Friday, January 21

The children are helping me write this blog today:

"We learned where animals hibernate. We learned that ladybugs hibernate too. They don't get much heat in the winter in their bodies. We found some places in the woods where animals can hibernate (we've posted one of those pictures). We learned that some animals hibernate so that they don't die. Chipmunks hibernate and bears hibernate."

Charlie and Jackson were able to take a few rides on the sled. There is still some snow left on the banks in the woods. We missed our other boy today, Andrew. He has pink eye.

Please bring a mug or coffee cup for our hot cocoa party next week. Also, book orders are due next week. Have a great weekend! Thanks for being so flexible and allowing the children to come play today!

Snow Day

The Hochstein Girls

Andrew & Jackson (seconds before the wipeout)

Charlie

Charlie & Family

Poppi

Jackson

Jackson & Poppi

I'm quite certain that the children have enjoyed the snow as much as I have enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we were not able to meet today. It would have been so much fun to play in the snow as a class! I would like to make up our class on Friday but if that doesn't work for everyone, let me know. Also, if you have any snow pictures, email them to me and I'll post them.

It's A New Year!

It was so nice to have everyone back together again. We had an awesome day which was a wonderful start to the new year together! We are learning about Winter this month. We are going to discover some of the happenings of Winter. Today we talked about hibernation and we learned that bears don't go into full hibernation. In other words, they don't sleep the entire winter. We did find out that cubs are born in the dens during the Winter months. Jackson said, "they get pregnant in the winter" but I'm not able to verify if that is true or not. Regardless, that wouldn't be something that we would study at preschool! Ha ha! We also learned that frogs, ladybugs, and snakes all hibernate. We actually took a walk through the woods and talked about some of the habitats where these and other animals hibernate. Speaking of hibernation, Jackson has a fort that he's been working on in the woods. I captured a picture of the boys in the fort. It almost looks as if they are hibernating too! We are learning the months of the year through song. We are still working on the days of the week song which some of the children are able to sing and sign. We also talked a little about the four seasons which we also Incorporated into our music and movement time. Andrew won our "Bear Bingo" game today! We were all proud of him especially since he is one of our youngest classmates. All of the children did great with the activity which encourages counting and one to one correspondence. Each one of the children completed the activity without any complaints! We learned a new finger play today. Here it is: Thumbs in the thumb place, fingers altogether. This is the song we sing in mitten weather. I often come across some really good early childhood education articles that are worth sharing. Here is a link to one on early childhood art and creativity: www.education.com/magazine/article/raising_young_artists/

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