The leaves are still on the trees, and winter weather is already arriving!  It was cold and windy throughout the week, and our first snowfall of the year blanketed the ground on Thursday, much to the delight of many, and the dismay of some.  Big plans for snowman construction were made in the morning, but implementation was a challenge with all the leaves tangled up in our ½ inch of flakes.The artist Mary Cassatt was introduced Monday.  Mary Cassatt is most well known for her paintings of families, despite being single and childless herself. The children shared stories of their families and family get togethers, then planned out and created their own family portraits to display for Bring Your Family to School Night next Thursday.  Students worked on family portraits throughout the week, and will continue to work on them again next week.The cold winds accompanied us on our walking field trip to the fire station on Tuesday.  We were grateful to have several parents join us for the morning.  Before departing, students shared many safety rules.  Everyone held hands with a partner and stayed behind the partners in front of them.  We stopped at all intersections and walked close to the buildings and as far from the road as possible.  At the fire station we checked out the trucks, hoses, and equipment, then had a discussion with Zina, who donned her fire suit, talked to us about fire safety, showed us tools firefighters used, told us about the fire hoses and fire trucks, then all the children had the opportunity to climb into the fire truck to see where the firefighters ride.  It was a fun and educational adventure!Upon our return we made some truly creative thank you cards for Zina.
Dramatic play was busy with Doctors, nurses, check in attendants, X-ray technicians, and patients.
Susan introduced map making.  With some help from some friends, she demonstrated how to make a map of a house.  Students placed doll house furniture on a large piece of paper, setting up the pieces by where they thought they might be in a house.  We then discussed where walls and doors might be.  Susan traced around the furniture, then removed it, and we used our memories to recall where items were so Susan could label them.  She then introduced making a map of our classroom.  Students had measured the room and outlined it on graph paper.  Because a map is a small representation of a location, we would not be able to pick up the furniture and trace around it, so Susan and many of the children spent Thursday measuring the various areas of the room, coloring and cutting out rugs and furniture, and placing them on our classroom map.During Thursday Spanish we sang our color song and body songs, then Zeanny introduced the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.  She showed us many paintings he made, in a variety of styles, from his blue period, to cubism, to abstract art.  She created a black outline of one of his paintings, which the students worked on coloring in later in the day.  She played an “eye spy” (in Spanish) color spotting game.  Zeanny would name a color and the children would guess what item of clothing Zeanny was looking at, and who was wearing it.For woodworking Mr. Bond had a special bag for each student.  Each bag had 5 pieces of wood inside, which will go together to create a pencil & notecard holder.  Mr. Bond showed each group a series of photos, and as with the bird feeders, the students put them in order of construction, from first to last.  The students then worked on sanding their pieces of wood, which they will gradually assemble, and then take home to keep.During music with Susan we read the stories Farmer Joe and the Music Show and Thump, Thump, Rat-a-Tat-Tat, two rhythm and rhyming books.  Susan introduced different types of drums and we listened to the sounds they made. We then took turns rat-a-tat-tatting with rhythm instruments, and Thump, Thump, Thumping on the big drum. Everyone got to hit the djembe before getting ready for outside.Friday students read Life by Cynthia Rylant, and two books about Living and Nonliving.  We learned that living things need air, water, and food to live, and all living things can move independently, even plants!  We discussed how all living things grow and change, and eventually die.  We learned that plants make their own food using air, water, and sunlight, and they will turn and grow toward the sun.  We then did a sorting activity, where each child closed their eyes and chose an item from a bowl.  They then determined if it was living or nonliving, and placed it on the corresponding tray.