Winter has Arrived!

We were so close to having a mild winter, but it seems February has other ideas. I remembered 
to grab my camera on my mad dash out of Steilacoom today. A blog posting is seriously due.

January is such a nice quiet month. The 3-D Big Books were discovered and were a favorite during our quiet time after lunch recess. 

The children did a mini-plant investigation by studying seeds. We used a lima bean, which is a nice, large seed. We soaked a paper towel and placed our bean inside.

Then we put it in a pocket, pant leg, or sock, to mimic the warm, moist, spring earth. At the end of the day, we looked at our bean! It had expanded! The white protective seed coat was all wrinkled and was coming off. 

The bean could now be opened to see the little plant inside. We know that a plant needs soil, air, water, and sun to be healthy.

We learned about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. before we honored his birthday. We enjoyed an all school assembly with songs, poems, and videos about, and of, Dr. King. 

In January we also tried out a new calendar routine. Each child has a packet of materials which includes the days of the week, the months of the year, the seasons, a monthly calendar, birthday and lost tooth charts, and weather graphs. I was not sure how the children would take to it but they loved it! Everyone is engaged and participating and the experience is very rich. They did so well and liked it so much, that I got them each a new 3 ring binder to hold their papers. This month we have included odds and evens, charting temperature, and we are practicing writing the date. 
Thank you to Kim Adsit and  Sherry Sloane at Teachers Pay Teachers for this great resource!

We ushered in February with Ground Hog day.

Punxsatawney Phil says we are to have an early spring...but apparently...not quite yet!) 
We also began preparations to honor the Lunar New Year. The children painted boxes and cups, cut paper fringe and crafted eyes for our New Year Dragon.

Our snow day on Monday tried to squash our celebration but we managed to pull it off on Tuesday morning with a nice parade down the halls of Cherrydale. Some children were inside the dragon while others banged and rattled musical instruments to shoo away any bad luck. Happy Year of the Pig!

In math, Kindergarten has been working on gathering data and representing it in a graph.
1st graders are doing measurement, comparing lengths, and learning to use non-standard measure.

Today we celebrated the 100th Day of School! During math time, the children each made a 100th Day snack. 10 morsels of 10 different snacks= 100!

The children also counted out 100 beads to make their own necklace.

We even did some building with 100 cups.

 The children each have a 100 days of learning certificate and a $100.00 'bill' in his or her Friday Folder.
Thank you all for the great artwork and 100th day fashions. Some of my friends had left for the day before I got a picture of their T shirts, but here are a few...

I don't know about your home, but my yard looks like a confectioner's sugar factory blew up!

I best take a nap before I go try to dig out my car.

I hope you are all snuggled in at home. We are not sure what is coming, but next week still has snow in the forecast. Sunday night and Monday morning look a little dicey. 

Please say hello to my friends!
Happy Snow Weekend Days!

Ms. Rae