End of April

We've been having lots of fun studying about spring this week and last week. There are so many areas of spring that we can look at to learn more. Last week we started out by brainstorming some ideas about how we know that spring is here. We know that even though the calendar says it's spring, it doesn't always feel like it right away. We did a fun activity with some spring mystery bags. In each bag I put something that reminds us of spring. They loved that it was a "mystery" and did a great job of not telling everyone what it was until everyone had a chance to feel it. The hallway needed a little spring cheer as well, so we made fun tulip banners. The tulips were made by pressing their feet in paint and then they painted the stem on themselves. We also made some fun spring headbands that looked like grass. The students cut the green band and then put on some spring stickers. Many of them wanted to put on as many bugs as possible. I'm thinking there might be some interest in bugs and we might have to study about those in the next few weeks!

For small groups last week, we made a coffee filter flower to help decorate our room up, worked on making shapes on the geo-board, and went on a letter sound hunt. For the hunt, each student had a piece of paper with four letters on it and their job was to walk around the room and find something that started with that letter. They did great and really seem to enjoy being able to search for things around the room. We had an interesting day on Friday. It was so nice so the morning class was able to go on a spring walk for science and look for signs of spring. The afternoon class went on a different kind of walk. As many of you probably heard/read about, Madison Elementary had a lockdown drill that we practiced. We have done one before where we just hunker down in the classroom with the lights off, but this time we practiced what it would look like if we needed to get out of our classroom and move to a safe spot. In our room, that meant we got to practice escaping from our window. If you tell a preschool classroom that they get to climb out a window you get instant cheers haha! While it is a very serious drill and one we hope to NEVER need to use, we made it relaxed for our little ones. We tried to explain it the best that we could in a simple way and make sure they knew that it was just a practice. They all did wonderful!

This week we focused on plants and flowers. We talked about the different parts of the flower, different kinds of flowers, and how flowers and plants grow. Yesterday we planted some grass seed in a cup and we are all excited to watch and see those grow! They also created their own kind of flower and gave it whatever name they wanted. We got some pretty creative flowers and names. Look for those on our bulletin board in the classroom.

There are only three weeks left of school after this week :( We will finish up all of our letters, numbers, and projects that we have been working on. We will also be preparing for graduation that will be on May 22nd. I will send home more information about the last few weeks of school next week. I know there is a lot to remember!