Did you know that birds have beaks that are different shapes and sizes to help them gather food and eat?  The PreK-4 learned that berries, worms, fish, thistle, suet and sunflower seeds are among the many foods that birds eat. They observed models of some of the birds that visit the feeding stations at Unquowa including the Northern cardinal, American goldfinch and black-capped chickadee. During our lesson they even sighted a downy woodpecker on the suet feeder outside of their window! PreK-4 made bird feeders out of bagels, Crisco and mixed birdseed to take home and help feed the birds in their neighborhoods this winter.

As a finale to our unit on transportation, our friends in PreK- 4 worked together in pairs to create their very own vehicles. After discussing the basics that might be needed….a body, axle, wheels…..we set them to work. From a pile of boxes, wire and cut out wheels they produced some wonderfully imaginative creations.

It was interesting to hear the discussions about what they might need to take and why, how were they going to connect the components together, and what exactly was it that they wanted to make. Some are cars, some are trucks, some carry airplanes! The children were the designers and the engineers; the teachers provided mechanic skills and helped with drilling holes and threading axles. As a final step, our friends painted their vehicles in a variety of bright colors.

Later that afternoon another special treat was in store. Our Mystery Guest was Mr. Gombos, who is an auto mechanic. He brought in different parts of cars and some very nifty tools. Everyone was fascinated and had lots of fun passing things around and learning what they were used for. A HUGE thank you to him from our whole class!

The story of The Mitten by Jan Brett became interactive when the students in PreK-4 placed each animal from the story in their own mitten. Could they all fit inside? Was their mitten getting too big? Oh, my goodness not a bear too! Just when you thought everything was going to be ok…a big sneeze came and well, just ask our PreK-4 students what happened next!

This week our students were challenged to consider why all the wheels on vehicles are round, as we continued to study transportation. Our super stars came up with the following insightful hypotheses by marrying their real world experiences with their academic knowledge about geometry: “wheels are round so they can roll,” “if they are squares, they will have corners and they will not move,” “if they are squares, you have to push them,” “if they are triangles, they will not move,” etc.

Next, our students tested their theories by comparing the movements of one car that has square wheels with the movements of another car that has circle wheels. They were delighted to have their thinking validated! The children further experienced that cars move at different speed when traveling on different surface (carpet vs. wood floors), and that the thrust of an engine (push) is better at powering a car than wind (blow).

In our studies about transportation, our friends looked more closely at airplanes. After thinking about how they move, lift off and stay in the air everyone made their own paper airplane. We flew the planes using our arms as “thrust” (power to make them move) and then measured on the “runway” how far they traveled. The next day each child altered their plane, either by cutting flaps or adding a paper clip to the front. They then flew the plane along the “runway” again to see if anything changed.

Our friends have begun a new unit on Transportation. We have been looking at different ways we can move people, animals and things to where they need to go. We’ll also look at how these various types of vehicles travel……are they on land, water or in the air? Why do we need these different methods?

The class created a mural of different vehicles using cut out shapes and which we then placed in the correct area on the background they created. The children really used their imaginations! We have ferry boats, sail boats, jet skis, rockets, airplanes, hot air balloons, trains, cars and buses…..and the list goes on.

PreK-4 students love singing this curious song about elephants balancing on a spider web!  When singing, each student helps to form part of our spider web and we discover together how many elephants can be supported by our web.  The quantity of elephants that make it onto our spider web is directly connected to our cooperation and teamwork.  This lesson also allows us to reinforce counting, colors and concepts of big and small.

PreK-4 has been talking about the special celebrations and holidays that take place in December. Everyone has been learning about the traditions that we share in our families and also about those that are new to us. Along side of this we have been thinking about all the really fun things that we like to do in this more festive season. The weather is changing and activities take on a new look. The class came up with a list of favorite things to do and we combined them in to the familiar pattern of a song. Among the most popular activities were skiing, playing in the snow, (in many different ways) and drinking hot cocoa. Shopping and getting presents also proved to be high on the list of December favorites! The class then worked in groups to make a series of collages of these activities. Check out the PreK hallway to see all of their hard work.

The Pre K-4 class visited the library this week and was introduced to the tale of the Gingerbread Man. We read several versions and did a comparison, realizing that there were many different characters who chased after that cookie. We also discussed how that sly fox had a couple of different ways he could outsmart the Gingerbread Man.

Thanks to the help of Chef Peter, some parents and of course our Pre K-4 students, we rolled out enough dough for each of our students to make their own Gingerbread Man. The lesson really came alive when everyone decorated their very own. It took a lot of control not to eat any of the yummy treats that we used. We had to wait patiently overnight for the icing to “dry” and when we arrived in school the next day, the students found out that those Gingerbread Men had run away. It took a lot of clues, some really powerful magnifying glasses, and the determination of the entire Pre K-4 class to resolve the mystery of the missing men. Don’t worry, they are now home safe for everyone to enjoy. Next week we will hear the Gingerbread Girl. I wonder what she has up her sleeve?

Through our author study on Eric Carle, PreK-4 students learned about three elements of a story: characters, plot and setting. They put their new knowledge to practice when Mrs. Halas worked with them to write an original story about themselves! The Sugarbaker Sisters (Ms Eckersley and Ms Hsiao) need to bake 13 cupcakes that have individual personalities (our 13 students!). The challenge is…the muffin tin only has 12 spots….

Our students designed the characters for the story by creating their very own cupcakes out of chef’s hats! They also learned from Mrs. Halas that a story plot develops like a hill. It starts at the bottom, reaches the top with a problem that will be solved, and comes back to the bottom of the hill again where the characters live happily ever after. Our lucky students also found out that one of the great things about being authors is that they get to indulge in the subject of their story to help them develop it!

To find out what happened to our 13 cupcakes, look out for The Sugarbaker Sisters and the Crazy Cupcakes, coming soon to a children’s book store near you!