February Learning

What a crazy month! A lot of snowy weather, missing school, valentines, parent teacher conferences, field trips...the list goes on and on! For such a short period of time we managed to get a lot done. Take a look at all we participated in:

We read about Presidents and were introduced to the idea of voting when you are 18 and older to choose who will lead the country. We came up with this list of things the president does: The president helps protect the country, keeps it safe, cares for the environment, catches bad guys, helps other countries, and chooses what is right. To coincide with this unit we talked about money and looked specifically at the $1 and $5 bills. Our centers included painting a cherry tree (like the Washington legend), pretending to be president in the drama center, and playing Hi Ho Cherry Oh. We also worked on counting to 100, writing sight words, and matching upper and lowercase letters.

Our next two weeks focused on Valentine's Day and reviewing the skills we learned to this point. We made books focusing on following directions and correctly coloring and assembling a book of hearts. Making a graph of candy hearts was another highlight that emphasized pre-math and counting skills and helped us visually identify which color had the most. Thinking of love and valentines also allowed us to try and define love, and to share ways to love people. One way we shared our love was our Valentine party. Thanks for all the treats and special cards the kids got to share to show their love and friendship with one another!

We ended the month with our dentist unit and had a lot of fun with our centers on this one. In art we first used a toothbrush to color a tooth, then attempted to paint with dental floss. Our drama station creatively identified hands as teeth, shaving cream as plaque, and yarn as floss and two friends were able to clean the "teeth" of the third. A game "Down the Hatch" put foods and products good for teeth and bodies into a shoebox mouth and kept unhealthy foods away. We were also able to clean a plaster "tooth," brushing really well (this was a favorite amongst the class). Our trip to Dr. Tindall's office was very informative, and yielded some great gifts. We were thankful for those, and for the information he provided that helped us be a little less intimidated by dentists. Make sure you keep brushing even now that our unit's done, so your teeth can be healthy, just like the rest of you!