This week the children were excited to share what they received for gifts from Santa as well as their families. We talked about what our favorite and least favorite gifts were. A bunch of the children received new "piggy" banks. Some liked them, being their favorite gifts, while other's thought they were the worst gifts. We learned a lot about the piggy bank, as the children wanted to know when they were invented. We found out that they were invented over 600 years ago.In the English language, "pygg" referred to a type of clay used for making household objects, such as jars. People often saved money in kitchen pots and jars made of pygg, called "pygg jars". By the 18th Century, the spelling of "pygg" had changed and the term "pygg jar" had evolved to "pig bank." This name caught on because the pig banks were mostly used by children, and a pig is a child-friendly shape that is easy to make out of clay.
We talked about how it is now a new year, which is confusing to the children. We talked about it being a new school year in September, but now it is January, it is a new year. The children drew a picture of something they wanted to learn how to do this year.
We made a chart of what we know about winter. Then we added a column of what we wanted to learn about.
Poetry Journals: We illustrated 2 December poems.
Science Co-op (w/ Preschool 3): The children made estimates of how many Box Tops they thought were in the container. There were 71 Box Tops! The children counted the labels into piles of 10.
We then began to read a book about animals in the winter. The children were curious to see whether the birds have eyelids and if they blink. Ms. Lynn found a small video about how a hawk blinks. We learned that birds have 3 eyelids (one from top to bottom, one from bottom to top and one from the beak side to the other side). We have started talking about the difference between migration and hibernation.
Art with Mrs. L: The children began to talk about Martin Luther King Jr. They used water color paint to paint peaceful doves.
We have started talking about Martin Luther King Jr in the classroom. We talked about what our dreams are for when we get older. What type of work we would like to do, etc.
Book Share: This was the first week of Book Share. The children did a great job with it. Please remember to have your child bookmark their favorite page and be able to tell us what the title of the book is.
Music with Mrs. B: This week the children learned about the keys on the piano.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! :)
Ms. Nancy
~Thank you for allowing me to care for your children!~