Measuring

There are lots of ways to measure. In preschool classes, we often use non-standard units of measure. That means the children can use any item as a reference and measure other items against it. Sofia and Sarah made a tall column of pipes. Then they made other pipe structures, and they continued to use the first one (the tall one) as their standard of measure. Is this math?? You bet!

Carrot Crazy

Remember a few weeks ago when we went carrot crazy? Well. The carrot tops we planted met with mixed success. The first batch that we've been sharing with the Zebra class have grown very tall (photo at the top). The ones from Bunny class suffered a bit from hungry snails while in Mrs. O'Connor's garden over the Easter holiday. However, they are showing signs of growth now and they look different from the Zebra ones - different carrot varieties perhaps? Our carrot seeds have sprouted and many of them are growing their second set of leaves. We have high hopes for these!! Stay tuned for another gardening report soon.

Listening

Have you ever wondered about the equipment that Isabella wears in her ears and around her neck? Isabella is hearing-impaired. She wears two hearing aids (with darling pink earmolds) every day. Hearing aids make sounds louder for Isabella. While she is at school she also wears an FM system. It consists of a little box (like a cell phone) and a loop which goes around her neck. I wear an identical box and a small lapel microphone. The purpose of an FM system is to eliminate distance between the speaker and the listener. It works the same way your radio works in your car. No matter how far you drive in your city from the actual radio station, you hear the broadcast at the same volume. An FM system really helps when the listener is far away from the speaker - like on the playground or across the room. With all this great equipment, precious Isabella is tuned in to the exciting things in our classroom and in her world.

Benjamin Bunny

Benjamin Bunny has completed his travels. His last visit was to Mrs. Magee's house. If you come to Open House you will get to see Benjamin and read about his adventures with each of the Bunny Rabbits this year. He had so much fun!!

Doctor, Doctor

We are exploring the role of doctors this week. The children had so much fun using doctors' equipment, driving patients to the hospital in an ambulance and of course, weraing doctors' gear. We had it all from coats to shoe covers. Notice in the photo above there are real x-rays in the window. It's way cool to see bones!!

Open House

Please join us in the classroom on Tuesday evening, April 21, to celebrate a wonderful year. The children will have some neat things to share with you.

Ack!

Our camera and camera card are missing in action, so no photos this week. I have confidence it will turn up. In our family we say, "Leave them alone and they'll come home."

Easter Wishes

Today at school we continued the Easter story by sharing experiences from egg hunts and chocolate treasures to church and meals with families. We hope the Easter story continues in your homes as well.

Seeds

We've planted something! Ask your child what it is.

I Spy

This week we finished a project begun long ago. We made our own I Spy. To complete the project, each child brought some trinket or object from home to glue onto our structure.

Now that it is finished, I have taken lots of photos of it. The Bunnies will have a little photo book to try to find the items in the pictures. If you don't yet have I Spy books at home, consider purchasing one (or lots!).

Block Structures

I'm told that in the block structure above, the baby animals are lined up along the edge so they could jump off. The mommies and daddies are on the side to watch. Every year in our class we have what I call a "liner-upper" - someone who lines up toys. This year it's Jessica.

In this structure, there is a bear in his cave. It had cubs at one point, but apparently they've wandered away.

Audrey was the architect of the structure above. The mommy giraffe is keeping her babies safe from the rain. What you can't see are three baby giraffes completely enclosed inside.

Colors Continued

Check out this cool light table! We had see-through pattern blocks to play with in the light. The children got to see the colors mix when they stacked them on top of each other.

We did some primary color mixing as our version of decorating Easter eggs. The kids put a little scoop of red, yellow and blue paint on the big paper egg. Then they folded the egg in half and smooshed the paint around.

When they opened the egg, they got a surprise - new colors!