Busy, Busy, Busy...

The children have been busy as we continue on our Leo Lionni author study.  This week we read the book Pezzetino and did an activity based on that story.  Pezzetino is a story about a small square (Pezzentino) that is trying to figure out where he belongs and who he is a part of.  His friends who are made of many squares reassure him that he is just as special and he is a square made of smaller parts.  The story shows that everyone is unique in their own special way.  The children were then asked to make their own animal or object using glue sticks and different colored squares.  The pictures were very creative and unique.  Check out what your children created on the have-to job board.












The children have also really enjoyed making mini books at the art table and then sharing them with the class.  Most of you have probably seen your child's book that he/she created.  They have really enjoyed drawing pictures on each of the pages and then asking us to write their words for them or working hard on writing their own words.  The children have been really proud of these books.  Since they are about their interests or who they like to play with they were eager to share them.  During story time instead of one of us reading a story to them, we let the children share their books to the class.  All the children did a really nice job listening and shared a genuine interest in one another's books.

A couple other things that the children really enjoyed this week were the cooking project and the NEW lincoln logs.  The cooking project for the week was a big hit!  They each got to make their own mini pizza for snack and one for someone in the half notes class.  They were really sweet about making one for someone else and were all very eager to give them to the other class.  They had to make it all by themselves and were really excited to do so.  The lincoln logs were something that the children really enjoyed as well.  They worked hard to build houses using the logs and the sticks.  At first some of the children were getting frustrated because they could not build what they wanted.  As the week went on and they got more exposure and practice the buildings were getting bigger and more detailed.

We had a special guest come in this week.  Michelle's Menagerie brought some really neat animals to show to the kids.  She brought a chicken, a duck, a guinea pig, a rabbit, a fox, a toad, and a snake to school!  The children were really excited to see all the animals and thought the fox was really cool.  They did such a nice job of being quiet so that they wouldn't scare any of the animals.  Check out the picture below to see if you can spot the orange snake!

Reminders:
* Hinata's Last day of school party is on Tuesday January 24th at 11:30.  The children will be having pizza and cupcakes.  All is welcome!

* February vacation is just around the corner.  If you would like to sign up for the February vacation camp please contact Marlene ASAP.  Space is limited and is filling up quickly!