It was a great week at Sunnybrook! I’m very happy to be back. The children were excited to have Liam join the class. We talked a little bit about babies and how they act and what they do. They have been so gentle and sweet with him. They like to pat his back and try to make him smile. Some of their observations:
“He’s cute! Just like me!”
“He’s a boy, but you can call him a girl. He doesn’t know.”
“We’re having a staring contest with the baby and he’s winning!”
“He looks around because he is new and everything is new to him.”
“Babies have little fingers, little feet, little ears….and eat little food.”
Besides babies, we have been thinking about bugs and insects. We read “From Caterpillar to Butterfly” and we are waiting for our real, live caterpillars to arrive so we can observe their change to butterflies over the next few weeks. On Thursday afternoon we made paper ants and labeled the three body parts: thorax, head and abdomen. 
We found some great insect and bug books in the classroom and the children enjoyed reading through them during work time. 
During music we have been working on learning some folk dances. We are experimenting with a bunch right now, but we plan to pick a few to perfect and hopefully show to our families towards the end of the year. Lots of fun!
The children have been drawing wonderful pictures on big paper. They have been so colorful and detailed.
Our Friday student enjoyed making a paper sculpture dolphin. First we read a bit about dolphins and found out that they are usually 6-13 feet long. So we got out a long paper roll and measured out 6 feet:
Then we traced out the shape of the dolphin and took turns doing the big job of cutting it out, tracing the shape on another piece of paper and then cutting that out. Phew! Once we stapled the two sides together, the students were able to stuff it with scrap paper and paint it.
It turned out GREAT and they were very proud of it. For a final touch they wrote their favorite dolphin fact on a card and we hung them from the dolphin.
Emily