Fluffy snow fell off and on all week, leaving just enough for the plow trucks and shovels to stay busy clearing off skating rinks and roads each day.  We found it was too cold for snowballs, but mountains and birthday cakes were constructed around the yard.  We played word tag, hide and seek, and searched for animal tracks.
For Monday art the children drew pictures on paper, punched holes through the outlines, then laced colored yarn through the holes as a lacing/sewing introduction.  Some students chose to just punch holes, like our pin punching activity in the writing area.
We were back in our classroom on Tuesday.  It was good to be back in our space, and everyone adjusted easily to the temporary rearrangement.

All of the students were introduced to the Japanese art of suminigashi – paper marbling – and they had a lot of fun dropping the colored inks onto the water, swirling them around, and printing them.  There were some beautiful colored papers as a result!
We celebrated a fifth birthday on Tuesday with tasty blueberry muffins.  Yum!  The birthday boy carefully orbited the sun while holding the earth in his hands and everyone counted for him.
During circle time we brought a problem to the class for them to solve.  We introduced the problem of disruptions during circle time, which makes it difficult for everyone to attend and hear, and asked for solutions.  The children had several excellent solutions.  They suggested that they could give their neighbors friendly reminders if they were being disruptive, that we could make a list of the circle time expectations and post them, and that the children who were being disruptive could use self-talk to remind themselves of the expectations and stop the disruptive behaviors.  We also discussed and practiced how a child should respond if they were being disruptive and a friend gave them a friendly reminder, such as sitting up when asked, raising a hand when wanting to share, and keeping their body in their space when reminded.
Ribbon dancing was introduced, and after the safety rules were discussed the children had great fun moving their bodies and the ribbons to the dancing music.  They made big swirls, little swirls, waves, and zig-zags.
For Thursday morning Spanish with Zeanny she pulled an abuela (grandmother), abuelo (grandfather), mama (mother), papa (father), hermano (brother), hermana (sister), gato (cat), e perro (dog) from the magic box.  We sang several songs, including Yo Tengo Una Casita (the song stars at 1.25 min) and Zeanny read the story, ¿Eres Mi Mama? (Are You My Mother?) by P. D. Eastman.  Then we played hide and seek with the different family members and the children took turns hiding or finding them in the houses or with the other family members.
Curious George finally arrived with Andrea and Aio from Believe in Books.  The children were so excited to greet him, and they gave him gifts of artwork.  Aio read the story, Curious George Goes to School, then we learned the super fun “Banana Song,” (this link will take you to a version, but the one we learned was shortened to peel, eat, go).  After singing and dancing everyone gave George a hug, high five, or wave, and chose a book of their very own to take home.  It was an exciting event!
For Friday science we introduced reptiles.  We read All About Reptiles and learned that they have dry, scaly skin, their babies hatch from eggs, they are cold blooded, and they have short legs or no legs at all.  Reptiles include snakes, lizards, alligators, crocodiles, turtles, and tortoises.  They examined a snake skin and some turtle shells, did a reptile or not a reptile sorting activity, then played with the reptile toys.