Woo woo!! We finished another novel! Earlier this week, we wrapped up Polar Bears Past Bedtime and finally found out the answer to Morgan’s riddle! Jack and Annie also received special golden library cards from Morgan that they could use on future adventures. Maybe your child could fill in the rest of the details for you:) As we continue to read Wonder, we will be bringing back our kindness jar, however, we will be using them a bit differently this time around. Please sit and have a chat with your child over the weekend about ways we can individually show kindness to others. This will help us be better prepared for writing our ideas down next week.

While meeting with Ms. Demetra’s class this week, we tried something new that many of our friends had not done before. Blind artist painting/drawing is when one person describes a picture to their partner and they have to draw it. Partner A can only use adjectives to describe the item without revealing what it is! This was so fun and we will definitely be doing it again soon! 

As we begin to wrap up our Arctic/Antarctic adventures, we have begun to reflect not only on past explorations of the different biomes, but continuing to be curious about things we may have not learned about…yet. With our climate dioramas this week, many of our friends had some unanswered questions about the savanna, the rainforest, and the arctic. 

1. “Will it always be very cold in Antarctica?”
2. “What would happen if polar bears and penguins did live together?”
3. “Is the savanna different from a desert?”

Hopefully once we conclude our dioramas we’ll have all the answers! 

Typically we tend to read one Scholastic Let’s Find Out article a week, but we dug deep into the Scholastic archives to learn about our first president, George Washington. We learned a little bit about how differently it was to live during his time and that he was the only president to not live in The White House. Happy birthday George Washington! Our other article was all about lunar new year and can be found down below as well as this month’s Science Spin.

Your kiddos had SO much fun with one of our experiments this week! Did you check out Ms. Marlena’s blurb from Wednesday? If not, here’s what we did so you can try it at home!  “We also experimented how polar bears stay warm using coffee, white cloth & plastic wrap! We had two jars full of room-temperature coffee, covered one with plastic wrap and the other with coffee, and left them out in the sun. After an hour we checked the temperature of both jars to see which one stayed warmer. Ask your child which one stayed warm and why!”

Another fun activity this week that you could definitely do at home, was to write the word ARCTIC on the board and change around some of the letters to see how we would read it given what we have learned using the secret stories. For example, how do you read argtic? oarctic? arctice? This is an excellent (and playful) literacy activity you can try with any words at home! Let’s strengthen those literacy skills together even more, everybody! 

Home Connection:

• https://letsfindout.scholastic.com/etc/classroom-magazines/reader.html?id=8-020320
• https://multiplicitylab.northwestern.edu/project/ltt_r-018-notice-wonder/
• https://mysteryscience.com/mini-lessons/penguin-race#slide-id-14548
• https://letsfindout.scholastic.com/issues/2023-24/020424.html
• https://sciencespink1.scholastic.com/issues/2023-24/020124.html
  

Have an awesome weekend everybody! See you Monday!

-Ms. Anna

–“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its 00whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

Hello Parents and Happy Friday! Please check out last week’s blog, too;)

We had a fabulous week here full of love and laughter, as usual! Our Valentine’s Day festivities were very exciting and I know your kiddos enjoyed taking part in all of the day’s activities:) They ate pizza (thank you PTO), watched Elemental with friends from Ms. Demetra’s and Ms. Soraya’s classes, and exchanged Valentine’s cards with their friends. 

Ms. Marlena planned a fun Mystery Science for us https://mysteryscience.com/mini-lessons/wild-animals-costumes#slide-id-16691 . We took a look at how some animals can camouflage themselves for protection and how others are born with unique patterns that mimic their surroundings. 

This week we took another trip to the Antarctic where we will be staying for the next couple of weeks. A few questions our friends have are:

1. How is the antarctic different than the arctic?
2. How is it the same? 
3. What lives there?
4. Do only penguins live there?
5. Where is it colder? 

Have you been checking out our Scholastic Let’s Find Out issues for this month? With President’s Day on Monday, we read a new issue this week introducing us to Abraham Lincoln and showing us how he used to calm down with writing!

Our Secret Story this week was about ar. 

“These two are best friends, but it’s not always easy being best friends with a superhero! A is always flying around doing superhero stuff, so r rarely gets to see him! Having a superhero as your best friend does have one perk, though. Whenever a and r do get together, a will always loan his superpowers to r so that r can see what it feels like to say HIS name! ‘ARRRRRRRR!’ And that’s the sound they make!

art, car, hard”

For our weekly review activity, we did mad libs today! Your kiddos had to plug words in that were spelled with an ar to complete the sentences. Words such as park, yarn, car, dark, etc. See if you guys can try this one out at home, too!

Yay! We got to test out our North poles this week and talk about why some worked for some friends and what we could change in the ones that didn’t work. Was your child’s able to stand in the moving waters? Why or why not?

Our 8 foot tall polar bear was a little bare (hehe) last week so we’ve been dressing him up! Last week we measured how tall each of us is in inches using a yardstick. We reviewed what a yardstick is, how many inches, how many feet, how many for a football field, and then took turns getting measured in comparison to our class bear. This week, however, we CONVERTED our height from inches into feet! Does your child remember how tall they are?

Books we read this week:

• Polar Bears Past Bedtime
• Pup and Bear by Kate Banks
• How Big is a Million? by Anna Milbourne
• Love Monster by Rachel Bright
• Valensteins by Ethan Long
• One Day On Our Blue Planet: In The Antarctic by Ella Bailey
• Wonder

That’s all for this week! Have a wonderful and long weekend. Remember, no school on Monday and hopefully I will see you all at the Apokreatiko Glendi tomorrow! 

-Ms. Anna —

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

100 days of school! We did it and oh boy, was it fun! 

We just celebrated our 100th day of school this week and we got together with Ms. Demetra’s class for a few different activities. First, on Tuesday we began building our bridges from our previous blueprints. We then met altogether again on Friday to make some Valentine’s love grams for the rest of the school where each card had 100 decorations to celebrate the 100th day of school! 

Every Monday, we learn about a new Secret Story. This week Ms. Marlena did a fun lesson teaching us how to read words that have two vowels together. 

“When these vowels go a-walkin, the first one does the talkin’ and it always says its name! (The second one covers its mouth and stays quiet.)

ee,ea,ai,oa,ui,ue

feet, beat, bait

boat, suit, blue

But sometimes, when ea walk together, e’s too tired to say her name, so she makers her short & lazy sound instead! 

head, ready, bread”

For our secret story review this week, we filled out bingo game cards and played a couple of rounds! 

Earlier this week, we began Part Two of Wonder and it is written in Via’s perspective. Via is Auggie’s older sister and not much is known about her quite yet, expect for the fact that is a freshman in high school. We begin to understand Via a bit more as she tells us what life was like prior to Auggie and how she dealt and continues to deal with this new family life that seems to center around August. In one chapter, Via describes what Auggie looked like as a young child before all the surgeries. She painted a very vivid picture and afterwards I had the class draw a picture of what they believe Auggie looks like based off of Via’s description. Take a look down below and ask your child what they heard in the book that made them draw Auggie the way they did. 

I love when our explorations flow and mesh through the year! I especially love when I ask the kids to draw back on prior knowledge at any given point and they are able to tell me! We seem to really enjoy learning about the different biomes and this week we made a venn diagram altogether seeing how the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic region are similar and different. Your kiddos remembered SO MUCH about the Amazon and we actually had to research a question because we weren’t sure if it rains in the Arctic-spoiler, it does!

Is there a pole in the North Pole? After watching a cool (pun intended) Mystery Science on why they are called the North Pole and South Pole, we learned that there isn’t REALLY a pole in either of these places. Well, except for the funny scientists that did indeed place a pole in Antarctica where the “pole” location is. Since the exact coordinates of the North Pole are in the water, I asked the class to conduct their own experiment. Build a pole that can stand in water independently. Check back next week to see the results after we test them out!

The Cookie Fiasco is one of my favorite books that I try to read every year because other than the obvious that it’s a funny book with lots of excitement, there is a GREAT math lesson introducing fractions. In the book, there are 4 friends and they are given 3 cookies. They aren’t sure how to share them and one of their friends begin to break them out of nervousness. Ask your child if the cookies were split evenly and how many pieces everyone got. 

Do you know how big a polar bear den is? What’s a chamber? How long are they down there? Ms. Marlena planned a really fun and informative lesson on polar bear dens. Take a look down below!

Home Connection:

• https://mysteryscience.com/lessons?query=north+pole
• https://www.primarythemepark.com/2020/01/polar-bear-steam-activity/
• https://multiplicitylab.northwestern.edu/project/oyg-025-third/
• https://letsfindout.scholastic.com/issues/2023-24/020324.html

Books:

• The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale Retold by Lydia Dabravich
• Polar Bears Past Bedtime
• Wonder
• The Cookie Fiasco by Dan Santat

You can find this week’s Scholastic Let’s Find Out article on different animal’s teeth with the link above.

Thank you and have a great weekend! 

-Ms. Anna

—

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

Hey Parents! What a wonderful week we’ve been having and I hope you’ve all enjoyed the daily blurbs! This is a great (and quick) way to connect with your child on what they did THAT day in school. 

Have you checked out our Scholastic Let’s Find Out issues yet? If not, click on this link and take a look at what we’ve been reading! https://letsfindout.scholastic.com/issues/2023-24/010124.html You can also find the Science Spin articles on there. This week we read about the snowy owl and penguins in Antarctica.

We have been having so much fun conducting all of our experiments! If you haven’t read the blurbs from earlier this week, be sure to go back and check them out! Which one was your child’s favorite? For one of today’s experiments, our friends were given different materials to use to test out on ice cubes. They divided a paper into six boxes and wrote down different check-in times. The first box was their prediction at 9 a.m. of what they believed would happen to their ice cube using whatever materials they chose. The last box was titled conclusion where they drew what the end result was and in the remaining four boxes they drew a picture of their progress throughout the day. What did your ice look like at 10 a.m.? What happened to it by 12 p.m.? The available materials were flour, salt, baking soda, sugar, aluminum foil, and a zip-lock bag. Ask your child what they used and what their conclusion was at the end of the day!

Did you know that snowy owls flap their wings to cool off? Our Science Spin for this month talked about snowy owls in the arctic and one special snowy friend that ended up in California. How do they stay warm? How do they stay cool? We did another fun little experiment pretending to be snowy owls! Everyone put their jackets on and we tried different things to see what would work. Be sure to check your child’s folder for this week’s Let’s Find Out and this month’s Science Spin.

For our partner activity this week, Ms. Demetra’s class came to learn a little bit about different types of bridges and the basics to building bridges. Everyone partnered up and then they drew their blueprint of how what kind of bridge they want to build using only large popsicle sticks. Next Tuesday, our classes will be getting together to build them and then test them out!

Did you know that the Aurora Borealis is in the North Pole and the Aurora Australis is in the South Pole? They are also called Northern and Southern Lights! Sometimes they look red and blue and other times they look yellow and green! We had a lot of fun drawing our own with wet chalk on a black paper. Take a look!

Climate change as you know is a huge issue. But how can we teach this in an age appropriate manner to our 6 year old friends? Show them the polar bears’ melting ice of course. We briefly talked about what greenhouse gases are and what are some things that are contributing to this change and how we can stop it. Using less electricity, walking instead of driving, and not using single-use plastics are all great and major ways that we can all help our planet!

Secret Stories has been going AMAZING. I hope you are all enjoying reading our special books at home, but are also continuing to read with your little ones every night. If you would like some book suggestions, please let me know!

Books we read this week:

• The Way Home for Wolf by Rachel Bright
• Polar Bears Past Bedtime
• What’s That Noise? by Naomi Howarth
• Wonder
• Max & Ruby! Max’s Half Birthday by Rosemary Wells
• If Polar Bears Disappeared by Lily Williams

Home Connection:

• https://multiplicitylab.northwestern.edu/videos/#organize
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVOnRPefcno
• https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/bridge/basics.html
• https://multiplicitylab.northwestern.edu/project/ltt_co-018-more/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Ou58p_D7k

Vocabulary:

• colony
• aurora borealis
• conclusion
• tundra
• iceberg

Sentence builders:

• eat
• big
• drink
• here
• pizza

Have an awesome weekend everyone! Yay for the sun:) 

-Ms. Anna

—

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein