cREEPY cARROTS Design Challenge

Author Peter Brown will be visiting our school in May! We read one of his newer books, Creepy Carrots, which was awarded a Caldecott Award for best pictures. The story centers around a rabbit who is terrified of the carrots he has been eating. He thinks they are creeping around trying to scare him so he builds a fence to lock them up. Well...this is exactly what the carrots wanted so he wouldn't be able to eat them anymore. Our design challenge was to design a way to keep the carrots safe without using a fence. We had several check points and brainstorms throughout the process. The first checkpoint was to determine the meaning of the word fence! Many were trying to build fences out of metal or rope instead of the wood fence in the book. Once we looked up the meaning of the word fence they realized they had to start back at square one! They were stumped for a few minutes but they quickly regained composure and their brains went to work. Don't you wish all adults could think outside of the box without the fear of taking risks or assuming it could never happen?!!! Monday they will write about their designs, so be watching for this to come home!

Researching aquatic life

 

 Did you know that the parrotfish can drop one TON of sand a year back into the ocean? Did you know the barracuda is nicknamed the "tiger of the sea"? How about this...the coelacanth fish was around before the dinosaurs!

 I did not know any of these interesting facts until your children told me. They researched long and hard to become experts at their fish of choice. They used books, laptops, and previous knowledge to gain information about aquatic life.
Ask them what they learned!!!!

Winter Party

We had a ROCKIN' winter party thanks to all the volunteers and Shanele mason!!! Toilet paper snowmen, snowmen snacks, decorating snowmen top hats, etc.

Check out the pictures.

Making Animal Food

The week before break we had another adventure with Miss Sandy (Mrs. Willmore)!! Earlier in the year the children had decided they wanted to make animal food so we could observe the animals that came to eat. Well Miss Sandy has a plan for everything! She showed up with bags and bags of ingredients to make some animal food! The kids got their hands messy in LARD, bird seed, cranberries, raisins, corn meal, sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, and more. Each child made their own ball of animal food. We shoved a string through the middle so the children can hang them on a tree in their own yards. We had to put them in the freezer so the ingredients would stick. Watch for these to come home tomorrow ion a zip lock baggie:). Encourage your child to observe how long the food lasts. One night? A week? See if there is any evidence left behind to help us figure out which animals ate the food. Of course Mrs. Willmore had a very informative lesson for the children about what to look for (small pecks taken out of the food or big chunks, why lard is important for the animals, etc.). Ask your child what they learned!

Lucy's Tradition

Lucy and her family bake cookies every Christmas. They brought in cookies, sprinkles, and a bag of piped icing for every child to decorate their own gingerbread man!!!!

Kiera's Tradition

 

Kiera and her parents brought in one of their favorite Christmas books, Silent Night. They also had a bucket full of goodies for the class!!

Kaitlyn's Tradition

Kaitlyn and her mom shared their Hanukkah traditions. They shared menorahs with the class and taught us to play dreidel!