More Arctic Fun!

Before any other news I need to introduce the new children in our afternoon class!!

Welcome Hailey!

Welcome Jocelyn!

Welcome Ian!

We love your great smiles and are so excited to have you in our preschool! :)

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

After calendar time, the p.m. class took turns introducing themselves and showing what was in their "All About Me" bags. It's always fun to see what they choose to bring and what they have to say about it!

Then, after a quick review of the polar animals, we all learned a new song/cheer.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, turn around.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, touch the ground.
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, lick your paws.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, show your claws.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, swim in the sea.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, slide on your knee.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, climbing high.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, say goodbye!

We learned a few facts about polar bears, then joined in a science experience. The children put one hand in a little glove of "blubber" (fat... in this case shortening), then put it in a bowl of ice water as well as their bare hand. They could easily tell which hand was colder and then we were able to talk about how animals keep warm in the Arctic. It was very cool!!

Next we tried our hand at a little tear art making Polar Bears. I'm pretty sure Miss Amber and I ended up doing most of the tearing, but it was worth a try!! The kids still had fun putting it all together.

After snack we reviewed numbers, colors, shapes and letters. We have a plethora of songs that go along with our reviewing, I hope the kids come home and sing some of them to you!

Then we introduced Uu and colored another sheet for our alphabet books.

The Letter Uu
to the tune of Frere Jacques
The letter U. The letter U. (make ASL sign for letter, showing one hand then the other)
Has a sound. Has a sound. (bring 1 hand to ear and then the other hand to the other ear)
What sound do you make? What sound do you make? (palms facing up, shrug shoulders)
/u/ /u/ /u/! /u/ /u/ /u/! (Make ASL sign for letter, move hand forward and backward for each sound)

Oh yeah, and the p.m. class played with play-do that Ian brought to share during play time! So fun. Thank you, Ian!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

After calendar time we sang both our penguin song and polar bear song. Although, both extremely fun, I think the penguin song won out for favorite!

.

We talked about camouflage and then I hid some pictures of the Arctic animals we've learned about and the kids had to find them. After they were all hid and found a few times I read the back of each picture and they had to guess what animal it was without looking at it. They did pretty good!

.

Then we had a writing activity. If I were a (some Arctic animal), I would (something that Arctic animal would do). The idea was to show something they've learned. I loved that Sarah put that if she were a Polar Bear she would be nice. We had talked about how polar bears can be mean so she said, "but I would be human polar bear!" :)

.

After snack we went through all our review bags again and reviewed the letter Uu.

.

.

And Jacob had a birthday last weekend, so we got to sing Happy Birthday and eat cupcakes!

.

OK, so we're going to have to practice taking pictures of the afternoon class when we're by ourselves... I could have sworn I took pictures!! I blame it on my camera, it turns on and off at will and erases my pictures sometimes! Honestly. Dumb camera.