January 25, 2013

Dear Parents,

This week we went on an amazing "journey" to Antarctica to visit the penguins.  The children learned several facts about penguins such as: Penguins can't fly but are excellent swimmers.  They are the only bird in the world that can't fly but can swim under water.  There are 17 different species of penguins. The largest penguin is 4 feet tall (emperor penguin) and the smallest is 16 inches tall (the little blue penguin).

After reading about penguins, the children created their own.   First they painted egg cartons, then cut out wings, feet and a beak and finally glued them all together to make an adorable penguin colony, which even included snow and icicles.

We continued our winter animal theme by learning about bears in the winter. We listened to several books about bears and then had a discussion about what bears do to prepare for hibernation. We discovered that bears eat a lot of food and put on an extra layer of fat to prepare for their deep sleep.  They usually go to sleep in October and wake up in April.  Some bears sleep up to 100 days. 

 

After learning about bears the children then made their own hibernating bears.  They made a cave for the bears by gluing a half of a paper plate to dark blue paper (the sky), colored the plate and covered it with coffee grounds.  They then cut out a bear's face and glued it under the cave.  The children  added a tree and a moon. What a spectacular looking scene they created.

We concluded our unit by have a pajama party.  The children prepared for the party by baking delicious teddy bear cookies.   They all sat on their blankets and ate cookies along with a glass of milk and fruit.  They also put on a play called "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."  They  looked so adorable in their pajamas, holding their bears. The children had such a great time, they did not want the day to end.

We look forward to celebrating the Chinese New Year with Irene (William's mom) next Wednesday.

Love,

Ms. Bonne.