Winter fun has begun!

We've started our winter unit which will last for most of January.  Through the accessible topics of winter sports/activities and snowmen the students will learn about the changes winter brings to the world around them.  Our science focus is states of matter.  Later we will shift to how our local animals are effected by the changes winter brings.  

Yesterday Team 5 really enjoyed reading "Cross Country Cat" by Mary Calhoun. This week for math we will be taking surveys about favorite winter sports. They were really excited to check out the results of the borax snowflake crystal science craft that we started on Friday.
In lieu of a story today we started watching the Royal Ballet School's version of Prokofiev's  "Peter and the Wolf".  The class loved it! Click here to watch it on our You Tube channel. We also discussed the similarities and differences between snow and ice and looked at some of Wilson Bentley's snowflake micro-graphs. Team 3 started making snowflake crystals of their own. They have been very busy with all sorts of invented games using balls or scooters in the gym.  The hip-pity hops are quite popular as well.

The doll house has become a recent hot spot at center time.

The addition of marbles to the sand in the sensory table has been a hit as well.

Writing a checks in Dramatic Play is excellent early literacy practice.

Team 5 explored how to dress properly for winter weather in Health today.

This student demonstrated excellent ingenuity when asked to help clean up after gross motor play time!