Snow plows were busy keeping the roads clear, while thrill seekers took turns sledding down their constructed mountain.  Explorers took turns pulling each other through the snow-covered tundra. Architects were constructing towers and experimenting with ice adhesion.Susan continued to enthrall us with the music and story of Peter and the Wolf through the week.  We laid on the rug and listened to the music all the way through, taking note of the various instruments, their speed, and their tunes and considered how each story character would be moving and what they might be doing.   We then listened to the music accompanied by the narration and the picture book illustrated by Charles Mikolaycak.  After completing the story, we discussed what might happen next and how the individual character stories might progress.  Several students wrote and illustrated short sequels for some of the characters.At the art table the children worked with Susan to trace, cut, staple, and paste together forest animal headbands.  We had many owls, moose, deer, foxes, bear, bunnies, porcupines, and even a butterfly roaming our classroom.The animals and fairies continued to work on setting up and decorating in the forest & fairy house, and play animals and fairies.The Hanson-Phillips family provided a special pizza party treat for the Thursday afternoon students. They loved their cheese and pepperoni pizza. Thank you so much for the Scorpios pizza, Hanson-Phillips family!On Wednesday we were excited to welcome local game warden, Glen Lucas, who came to do an activity about mammals.  All mammals have fur or hair, some all over their bodies, and some just in select areas.  The mammals we learned about are animals native to our area which are covered in fur.  The children had a wonderful time taking turns wearing an animal picture necklace and naming the animals pictured.  The remaining students were then given furs which they matched with their animal pictures.  The students observed the different animal fur sizes and colors and used that information to find their match.  Before packing the furs back in the box, Glen set them out on the rug and the children took turns feeling the soft furs and again naming which animal each fur came from.  Thank you so much, Glen!On Thursday we pulled out the parachute for some fun active games.  We all took off our slippers and tossed them into a big pile under the parachute, then mixed them all up.  We held onto the edge then counted to three and listened to hear the names called, then raced as quickly as we could underneath to grab our slippers and get them back on our feet.  We always love shaking the parachute, so we pulled Flash the sloth from the shelf and worked as a team to shake, shake, shake him off the parachute three times.  We played our favorite game last.  Rather than crocodile or great white shark, this time a wolf crawled under the parachute and pulled someone underneath by their feet.  That child then became the wolf, crawling around and pulling under another child until everyone had a turn.For Friday science we introduced measuring with the query “I wonder how long the rug is?”  The children suggested we use a tape measure, but we encouraged them to think outside the box.  What else could we use to measure the rug?  One student suggested a human chain, so the children decided to lay down in a row.  We discovered that the rug was 3 children long and 2 children wide.  They then worked in pairs to find items around the classroom that they could use to measure the rug.  They found that the rug is 4 ½ large pieces of paper long, 14 name tags long, 14 tunnels long, 6 big boards long, 7 small work mats long, and 4 large work mats long.  They recorded their findings on the easel after counting out their measurements.