FROM MS. KRISTINE
This week we learned about the water cycle. The children were amazed at some of the facts we read. We learned that water is recycled, meaning we don't get new water. Water is a "one time" gift from HaShem. All the water on Earth has been here for a very long time and it just keeps going around and around in the water cycle. The water cycle filters the water so we always have 'fresh' water available. The coolest thing we read in one of our books is that dinosaurs might have drunk the same water (water molecules) we have around us.
First, we made a fun craft were the children built the water cycle with colored paper, cotton balls and markers to create and label the water cycle diagram They did a great job remembering such big words like condensation (clouds), precipitation (rain), evaporation (process to give us water vapor), and water collection.... the water we see all over our beautiful earth. They were so cute when we had water play outside as they made brilliant connections with what we learned (puddles getting smaller and concrete drying).
We did the classic water cycle experiment demonstrating condensation with a large bowl, a small bowl inside surrounded by warm water, and ice on top of clear plastic wrap. The children were able to make wonderful connections with what they saw and what they learned about the water cycle. The water cycle is a really big concept, but they did an amazing job and understood what they learned.
We will also try to do an experiment where we place cups of water in direct sun, shade, and darkness to see the evaporation differences. They have already predicted the cup in direct sunlight will evaporate the fastest, but they aren't sure what will happen to the cup that will be hidden from the sun. They know that the sun is what makes it all happen. We will report our findings next week.
To conclude, we did a coloring page/ word match with our new vocabulary. Once again, they were successful and confident with their work.
Our letter this week is /O/. As a vowel, the children learned that it makes two sounds, but we mainly focused on the short vowel as in olive, otter, ostrich, and octopus. For our craft, we made very funny octopuses. The children first looked at real pictures of octopuses for inspiration, then they painted their O with watercolor and tempera paint for their deep blue water background. They also used the rolling pencil trick to make their arms curl. They added very big eyes to give a cute look, while also connecting with some of the facts we learned about what makes them interesting. We learned that an octopus has 8 arms (not tentacles) and each arm has its own brain, giving them a grand total of 9 brains. Octopuses also have 3 hearts, and very sophisticated eyes (camera like), making them even cooler and creepy at the same time.
Reminders for a successful day in TK:
CHANGE OF CLOTHES: Please keep your child supplied with a change of clothes, underwear and socks. When they go home with soiled clothes, please replace them, because we never know when they will need to be changed again. With our nice weather, water play has been very popular and we want to keep everyone dry and comfortable.
WATER BOTTLES : Please send your child with a water bottle each day. If they have a bottle, they are more likely to drink water and stay hydrated.
Thank you,
- Shneur: I liked everything.
- Ari: Matzah and egg.
- Shiloh: Grape juice, matzah, and egg.
- Pearl: I like celery, egg, and grape juice.
- Tohar: I ate matzah and then eggie, but I didn’t like the yellow part. I ate marror, tears, celery, and matzah.
- Goldie: Grape juice and matzah.
- Zalman: My favorite part is dipping the egg in saltwater.
- Hannah: I liked everything.
- Sam: Drinking the grape juice. I love grape juice.
- Elias: Eating new foods like potato, onion, and marror.
- Tzivia: Drinking the grape juice.
- Nuna: Sitting.
- Jackson: The marror.
- Chaim: Drinking grape juice and eating matzah.
- Netanel: Everything.
