Mrs. Katz and Tush

Last Thursday, we read a very sweet story about friendship.
Mrs. Katz is an older Jewish lady that lives in the same apartment building as the young boy, Larnel.
Larnel befriends Mrs. Katz after giving her the runt of a cat litter.
He begins to love visiting her and they create a long lasting bond. She teaches him about Jewish traditions and invites him to share Passover dinner with him.
The book ends with Larnel, as a grown man, visiting Mrs. Katz's grave.
Very sweet!!!
In class, we discussed the characters, themes, problems and solutions, and the setting.
We then talked about the history of the Jewish Passover. We discussed the 10 plagues of Egypt and Moses' great escape with the Israelites.
Next class time we will talk about Hannukah!

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Tally marks, compound words and ships

  On Thursday, we took our last look at The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.  We worked on our math skills and learned to make tally marks.  We made a tally mark for every boat we saw in the story.  We came up with about 23 boats total. Great tally marking everyone!  Hopefully, you challenge your kiddos to go home and count with tally marks, or it would be even better if they did it on their own.

    Next, we moved on to compound words.  This was SO MUCH FUN!  We put a lot of words together to make new words.  The best part was their excitement when they thought of a compound word to share with the group!  Their words were very impressive. 

    And finally, we looked at a pretty amazing pop-up book about ships.  We learned so much about their boat experience.  Two of the kids have even driven a boat!!! (I think they both attributed this to their grandpas.)

    Next Thursday, we are going to read a wonderful book titled, Mrs. Katz and Tush.

The Little Red Lighthouse and The Great Gray Bridge

Even though you are small you can still help! This is the theme from our story this week. And Sam quickly identified this important theme during our book discussion. We have a class full of literary geniuses!
The book, The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge, by Hildegarde Swift, tells a sweet story of the The Little Red Lighthouse which is actually the Jeffrey's Hook Light on the Hudson River. This lighthouse feels important until a great, big bridge is built right on the top of it (George Washington Bridge.)
The lighthouse thinks that it is no longer needed now that the bridge lets off light from its tall towers. But it is definitely wrong. The lighthouse saves the day in this classic story and realizes that although it is small, it is still needed!
After the story we watched a quick video that shows the actual bridge and lighthouse from the story! Irish said that when she moves to New York she will be able to go see it! How exciting!
This story was a perfect example of personification. We saw the boats, lighthouse, bridge and fog all take on human characteristics. The fog had hands that would try to grasp the boats below. It was spooky!
We talked about the job of lighthouses and made our own lighthouse complete with eyes to demonstrate our personification skills.

Less is more-Harold and the Purple Crayon

We had a creative class last Thursday! We saw a lot of budding artists among our class.
First things first, though! We started class by recycling old crayons into new crayons. We peeled off the paper of old crayons, broke them into pieces, placed them in muffin tins, and baked them in the oven!
It was fun to see the wax all melted. I will bring the finished products to our next class. They turned out really neat.

Next, we watched a video of Harold and the Purple Crayon. And then we went to work on creating our own imaginative drawings.
The kids were given a choice to choose up to five crayons. They all chose ONE! (Just like Harold.)
They then made a window using a ruler. After they drew the window, their imaginations and art skills went wild! I was immensely impressed with their houses, trees, people, balloons, and MONSTERS!!

Harold and the Purple Crayon-Moon cookies

 The book, Harold and the Purple Crayon, took us on a grand adventure to an imaginary world all drawn with a purple crayon.  Many of the kids in class were familiar with the book and anxiously shouted out what would happen next.   It was a delightful story time.

After discussing the characters, themes, setting, problems and solutions found in the story, we explored the amazing moon.

We learned how the moon is covered in craters.  We even made craters in our flour moonscape using some asteroid golf balls.

Then we studied the phases of the moon (new, full, gibbous, half and crescent) and etched their shapes into oreo cookies!  It was delicious learning.

Next week, we are going to recycle old crayons into something GREAT!

Tea Party atop the "High Wire"

Day two of our study of Mirrette on the High Wire, had us taking to the air and performing amazing feats.

We quickly re-read the story and then watched some videos of some REAL-life high wire walkers.  We even saw a man walk a wire across the Grand Canyon.  It was terrifying just to watch!!!

We also watched a dog walk a wire! Super amazing!

We noticed in the videos, the many different feats that were performed by high wire walkers.  One carried his assistant on his back across the wire, another held up a hoop with his wife dangling below and holding on with her foot, and one even cooked some toast on a stove in the middle of a wire hung across the Niagara Falls!  Crazy!!!

So after seeing these amazing feats, we were determined to not only walk the wire, but perform some amazing feats of our own.

We started out just practicing walking the wire.  Some were more balanced than others, but we kept moving our wire up higher!

By the end, we were walking the wire carrying an egg on a spoon! 

We also walked the wire holding a teacup and teapot full of water.  In the middle, we actually poured a cup of tea!!!  Incredible! 

But we didn't stop there!  We walked to the middle of the wire and set off a canon!  And finally, we walked the wire wearing an elephant head and bent down and picked up a sticky ball using our trunk.  It was simply unbelievable! 

That's why we just HAD to take photos to prove our courageous endeavors.

Next week, we will be reading the super fun book, Harold and the Purple Crayon.

High wires and hearing

We learned to face our fears in class on Thursday!

Our book, Mirette on the High Wire, took us to Paris where a little girl meets the famous Bellini, a high wire walker.
She quickly becomes enamored with
Bellini and begs him to teach her to walk the wire. He tells her no, but that doesn't stop her. She tries to walk the wire by herself. She tries and tries again. He sees her insistence and desire and finally helps her train. She is a natural!

She discovers that Bellini is world famous and has even walked a wire across Niagara Falls! On his way back across the falls he stops in the middle and makes an omelette! That's just how amazing he is!
She begs him to do these stunts again but he says he has a fear of the rope now.
She tells him he must face his fear.
In the end, he faces his fear with the help of Mirette and they go on tour together walking wires around the world!

We identified the setting, characters, problems, solutions, and the themes in the book. We are getting so good at this! I'm astounded at the themes they find hidden in the pages. It would be great to remind your child of these literary elements as you read together.

Next, we talked about ears?! Why ears, you ask....because they are essential for keeping our balance!
And Mirette had an amazing sense of balance.
We learned that ears help us hear and the fluid found in the vestibular canals keep us balanced. We experimented by turning in circles over and over again. This disrupted the fluid in our ears and made us feel very dizzy!
We then tested our ears ability to hear by trying to identify what items were found in the mysterious Easter eggs. We shook the eggs and tried to figure out if they held a penny, button, bell, noodles or a foam block.
It was a bit tricky, but our ears didn't let us down!
Next week, we are going to test our balance as we perform amazing feats of circus skill!