The wonderful white snow in our play yard became snowballs that were turned into snowmen and snow forts.  Lots of muscle and great team work produced some pretty impressive snow balls!

On Tuesday we had a special visitor join us.  Magda, of the Polish Princess Bakery, brought a box full of items from Poland.  We located Europe on the map of the world, then Poland on the map of Europe.  We learned that in Polish, Poland is called Polska.  Everyone got to see some Polish money, wooden toys, painted wooden eggs, paper flowers, a carved wooden tray, carved and painted wooden storks, the Polish flag, and many other items from Poland.  Magda then read us one of her favorite childhood stories.

We continued to explore Antarctica this week.  We discussed how people stay warm in the winter by dressing in warm clothes, and many animals have nice warm fur, but what about the whales, seals, and penguins?  Everyone had a turn to feel some ice water with a bare hand, then hold an ice pack with a blubber mitten.  The children noticed that the fat in the mitten prevented their hands from getting cold, just like the blubber under the skin of the Antarctic animals.

We looked up blue whales to see how long they are compared to our classroom – they are over 100 feet long, which is quite a bit longer than our classroom, and our play ground!  We also looked at pictures of baleen and krill.

We listened to the Antarctic Antic penguin poems, watched a short video of penguins walking, then walked around like penguins by keeping our knees together.  Several children tried holding an “egg” on their feet and walking without dropping it.  It was very hard!

The art and science areas became a Post Office for the week.  All of the students who wanted one chose a mailbox at the Post Office.  We also made a big blue mail box to put our letters in to be distributed by the Postal clerks.  There was a lot of letter writing going on this week!  It was pretty exciting to get mail in our mail boxes from our friends.

We completed our Thank You letter for Postman Tim.  Everyone signed their names, and we look forward to delivering it when we return from vacation.

During Spanish Zeanny reviewed many vocabulary words.  We sang a song about friendship and read our favorite stories, Mortimer and Perro Grande Perro Pequeno.

When we return from vacation we will begin to study the warmer continent of Africa.

Enjoy February Break!