Bike Day!

It was a cold and chilly day but the kids had a blast with bike day!  We started out on the playground learning some bike safety tips from Mrs. Erdman.  Then we walked the obstacle course to see how the path was laid out.  Then it was time to ride!!!  The kids did a great job staying on the course, watching out for each other, and not going to fast!  

Next, it was time for our bike parade around the block!  

 Finally, back down the hill to the playground and a few more laps around the obstacle course!  

It was a FANTASTIC day!  Thank you to families that dropped off bikes and picked them up again!  I appreciate your support for this super fun activity!  

Off to the Bank!

We were off to the bank today!  The kiddos were super excited about our field trip!  

 We were given a sneak peek at the bank's vault and we got to see the huge door that protects it!

 We took a look at some old money and we were able to see some of the old ledger books and typing machines they used at the bank A LOONG time ago!

 We were able to see how the bank counts the coins that come in!  Very cool!

 We even got to sit in one of the meeting rooms and pretend we were workers at the bank!  We saw some of the old presidents of the bank.  One even looked like Abraham Lincoln!

Our final stop was at the Dollar Tree to spend our hard earned dollar!  The kids loved being able to pick out their own toy and pay for it themselves!

Jelly Bean Tasting

Our five senses activity today was to see how our sense of smelling works with our sense of taste!  The kiddos were given a piece of a jelly bean to taste with their eyes shut and their nose plugged.  When they were done chewing they colored in their guess on the recording sheet.  Then they tasted a second piece of the same jelly bean with their eyes closed but their nose unplugged.  It was fun to see their reaction when they finally got to see the color of the jelly bean at the end.  It was a "tasty" activity!

Weather Experiment

We are learning about weather this week!  We have been talking about how clouds are formed and the water cycle.  Today we read two stories about rain and looked at a poster on the water cycle.  Afterwards we created our own little rainstorms!   We filled jars with water, added shaving cream to the top (that was our cumulus cloud).  Then we slowly started to add the colored water to the cloud until it got heavy enough to start raining!  It was a very fun experiment!  

I have attached a link at the end of this post if you want to try making your own rainstorms at home!  

Check out this link for more information on this experiment!  Clouds in A Jar

Hiking in the Great Outdoors!

What a wonderful afternoon we had at the Hartje center!  The kids had a great time exploring and looking at so many neat things!  Here is a short video of our day! Enjoy!

Digging up Dinos

We are finishing up some dino activities this week!  On Monday we went to the Smithsonian website and watched an interactive slide show on how dinosaur fossils are dug up.  Afterwards we tried our hand at digging out fossils!  Well, actually our fossils were chocolate chips and we dug them out with tooth picks!  But it still was a lot of fun!

Informational Writing---BEARS

We finished up our informational writing book on bears!  The kids worked super hard on these books and did a great job!  They loved being able to share them today with their friends and read to each other!  The books came home today in your child's folder.  Please take a few minutes to listen to their story and see how far they have come as authors!