Peanut butter, honey and pizza crust. What do these three foods have in common? They are all unique ways of describing a person's skin color. We have started our new unit in social studies called Celebrating Differences. We read the book The Colors Of Us, which is a wonderful story of a little girl whose mother teaches her that everyone is different and special in their own way. We also talked about how our differences on the outside make us special but that it is also important to celebrate what's on the inside of a person as well. As a class the girls decided that the world would be incredibly boring if everyone were the same. Since the book we read was about celebrating the different colors of people, the girls came up with their own way to describe their skin color-- crackers, a muffin and pizza cheese just to name a few. Then they learned how to mix paints to create these colors. Below are some pictures of your daughters mixing paints to create these special colors. Our next step will be to create self portraits of ourselves and celebrate the wonderful differences in our Pre First class!
We started a new science unit last Friday on Penguins! The girls are having a blast this week as they are learning where penguins live in the world and how they use blubber to stay warm in less than ideal temperatures. We used highlighters to identify the places on their own personal maps. They were shocked to hear that penguins do not live in Alaska or the North Pole!
To make the concept of blubber more appealing to the girls, I brought out the big guns--an ice cold bucket of water. The girls were challenged to keep their hands in the ice cold water for as long as they could (with a time limit of 30 seconds, I'm not THAT mean). We discussed how their hands felt and if they wanted to go swimming in a pool that temperature--of course we had some bold girls who said they would "definitely" take a dip :-)
Using a plastic glove, shortening as a "blubber" substitute, and plastic wrap the girls each got a chance to dip their hands back into the ice cold water. They were all amazed to find that their hands were not nearly as cold as before. The girls realized that by having blubber, the penguins are able to survive in the harsh climate of Antarctica.
