Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the rooster and we had such a fun week celebrating and preparing for the holiday! Signs of the new year were all around the classroom this week. 

We kicked off the week with discussions on Chinese New Year traditions and symbolisms.  The new year signifies the welcoming of the new while chasing away the bad.  The children learned that the color red and eating/displaying oranges are signs of good luck and fortune.  We ate lots of oranges this week! The children also practiced their scissor skills while making lanterns to decorate our classroom.  The lanterns are proudly hanging around the room!  

Every year we celebrate Chinese New Year and while every year is just a little bit different, we always cook up a yummy pot of noodles for the children to eat with chopsticks! The teachers were so impressed with the children's chopstick skills! The children were also introduced to the art of Chinese writing and had many opportunities to practice writing the character for rooster. 

We wrapped up the week with a lesson on dragon and lion dances.  The children learned that while both dances are preformed to chase away all of the bad luck, the dragon is held up with poles and many people move the dragon around to chase the ball (the "pearl of wisdom") while the lion dance is performed by two people wearing a costume that dance around to scare away the bad luck. Both dances are accompanied by the loud sounds of drums, gongs and cymbals.  The children created hand drums to play along with our homemade "chair drums," tambourines and cymbals.  This is the only time of the year I ask the children to be as loud as they can be to scare all of the bad luck out of the classroom! 

The children all went home with a tangerine and a fortune cookie for good luck. 

What's Up Next?

This is always a busy time of year... on to Groundhog Day! February 2nd is Groundhog Day and the children will learn all about shadows and vote for an early spring or 6 more weeks of winter. 

Vote for Us!
It's that time again to vote for your favorite local businesses (including your favorite preschool!).  We were voted Burlington's favorite preschool for 2016 and we would love to be your favorite again this year! Click here to vote! Don't forget, for your votes to count, you must nominate at least 10 businesses before hitting the submit button.  You can nominate us under "Local Services" and scroll down to "Daycare/Preschool." Voting ends on February 15th so don't delay. And remember to share this with your friends, family and neighbors! Thank you for supporting our small, local preschool!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

February 1: February Tuition is due
February 12: Cookie decorating at Whole Foods, please RSVP via Evite!
February 20: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
March 1: March Tuition is due

Pictures from the week:   

Lion Dance! See ya later bad luck!

Making lucky red play dough of course!

Writing in Chinese! This took lots of practice! 

Making lanterns!

Such a fun holiday to study!

Chopstick practice with dumplings, rice balls and noodles!

More chopstick practice! It's always a good day
when we practice our fine motor skills!

Yummy noodles!!

More writing practice!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Chinese New Year!
Joanna

How Can We Help the Wildlife Outside of Our House?

How can animals survive the cold winter if they don't hibernate or migrate to a warmer place? They adapt! The most common animals that adapt to their chilly environments are squirrels, some mice, beavers and people! 

To kick off the week, the children discussed "migration" and what it means to migrate.  We discussed the different types of animals that migrate and you might be surprised by some of them! The list includes the most well known migrator, the canadian goose as well as some types of fish, monarch butterflies and whales.  To practice migration, the children flew in a "V" just like geese do on their journey south.  Each child took a turn "flying the flock of friends" with a compass.  Did you know that birds have a compass build into their brain? It's not a real compass though, birds rely on the sun, stars and the earth's magnetic field to help them figure out which direction is south!

As the week progressed, the children discussed how animals adapt to their environments.  The most common animal we see during the winter is the squirrel.  They continually gather lots and lots of food for the winter. They also pack on the pounds to help them stay warm and to help them survive when food is scarce.  Since squirrels and non-migrating birds don't have warm cozy houses like we do, the children decided to help them out! We made bird seed bird feeders this week. Some children brought them home and the rest of the feeders will be hung around our playground for the birds and squirrels to enjoy.  Keep an eye our for which animals you see eating from your bird feeder this winter!

We have also been practicing our hibernation song, it goes like this:

Bear is sleeping, bear is sleeping 

In his cave, in his cave

Wonder when he'll wake up, wonder when he'll wake up

In the spring, in the spring

The song goes on adding new animals into the song.  Ask your child to sing it to you!

We ended the week with a visit from Evan M's mom, Elise.  She read the story, "Hedgehugs" by  Steve Wilson and Lucy Tapper. It was perfect because we recently learned that hedgehogs hibernate! The story was super cute and she created the best activity for the children that incorporated cutting skills as well.  Lookout for these cute little hedgehogs coming to your home soon!

Vote for Us!
It's that time again to vote for your favorite local businesses (including your favorite preschool!).  We were voted Burlington's favorite preschool for 2016 and we would love to be your favorite again this year! Click here to vote! Don't forget, for your votes to count, you must nominate at least 10 businesses before hitting the submit button.  You can nominate us under "Local Services" and scroll down to "Daycare/Preschool." Voting ends on February 15th so don't delay. And remember to share this with your friends, family and neighbors! Thank you for supporting our small, local preschool!

What's Up Next?
Chinese New Year is almost here! It's the year of the rooster and we have lots to celebrate! We can't wait to learn more about this fun holiday and all of the traditions!  Stay tuned for lion dances, noodle snacks and lantern festivals!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

February 1: February Tuition is due
February 12: Cookie decorating at Whole Foods, please RSVP via Evite!
February 20: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
March 1: March Tuition is due

Pictures from the week:   

(Pictures coming soon! The camera does not want to cooperate!)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Joanna

A Snowless Snowflake Week!

It has been a busy few weeks around here! I am so excited to be back on the blog sharing all of the fun things we are doing and all of the cool stuff we are learning! 

The last week of December was filled with holiday fun, the children played reindeer games, spun the dreidel and dressed in their coziest PJ's for pajama day on Thursday and Friday.  The children listened to the story of the Polar Express and had a very tasty pancake and hot chocolate snack. We sent the children off to their holiday break after a little Pin-the-Nose-on-Rudolph game and a snow ball toss.  

After a restful week, we were all excited to see one another after quite some time apart.  The children jumped right back into their school routine after the long holiday break. We began the week hoping for some real snow as we introduced the children to the science of snowflakes.  We learned that all snowflakes begin as a hexagon "plate" and as they fall from the sky they form six, beautiful "arms."  We read the story, "Snowflake Bentley" by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and learned of a man who became the first person to successfully photograph snowflakes.  Snowflake Bentley was our Artist of the Month inspiration and the children created their own snowflake for the bulletin board.  If you have some time, stop in to see the children's work.  

Well, our wishing for real snow to go along with our snowflake unit came true! We were lucky enough to have some beautiful white snow on the playground when we came to school this past Monday. However, it didn't last long as the warm air surprised us all. Although it has been strange to talk about snowflakes and hibernation, I am sure the cold weather will be back upon us soon enough! This past week Ms. Tiffany taught us all about hibernation, migration and adaptation.  We began by talking about how humans stay warm in the winter which lead to discussions on how animals stay warm in the winter. Many build nests, dens or burrows. These animal homes can be found up in a tree, in an old fallen log, in the ground or in a den.  While most adapt to their surroundings, some migrate to warmer places.  We will be discussing migration next week!

Lastly, since the weather warmed up so much this week, our real snowman only last for a day! So we presented the children with some shaving cream "paint" and some snowman pieces and asked the children how their snowman melted.  Some said he was playing in the sun and got too hot, someone said he was sitting too close to the fireplace and another said that he drank hot cocoa and melted!  Priceless!

Book Sale Info:
The Usborne book sale is almost over! Families have until midnight on Tuesday, January 17th to place their order.  Use this link, click here to browse and order, and don't forget to select our school's name after you check out to help us earn credits towards the purchase of new books for our school library! Thank you for your support!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

January 16: SEE closed in observance of MLK day
January 17: Usborne Book sale is ending at midnight!
February 1: February Tuition is due
February 20: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
March 1: March Tuition is due

Pictures from the week:     

We kicked off our snowless snowflake week talking about precipitation and evaporation with a science experiment. 

"How did your snowman melt?"

Have a nice, long weekend everyone! See you on Tuesday!
Joanna