Happy New Year! We hope you all had a great holiday and have had a chance to enjoy the snow! Here at SEE we have had a few chances to play in the mounds of snow that took over our playground and even got to do some sledding!
Since returning to school after the holiday break the kiddos have been extremely busy and dove right into our next curriculum topic, “Things that go.” Our block area turned into our very own “Auto Body Shop.” Everyone has been having a great time pretending to be the customer who needs their car fixed, the receptionist who has to check everyone into their appointment or the mechanic who is there to fix up our broken car! It has been fun to watch the kiddos transform into their roles while working at the auto body shop. I think we have some future mechanics on our hands!
We began the month by learning about the wheel and how it works with an axel to make things move easier. We all agreed that without the invention of the wheel it would take us about a trillion hours to walk to school each day, riding a bike would be really hard to do, and in order to pull our wagons around, we would need to use a lot of muscle since the wheels wouldn’t be there to help us out. We then moved onto a classroom favorite, trains. We talked about the different kinds of trains, how they move and what we might find on each of the different types. This past week we have been learning about planes and the four different forces that effect how they move: thrust, drag, lift and weight. We discovered that the thrust needs to be stronger than the drag to move forward. The children got a chance to see how that works with balloon rockets!
To go along with our unit of “Things that go,” we have been reading our book of the month, “The Little Engine That Could,” by Watty Piper. In the story the Little Blue Engine is able to help a stuck train get over a mountain even though he wasn’t the biggest, shiniest or oldest train. He chanted over and over “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!” and he eventually made it over the mountain! This began a discussion of things that we can do and things we are good at doing. We discovered that we can dance, make dog treats, ride bikes, go bowling and much more!
As we wrap up the month of January we will be introduced to our artist of the month, Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams was an American photographer best known for his black and white photographs of the American west and Yosemite National Park. We will all get the chance to be a photographer for a day and use the classroom camera to capture an image of nature outside on our playground!
What's Up Next?
In addition to our Ansel Adams studies, we will continue with our "Things That Go" unit and finish up with boats! We will discuss how and why they float and the different types of mechanisms that move them (sails, oars, motors). We will also study shadows in honor of Groundhog's Day. "Where do shadows come from" and "How is a shadow made" are just a few of the questions that we will be exploring.
Upcoming Dates and Reminders:
February 1: February tuition is due
February 16: Parent's Night Out (aka Movie and PJ Night at SEE) 5:30-9:00pm. Email Joanna to sign up and for more info!
February 19: SEE closed in observance of President's Day
February 19: February Gathering at Goldfish Swim School, see Evite for more info and to RSVP!
March 1: March tuition is due
Pictures from the past few weeks:
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| Getting ready for our paper airplane races! |
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| Working on that broken engine is hard work! |
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| Making train tracks with paint |
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| An auto body customer completing their intake form |
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| Have you ever went sledding on a cafeteria tray?? |
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| Welcome to the Auto Body Shop! I hope you all enjoyed what we've been up to these past few weeks! Stay tuned for more fun! Ms. Tiffany |
