Love and Acceptance

 Love and Friendship are hot topics in our classroom this month.  How do you act like a friend? How do you ask for a turn? What if you feel hurt?  How do you make a friend?  

One of our classmates is out of the country, and we have been sharing pictures and updates with them, keeping in touch and sharing our love and friendship.  

We have been reading books about friendships, such as A Bargain for Francis, A Really Good Clubhouse,  

Toot and Puddle  and Frog and Toad are Friends.    Elephant and PIggy books by Mo Willem  are very funny, and Todd Parr's books about feeling good and being who you are are colorful and fun.  

We consistently give the message to the children that everyone belongs, you are in charge of yourself, and you  can ask for what you need.  When there is conflict (and where in the world can there be a wonderful group of 4 and 5 year olds without a little age appropriate, healthy conflict) we encourage the children to speak to the person who may have hurt their feelings, bumped into them, or even said something unkind.  We have comforters in our classroom as a responsibility, and those children can offer a kind word, a hug, or a solution to a hurt feeling (with support from the teachers).  We are working on a book that asks the question "How Can I Make a Friend?"

Some of the children's ideas included "Smile" or "make a picture for them" or even "just by building with them". 

We created a wonderful Valentine's Day party that included Valentines to give each other, Valentine Bingo, a delicious snack of waffles and strawberries, and lots of love.  

A favorite book for Black History Month was Brown, the Many Shades of Love  and Our Class is a Family.

as well as We are a Neighborhood.  The children have begun to create "neighborhoods" on the block rug, so that everyone can find a space to build. 

Until Next Time,

Michele

AND ICE

 The weather has helped us to continue our study of ice-and we are getting curiouser and curiouser. 

We wrote a letter to Matt this week after we saw him putting salt on the ice outside. He is going to come and help us understand, especially, if ICE is a crystal.  

We created our own ice blocks with colored water.  Will said that we would have to wait ONE DAY and he was correct! The ice was ready for us to hold and look at in one day.  

We had "icebergs" in our water table for salt and color explorations.  

The outside has become very icy, and the stomping on cracking ice was very fun!

Groundhog Day brought some shadow fun to our classroom !

We used a projector and traced each child's shadow together with everyone's.  

And, finally, we made ICE CREAM, simply, with half and half and ziploc bags, ice and salt and some muscle work. 

YUM! 

Until Next Time,

Michele