Jumping through January in Enrichment!

Hi everyone!

We just had a short, but great week in Enrichment! Our little New Englanders are getting used to the dramatic temperature changes that can happen during the day, and they are going right along with the need to be bundled up in the morning but no need for hats and mittens in the afternoons! Thanks for the flexibility!

In class today we introduced the children to our Flat Pandas. These Flat Pandas, along with a binder and letter, will be going home with two different students on Wednesday each week until everyone has had a turn to have their own adventure. We ask that you take pictures or have the children draw pictures of their adventures together, write a little something telling us about the fun they had, then bring it back to school with your child the following Monday. These pandas just want to spend time with you and your family. There is no need to plan anything special for them. Getting to know your child better is special enough. Also, this is NOT A REQUIREMENT. If you don't want to write anything, take pictures, or draw about your time together that's perfectly fine. No pressure.

This Tuesday was our last time with Ms. Heather from Drama Kids. The children got to play some new drama games, along with revisiting some old favorites. Our next Enrichment piece will start next Tuesday with Karate with Sensei Michael. Clothes that the children can move around in comfortably are important. Please no dresses, unless they are wearing pants underneath for the next 6 Tuesdays.

Today we had a visit from Mrs. G, who read Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson. She also taught us a song that goes along with the book, and that I suspect we're going to sing again!

Our book for the class this week was The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Peter goes exploring in the snow, makes tracks with his feet, builds a snowman, and more fun things! We learned about what happens to the snowball he makes when he brings it inside, and I've told the children we can do some experimenting of our own if we have enough snow to bring inside sometime.

What was NEW in Centers this week?

Art- We made our own Snowy Day scene by gluing Peter onto the paper and making snow with white paint and Q-tips.

Easel- We also colored our own Snowy Day scene with crayons. It's hard to make snow on white paper so the children used their imaginations and we had some colorful scenes.

Math- Water beads (Orbeez)- On Tuesday we put dry water beads into 4 clear containers, added different amounts of water to them, and let the children use magnifying glasses to watch what happened to them and the differences between the containers. Wednesday they got to play with them using the magnifying glasses and measuring cups.

Discovery- The children used tweezer tongs to sort colored balls into tubes, using sorting, pattern and fine motor skills all at once!

We hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week and weekend! As always, if you have any questions or concerns please don't be afraid to reach out.

Warmly,

Ashlee Taylor, Christina Renoni, and Erica Derbyshire