Brrr! This snowy, freezing weather outside has coincided perfectly with our study of Antarctica. In the past 2 weeks, the children have learned an amazing amount about penguins, specifically the Emperor and Adelie penguins, 2 of the 7 types that live in Antarctica (there are 17 types of penguins worldwide). On Thursday, in what has become an annual visit, photographer Sally Eagle came to our class to share her slides of Antarctica. The class was enthralled for a full hour as Sally told us her stories about her month-long trip there. At the end of the presentation, we had a surprise in the form of a very furry visitor! Dressed just like Admiral Drake must have been when he made his famous trip to the South Pole, Dan Mead showed up in the warmest fur coat and hat and mukluks any of us had ever seen! For those of you unfamiliar with their names, Sally Eagle and Dan Mead are husband and wife, each award-winning photographers in their own right ( see for more information and many beautiful photos). It is truly a treat to have them visit our class.
Sally talking to the class. The children are building an Adelie penguin’s nest out of stones.
Sally Eagle and Dan Mead visit kindergarten
The class is presently making an amazing mural of Antarctica, incorporating all that they’ve learned about – the nesting habits of penguins, penguin predators, icebergs, and more.
A work in progress!
We’ve been reading many factual books about penguins, as well as many humorous ones – Helen Lester’s Tacky the Penguin series are so funny! Our current chapter book is Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater. The class is memorizing a wonderful poem entitled “Emperor Penguin” by Barry Louis Polisar, which articulately encapsulates the life of this Antarctic penguin.
In math, most students have now memorized their phone numbers. Please reinforce and practice this at home. Our new unit is learning to sort by one and by two attributes. We use large plastic circles to create Venn diagrams on the floor and have many different collections of materials to use. This is always a fun and challenging unit.
In the classroom, cray-pas have been the preferred art medium this week. The class made edible structures with mini-marshmallows. We also baked cookies for Open Table. The children have written factual papers on penguins, together created a class book on winter and they’ve begun to learn the correct formation of lowercase letters. A busy time!
Work doesn’t get any sweeter than this!
Andrea