Our short week focused on how woodland animals move and how to recognize their tracks and track patterns. Susan demonstrated how straight line walkers and diagonal walkers move. Diagonal walkers move so efficiently that they place their back paws exactly where their front paws were, so it appears that a four legged animal has only two legs. We also watched a slow motion video then tried galloping like rabbits again, where they land on their front paws then their rear paws come up and land in front, so their tracks show small prints in the back and the bigger hind foot prints in the front.

We practiced our Woodland Stone Soup performance, but with so many children out sick, we were missing so many performers and narrators. We have decided that we will postpone the recording until the end of the year and combine it with the end of the year performance when we hopefully have full attendance.

Kindergarteners continued doing addition and counting work with Cuisinaire rods.

During sign language with Rose we reviewed the signs for common woodland animals. The children remembered almost all of them and were excited to show the signs or identify them as she made them. The one that stumped us was groundhog, where you make the sign for ground, which looks like picking up and sifting soil, followed by the sign for pig/hog, which is made by tapping the back of your hand under your chin. One of the favorites is woodpecker, where you make a tree with one arm, and use two fingers to make a beak with the other hand to peck at the tree. We then learned the signs for common pets, including dog, where you slap your leg then snap your fingers, cat, where you use your fingers to show the whiskers, turtle, fish, snake, and bird. We then learned how to sign the poem “There was a Little Turtle who Lived in a Box.”

We spent time inside . . .

And outside . . .

We froze blocks of ice in aluminum bread tins then began building an igloo with Susan. The children had so much fun removing the blocks from the pans, loading up their sleds, hauling them over, and helping to place them, then refilling the tins with water to freeze again. So far they have built a round base and an entrance about 4 blocks high. We are anxious to have a final product, but are greatly enjoying the process.

We celebrated a fifth birthday with our newest five year old. He informed us that he was born in January in the season of winter. He smiled his way around the sun while he slowly orbited holding the globe so we could say the seasons and count the years since he was born. Happy birthday, birthday boy!!

During Spanish with Zeanny we played a color finding game. Zeanny would say “veo veo” (I see) and name a color in spanish. The childre would then try to identify what she was looking at. We then played “Simon dice” (Simon says) and the children did all the motions she named, trying to only moved when prefaced by “Simon dice.”

We are hopeful everyone will be feeling better soon and be back at school!