From Soggy To Sunsational!

It was a soggy day outside but the Bright-Eyed Bears made it SUNsational inside!

Wednesday at the beach may have been washed-out but next Tuesday will be totally terrific!

Hello! The whole class is teeming with excitement over this week's trip to Spa Beach!  Wednesday morning the children will load the bus and head to the beach.  Here is what they need for this trip: *Come to school dressed in a swim suit, cover up, and water shoes or shoes that can get wet.  (Bring a uniform to change into, underpants, socks, and shoes in a waterproof bag such as a plastic grocery bag)  We will help the children change and put their wet things into their bag once we return to school. *Bring a towel, extra sunscreen (preferably 1 coat already applied), hat and/or sunglasses, and a SACK LUNCH. We will picnic on the beach! :) Parents, we would really love you to join us!  If you plan to follow the bus from school or meet us at Spa Beach we will plan to arrive around 8:30-8:45.  Thank you!  If you are able to join us, please feel free to bring sand toys, bubbles, and beach chairs or blankets.  However, please do not bring rafts or noodles, boogie boards  or other floating toys.  When the children are in the water we will encourage them to be spying for sea creatures. :)  Don't forget to bring yourself a lunch.  We will have a wonderful picnic on the beach.  If you would like to take your child home straight from the beach please be sure to sign them out with me or Mrs. Cummings before doing so, but feel welcome to do so. If you have any questions about our trip feel free to contact me at school or via email.  Mrs. Gootson can answers questions you may have as well.

Last Week....Under The Sea

Last week the Bright-Eyed Bears dove under the sea to learn about plankton, sea urchins and sea stars.

They were fascinated to watch plankton organisms moving under the microscopes in class after they were collected in the water from our very own Tampa bay.  These tiny living organisms live their whole life floating with the current of the water.  They provide food for life in the sea.

The children could really "dive" into the ocean with dramatic play in the new  Shorecrest Submarine that  is  "submerged" in the Exploratorium right now!

The children also learned about Echinoderms last week.  These are spiny-skinned creatures of the sea that have 5 or more "arms" coming out of the center of their bodies that each have their own set of organs.  They have no eyes, heart, or brains.  We concentrated on sea urchins and sea stars, aka starfish.  Starfish are not fish at all, as the children learned.  Fish have backbones, gills, scales, etc.  Sea stars do not.  Sea stars, much to the delight of the children, pull their stomachs outside of their bodies to eat prey.  Their stomach surrounds the food and takes it in.  There's no mouth or teeth.  The children thought all of the facts were interesting, but that little tidbit was the coolest! :) As a fun little enrichment to our learning the children watched a quick video on youtube to see how sea stars and sea urchins live in the ocean, then traced, cut-out and glued oatmeal onto their own sea star on tagboard to decorate our classroom.  At another center the children observed formerly living sea urchins that were provided to us by Lisa Peck of our UD Science and Oceanography department.  The children were so excited to wear their rubber gloves and handle these creatures for closeup observation.  They even drew pictures in their Science Journals to record their newly learned information.  We can hardly wait for our trip this Wednesday to Spa Beach, where we will hopefully find many more interesting specimens of the sea.  We will set up a touch tank on the beach and hope for the best!  Please plan on joining us.  It's going to be a wonderful day!

Three tasks to follow: trace, cut, glue wash & oatmeal

For Spa Beach on Wednesday:
**Make sure to send a disposable lunch with your child as well as the other items listed on the letter that came home last week, especially sunscreen. Thanks! :)

I hope all of you mommies had a wonderful Mother's day!  The children worked hard on the pencil/pen holders that you were given on Sunday (or maybe a day or two before, as the children were very eager).  Dads, they are for you too!  Each child spent time and concentration printing the words they wanted to say in their cards.  It was an ongoing process last week. I hope you enjoyed the product! :)

EXCITING MAY HAPPENINGS

More upcoming events:

May 8th @ 9am-kindergarten orientation-parents only

May 10th @ 8:30-1st grade show rehearsal
THE LAST DAY TO RETURN LIBRARY BOOKS IS MAY 10TH. ALL BOOKS ARE DUE BACK SO MRS. SMAY CAN DO HER END OF THE Y EAR INVENTORY.

May 11th- Spirit Day

May 16th- Spa Beach

May 18th- Splash Day during PE-Please refer to notice you received last week about how to dress your child.

May 25th-End of the Year Party

May 28th-Memorial Day-school is closed

May 30th-Last day of school-noon dismissal (EC-6th grade)

If for some reason your child will not be back after Memorial Day, please let me know ahead of time. We have lots of special things to send home that week and I wouldn't want your child to miss out.

Have a great beginning to the week!

Wonderful Woodworking!!!

What a wonderful time we've had woodworking this week!!! (Wow! Try saying that five times fast! LOL)

The children started by sanding the wood to make it safe for handling, then moved on to sorting the wood.  Once sorted, the wood was easier to investigate.  We had all sorts of shapes and sizes.  The children practiced arranging the wood in different ways on a base.  They counted five larger pieces, arranged them and rearranged them, swapped out a few here and there, then arranged again.  Once each child had what they felt to be the perfect sculpture, the gluing began.  The children used wood glue to piece the wood together.  We have such creative and thoughtful artists in our classroom!  When the sculptures were dry after sitting in the morning sun, the children embellished them with smaller, colorful pieces of wood in many shapes.  The last step was to paint the sculptures!  The children used bright and beautiful colors to add the finishing touches to their amazing works of art.  I can't wait for you to see them. On Monday each child will draw a picture of their sculpture for their journal, and they will have the opportunity to stand up and talk about and share their beautiful wood project in front of one of the other JK classes.
Have a great weekend!

A Busy Bear Week!

Every week seems to be a very busy "bear" week!  The Bright-Eyed Bears are busily wrapping up this school year.  They have learned so much and they love to share their knowledge.  As our Insect unit came to a close this week with fun activities across the curriculum, the children spent a lot of time outside observing, collecting data, and drawing and labeling their observations in their science journals.  We took our snack one day to the faculty garden outside the theater where we observed busy bees buzzing around some of the sweet nectar flowers.  It was a wonderful experience to watch our friends the bees working so hard to take care of our planet, especially since we celebrated Earth Day this week.  The children enjoyed a waste-less lunch on Tuesday and even went around campus collecting garbage to be put in it's proper place.  Thanks to our wonderful Maintenance Department there wasn't much trash to be found, but the children looked very hard.  They also made a wonderful chart of ideas on how to keep our planet safe and clean.  Here are some of their ideas: pick up garbage, make things from garbage, take care of animals when they are hurt and don't feed them people food, plant trees because they let us breathe, make a garden, be respectful. I think they've got something there! :)  

We took a little mini field trip to our favorite on-campus spot...the pond.  The water was so clear in the pond that we could plainly see the many large and small fish that live there.  Tadpoles, turtles, gallinules, egrets, ducks and more greeted us happily on our trek.  Some of the children chose to record data in pictures using their science journals, others just explored, asked questions and inquired about the answers.  We played another sink and float game using rocks, leaves, sticks, feathers and more.  The children made predictions about what they thought would happen when they threw their object into the water and why.  It was a beautiful day outside, so we took advantage of the weather and stayed out most of the morning before heading back for a visit to the library and visual arts class.  First we had to run the track though, since it's on our way back to the ECC.  :)

We embarked upon a woodworking adventure last week as well. The children began sanding and sorting blocks of wood in all different colors and sizes.  This week, we will use the wood to create individual sculptures.  There is a wonderful process to follow, but the product is really special!  Just wait and see.  For now, enjoy the pictures from last week's fun! :)

Practicing simple addition, ladybug style!

We love waste-less lunches!!!

Beautiful bees buzzing around collecting pollen and nectar.

We are always interested in what our eagle friends are doing.

 There is always much to see at the pond!  The children and teachers alike love to visit this special place on campus.

See, I told you that stick would float!  Let's try a clamshell.

Look at that BIG fish!!!

Lots of little fish too!

Have a great week!

Highlights from Celebrate The Arts.....and a reminder or two. :)

What a treat it is to Celebrate The Arts!!!  The Alpha and JK classes were both adorable and hilarious in their part of the show Friday.  If you were unable to be there, here is a little taste......

We were lucky enough to have a visit from Cheryl Lee herself, from Cheryl Lee Dance Studios.  She and a few of her dance students came to teach the children about different types of dance, show them the different types of dance shoes, then share some dance moves to the tune of "The Teddybear Picnic".  The children were fast learners and really seemed to enjoy learning and dancing together.

The children had a happy, silly time singing and dancing with Coach D of the middle division who visited us with original songs and familiar favorites as well to sing and play on his trusty guitar.  

Have a great LONG weekend!  We'll look forward to seeing the kids again on Tuesday.

This week we'll have some fun with woodworking!

Don't forget that Tuesday is a "waste-less lunch day" in honor of Earth Day.  Please look to the flyer that came home for ideas.