February 14th 2021 Newsletter

A little love discovered in the forest

Good morning and happy snow day!!

                                             

As we will remain onsite this coming week I have planned some fun indoor/outdoor activities including coffee filter snowflakes, ice art with nature loose parts, snow painting and of course sledding and snowman building. On Wednesday the children brainstormed a big list of activities that they can do at school on snow days including those activities listed above. Make sure that your child comes to school ready to spend a couple of hours outdoors playing in the snow while it lasts.

Our transition to 3D sculpture has begun through our Story Workshop activities using air dry clay, wire and wooden beads. This week we will continue with the clay and add a few new materials such as plastercine.  Once they are familiar with plastercine I will add it to their choice art activities. I have small cardboard squares for them to build on.

I have a new math game to introduce that can be done both in the forest and in the classroom, Ten Frame Number Riddles which builds on the number clothesline math riddles that we have been enjoying both in the classroom and outdoors.

Our stem activities have begun and seem to be quite successful with the children.  The milk and dish soap experiment was the last one. I chose to do it with the children in the afternoon so that they could check in on the changes over a couple of hours. This week we will be doing the melting skittle experiment. I have included a link for both of them if you wish to do them at home. 

Both of these activities are linked the children's interest in rainbows. I have purchased a book to inspire their learning, tacky glue and a canvas art board for our next collaborative project, a loose parts rainbow. The children are still bringing in lots of milk bottle caps. We are really short on yellow, so I will survey my staff to see if any of their students are recycling yellow caps (they are on those tube applesauce snacks). If you have any yellow milk caps please send them in.
The Story Workshop celebration wall is beginning to fill up with your child's stories. They have begun to dictate their stories to me then I add a photo and print it. This demonstrates to the children that their work is important and that we value it. 

I will begin to share their stories on their FreshGrade accounts this coming week now that report cards are finished and my pro d workshops are over. As we transition to our next Inquiry How animals adapt in winter, I have begun to refresh our loose parts materials to support the new interest emerging with your children through story workshop.