What Do Animals Do in Winter?

Today we started the day with some fund finger exercise.  We had Wiki Sticks in the Touch and Feel pool.  The kids wound them in balls, made chains, and attempted to copy some animal designs.  Then....we had to untangle them all before we put them away.  They are so sticky, so it's really hard work, but with some persistence and a little encouragement....we got it done!

Morning circle is all about learning letters AND our birthdays!  Everyone has mastered the days of the week and the months of the year.....we even all know the correct way to say the date in a complete sentence ("Today is Wednesday, January 16th, 2013).  You would be so surprised how hard they work and how much progress they have all made.  We can sit at morning circle for about 25 minutes now!!

The playground was extra wet today.  We'll call it a "heavy mist"!  The kids LOVED being out there....but they weren't so fond of the wet clothes and socks when we came in.  It took a little extra time changing everyones clothes and taking shoes off to dry out.....but.....we got that done too!

Today's story was Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson.  We always talk about the title of the book, the author, and the illustrator.....and the kids are really starting to use and understand that vocabulary.  This book is about a bear who is asleep in his cave.  Other forest animals come in to get out of the snow and start to plan a party.  They are having a great time until something makes the bear sneeze and.....he wakes up.  The animals think he will be mad, but he is actually sad that he missed the party.  The animals come up with a solution that makes everyone happy.....and tired.....except bear!



Our literacy lesson today was about hibernation, migration, and adaptation (which we called change)!  The kids all learned a cute poem to help them remember what those words mean and we talked about what kinds of animals do which things during winter.  The poem is:

Hibernate, Hibernate
Sleep off all the food you ate.

Migrate, Migrate
Go off to a warmer place.

Change, Change
Look a different way!

We sorted animals into each category and talked about why animals would need to do those things.  The kids are really learning to use their critical thinking skills.  They make good guesses and use other facts that they have learned to participate in the lesson. 

During art we made polar bears out of Styrofoam cups.  The kids were using their bears to talk to each other.....some of them were even talking about hibernating together!  It was really cute!

We ended the day with some music and dancing!.  I heard the weatherman mention the S-word this morning.....so we did the snow dance.....just in case!!