Bears

 We learned all about bears and other animals that hibernate. Did you know ladybugs hibernate? We read this book that lists many animals that hibernate and the kids loved it.

One of the funniest parts of teaching the tech generation is that they aren't intimidated by using technology and they already know the term "google it." So all week they would be thinking out loud or talking to each other and they would come to me and ask, "Do (fill in a random animal here) hibernate?" and if I said I wasn't sure they would bring me an ipad and just say, "Let's google it." Ha! We did find out that most animals that hibernate burrow into the ground or find a cave or burrow. So we added non fiction books about hibernating and built caves in blocks. 

 For math we couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some delicious graphing with gummy bears. We counted how many of each color we had and then colored our graphs accordingly.

We also read this favorite and made our own Corduroys to retell the story with.

 We also made bears in a cave which I didn't get a picture of but I got a picture of this cutie pie working on cutting out and coloring her bear!

We also planned a honey hunt for our little bears. I can't take it, they are so adorable. Here they are with their honey pots. 

 

Ms. Angela hid the honey (honeycomb cereal in snack bags) outside for them to hunt. Then off they went! 

 

 Here's what they found!

 

For our journals this week we had a poem about hibernation and the peas glued down a bear and made him a cave. I love that they're still wearing their bear ears!

My favorite part of the week I missed because I was out of town, but Angela took lots of pictures for me! One of my favorite books ever is The Teddy Bears Picnic. I read it to the peas before I left and we loved looking at every page!

After reading the story we invited the peas to bring their bears to school, put the book out and added a picnic set. It was a big hit.

 

 

 

 

 That wraps up bears week. See you next week!

{Silly Soup Stories}

Towards the end of January we had a theme called "Silly Soup Stories." There are SO many soup books. There are even pins on Pinterest full of soup stories. We dove right into the silliness and had a great time doing it! We started by reading some soup books. These were our favorites!

Then we set up our home center with materials to cook with. We had big pots, ladles and plenty of fake veggies for our little chefs!

 

 

At one of our independent centers we had our group morning message which asked what they thought would go into "yuck soup." They cut out pictures and glued them into the pot on our morning message.

 

One of the biggest hits of the week was our alphabet soup sensory bin. We added letters to the water tubs with pitchers, bowls, spoons and tweezers. They LOVED this center! 

We are moving forward with teaching letter identification and sounds so Ms. Angela did this literacy listening center with small groups.

   Next we learned about pop art and saw a few of Andy Warhol's masterpieces. Here is a kids page and here is the Warhol museum page. Since we were doing everything about soup, we made some Warhol inspired Cambell's soup cans!

 These turned out SO good! Especially for little hands, this was a lot of coloring. But of course, being a sneaky teacher, that was the plan! Fine motor work and muscle building while having fun!

We made a display of them in our classroom. Come on by to check it out!

Next we discussed a lot of soups and our favorites and the class voted on making Chicken Noodle Soup. Ms. Angela led the cooking activity by having the peas help her follow a recipe!

 The best part was when Ms. Angela made us all homemade grilled cheese sandwiches to go with our soup! Our lunch was delish.

The next day, one of our sweet moms made our runner up soup of choice, Taco Soup for the peas to enjoy. It was a hit!

 

 During our group time we read this story: 

 and then worked together to list the wolf's character traits before he met the chicken face to face and after. He was a changed wolf.

Another story we couldn't pass up during soup week was this favorite:

 After reading the story we each made our own stone soup. This was a fantastic activity because the peas drew their own veggies and then cut them out.

 Here's a coup of adorable peas and their soup pots.

After reading the story we graphed if they would eat stone soup. As you can see, they didn't get past the "stone" part. :)

We also used a stone soup poem for our journals for the week. They illustrated the poem.

 

Well, our whole week was soup-er! See what I did there? ;) Hope you all have a soup-er week, too!



Q and U: Together at Last

Yesterday was our annual Q and U wedding. Every year Q and U re-tie the knot to help us remember that Q very rarely appears without U at her side. We randomly drew for roles and sent home the invitations! Here are a few pictures of the wedding party:

 The Bride and Groom:

Ringerbearer:

and Flower Girl:

All the guests were dressed to the nines and excited for the festivities. Ms. Molly and Ms. Natalie set up the front area for our ceremony!

 

 

 

 

 When the letters made their way up the isle, we were ready.

 Our officiator asked the letters if they work together to make words from now on. They agreed! Then we thought of some words that Q and U were both in. Quilt! Quarter! Queso!

Afterwards, we had cake and juice. (The Hawaiian theme was the only available sheet cake, so we got it! Ha!) One of our sweet moms added the words to our gorgeous Hawaiian cake. ;)

 One of our peas brought this wedding gift. Cuteness overload.

 The gift was a question mark. I can't take it. So cute.

 Another friend brought a quiz for the happy couple.

 Very appropriate gift! So smart.

 The bride and groom cut the cake...and Ms. Natalie and Ms. Molly helped serve the guests!

 It was so yummy. 

Then the dancing started!

Here's some of our adorable guests enjoying the party.

We even had a photo booth! Ms. Natalie cut out all the pieces for us, thanks Natalie! Some of the pics are in the Q & U Wedding Facebook album, but we left the booth up for more pictures post wedding. 

 Here's some of our photo booth pictures!

Well, that's it for Q and U. I'm so glad they could be together again. I hope the wedding will help our sweet peas will remember how much Q & U like each other and we all had a great time.