We started a unit about comida-food and practiced 3-word sentences with "La Pera Verde" (green pear) and "La Manzana Roja" (red apple). This month we will be singing "Feliz Navidad"!

                        Warmly,

Your PEAKE Academy Teaching Staff 

In math class we learned to count backwards, Taj and Logan were experts! As we learned this week that snakes hibernate during the winter, we did a dot to dot and practiced counting to 32. Alex and Aidan were so excited to see what the picture was going to be after they completed the dot to dot.

In writing were practiced writing letters Ii and Hh. We also practice the letter sounds and words that start with I and H. It was really neat to hear the kids trying to sound out words and discover new words that start with I and H. Sean, Logan and Connor really did a great job with finding new words that start with H and I, ones we did not go over in class.

In art we made a really dark bear cave with a sleepy bear peaking out, getting ready to take a long winter nap. We also illustrated our own bear picture and then told a story about it to our class. Finally we made a bear that smells like coffee.

In science we learned how animals can survive during hibernation in the cold winter. We put ice into plastic bags first and I had the kids feel how cold it can get with no layers of fur or body fat. Then I put shortening (which represents body fat) into the plastic bag and then had the students feel the bag again. Taylor and Caden said with excitement, "it isn't cool anymore"! It was such a fun science experiment! 

In reading we read, The Big Snow, The Mitten, The Hibernating Animal and One Winter's Day.

In music we sang, Bears Turn Around, Hibernation Song, Little, Little Bear.

Class was so exciting this week!

 

 

The kids think this week's hibernation theme is GRRRRREAT!  We have had a great time being hibernating animals.  We have been bears, bats, snakes, hedgehogs, frogs and so many more animals.  We really love the grizzly bear song.  At the end, the kids get to growl at the teachers which is great fun for the kids and maybe a little scary for the teachers having a class full of bears. Yikes!  Ellie always assures us that she is a nice bear and Neil would be a bear except he has to be a T-rex.  We really enjoy using our imaginations to help us learn.  Books we've read about animals that hibernate this week include; Snow Friends, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear, and The Mitten.  In art, we painted bears with brown paint and coffee grounds and we made cute little hedgehogs.  In math, we put bears in their caves but we had to count the correct number of bears so we could make sure all the bears were in the proper caves.  Ashleigh did a super job and all the bears were happy.  We also played a bear matching game and talked about biggest and smallest.
     Marvelous M was the letter this week.  Our new friend Monica begins with an M!  One of our favourite people also begins with M.....MOMMY!  We learned a song about our mommies this week.  It's nice to sing about people we love.  Mittens also begin with m.  So, we did a lot of activities about mittens this week.  We read One Mitten and The Mitten Tree.  We learned a poem called "mitten weather."  We matched mittens.  We painted mittens and we did mitten tricks.  It was all very mittenlicious (is that a word?)  Mitten tricks were awesome.  Dylan K and Haris both do great mitten binoculars and Soleil's mitten wings were beautiful! 
     A huge welcome to three new friends this week!  We are so happy to have Monica, Timmy and Rio join our class. 
     Thank you to Monica's family for the donation of playdough and fun art goodies.  We are going to have such fun!
     Thank you also to all of the people who have cut and prepared activities for our class.  I appreciate it so much.  Also if any of you would ever like to come in and a read a story or anything in class with the kids, please let me know.  It is great fun (we end stories with clapping and cheering -it makes me smile everytime)