Our PreSchool Blog

 We learned all about the arctic habitat last month!  Some animals we focused on were the polar bear, the walrus, the arctic fox, and the narwhal!  Did you know that there are NO penguins in the arctic habitat!! They only live in the Antarctic!  Animals that live in the harsh cold weather in the arctic, have to have special adaptations that keep them warm such as thick, heavy fur coats, hibernation, or lots of fat or blubber.

To learn what it would be like to have lots of blubber while swimming in the arctic water, we did an experiment.  Students put their hand in ice water for a couple of seconds! It was soooooo cold!

Then we put our hand inside a bag of shortening and put it back in the water but this time it was warm.  We couldn’t even feel the cold water! 

We also learned about hibernation and where animals hibernate in the winter.

The K Prep Class celebrated the 100th Day of School on Tuesday.  We built a tower out of 100 cups, mixed a snack of 100 tasty treats and searched for the number 100.  We had so much fun!  Congratulations K Prep class for being 100 days smarter!

100th Day Teamwork: We built a tower with 100 cups!

The K-Prep class has been learning to measure in all different ways! We have been measuring length, height and distance using nonstandard units of measurement. We have also been measuring and comparing weight using a balance.  Lastly, we have been measuring the capacity of different containers.  We have been working hard and learning so much!

We measured our height with strands of yarn!

We measured arctic animals with unifix cubes (a nonstandard unit of measurement).

We measured the capacity of all different containers using beans!

We raced cars and measured the distance that each went…

We explored all kinds of nonstandard units of measurement!  We measured with straws, crayons, pencils and more.

How many straws is our window sill?

How many cubes is our twistable crayon?

How many straws is our academic center?

How many pencils is our class atlas?

How many crayons is our easel?

How many crayons is our manipulatives center?

How many straws is our word wall?

After we explored the classroom with our measurement tools, we made predictions as to how many cubes long new items in our classroom would be, then we tested our predictions to see how close we came.  We had a some GREAT predictions!

I was so proud of these K Prep students.  They completed their sight word study work neatly and independently…they are truly on their way to being independent Kindergarteners!  It takes strong fine motor muscles to be able to complete this activity so neatly, way to go!

Our writer’s workshops this month focuses on reading to learn using a variety of resources.  We read the book, Polar Bears, by Gail Gibbons as well as information we found on the Nat Geo Kids website about polar bears.  We learned that polar bears have black skin under their fur, they are very good swimmers, their favorite meal is ringed seal, their outer fur (guard hair) is clear and hollow and much more!  

The K-Prep class started a new art project this week.  We learned how to make swirls and used watercolors to create a background for our final piece!   Look for them to come home in the next week.

The KPrep Students were able to make their own creations and explore this peppermint scented, Christmas snow clay!