Hello Aspen Families!
This week in Aspen, we continued our STEAM theme by learning all about water. For literacy, we read Little Polar Bear and followed Lars the polar bear from his frozen home in the arctic to the warmer waters of the rain forest, and discussed why the ice he was sleeping on broke off and eventually melted into the water of the sea. In addition, we did the finger play Five Little Penguins Slipping on the Ice , pretending to slip and slide on the ice and snow.
Next, we followed the water cycle in its entirety through the words and illustrations of Water is Water by Miranda Paul. The students were encouraged to act out the book as we read, flowing from the faucet to a tea cup, where we floated like steam up into the clouds, then rained down on the earth into a pond and eventually froze when the weather turned colder. .
During outside play, we experimented in our water table by guessing which objects sink or float; we also “painted” the brick wall outside our classroom with water and paint brushes. In addition, we did an art project by coloring with crayons on white paper, then painted on them with water colors, and observed the wax in the crayons separate from the water-based paint. On Friday, we played with water that had been frozen in latex gloves to make ice hands.
For our High Scope Math activity, we went grocery shopping with “Shopping List,” counting out various objects, placing them on shelves, then rolling a die and going shopping for the amount of objects shown on the die. The children pretended to be grocery store stockers and clerks, as well as shoppers, as they counted out the correct amount of “groceries” when stocking the shelves, placing them in our shopping basket and taking them out to “put them away” at home.
On Friday morning, we sang and danced with Beth Epley to various patriotic and pioneer songs, including “This Land is Our Land.”.
Next week starts a new month and our Big Idea for the month of July is “The Arts.”
Enjoy your three day weekend!
Ms. Candice and Ms. Megan
