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