Our diversity curriculum is beginning to taper off and we've started to talk about the circus, space and dinosaurs! But, before we completely move on, we have continued to learn about three new cultures and traditions. We had Ryan's mom come in to teach us about Germany with a pretend trip across the Atlantic Ocean, perogies and bratwurst, and some newly learned words from the German language. As some of you may have heard, my father came to visit to talk about our Italian heritage. The kids were in awe of the fact that I actually have a dad. When they heard the news, many of them decided to decorate the classroom with ribbons and streamers, and some even made him sculptures out of blocks. When he came to the classroom, we talked about our big family dinners and cooking with fresh ingredients like tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. We all got to taste these ingredients after learning some Italian words and learning about the story of Pinocchio. Anna brought in her Matryoshka Doll, also known as a Russian Nested Doll. After counting how many dolls were inside, she told us about coming over to America with her family from Russia. Marcia also came in to talk to us about her Jewish traditions and read us a story about a Carpenter who could fix anything, just like her father.

A great ending to our cultural curriculum will be our international pot-luck dinner. It will be this Thursday at 5:30. Please make sure you sign up on the list outside of our classroom! It already looks like we have a lot of great dishes to eat.

As I mentioned earlier in an e-mail, our Thanksgiving feast was great! All of the kids got to make cranberry sauce and take some home to share with their family. Cooking is always a great opportunity to talk about math and science. The kids learned about boiling water, and what 1 half is compared to 1 whole.

I quickly want to mention that, on our early dismissal day before Thanksgiving break, the kids were so disappointed about not having rest that they decided to grab the pillows and blankets and rest during freeplay. They really value their downtime!

When we arrived back in school after our break, the kids have been going crazy with blocks, beads and modeling clay. We have quite a colorful display on the shelf in the back of our classroom. We've also learned a lot of new songs, like "Get up and Dance!", where everyone gets to dance in the middle of the circle while we all sing for them. We also learned the Peanut-Butter and Jelly song, Down by the Bay, and Frosty the Snowman. Some of you may think it's too early for Frosty, but the kids love to use the balls on the playground to build snowmen. We actually had a request for the Frosty the Snowman song, and we did some brainstorming about how we can make snowmen using the materials in our classroom. They started their work on Friday with a drawing, and some included rules to follow. They cut out clothes from fabric (underwear, dresses, scarves, etc. The typical snowman outerwear) Some used buttons for a nose, some used orange triangles to make it look like a carrot nose, and some added snowflakes and stick arms. We'll continue to work on these next week.

Towards the end of the week, we conducted some science experiments relating to ice and water. The kids got to learn first hand why ice melts. They watched ice melt in a hot pot, they saw how it melts slowly in a bag of water, and they experimented with frozen water colors in the sensory table and observed the colors mixing together.

We also had a fun discussion on Friday about space and dinosaurs. Read below for some of the conversation that took place:

Julia J: Aliens, too. They are space aliens. They have lots of eyes and they are green and purple.

Dylan: [Aliens have] No legs or arms.

[So how do they move?]

Dylan: They float.

Ryan: In space.

Julia C: My dad was in space. He says Pluto is not a planet.

Julia J: Pluto is a dog from Micky Mouse!

Eva Y: There are space rocks. There are shoot rocks that are pink and they hurt you like this.

[What are the space rocks called?]

Ryan: A Comet

Dylan: Micky's Comet. [it hit the Dinosaurs]

[What happened to the Dinosaurs?]

Eva. C: They died. The people killed them.

[People weren't alive when Dinosaurs were alive, so how did they die?]

Julia J: Their skin fell off and they died. Now they live in a museum.

Dylan: Very strong wind, volcano and skin.

Macy: I went to the museum and saw the Dinosaurs. It's just their bones.


We also talked about how our moon actually is a piece of the Earth that fell off after being struck by a crater, and will hopefully continue to talk more about space this week.

We had Sarah read the class a story that she has been working on at home. If any of your kids have a story they love to read at home, feel free to have them bring it into school to share with their friends. It's a great way for them to feel proud of themselves, and their friends feel inspired by it, too.

Lastly, we have designated Friday as our share day. The kids love to share!! We have a sign up at the pink door, so remind them to do so in order to share something special in front of the class.

I hope you all had a great weekend! Again, make sure you sign up for the pot-luck dinner before Thursday.

Amanda