Happy birthday Graham! Graham's big present this year is his new bike, which, thankfully, came in blue. He biked it all the way home from the bike store and is doing great, though panics a little when it's time to brake.
Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled, "Marbles and Mardi Gras":
Dear parents,
We started Monday with a bang as we welcomed the new month of
February. In the morning the children used the wooden blocks, the
latest addition in the classroom, to create structures solo or with a
group. One child built a secret track for the colorful bears. While
two children worked together and built a castle for the king who knew
it was "time to fight because the drum is banging." After snacks, some
of us read The Foolish Tortoise by Eric Carle while others drew at the
table. One person made a car using pastels while another person made a
special machine that helps fix things. While drawing we practiced
writing our names and writing other words to help describe our
pictures. We then wrapped up in the classroom to play in the big room.
A lot of people scaled the jungle gym while playing dramatic
play-themed games. Lots of running, climbing, and characters have been
invading the big room daily.
Sharon came on Tuesday and taught us how to make foil worms. She
showed us how to delicately roll small sheets of foil into tubes using
markers. Everyone worked using fine motor skills and baby chick soft
touches to create foil worms. After inserting marbles, we took turns
rolling them down an inclined plane. Some slid, some tumbled, some
rolled, but they all traveled from the top of the plane to the bottom.
It was an experiment in stillness and motion. One person tried his out
on the slide in the big room afterwards.
Puppetworks' Alice In Wonderland was as usual, funny and entertaining,
but not as scary as some past shows. However, it was reported that one
person dreamed of the mean queen and her dancing cards. It may have
been the eerie music. Upon our return to school, someone asked how
Alice ate the mushroom? He said," ...because it was made of wood?"
During tumbling with Meike, people were seen lying on their backs with
wiggling feet in the air. While they shook a leg, in the classroom we
experimented with another way to paint without touching the paper.
Similar to our Jackson Pollock yet different. We used marbles. Many of
us lost our marbles but not before we created some amazing paintings.
We used gravity to pull the marbles around by tilting aluminum trays.
We talked a little about the giant magnet in the Earth. Last week we
all left the planet together by trying to jump up in the air at the
same exact moment. Then we came back to Earth. Ground control to Major
Tom. Is this thing on?
Friday we had a Mardi Gras celebration with Kelly as our leader. It
was exciting to say the least. The children took turns being the
paraders and the spectators. We wore masks, beads, collected
doubloons, listened to music, saw pictures of the King and Queen and
floats, and then got to sample a real New Orleans King Cake. That's
when the real party started. Some people had springs in their feet.
And that was before the cake.
We also worked on our About the Artist pages for the art opening
Wednesday. The children took turns dictating what they wanted to say.
You'll see.
Quiet time has been filled with visions of sleepyheads. Many days half
the class, sometimes more, sleeps soundly. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Wednesday February 10th is our art opening. The gallery will be open
during our extended drop off from 8:45- 9:30.
Have a yummy super bowl and Lunar New Year!
Therese and Kiera
Kiera got the baby! In the cake. In the cake!
