(FYI – As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, there will be no school tomorrow (Tuesday, January 27) due to the blizzard. We follow the public school weather closings, so please stay tuned to those announcements.)
Dear Rainbow Families,
The month of January has been an exciting one in the Rainbow Room, especially with the focus on winter. The Rainbows have read a number of winter books including “The Snow Day” by Komako Sakai, a lovely book about a quiet snow day from school (how prescient!); “Dear Rebecca, Winter is Here” by the naturalist Jean Craighead George (pictures by Loretta Krupinski), a book that provides an introduction to why the seasons occur and the natural changes that come to pass; “Is That You, Winter?” by Stephen Gammell, a whimsical story (with wonderfully original illustrations) about winter’s arrival; and “Snow” by Uri Shulevitz, an enchanting story about a child’s faith that snow will arrive, and the joy that ensues. The Rainbows have had several follow-up discussions about winter, including responses to the questions “How do we know it’s winter?” and “What do you like to do on a cold winter day?” Many responses included playing in the snow, throwing snowballs, making snow people and snow angels, sledding and skiing, and drinking hot chocolate. The children also painted (at the easel) pictures of themselves on a snowy day, and they drew snowy-day pictures using markers and a concoction of glue and shaving cream. Please be sure to check out those pictures on the closet doors, along with the children’s written descriptions of their activities.
And did you get a chance to enjoy the Rainbows’ “Make A Snowman Day”? The Rainbow Room was covered in shredded white paper a.k.a. snow, which the Rainbows used to make (and throw) “snowballs” as well as to lie down in to make “snow angels.” They also spent several days working on a class snow person. They crumpled sheets of newspaper into balls, and then placed all the balls onto 3 big pieces of paper that the teachers wrapped and taped up. The Rainbows then took turns painting the 3 big balls white and after they had dried, stacked them to make their snow person. The Rainbows then brainstormed how to decorate their person, deciding – and then executing – painting a long piece of paper for a scarf, cutting out construction paper for eyes (along with pompoms), rolling orange construction paper to make a carrot nose, drawing a mouth, gluing on buttons for clothes, using evergreen branches for eyebrows, and cutting a hat out of construction paper. They really thought long and hard about how to make their creation – and cooperated together in putting it altogether.
Words of the Week
winter – invierno
snow – nieve
cold – frio
frozen – congelado
Making soup is another wonderful wintertime activity, and the Rainbows are eagerly anticipating making a soup together. They read the book “Group Soup” by Tova Ackerman, and they have shared with their teachers the ingredients they would like to contribute to the soup. Due to tomorrow’s snow day, the Rainbows have postponed this soup-making till Friday. Please be sure to check which ingredient your child has chosen to bring in – the list is by the Rainbow door, near the calendar – and bring yours in by Friday. Thank you!
And finally, please be sure to check out all the Rainbow activities around shapes. Not only have the Rainbows read “Triangle, Square, Circle” by William Wegman and “Shapes, Shapes, Shapes” by Tana Hoban, they have played games where they made pictures out of shapes then had their friends describe them, using such words as “smaller,” “bigger,” and “middle,” along with the names of shapes and numbers. They also went on a wonderful scavenger hunt to find triangle shapes with some great discoveries – please check out their findings on the back wall, along with their triangle drawings.
Enjoy tomorrow’s snow day!
Martha