Polar Animals

From the Teachers: January 2-6, 2017 3’s/4’s Program This week we learned about polar animals.  We talked about polar bears, penguins, Arctic wolves, killer whales, beluga whales, and seals. We talked about where all these animals lived (at the north and south poles) and we found these locations on a globe. We discovered what keeps them warm in the cold temperatures.  In our sensory table we had artificial snow which was made with shaving cream and baking soda. We had small polar animals to play with.  In our reading center we had lots of new books about polar animals.  We made polar bear paint spray shadow pictures, we made polar animal rice pictures where we counted how many scoops of rice we needed to cover our animals and the students made choices of a penguin, a polar bear or a seal. We moved like polar bears through snow and danced like penguins on ice.  We will wrap up this unit with an experiment to show how blubber protects the polar animal from cold water.  (Since there was no school on Friday we will do our experiment on Monday.)  In our Bible stories this week we learned how Jesus is always with us.  We read about some of the miracles he performed during his time on earth, and learned that he loved children.   We were very pleased to welcome all of our friends back from the holiday break!  Happy New Year everyone! 2’s Program This week we started back trying to get into the routine of things. We welcomed our new friend Ayush to our room! We hope he loves our classroom as much as us!  This week we talked about polar animals and where they live. We made paper igloos, and colored the northern lights with chalk. We learned about some of the animals that live in the arctic and even discovered how penguins walk! We also played with our new Little People center and the kids loved it!  Our Bible lesson was The Story of Esther. Next Week’s Theme:  Space
UPCOMING EVENTS No School – Martin Luther King Jr Day Monday, January 16 Lutheran Schools Week Week of January 23-27 Multicultural Week January 30 to February 3
PARENT RESOURCES Snow Painting By Carol Bainbridge Snow painting is a great winter activity for kids. It is a unique way to nurture artistic talent or introduce kids to the joy of artistic creation. Here's How: 1.      Gather Necessary Items At the very least you need yellow, red, and blue food coloring and three spray bottles (get in the baking aisle). 2.      Prepare the Spray Bottles Fill the spray bottles with cold water. (Hot and even warm water could melt the snow too much.) Add a few drops of food coloring to the bottles so that you have one bottle of red, one of blue, and one of yellow water. Be sure that the bottles have enough coloring in them to make the colors visible once they are sprayed on the snow. 3.      Send the Kids Out to Paint! All the kids need are their spray bottles -- and their imaginations and creativity. You can show them how the spray bottles work and have them test the way the colors mix to create other colors. 4.      Take Pictures!	Snow/Ice Activity An activity to do at home would be to take ice crushed in the blender or snow from outside, put it in a Ziploc bag, add an Alka-Seltzer tablet and seal it. If you decorate the bag like a snowman face, something exciting happens! This may take up to an hour but the bag should be in a tub or shallow baking dish to avoid messes. Tell your teachers how it came out!
FAITH-LIFE RESOURCES Creation Day 6 - Animals - Genesis 1:24-25 "24 And God said, 'Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.; And it was so.  25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.	Play Animal Charades Have a child whisper in your ear which animal he/she wants to pretend to be. They act it out and the other family members try to guess.