Dear Bears Families,
Spring has sprung in the Bears Room, and the teachers and children are so enjoying this curriculum focus. They have read poems about spring and taken walks to look for signs of spring: observing green shoots and purple, white, and yellow flowers, hearing birds singing, and feeling the warm sun. They recently made green goop in honor of spring and then sang “And the Green Grass Grows All Around” as well. Some spring books read by the Bears include: “Bright Yellow Flower” by Judith Hoffman Corwin, about how a daffodil grows and receives food and water (followed by a walk to observe daffodils); “Cloudette” by Tom Lichtenfeld, about a small cloud that wants to do big things in the world (like some Bears we know!); and “The Curious Garden” by Peter Brown, about a little boy who discovers a patch of beleaguered plants and through careful tending, transforms the patch and beyond into a garden. This last book was followed by the question “What kind of garden would you grow in the spring?” – please see the children’s responses on the wall in the circle area.
Some other spring activities have included making bird-watching binoculars out of toilet paper rolls, colored tape, staples, and yarn (stay tuned for a bird-watching expedition); reading “Rain – Where Do You Come From?” by Francesca Brazzini, followed by making rainy-day pictures with construction paper, semi-circles, and crayons AND learning a fun rainy-day song (sung to the tune of “Deck the Halls”); making spring trees on construction paper with black paint, crumpled tissue paper, and glue (see the display on the wall in the circle area); and discussing “How Do You Know It’s Spring?” with responses including “I start feeling the breeze of spring,” “When the flowers bloom,” “The animals came out again,” and “My hand felt warm this morning so I took my mittens off.” And another fun activity, non-spring related, was making “splat paintings” by placing a white piece of paper inside a plastic rectangular basket, stretching rubber bands around the basket, painting the rubber bands different colors, then plucking the rubber bands so they would make “splats” of paint on the white paper, resulting in very cool designs. Please look for these splat paintings in the hallway wall – to be displayed very soon.
IMPORTANT: please refrain from using glass containers for your child’s lunch foods. A glass lunch container accidentally fell and broke recently; and though no one was hurt, the incident did put our children at risk. Please use metal or plastic containers instead – we can always heat up food on paper plates if necessary. Thank you for your cooperation.
Cheers,
Martha