Week thirty-three 2009

Happy Mother’s Day to all of our wonderful mothers! We trust you received your “flower children”. Each child took great care in creating his or her flower for you. We hope your day was spectacular! .......... WEEK 33........................... Theme: Our Amazing Bodies Focus: Babies & Growing, Bones, Muscles & Joints, Cardiovascular & Respiratory Systems

Classical composer: Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918) was a French composer. He is considered one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music. Debussy is not only among the most important of all French composers; he was also a central figure in European music at the turn of the twentieth century. We enjoyed many of his peaceful compositions this week including the Clair de Lune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfSV_k3MhCw&feature=related

Spanish: mamá (mom), bebé (baby), el cuerpo (the body)

Happy Birthday to Lily!

Theme: We started our theme learning about babies, mothers and growing up. The children guessed whose baby picture was displayed. Some were easy and others hard, usually depending on the age of the baby. They’ve changed a lot since then and will grow and grow lots more until they’re big like their mom and dad! Fascinating stuff! We learned about foods that babies eat starting with milk from mom or in a bottle and had a fun taste test of baby vs. big kid food. On that note, we practiced choosing behaviors that are baby behaviors verses big kid behaviors. Miss Cameron called out or mimicked a behavior and the children chose to hold up a picture of a baby or a big kid. I think they felt very “big” as they figured out the correct answer. We talked about how baby chicks grow in an egg until they are ready to hatch. Inside the egg they are kept safe (the shell), warm and snuggly (the white) and have all they need to eat (the yellow yolk) as they develop. Each child had an egg to crack into a bowl. They used their sense of touch to discover the inside of the egg. This compares to how we develop kept safe, warm and snuggly inside of our mommy’s uterus. We looked at pictures of the baby developing inside a mom and just born. The student’s observed that the brand-new baby was wet and didn’t have any clothes on. The egg white has many similarities to the clear fluid that snuggles the growing baby inside mom. Laurie Berkner has a fun activity song called, “5 days-old” that explores growing up and had us movin’ and groovin’.

For bones, muscles and joints, a.k.a. the musculoskeletal system, the children had fun using their bodies to jump, stretch, push, pull, etc. They used lots of muscles to fill in the missing letters on their bones, muscles, and joints page. We integrated some math skill as we read the numbers “206” and “600”. Our body has 206 bones and more than 600 muscles! Our bones do many important things such as protecting our soft and squishy parts, and holding us up. Bones are hollow, so how do they hold us up when we’re so heavy?

We did an experiment and observation to see just how this works. We placed a hollow TP tube on its side and observed that heavy books placed on top immediately smashed it flat. However, when we stood the tube on its end, we could stack lots of giant books on top and it stood strong, just like the long bones in our body that help us stand up. The students also had fun seeing if they were so strong to hold the heavy stack of books…even Felicity got in on the action to the delight of all present! Muscles work in pairs and can only pull the bone they are connected to. Of particular interest were the gluteal muscles that make up our buns…hey, you’re only 5 once! We read some very fun skeleton books and talked about how muscles like to work…exercise! We did some fun activity songs that had us breathing in and out and exploring our joints and muscles. Mr. Bones, our popular paper-plate skeleton, made a special guest appearance in our schoolroom, and his little brother, Mr. Bones, the small-scale scientific skeleton model, joined us as well! Please refer to the Amazing Body book for more complete information on what we discussed as a class. For the cardiovascular and respiratory system, children paired up and used stethoscopes to listen to each others’ hearts. It was awesome to see their faces light up the moment they could heard something. They also used incentive spirometers to measure their lung capacity…a tricky task to breathe in rather than out into the mouthpiece. As you inhale the float rises to show how much air they breathed in. The children created a heart puzzle and enjoyed looking at pictures of a real heart shape. We discussed and observed that they are smaller than Miss Cameron, and their hearts beat faster than hers. It is fun to learn that a tiny mouse’s heart beats 500 times every minute, while a giant whale’s only beats 10! We explored a small science model of a human torso to observe how each organ fits into the body. To cap off this interesting week, the children explored a real sheep’s heart, lungs and trachea. They were fascinated to touch and see the four “rooms” (atria) in the heart, the delicate “strings” of the valves between the atria, and the rings of cartilage in the airways. The word “Cool!” was heard frequently during this activity. . Table Activities: Magnets, plastic farm animal and dinosaur free play, drawing with watercolor markers, plastic pegs . Art: Miss Cristina worked with the children on their canvas paintings and as they dried we switched gears to create a paper accordion book focusing on our five senses. The students followed directions to fold and then create drawings on some of the sections. They will continue to work on their books next week.

. Activity Songs: “Jump Up” by Imagination Movers, “Aerobics” (Breathe In, Breathe Out), “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”, “Hinges”, “Five Days Old” by Laurie Berkner . Math, Handwriting and Reading: With such a heavy focus on science this week, we embedded our reading, writing, and math into our theme-based days. The children have practiced cutting and writing their letters in many of our crafts and activities. We’ve also included some free-drawing as this seems to be a favorite among many children. . Storybooks: Is Your Mama a Llama?, From Head to Toe, Boogie Bones, Skeleton Hiccups, A Drop of Blood. . Free-Play Fun: Doll houses and accessories, wooden blocks, stethoscopes and incentive spirometers (by request), free reading