The snow is on the way!  The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting colder, and the children have been running, running, running to stay warm.

We began to learn songs for our Winter Performance, which will be held on Friday, December 19^th, only six weeks away!  All these cold weather songs began talk of winter, snow, and holidays, and initiated some winter themed art.

Stone Soup is what you need, when you have some friends to feed!  This week began our study of the Stone Soup story (click for video of the story by Marcia Brown).  We read three versions of the story, and will continue to read and discuss others throughout the month.

We continued to learn about mammals.  We know that people are mammals, as we have hair, we are endothermic, we have four limbs, and our babies are born alive and drink milk from the mothers.  We did a mammal and non-mammal sorting activity, which the children had a lot of fun with.  We discussed whether each animal had hair or fur, four limbs, if babies are born alive, if babies are fed milk from the mother, and the hardest, if they are endotherms, which means warm blooded.  The children enjoyed revisiting the activity on their own or with friends.  On Thursday we learned about  whales, which are marine mammals. We also discussed how endotherms stay warm.  As humans, we put on clothes to keep us warm.  Other animals have lots of fur, and whales have blubber, or fat, under their skin.

During Monday art the Monday students learned about the artist Wassily Kandinsky.  We examined some of his abstract paintings which include a lot of geometric shapes, specifically his “Several Circles” painting.  The students spent the week creating fabulous Kandinsky style circle art.

The children continued to enjoy scooping, spooning, sorting, and playing with the water beads in the sensory table.

Friday students had a special fun day with Tammy while Lyn met with families for conferences.  They were busy, busy, busy all day long!