Why are snowy owls white?

This week was all about the snowy owl! You may have noticed your child come home with an owl puppet this week.  It is a snowy owl and we learned so much about these fascinating creatures! The week began with the question, "Why are snowy owls white?" and you know what, these smart kiddos we have at school quickly yelled out, "to camouflage!" Which brought us to another conversation about what other types of animals and how they camouflage.  The children also leaned about the life of a snowy owl and its physical characteristics.  Did you know snowy owl babies have two names? You can refer to them as an owlet or a chick!  The children also learned about the parts of an owl including wings, feathers and talons (a fancy word for claws).  The children loved making a snowy owl puppet and made sure to give him lots of feathers to keep him extra warm! 

Towards the end the week, we began a discussion about groundhog day.  We talked about the groundhog tradition and what it means if he sees/does not see his shadow.  We asked each child if they think we will have a early spring or another six weeks of winter.  It was very interesting to see who picked which option.  Our little snow bunnies most definitely chose six more weeks of winter! Ask your child which had more votes!

What's up next:

When we come back from our weekend it will be a new month!  February will be here and we have lots of fun things in store for the children.  We will begin the month with a new artist, Mr. Michaelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, aka Michaelangelo for short!  And then jump right into Chinese New Year (it's the year of the monkey!) with studies on Chinese traditions and the monkey, of course!

Lastly, don't forget to vote for us on Wicked Local's 2016 Reader's Choice Awards! CLICK HERE TO VOTE Don't forget to vote for at least 10 of your favorite local businesses for your vote to count! All votes do not have to be exclusively for businesses in Burlington so pick all of your faves from surrounding towns!

Important Dates and Reminders:

February 1: February tuition due
February 15: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
February 27: Monthly Gathering at Celebration Kingdom - check your Evite for more info!
March 1: March Tuiton Due
April 1: April Tuition Due
April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break
May 11-12: Picture Day! More info to come in a few weeks

Some pictures from this week's explorations:

The preschoolers made their house as part of learning about habitats.

Mary Beth and the kiddos made a snowman with the snow that fell last weekend.

The making of the snowy owl puppets! We hope they continue to fly all over your house as they have our classroom!

This little owl has been flying around our classroom, too!

A glimpse at small world play in the wintertime.

A very well made block sculpture! The children were busy working on this during free play today.

See you in February!
Joanna

How can we help woodland animals in the winter?

This week brought chilly temps to our playground.  We camped out indoors for a few days as we prepared animal feeders for our woodland friends.  To begin the week, we reviewed the vocabulary words migrate and hibernate and we introduced the children to the word adapt.  Animals that adapt during the winter do not hibernate and sleep, they find ways to survive the cold winter in their habitat. For example, deer search for groups of trees to stand behind when the chilly winter winds are whipping around. The children listened to the story, "Night Tree" by Eve Bunting and Ted Rand and created cheerio animal feeders for our neighborhood wildlife.  The children were encouraged to place their feeders on branches, fence posts or in a spot on top of the snow.  Watch your feeder closely, we'd love to hear which animals visited your yard! We will be making additional feeders for our playground and hope to make some observations on which animals come to visit us here at school.   We will be looking for missing cheerios, if the feeders move or disappear and if we notice any nibbles taken out of the cheerios.  While making the animal feeders, the children practiced counting skills and fine motor dexterity.  

Next week will will continue with our winter theme and study the snowy owl.  

And lastly, don't forget to vote for us on Wicked Local's 2016 Reader's Choice Awards! CLICK HERE TO VOTE Don't forget to vote for at least 10 of your favorite local businesses for your vote to count! All votes do not have to be exclusively for businesses in Burlington so pick all of your faves from surrounding towns!

Important Dates and Reminders:

February 1: February tuition due
February 15: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
February 27: Monthly Gathering at Celebration Kingdom - more 
info coming soon!
March 1: March Tuiton Due
April 1: April Tuition Due
April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break
May 11-12: Picture Day! More info to come in a few weeks

Some pictures from this week's explorations:

As the children learned about animal habitats, we also learned about our own habitats!

Practicing our fine motor skills as we make animal feeders for our woodland friends!

A completed animal feeder!

Have a great weekend everyone! See y'all on Monday!
Joanna

Do rabbits actually hibernate?

This week began our journey exploring winter habitats for woodland creatures.  To introduce the children to our new topic, we  first explored how humans adapt in the wintertime.  For example, humans wear warmer clothing including jackets, hats, mittens, etc.  We then discussed ways animals keep warm in the wintertime.  Some responses included hide in trees, build a cave, find sun and dig a hole.  This lead to the introduction of our new vocabulary words: migrate, hibernate and adapt.   The children were amazed to find out that not all animals hibernate.  Many animals also adapt to their chilly winter environment or migrate to warmer climates.  For example, animals that hibernate include bears, frogs, squirrels, chipmunks and bats.  Animals that adapt include deer, wolves, rabbits, owls and foxes.  And as discussed this past fall, animals that migrate include geese, monarch butterflies and robins.  

The children also learned what a woodland forest is and how valuable the forest is in the wintertime for animals to survive and adapt in the wintertime.  To extend our learning, the small world woodland area has been transformed into a snowy wonderland and the winter white play dough has been a  big hit with penguin play.           

Next week we will go into more detail on how animals prepare for winter.  The children will make woodland habitat globes and  we will discuss how we can help animals in the wintertime.  We will make food for the woodland animals and place the cheerio chains on our “Animal Giving Tree” near the woodland edge of our playground.  Stay tuned for which woodland animals we spy.

And lastly, don't forget to vote for us on Wicked Local's 2016 Reader's Choice Awards! CLICK HERE TO VOTE! Don't forget to vote for at least 10 of your favorite local businesses for your vote to count! All votes do not have to be exclusively for businesses in Burlington so pick all of your faves from surrounding towns!

Important Dates and Reminders:

January 18: SEE closed in observance of Martin Luther King Day
February 1: February tuition due
February 15: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
March 1: March Tuiton Due
April 1: April Tuition Due
April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break
May 11-12: Picture Day! More info to come in a few weeks

Have a great weekend! More pictures to come next week!

Joanna

Joan Miro and his "Open Space"

It has been a great transition back to school after a long winter break! It has been so nice to see all of our friends and I swear everyone has gotten taller! As you can see, I have decided to change the titles of my blog posts.  The blog will still post every Friday but I prefer a more exciting title to spice things up a bit!  

This week the children were introduced to a new artist of the month, Joan Miro (his first name is pronounced like "Juan").  Joan Miro was a artist from Spain who lived to be 100 years old! In 1961, Joan Miro created a series of paintings titled, Bleu I, Bleu II and Bleu III.  The children compared the similarities and differences in the series of paintings and used Bleu II to recreate his work.  The children learned that, unlike our previous artist of the month, Van gogh, Miro liked "open space" in his work.  Before beginning their work, the children discovered that Joan Miro used 12 dots in his painting including small, medium and big dots all in a row.  Just about all of the paintings are up on the bulletin board for you to take a look at! This time I made sure to write names on the front of each masterpiece so you can easily find your child's artwork!

Next week, we will begin to transform the classroom into a winter wonderland as we begin our winter animal studies.  We will be using vocabulary such as "migrate," "hibernate" and "adapt."  Listen for your child to use these key words at home!

Important Dates and Reminders:

January 18: SEE closed in observance of Martin Luther King Day
February 1: February tuition due
February 15: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
March 1: March Tuiton Due
April 1: April Tuition Due
April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break

Pictures from this week:

Our new "Small World" area

A Joan Miro in progress

The making of a puffy paint snowman

Exploring life size animal foot prints

Counting the dots in Joan Miro's Bleu II

I hope everyone has a great weekend! We'll see you on Monday!

Joanna