VSO Petting Zoo

We had a great time at the VSO Petting Zoo on Thursday morning!  We first learned about the origins and different kind of instruments:  woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings.  Then the children had a chance to explore and try out all the instruments. Did your child tell you about his or her favorite instrument?   Enjoy the pictures below!

This week we continued with our Forces and Motion unit by participating in some investigations  We learned about that force is a fancy word for pushing and pulling an object.  We tested out what happens when you use a different amount of force while doing an activity called Domino Bowling.  The children set up nine dominoes and then rolled a marble to try and knock the dominoes down.  They tested out rolling the marble with different amounts of force and from different distances.  Many children found that rolling it with more force knocked the most down. Some found rolling the marble from close up knocked more down and some found that farther away knocked the most down.  What did your child find out?  We also did an investigation called Racing Ramps in which we looked at motion.  The children were given blocks to make ramps of different heights.  Then they sent a matchbox car down the ramps and measured how far the cars went.  We were looking to see if the height of the ramp made the cars go faster or farther.  Ask your child what happened with the distance the car traveled and its speed with a one-block, two-block, or three-block ramp!

During our Word Study time, we began the Alphabet Countdown.  Each day we celebrate a different letter, starting with Z and ending with A on the last day of school.  We are using this as a time to practice letter formation one more time and we have created an alphabet memory book to fill out with pictures and words about some of our favorite parts of the year.  It's hard to believe we have just 19 days left!

In math, we learned two new subtraction games: Bug Catcher and Piggy Bank Subtraction. In both games, we practiced subtraction by putting either pennies or bugs on a ten frame number mat and then physically removed them.  We also practiced writing subtraction equations to represent the subtraction action we had made!  We also did another measuring activity...Frog Jump Measuring.  The children had the chance to jump in the classroom and then estimate how far they jumped and then measure with popsicle sticks!  How far did your child jump?

Have a wonderful weekend!