The Arctic

We just finished a two-week unit on the arctic. We learned about polar bears, penguins, and all the other animals that live in the arctic. We learned a new vocabulary word every day: penguin, polar bear, arctic, blubber, camouflage, regurgitate..... and the kids made an arctic vocabulary book. I was so proud of their hard work. Here are some examples of their work:

The day we learned about blubber the kids put on a blubber glove (crisco) and dipped their hands in ice water, then took the glove off to compare how well it really works to keep the animals warm. We had lots of talks about how carefully God thought about little details like blubber, or the barb on the end of a penguin's tongue that helps him hook a fish he catches, or the coloring of the animals to help camouflage and protect them (a penguin is colored like a whale to scare off potential predators, and many of the arctic animals are white to blend in with the snow). We talked about if God thought this much about the animals, how much more he thought about and loves us. 

We learned some interesting facts about penguins and how they protect and feed their babies. One day we played a game where the mommy and daddy had to trade off the egg. It couldn't drop because it would be on the frozen ice and the baby might die. 

And another relay game to get them active on one of these super cold days we couldn't take them outside. They had to waddle like a penguin and race back to their team to deliver the egg. 

Our Bible story this week was Daniel and the Lion's Den and our verse was "Do all things without complaining or disputing." You can remind them of that one at home, I'm sure!!  

The kids always love art!

And we continue to work on learning our number and letter of the week. 

One day we read The Snowy Day by Keats, and the kids drew a picture of Jack in his snowsuit, and a picture of what they look like when they play outside in the cold. 

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Of course, when you are five-years-old, play is still very important. So that is always a part of our day, as well...

We are starting to really work with the kids to be independent in these last few months of school. We have started encouraging them to open all their own containers and juice boxes at lunch. Every day after lunch when they take their lunch boxes to the hall, they have to pack up their own papers and work from the day to be ready for dismissal. We are trying really hard to make them listen the first time at directions so they will be ready for when the teacher has 20+ students instead of 9 or 10! Even though it is often easier to do it for them, we encourage you to do this more and more at home, too, to start transitioning them for what will be expected of them next year!