Miss River City

Guess who came to read to us today? Real princesses! Miss River City and her princess came to read their favorite book.  The children were mesmerized!

Top 40

Congrats to our little musical stars who appeared in the school production of "Top 40"! You were woooon-der-ful!

How do animals move?

We have been studying animals and plants in Science, so today we played animal charades.  Each child was invited to choose an animal picture from a bag, move like the animal, and then  invite their classmates to guess what animal.  Come in and watch!

Animal movement 002 from dayle timmons on Vimeo.
Did you guess a horse?

 
Animal movement 005 from dayle timmons on Vimeo.
Did you guess a snake?
 
Animal movement 003 from dayle timmons on Vimeo.
Did you guess an elephant?
Animal movement 004 from dayle timmons on Vimeo.
Did you guess a beautiful butterfly?

How are animals alike and different?

This week in science we continued our plants and animals unit by asking the essential question, How are animals alike and different? We were able to help answer this question with the help of Safari-In-A-Box. Safari-In-A-Box introduces children to the important concepts of habitat, wildlife management and impacts resulting from human and wildlife interactions. In doing so, the kit provides authentic animal hydes and skulls, as well as, animals tracks and scat, otherwise known as poop. The scat and tracks, however, are made of rubber but are molded to look authentic. The initial reactions of the students were great. The kids loved it!

The students were able to compare and contrast by touching and observing the following animals skins, skulls, scat and tracks: deer, coyote, skunk, bob cat, beaver, rabbit, red fox, snapping turtle among others. We discussed why a beaver would need significant webbing between his back feet but a coyote would not and why a beaver had four incisor teeth and a bob cat had canines. Then we talked about how this made them different but then we also discussed that they all had eyes and mouths and noses and how this made them alike. So after you read this blog talk to your little scientist and ask them...How are animals alike and different? You just may be surprised at what you learn!

Teacher Appreciation

We received so many thoughtful gifts during Teacher Appreciation Week!  We can't begin to tell you how much we appreciate your kind notes and gifts.  At the end of the week, Finn and Paige's moms came in and decorated the outside door with pictures of our adorable class!  Thank you for sending in the animal pictures!  We love the door!  You're the BEST!

Look how we've grown!

Congratulations to Sawyer, Ana and Eleana whose work is featured on this month's standard-based bulletin board!

Tadpoles

Mrs. Matthews brought us some tadpoles that she fished out of a pond near her house.  We have been watching them all week, and guess what?  We have a few that have lost their tails and added legs.  The question that children want to know is... Can a  frog swim or do they just hop from thing to thing in the water?  Can't wait to find out?

UPDATE:  We have been watching the frogs for about two weeks and we have discovered that not only do we have tadpoles, many that have turned into frogs, but we also  have snails and even a fish!  We have also discovered that the frogs definitely swim!  We will be returning the frogs, tadpoles, snails and fish back into the pond later this week.