 

After we learned all these fun facts we snuggled together to keep warm and put a bean bag on our feet and tried to walk around and not drop our egg.

 

Finally we ended the lesson with an adorable penguin craft.

Technical Difficultlies

Over the past week I have experience some technical difficultlies  with the blog so please bare with me through some of it. For starters my computer will not let me upload pictures so I am having to use an app, thank goodness for Smart Phones. But then I realized this morning that not all the post are posting. Therefore if you see a few post that are not in order you know why.

 

Sorry about it all and hopeful I can figure out what is going on.

Happy Birthday 2013!!!

The children enjoyed sharing their birthday cakes with the class. They came out too cute!!!

Eskimos

Today we talked about Eskimos and then we completed a craft.

Polar Bears

Yesterday we kicked off our winter animal unit by learning about polar bears and watching a cam with two polar bears playing. Then the children made a cute big polar bear.