During the month of February we will be exploring the important roles community helpers have in our daily lives. Throughout the unit we will learn about their different jobs, the places they work and the significance of their uniforms. We will develop an understanding of what a community is in the larger sense as well as our community here at Unquowa. We invite and encourage any family members who are community helpers to come and visit us during our unit!

In the month of January we will be learning all about different types of vehicles and how transportation is very important to us and that it helps us get from one place to another.  We will be looking at similarities and differences between land, air and sea vehicles, discussing journeys that we have made with our families and the different vehicles we used on those journeys.  We will also look at how different vehicles move.

In November we will be studying the well-loved children’s author and illustrator, Eric Carle!  The children will read a variety of his books and discuss his style of art.  After reading many of Eric Carle’s stories and discussing his illustrations, the children will create their own books representing his work of art.  Finally, as a culmination to this unit, we will be graphing our favorite Eric Carle book and we will be able to see which book was the most popular!

This month we have been learning all about the farm!  We will be exploring animals that live on the farm, life cycle of plants, animal bi-product such as wool, yarn, food and textiles, where our food comes from and the different types of farms.  We will be culminating this study with a field experience to New Pond Farm in Redding, CT on October 28, 2009.

We have had a wonderful start to the school year in PreK-4! Everyone is making new friends and learning the routine. For the month of September we will be working on the unit entitled “All About Me”. During the course of this unit we will be exploring themes related to family and friends, our likes and dislikes, similarities and differences, our bodies, and emotions. Through this unit we will get to know ourselves as well as each other. This will help us to form a strong community of friends that will carry us through the school year.

For these two weeks we focused our study on zoo animals. Each of us chose our favorite zoo animal to study. We then visited Mrs. L in the library and found books to use as learning tools. During our centers and quiet reading time we perused our books and learned fun facts about our animals such as what they look like, what kind of habitat they live in and what they eat.

Then, using a shoe box as a frame, we each began to recreate our animal’s habitat in a diorama form. We tore and cut construction paper to line the inside of the box to resemble the sky and surroundings of our animal’s habitat. During art class Mrs. Desgranges helped us to form our creatures out of model magic. When they were dried, we decorated them using magic markers. Some of us chose to stick to the realistic colors and markings of our animals while others of us chose to express ourselves artistically in our color choices. We had such a wonderful time creating our habitats! They are now all together as a PreK-4 zoo.

Our Paper Towel Roll Bees

This week we were buzzing with excitement as our topic was bees!!! Through books and discussion we learned how a bee colony operates. We learned that there is only one queen bee in a hive and that her only function is to lay eggs. All the other female bees are the “worker” bees and they have many jobs including keeping the hive clean, feeding the newly hatched larvae as “nurse” bees, creating and maintaining the cells of the honeycomb, collect food and water, and build the honeycomb. They also have a role as “guard” bees and keep the hive safe from intruders. The “drones”, or male bees, only have one role which is to mate with the queen. Each of us is working on making a bee out of toilet paper rolls, pipe cleaners and coffee filters.

In science we learned about how bees communicate.  There are two main ways.  In order to let the other bees know where a flower is located, they do a complicated dance that involves two parts. The “circle dance” tells the bees how far the flowers are from the hive and the “waggle dance” tells the other bees if the flowers are to the left or the right of the sun when they exit the hive.  We pretended to be bees in the classroom.  Each “bee” was given the opportunity to hide a flower in the classroom while the other “bees” were out of the “hive”.  When they came back into the room, the bee who hid the flower “waggled” to the left or to the right depending on what side of the classroom the flower was hidden.

The other way bees communicate is through pheromones.  These are smells that tell the bees what hive

Using Pheromones to Find Our Hive-mate

they belong to, what job they have, and communicate messages about the hive such as “the hive is in danger”.  We played a game that mimicked pheromones where each of us got a bottle with an unknown smell in it.  We had to go around the classroom, smelling each other’s jars in order to find our “hive mate”.  When we found our match, we sat down together.  It was hard to do because we couldn’t talk at all!

In math we worked on extending our patterning skills by created the trickiest patterns we could using unifix cubes. We made AB, ABC, ABCD, or AABBCC patterns. It was a fun challenge to see just how much we’ve accomplished. Then we brushed up on our shape identification with an exciting game of color and shape bingo. Our memories are strong!

During these two weeks our focus was on transportation. We learned that transportation is how we get from one place to another. Through books, discussion and morning meeting we learned that there are many different types of transportation including ground, air and water. We also learned about the different modes of transportation and more specifically what kinds of vehicles were used in each type of transportation. We explored why we might choose to take a boat to one place, a car to another and a plane to another. We learned that for short distances a bicycle, walking or perhaps a car are good choices. Whereas when we travel great distances a train, plane or boat may be a better choice.

In math we took the opportunity to do a big project that involved measurement as well as estimation. Now that we are becoming experts at measuring, we learned how to make estimations. We now know that an estimate is a thoughtful guess in which we try to get as close to the real answer as possible before we know what it is.

For this project, we each learned how to fold our own paper airplane. Then using markers we decorated and personalized our airplanes. We discussed how airplanes usually have a name on them such as American Airlines or Jet Blue. Some of us decided to name our airplanes. We drew windows and people and designs on the airplanes. When the airplanes were completed we each took a turn to fly them. After the airplane landed on the landing strip the pilot measured the flight path using unit blocks. However, before the pilot began laying out the blocks, the pilots (awaiting their turns patiently in the airport) each estimated how far they thought the plane flew. Then the pilot measured the distance and the rest of the pilots figured out how far off or on their estimations were to the real answer. The airplanes and data will be on display in the hallway for all to see.

In science we asked the question “how does a boat float”? We discussed a variety of materials that one could use to build a boat and discussed the concept of sinking and floating. We then made predictions about the materials available which included Styrofoam bowls, foam shapes, bits of straws, tin foil and bubble wrap. After we discussed and made our predictions we each created a boat using the available materials. When the boats were completed we tested them out in the water table and discovered that they all floated due to the fact that the materials were lighter than the water.

This week we also had a special visit from a group of middle school aged children from Nicaragua. They performed traditional dances and songs in Spanish for us. We were especially lucky because we had a personal visit from three of the students and their teacher later in the day. They came and taught us a wonderful song in Spanish about visiting a marketplace and buying instruments. We had so much fun!

We look forward to a wonderful week studying bees!!!

This week we journeyed under the sea! We started out our week by exploring ocean themed puzzles, stencils, books and games. These materials sparked our interest and curiosity about life under the sea.

On Tuesday we had a wonderful field experience at the Norwalk Seaport. We learned about horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, clams, oysters, spider crabs, snails, sea stars, turtles and whelks. Many of the creatures were alive and we learned the safe way to handle them should we come across them at the beach. We learned about their defense mechanisms as well as how they find and eat their food. After that we made beautiful sea turtle collages with a bevy of materials. It was a wonderful day!

In science this week we learned about the difference between fresh water and salt water. We learned that salt makes the water thicker, or more dense, so that things float more easily, where as fresh water is salt-less so objects sink. We then did an experiment with two cups of water. One was filled with fresh water and the other was filled with salt water. We did not know which cup was which! So we had to make a conclusion based on placing a hard-boiled egg in each cup and observing whether or not it sank or floated.

In math we played the game Go Fish! We worked independently in groups of three. This classic game helped us to not only sharpen our numeral recognition skills and matching number sets, but it also taught us the basics of taking turns in a game.

On Thursday each class made a giant class octopus. Working in pairs, we were each given a tentacle to decorate with collage materials and glitter. When all eight tentacles were decorated we put together our octopuses and they are now on display.

On Friday we had a very special visit from the Cool Cat Jazz band. They took us back in time to New Orleans where we got to hear music by Scott Joplin, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. We learned about Rag Time, New Orleans Jazz and Blues. We also learned that jazz can be played on any instrument. The Cool Cats band included a saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, banjo, electric guitar, upright bass and a drum set. We had a fantastic time singing and clapping along with the music!

We look forward to our unit on transportation next week!

This week we focused on celebrating the Earth. This entailed learning different ways that we could each help keep the Earth clean and healthy, as well as learning how to be caring to all creatures big or small.

To honor that concept, we all made butterflies. Using tiny droppers, we mixed food coloring in primary colors on coffee filters. The colors blended together to create a beautiful tye-dyed effect on the coffee filters. When the coffee filters were dry, we slid and squished them into the slit of a cloths pin to create the wings and body of the butterfly. Next we drew a little face on the clothes pin. Finally, we chose a color pipe cleaner and folded and fastened it to form the antennae. The butterflies are flying around our classrooms for all to see.

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