The Great Month of August!

Hello SEE families! It has been a few weeks since our last blog post and we are very excited to catch you up on all of our classroom happenings! Now that the new school year is underway and everyone is settling into their new classroom routine, the blog will return every week.  Each new blog post will go live by the end of each weekend.  "Like" our Facebook page so you can stay updated will all of the latest news and blog posts.  Lastly, Ms. Pauline, our Head Classroom Teacher, will be taking over the blog for a little while beginning with the first week of school.  We are looking forward to a great school year! 

The month of August was hot, but we enjoyed science, farm, dinosaur and mythical ocean adventures week will with pirate and mermaid explorations! Here is a little recap of all the fun we had:

Science Week:

During Science week the children learned about magnets and chemical reactions.  To start the week off, we were visited by the Mad Scientist of Greater Boston who did mini volcanos (baking soda and vinegar) made Lemonade soda (lemonade powder, baking soda and water) and mixing dough (flour, salt and water).

As the week continued, we read the story "Mouse Paint" by Ellen Stoll Walsh about color mixing.  We placed water mixing trays on the table for the children to explore with droppers: the children loved mixing primary colors to make new colors.

The activities didn't stop there, Mrs. M was SEE's very own scientist, teaching the children about chemical reactions using baking soda and vinegar and soda and mentos candy. We asked the children what would happen if we put a baking soda and vinegar solution in a ziplock bag.  The children answered saying it would bubble up and the bag would explode! So we tested out the children's hypothesis; everyone sat in a no splash zone, while Mrs. M filled a plastic bag with baking soda and added vinegar. Then we watched and waited to see what would happen. Sure enough, the children were right, the bag filled with gas and burst at the seams when the bag couldn't hold any more.  The next day, we took our experiment outside. In true scientist fashion, we asked the children what they thought would happen if we dropped mentos candy into a large bottle of coca-cola.  After all of the hypotheses we dropped a sleeve of mentos into the coke bottle and the soda shot over 10 feet into the air! So awesome! Who knew science could be this fun!

Farm Week:

Next up was farm week and we explored different types of farms  including a produce farm, dairy farm and livestock farm. We began exploring produce farms by giving the children different types of produce to cut up to make a fruit salad. Exploring dairy farms lead us to explore cows and discuss the foods that are made with milk including cheese, butter, ice cream, chocolate milk, yogurt and pudding! The children also experienced what it is like to milk a cow.  The teachers filled a non-latex glove with water and poked a small hole in tip of each "finger."  The children took turns "milking a cow" as they squeezed each "utter."

While learning about livestock farms, the children read the story, "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" by Laura Numeroff which was followed by a pancake and maple syrup snack, yum! The children were then invited to create a pig mask by using chocolate pudding to represent mud. The children loved the sensory experience and even snuck a little taste, too!

As the week continued, Rebekah from Wright-Locke Farm visited our school and brought along her 2 ½ year old Nigerian Farm Goat, Rufus.  Rebekah talked about how goats produce milk just like cows and goat's milk is used for drinking, baking, making yogurt, cheese, soaps and lotions. In addition to products we eat, both male and female goats give us wool. We also learned that baby goats are called "kids," their feet are called hooves, goats have four stomachs and this horns are used to protect them from predators in the wild. We all learned so many new facts! Before Rufus and Rebekah left, everyone had an opportunity to feed Rufus and give him a pat.  Thanks for coming to see us, Rufus!

To wrap up the week, the children used their gross motor skills and practiced their hand/eye coordination while making basil prints with a rubber mallet on muslin fabric.  

Dinosaur Week:

The children were introduced to the three categories of dinosaurs - carnivore (meat-eater), herbivore (plant-eater) and omnivore (eats both plants and meat).  The children also learned the term, paleontologist - someone who studies fossils. As the children learned the characteristics of the each type of dinosaur, they began to categorize them based on their physical features.  The carnivores,  aka bipedal dinosaurs, stood on two feet and moved quickly to catch their pray - they also had big sharp teeth to grind their food. The herbivores were four-legged dinosaurs, aka quadrupeds, and ate plants. They had long necks to reach the yummy leaves on treetops and has smaller teeth for grinding leaves and twigs.  

As the week continued, the children had an opportunity to see a life size drawing of a T-Rex jaw (average length is 4 feet). We wondered if anyone was taller than the T-Rex jaw.  The children took turns laying down next to the jaw but no one was quite tall enough to be bigger than the jaw!

We also spent time learning all about volcanos and how they erupt. The hot liquid rock under the Earth’s surface is known as magma and once the magma travels to the Earth's surface, it then becomes lava. As a group, the children created a volcano out of sand.  Everyone had a chance to make the volcano erupt using baking soda, vinegar and red food coloring.  Each time vinegar was added to the baking soda, we all shouted, “HOT LAVA!”  

Ocean Adventures Week:

    Aye aye matey! During the final week of summer camp, SEE went on an ocean adventure. We learned about pirates and mermaids. The children played "pin-the-eyepatch on the pirate" while blindfolded, worked together to create a beautifully decorated mermaid/merman tail and made treasure maps. After making their maps the children went outside to begin their treasure hunt. To the children's surprise, a crew of pirates came through our playground and left their treasure (shiny sequence) everywhere! The children quickly filled their treasure bags and brought their treasure back into the classroom to weigh and measured their findings.  And, of course, every good pirate needs some lingo! We practiced our pirate words including, "Ahoy, matey," "walk the plank" and "shiver me timbers!"

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 3: October tuition is due
October 10: SEE closed in observance of Columbus Day
TBA: Curriculum Night
TBA: October's monthly gathering
TBA: Classroom Halloween celebration
November 1: November tuition is due
November 11: SEE closed in observance of Veteran's Day
November 23: SEE closes at 3:00pm
November 24-25: SEE closed in observance of Thanksgiving

Pictures from the month:

The children using their fine moter skills to manipulate the eye droppers to mix colors

Exploring light and shadows at the light table

Mrs. M's chemical reaction experiments

Exploring salt painting 

Look closely and you can see the soda explosion! 

Rufus the goat!

Basil printing

Muddy pig masks!

(More pictures to be added to Shutterfly! 2016/2017 Shutterfly account to be created soon!)
We had a blast this summer! Stay tuned for the first week of school post coming soon!
Joanna & Pauline