Happy May!   Spring weather has finally arrived!   It was great to be back at school this week.  We enjoyed our time outside playing Spanish games, finding sprouts, worms, and other signs of spring, and digging in the sandbox.

We began learning and reading about frogs and frog metamorphosis.  We read Tale of a Tadpole and The Caterpillar and the Pollywog.  We are excited for our trip to the bog on Thursday, where we will collect frog eggs and bring them back to our classroom to watch them hatch into tadpoles.  We listened to the sounds of spring peepers and wood frogs and saw some pictures of each one.  Maybe we will be able to identify them if we see them on Thursday!

At the art table we made frog ponds.  We also painted our clay maracas, and made a piñata for Cinco de Mayo, which we will celebrate on Tuesday, May 7^th.

During music on Tuesday we did some pillow dancing.  We worked very hard to stay on our pillows while wiggling and moving to the music.  We also practiced the song “Rattlin’ Bog” for our last day performance.

On Thursday morning we had three young visitors.  One of our friends brought her three week old chicks for us to meet.  Everyone was very careful to keep Chocolate, Vanilla, and Blackie safe on their blanket, while gently petting, holding, and feeding them.  Thank you for bringing them in!

During Thursday morning recess we enjoyed ice cream sandwiches.  They were perfect for the warm spring day.  Thank you to our friends who brought them in to share!

Thank you to the Staley family for donating a wonderful big box that will be our quiet house!  It was so exciting that everyone wanted to be in it at the same time, and they managed to pack most of the class in together.  We had a discussion about the purpose of the quiet house – for students to have a place where they can be alone and get some space when they need it – and it was proposed by one of the kindergartners that for the next couple of weeks it could be used by more than one person (until the novelty wears off), and then we can use it as the quiet house.  They also discussed bringing in a stuffed toy or blanket to use in the quiet house, and decided that they could bring an item in to use if they need it.

During Spanish we learned a new song about ranas (frogs) and sapos (toads).  In Spanish frogs say “cri” instead of “ribbit” and frogs say “cro” instead of “croak.”  We also had fun doing the monkey dance and singing the lluvia song.

Friday students had a fun day with Tammy.  They made wonderful frog life cycles out of clay.  They worked hard forming the eggs, tadpoles, and frogs, then painting them and placing them on a blue tray pond.  They also finished preparing our piñata for Tuesday.  It was such a beautiful day that they decided to enjoy lunch outside at the picnic table.

On Tuesday we will be saying goodbye to one of our very good friends.  She will be taking a trip with her family back to Russia and we will be so sad to see her go.  We will celebrate her birthday on Tuesday before we say farewell.  We will miss you!