As the days lengthen, the temperatures are gradually warming. Combined with the beautifully sunny days this week, it was the perfect recipe for the start of snow melting, our favorite part of the year! We began digging a trench to drain off the melt, but it was slow going. All the water was a welcome surprise and was quickly scooped up and used in soups, potions, and cakes.

Monday students used colored chalk soaked in water to draw on black paper, creating vibrant splashes of color on the darkness.

The children finished up their planet making with Uranus and Neptune. To make the light sea green blue of Uranus, the children used liquid watercolors to paint their planets. For Neptune they used blue and purple watercolors, then sprinkled over them with course salt to create a speckled effect. They were quite beautiful when dried!

We worked on taking down and putting away our health office and setting up our fitness center to get our astronauts ready for their trip into space. They children worked hard packing up all the equipment, taking down posters, hauling all the big furniture to the back room for storage, rolling up the rug, and sweeping the floor to prepare for the new equipment. They set up yoga mats for a yoga area, a weight lifting center, a trampoline, and a smoothie/juice bar to get healthy drinks.

The children have been working on understanding the difference between a question and a comment, so we delved further into that, learning that a comment is when you give information, and a question is when you ask for information.

We demonstrated how to do some exercises with and without weights, including push ups, sit ups, a plank, shoulder presses, and bicep curls. We did some yoga moves, following the directions and moving our bodies into different positions and poses.

During sign language with Rose, the children learned five new animal signs; monkey, lion, tiger, elephant, and giraffe.

Chad from Phlume Media visited to take some classroom footage and do mini interviews for our history project. To let everyone feel included the option to participate was given to all, but only those with permission to be videotaped for publicity were actually recorded. We are hoping the history project video will be completed by fall, and maybe even sooner! We have many hours of footage for review and are anxious to see the final product.

We read about making silence and practiced making silence by closing our eyes, breathing deeply, and listening to the sounds around us.

During Spanish with Zeanny we had fun with colored egg shakers and scarves, working on colors, positions, speed, and greetings. Zeanny read a story about Dora and the new babies in her family and sang a family song to practice the family terms mama, papa, hermana, hermano, bebe, abuela, and abuelo. She blew up a red (rojo) balloon as the children said, “mas grande” (more big) until they finally told her to stop. Then the children took turns playing a toss and catch game with the balloon while everyone else counted how many times the balloon was caught before dropping.

During Music with Susan she introduced the composition Mercury from the Planet composition by Gustov Holst. We first listened to it, then the children tried to determine which planet he wrote the music for. They had a few guesses before Susan asked, “Is it fast or slow?” They answered fast. “Is it light or heavy?” They answered light, then immediately identified it as Mercury. We then used the ribbon sticks to dance as we listened to it again, moving our ribbons lightly and quickly.

During Friday science we began our study of the systems of the body with an exploration of the skeletal system. We sang the Hokey Pokey using the names of the bones rather than the body parts. We looked at our skeleton model and the children asked about different bones. We read Bones by Steve Jenkins, and learned about how important our bones are and why we need them. We then danced to the song Dem Bones.