Gonna Mail Myself To You

February 13, 2016 by admin

When we arrived for school on Monday we had our own personal ice rink to skate and glide on. Then we got a bit of snow, which made it even more slippery. By the end of the week when the temperatures were almost too cold to go out, there was just enough snow so we could walk without trying too hard to balance.
For Monday art, the students learned about pour painting and the artist Holton Rower. We made our own pour paintings by placing a small cube on a piece of mat board, then choosing multiple colors of acrylic paint and pouring them over the cube and each other, which pushed the previous colors of paint outward. The effect is beautiful and they were super fun to make! Everyone was ready for our Tuesday field trip to the Post Office. When we arrived, post man Tim took us into the back room and gave us a tour. We saw where the mail and packages come in through the loading dock. We saw the mail carriers sorting the mail to take out and deliver. We saw the big orange bins that hold packages. We got to go around behind the front desk and see customers waiting to mail their letters and we peeked into the office to wave to Post Master Rob. We concluded our tour at the back of the customer mail boxes where customers come to collect their mail. When we returned to school we had fun playing in our classroom post office, writing, addressing, mailing, sorting, and collecting letters. During circle time we wrote a thank you letter to Tim.
We continued to learn about food in addition to the post office. On Wednesday we mixed, rolled, cut and baked biscuits, and we made our own butter by shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking some heavy cream, then rinsing and kneading it in cool water before adding salt. When the butter and biscuits were ready, we enjoyed them with strawberry preserves, and oh were they yummy! Finally Thursday arrived, the day of our Valentine’s party! Cupid (Sue) had visited over night and left a Valentine Heart on the fence for everyone. It was such a pretty sight, all of those red hearts with white snow behind them! During the morning each child took a turn distributing their valentine cards. Many children played hop scotch with the heart bean bags, made valentine cards for friends and family members, played roll and color the hearts, and follow your heart, a game where you turn over a heart and everyone does the action written on it, including hop on one foot, skip, sing “ABC’s,” parade like elephants, crab walk, wiggle like a worm, fly like a butterfly, sing “Skidamarink,” and hop like a bunny. By the end of the morning everyone was ready to enjoy all of the delicious treats that were sent in. We enjoyed donuts, fruit, cupcakes, cookies, popcorn, snack mix, chocolate covered strawberries, and so many other tasty snacks. Thank you so much to everyone who sent something in! We also celebrated a fifth birthday on Thursday with pink and red frosted cupcakes. It is hard to believe she is already five! Happy birthday birthday girl! For Friday science we expanded our discussion of being healthy. We listed different foods that keep our bodies healthy, then shared other things we do to stay healthy, including sleep to recharge our bodies and brains, and exercise. We played the follow your heart game and noticed how we could feel our muscles working, how our breathing was faster and heavier, how our hearts were beating more quickly, and how we started to get warm when we exercised.
After a long, busy week, we decided to spend the afternoon at the library, where we played with Duplos, the doll house, the puppet theater, the new car table, and the ambulance, then we enjoyed some sunny outside time when we returned to school.
The Books we read this week:
Fancy Nancy at the Museum by, Jane O’Connor