We can't believe there is only one more week of school left. These kids have grown in so many ways and we could not be more proud of them. We are truly enjoying every minute of our time together. This was not only our last full week of school together but a few other "lasts" for the year which included our final religion class, chapel and gathering with our third grade buddies. We also had an ice cream social with all of the preschoolers for a fun end of the year celebration!
Enjoying our ice cream together...
Weekly highlights...
The classroom was filled with curiosity, wonder and inquiry as we enjoyed "putting on our thinking caps" and being scientists for our last full week together. We have gotten really good at being
curious investigators throughout our learning adventures this year.
Water exploration was a common theme among the room as we continued on with our sink and float investigating! We ended last week creating plans for tin foil boats after our initial observations of objects that sink and float. We started this week with the children creating their boats using only tinfoil. Their challenge was to build a boat that could support as many gems as possible before sinking. Busy children constructing...
Next, it was time to test them out! Prior to our testing, the children made predictions of how many gems they thought their boat could hold. Predictions consisted of 10 to 20 gems. In small groups, the children carefully counted and placed the gems in their boats to see how many it could hold. Testing out our boats...
The children had so much fun placing and counting the gems (great one-to-one correspondence practice) and eagerly watching until their boat was about to sink. We were surprised at how many gems some boats could hold! We had boats that could hold 97, 76 and 78 to name a few. Whether their boats could hold 3 gems or 97, the children were happy and excited to cheer on each other. They were also thrilled that every single boat could FLOAT! After testing all of the boats, we had a wonderful group discussion about what made some boats able to hold more gems. Observations consisted of the amount of tin foil used, the length, width, shape and more. The children were so enthralled in this activity that many of them wanted to make another boat because they knew what they would do differently in order to hold more gems. We think tinfoil boats or boat constructing out of other random materials, would be a fun summer challenge for the children! : )
On Monday, we also did an experiment with water beads. The children made predictions about what would happen when we left small round beads in water all day. Our job for Monday was to be observers of the water beads and that is just what we did! The children eagerly checked the water beads each hour and to their surprise, the water beads got bigger each time we checked them! The children made the observation that the water beads were absorbing the water. By the end of the day, they were about the size of marbles!
On Tuesday, they were eager to play with them. They used funnels, cups and even the marble run to play, investigate and discover. The water beads might be the overall favorite sensory material the children have explored with all year!
While we waited patiently to see what happened to the water beads, we used water color paints for creative expression...
We used water in another fun way this week. We used water and styrofoam pieces to build 3D structures. The children figured out that water could be used as the glue to stick the pieces together in order to build. Here are a few examples...
On Thursday morning, we had our final gathering with our third grade buddies. It was a real treat for the preschoolers to go play on the 2-3-4 playground with their buddy! We have had so much fun playing, learning and growing with our third grade friends this year. The third graders have been excellent mentors and friends to the preschoolers. The preschoolers worked hard to make their buddies cards that they gave to them for our final gathering.
We have been busy sharing in favorite memories from the year and last week we all illustrated a favorite one. This week, we had fun cutting out pictures from the year and making a photo collage of more favorite memories! The children have enjoyed asking each other for their "autographs" on their photo collages. They have had so much fun looking at the photos and sharing on conversation about our learning experiences and adventures this year.
We ended the week completing one last science experiment. This experiment had the children see, think and wonder while exploring with water colors, baking soda and a secret liquid (vinegar) in partner groups. First, the children watched what happened with the water colors and baking soda. They noticed right away that the water color absorbs into the powder, just like the water absorbed into the water beads! At this stage of the experiment, they also had fun mixing colors to create new ones. Lastly, they added vinegar with their droppers on to their water color creations and watched what happened. They were VERY excited to notice that the vinegar caused the colors to bubble and fiz! The bubbling and fizzing caused more color mixing and in the end, they had quite the art creation left in their containers. They wondered why the vinegar can make the colors and baking powder bubble and fiz? Again, they continue to engage in the process of asking more questions, which we love to see. Little scientists at work...
We hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
Monday, May 28th- Memorial Day- No School
Friday, June 1st- Lower School Closing and Reception 1:30 in the Chapel.
*This is a semi-dressy event celebrating the end of the school year. Students are dismissed after the program/reception. Doors to the Chapel will be locked until noon.
A website about summer reading ideas from Mrs. Jones:
Summer Reading
