Learning About Black Bears

 Today, Christine from the Black Bear Society came in and taught us all about bears.  She started her presentation showing us things that bears like to eat.  They like all kinds of berries, garbage (human food scraps), fish, bird seed from bird feeders, and skunk cabbage!

She explained to us that bears feed the trees.  When bears catch fish, they don't always eat the whole fish.  They eat the brain and the eggs (if there are any) and they often leave the fish to decompose somewhere in the forest.  This decomposing fish makes nutrients for the plants growing in the area.  If you look at tree rings and see a particularly good growth year, it might be thanks to a bear!  She also told us that scientists can determine a bear's age (once the bear has died) much the same way as we can tell a tree's age….they take a cross section of a bear's tooth and count the rings.  I learned something new today!

Then we sang a song about bears and learned some actions.

Your child has a brochure in his/her home envelope with more information from the Black Bear Society.  

It was so sunny and warm this afternoon.  And the slide was especially "staticy".  It doesn't show very well in these photos, but there was a lot of hair standing up at the bottom of the slide!

Tomorrow is "D" sharing day, please help your child find a household item beginning with "D".  

Happy Friday!

We brought out the rainbow blocks today and it was soon discovered that they make excellent belts!

checking the inspiration booklet and working hard to build the foundation of a building.

working together to create something impressive!  and then giggling when it all falls down

Here's a look at the work we created with our Buddy Class last week.  They are on the wall in the classroom now, come in and take a look.

This is the project that we've been working on most recently.  Our school participates in something called "the Card Project".  Each class creates some artwork (usually Christmas themed, or winter themed) and we send them off the the Card Project people.  There, the art work is photographed and made into notecards and notebooks that can then be purchased by the parents.  This is our artwork that will be turned into cards.  It take a little while for the whole process to be completed but they should be available for ordering sometime in November.  Then, the artwork is returned to us and I will display it for all to see!

I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving weekend.  Enjoy!  See you again on Tuesday.

A Rafter of Turkeys!

Did you know that a group of domesticated turkeys is called a "rafter"?  And that a group of wild turkeys is called a "flock"?  I didn't until I just googled it!  

So, I'd like to introduce our rafter of turkeys…...

Have a look in your child's backpack this afternoon for one of these little guys.  We finished them today and I think they look pretty great.  

Reminder: photo orders are due to me tomorrow.  I believe you can also order on line.  Please let me know if you would like your child to have retakes.

Have a great evening!

Our First Earthquake Drill

We painted our hands today….can you guess why?  Here's a hint…."gobble, gobble"!

Here are a couple of photos from our "C" sharing.  It was very interesting, many of our "C" items were circular.  We talked about the fact that "C" makes a /c/ sound and a /s/ sound in different words and when it's combined with "H" it makes another sound all together.  

We had our first earthquake drill today.  We learned how to safely duck, cover and hold.  We made sure that our heads were the most protected parts of our bodies and we stayed calm and quiet.  The kids took this drill very seriously and did a fantastic job.  There were a few worried looking faces when we were talking about it, prior to the drill.  After LOTS of discussion, I think all the kids felt good about making sure that we know how to stay safe in many different situations.  At home, please ask your child what he/she remembers from our discussion.  It would be great to talk about what you would do at home in the event of an earthquake or fire.  Does your child know your family meeting place?

After our earthquake drill, we had a few minutes to work on some pattern building.  I challenged the kids to come up with a pattern that nobody else has thought of yet.  Some of them are VERY complex! Take a look…. (I didn't manage to take pictures of everyone because it was almost outside time.  Ask your child what kind of pattern he/she came up with).

 

C Sharing Tomorrow

Since I was at a meeting this morning, I didn't have chance to take photos.  So I thought I would put a photo of something that might start a conversation at home.  These are all things that we have used to create our latest piece of art.  Now, they doesn't look exactly as they did when we used them….the salt was in a little container that we put our fingers into and then pinched and sprinkled it on our papers.  The watercolor paint was in a different looking container (we uses purple and blue).  The cotton pads were wet and the saran wrap or plastic wrap was flat and smooth.  Ask your child what he/she did with all this and stay tuned for some pictures showing you the finished art work.

Tomorrow is "C" sharing day.  Please help your child look around the house for an item that starts with "C".  Practice making the /c/ sound together.