The weather has been very wet and windy. Please dress your child properly in a jacket, long sleeves and please no sandals. The children are enjoying decorating their shamrocks with glue, paint and stamps. We have been reading lots of poems in the classroom. Here's one of them called, At the Sea Side: "When I was down beside the sea, A wooden spade they gave to me, To dig the sandy shore. My holes were empty like a cup, In every hole the sea came up, Till it could come no more."                  

We are preparing for Spring. What changes happen in the World and at school?  What is happening to flower blossoms, plants, and animals?  Everything is changing and we can see that blossoms will turn to fruit, plants get taller, and many mammals have babies in the Spring.  We are studying flowers and their parts, corolla, stamen, etc.  Keep a look out for the changes that will be happening in our garden. We would like to plant tomatoes, strawberries, and radishes.   Please provide rain gear for the many rainy days ahead.  Please take the opportunity to check your child's extra clothes bag to make sure they have at least 2 sets of clothes.            

 
We have been busy on these rainy days learning about Europe, mammals and flowers! Our "Europe Shelf" is filled with many things, including a pair of Dutch clogs which the children can take out and try on, a variety of Matryoshka Dolls from Russia and the Eiffel Tower. We also celebrated the Irish holiday of St Patrick's Day. The children got to be "laddies" and "lassies",  ate Irish Soda Bread and drank green milk for lunch! Matthew's friend, Lindy, came in to read Irish stories on Wednesday. We worked on Thank You cards for Hattie's grandma, who had sent all the children Mardi Gras toys and beads a few weeks ago. The envelope was addressed by a third year and will be mailed this weekend.                 

The Juniper children have been developing concepts of numeration, place value, fractions, and the basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  They have been learning the names "one-ten" and are becoming able to place the correct quantity (number) with the appropriate symbol (numeral).  Using concrete objects, the children manipulate materials to gain an understanding that addition means to join together, subtraction means to take away, multiplication means to join the same quantity many times, and division means to share equally.         

The children in Live Oak have started exploring mammals, plants and flowers this month. They've been pressing leaves and flowers, learning the song "Parts of Plants", and learning the poem "Fuzzy Bear". Most recently, Ms. Craig has begun dissecting flowers with small groups of children. This is a chance for them to practice/learn the parts of a flower and to mount the parts on paper and label them. The children have also been hearing true stories from the Live Oak teachers about bears, raccoons, other mammals, and Europe.

Magnolia children have continued to expand our studies of mammals and flowers.  By examining our own characteristics, we have determined that we ourselves are mammals!  The study of flowers has taken us to Mrs. Campbell's garden and we were able to name various species.  In the classroom, we took a further scientific approach as we dissected and named each of the flower's parts.  During one rainy morning, we even gathered together to form a blossoming flower.  Magnolia has also welcomed a new member, Naomi, to the classroom.  Please introduce yourselves if you see her or her parents on campus!               

The rain is here! However, Mulberry children need to move so we have been creating movement activities. The children have been dancing, using our rocking boat, playing with balls and playing games like red rover and ring around the rosie. We would love to be able to take walks in the rain and find puddles, but in order to do this, children need to have rain gear and extra clothes in their baskets. If all parents could check their child's extra clothes baskets to make sure they have extra pants, shirts and socks. Also, make sure your child comes to school with a rain coat, boots and rain pants. The seeds in the window have sprouted so we have begun planting in little pots.