On Monday, February 6th our school will have been in session for 100 days! This date presents us with the chance to review the marvelous decimal amount with various activities. Children are invited to create and wear a shirt featuring 100 pictures or objects, bring in 5 non-perishable food items for the food bank, and share 100 coins. The money counted and collected from the coins will be part of our classroom donation to the "Save The Rain" foundation, (www.savetherain.org).
In the past week the children have enjoyed reviewing temperature, weather, and the polar regions while slowly transitioning our continent focus to Africa. We also read "The Great Race" and re-created the legend of the Chinese Zodiac with props in order to better understand the animals associated with the Chinese New Year. In the book, "Lion Dance" the children heard the story of how Ernie Wan and his family celebrate the new year in Chinatown, NY. The children asked many questions about the red envelopes and the people with Buddha masks. To learn more about the Chinese New Year, I highly recommend visiting the Chinese New Year Festival on February 19th - http://asiatrend.org/event/chinese-new-year-festival-miami/
In our introduction to Africa, we began identifying flags from various nations, and looking at it's geographical location on our planet. We look forward to learning more about this continent, it's great diversity of life, and the people in our country of African ancestry. Please share with us any pictures, music, food, stories, or other cultural items that you may have at home. At the end of the month we will have our annual luncheon to sample traditional African-American dishes.
Most of our friends were absent on Thursday's 'Take Your Child To Work Day', but our low attendance gave us the chance to work with our favorite works and introduce sewing. Now that much of our cotton has been cleaned, children are able to use it in stuffing small pillows.
Have a restful weekend,
Ms. Joanna Boone