...as is evidenced by these photos taken on a beautiful day when I HAD to take these kiddos out for an extra recess!
We wrapped up our studies of Light, Rainbows, and Ireland (along with all the leprechaun fun!). Unfortunately I did not get photos of all the leprechaun traps prior to sending them home. Your children thoroughly enjoyed the magic of trying to catch a leprechaun as well as the great debate as to whether or not leprechauns are real. We also completed our Author March Madness. It was so fantastic to read so many books and to see the kids get so excited about their favorite authors advancing on to the next round, with our final champion being author Aaron Reynolds! I'm sure some of you may have heard a funny story from your child about this author and how I knew him in high school, so it was super fun to see him as the final champion. Our first graders did a beautiful job hosting the all-school St. Joseph/St. Patrick Mass. We are proud of their hard work singing, lectoring, and cantoring! Here are some photos highlighting March; keep reading for April happenings...
Study of Light: Transparent, Translucent, and Opaque
Our SURPRISE Guest Reader: Ms. Passi!
Practicing with Mrs. Blomeke for our St. Joseph/St. Patrick Mass
Author March Madness!
Our Hard Work on Display in the Hallway
Mrs. P's Favorite Artistic Rendering of St. Joseph and Jesus
Using our "Tools" to be like St. Joseph
This past week we wrapped up our study of sound by adding pages to our science notebooks on vibration and pitch with a focus on music and instruments. We read Meet the Orchestra and Zin Zin a Violin. We listened to orchestral pieces and discussed how the music made us feel. I had the kids listen to one of my favorite pieces featuring the violin (played by Itzhak Perlman). Some of them got very emotional, and it was beautiful to see them respond deeply to the language of music that our ears perceive as vibration, but our hearts perceive at a much deeper level.
We also learned about Oviparous Animals and read Chickens Aren't the Only Ones! We sorted oviporous animals from mammals and studied the life cycle of chickens, and let me tell you...they had some interesting questions about how those eggs are fertilized! Suffice it to say, I answered persistent questions with: "That is a GREAT question for you to ask your mom and dad." :) They thoroughly enjoyed the silly book Chicken Butt, and I told them all the story of how my own dad used to use this joke on my siblings and me. We read Eggbert the Slightly Cracked Egg and how none of us are perfect; only God is perfect. But we can celebrate that our imperfections are what make each of us unique, and in humility, we can accept our imperfections. The students then used inspiration from the story to create their own uniquely decorated eggs (these are hanging in the hallway). They really did an awesome job on these!
To wrap our study of oviporous animals, the students completed a science experiment using a raw and a hard-boiled egg. First we broke each one open to see how they're different inside. It was fun to see the raw egg and discuss how a baby chick would use it as food as it grows inside. We practiced spinning both the raw and the cooked egg and observed that a hard-boiled egg will spin far better than a raw egg because the yolk and egg white have about the same consistency. In a raw egg, the yolk will spin at a different rate than the rest of the egg, causing it to be off-balance and spin irregularly. We recorded our observations and took these sheets home to discuss with our families.
Today we wrapped up the early childhood community's Week of the Young Child with our Family Mass. It was great seeing so many of you, and the kids enjoyed sharing their photos of their families, too. Here are some highlights from our week:
Tasty Tuesday
Work Together Wednesday
Artsy Thursday
