The week of 2/27

After a week of vacation, it was back to work, with plenty on the agenda. We continued our newest unit in writing workshop - how-to books. Children have been concentrating on writing detailed directions for how to do a range of tasks, from "How to Ride a Bike" to "How to Tame an Animal" (First, you catch the animal. Then, you take it to the circus and ask them to tame it...!) This unit has encouraged an emphasis on words over pictures, and has challenged children to use very specific, concrete language. They are also a lot of fun to read!

We also began our study of the story of Purim. The imagination station was transformed into a castle - children helped paint the walls with bright poster paints on Monday. We read several versions of the story of Esther, and children made their own noisemakers to drown out Haman's name. We enjoyed the Crazy Adar days, including crazy hair day and leap day, when we played leapfrog and measured how far each child could leap. Remember that Monday is Pajama (or backwards) day, Tuesday is silly sock and hat day, and Thursday is Purim, when children are welcome to wear costumes to school. (More info to follow.)

All of this would have been enough to keep us very busy, but we also wanted to honor Dr. Seuss, whose birthday fell at the end of the week. We enjoyed reading many of his wonderful books, and it was great fun to welcome Aliya's mom and Sylvan's mom Elaan to read aloud to the class.

Lastly, we tapped the sugar maple in the parking lot and began collecting (and tasting) the maple sap. Next week we look forward to a pancake breakfast with real maple syrup.

Have a great weekend!