Above freezing temperatures and the later arrival of night were warmly welcomed and taken advantage of.  Slushy snow and muddy puddle water made lovely potions.  A squirrel lure was created to study visiting squirrels.  Tracks were discovered the following day, showing that it was an effective lure.  Now to get the squirrels to stay for observation . . . Snowball fights were had.  A snowman was constructed.  The gate was finally extracted from the ice.  Afternoon students spent the after hours outside further enjoying the snowy warmth.Monday students read about how paper is made, then used wood pulp and scrap paper to create their own colored sheets of paper.  They selected their favorite colors, tore them into small pieces, then blended them up with some water to make a pulp.  The pulp was poured into a screen frame and pushed down to extract the water.  The newly formed paper was turned out and rolled to extract more water and flatten it a bit before setting up to dry.We began to learn about authors, illustrators, and story writing.  In honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, we read several Dr. Seuss stories, including Yertle the Turtle, Gertrude McFuzz, Horton Hears a Who, and Cat in the Hat.  We had discussions about the characters and their feelings and our thoughts about the different stories.  We read about what authors do in What Authors and Illustrators Do and Ralph Tells a Story.  We also had a special visitor, Lisa Savage, who read the fun syllables story Tinka Tinka Skunk.At the art table the students used Dr. Seuss character stencils to trace and color their own copies of the characters.  Some students really enjoyed tracing stencils!Number scrolls have become a very popular activity lately – we have some very skilled number writers.The children set up a concession stand in the dramatic play area for those attending shows at the shadow puppet theater and on the big screen.Mr. Bond introduced the final project of the year. He brought out a board – there will be one for each student – and showed them the birdhouse they will each build using that board. This week they ordered the pictures for the steps of the project. Next week they will draw the lines on their board for Mr. Bond to cut into the pieces needed to build the bird house.Zeanny came on Thursday morning for Spanish and Health.  She showed us different types of fruit in different forms – fresh, frozen, canned, juice, and dried – and told us that we should each have 2 servings of fruit per day.  We learned a fun Spanish song about fruit, El Baile de la Fruta.  We washed our hands then washed and cut up the fruit for our tasty fruit salad!  It had apples, mangos, peaches, pears, kiwi, clementines, grapefruit, star fruit, strawberries, pineapple, raspberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, bananas, and dried cherries.  It was so yummy!We celebrated a fifth birthday with the end of winter birthday boy.  He counted that his birthday is four days before the start of spring.  He shared that his birthday is in the month of March, in the season of winter, and that the earth has orbited the sun 5 times since his birth.  He walked the globe around the sun while we listed the seasons and counted the years to his fifth birthday, then blew out the candle.  He brought tasty blueberry muffins topped with mini chocolate chip cookies to share.  Happy birthday 5 year old!