Pack Your Bags...

it's time to ride on the Holiday Express! This week we began our around the world of holiday traditions by applying for our passports and getting our luggage packed. Stay tuned for more about our travels!

Scientist of the Week

Another great experiment by a brilliant lovebug! Today our scientist blew up a balloon using a bottle, vinegar and baking soda! Super job of talking us through it step by step! Great job!

Turtle #13

We have an new classroom organism visiting us from the Science Health Resource Center-Turtle #13. He's a pretty cool little guy-though a bit shy. He pretty much only comes out when we feed him every other day. We have set up a "turtle lunch bunch." Each child is part of a group who gets to feed him and do their school work by his cage so they can observe him "action."

Snow Business!!!!

Despite a long Texas history of promised snowfall only to be left high and dry, the weather reports finally came through. It snowed!!!! We had just "suited up" to head out the playground when on our way we noticed snow flurries. We ran out to the courtyard and reveled in our brief snowfall! Ms. Price had her kindergartners join us and upped the volume to her Christmas music CD. To add to the excitement we had magnifying glasses and black paper to capture the snow crystals as they fell. I can't imagine anything more fun than playing tag and tasting snowflakes to rocking Ghristmas music on a December day-a rare and unexpected treat.
We ended the day playing "Melt an Ice Cube" with our 5th Grade Buddies. Each child has an ice cube and depending on the roll of the dice they had to drop it, blow on it, put ten shakes of salt on it, float it in water for 10 seconds, or drop it down their shirt. There were lots of giggles-especially if they had to drop it down their shirt. We had a fabulous day getting "snowed in" and playing with ice!

The Lovebug Mall

In the classroom we have been studying needs and wants as well as goods and services. As a culminating project, the children selected their own good or service to sell to students in a neighboring classroom. They came up with their "business plan" of what to sell, selected a price, created an ad and then ultimately sold their goods. They had so much fun and it was incredibly eye opening to see our economy in action! Some children chose to be sole proprietors while others formed limited business partnerships. Our shops were: yoga classes, nails and "fortune tellers", finger weaving, handmade jewelry, bookmarks, lemonade and cereal, calendars, karate class, crystals and rocks and paper airplanes.
I loved hearing their sales pitches! "You need this bracelet because it is black like your shirt." Our "would you like your crystals washed or dry?" The crystal shop was the first to sell out. The three boys then split the profits. Two of them then used their money to shop at other stores, while a third took their profits and invested it in the paper airplane business at the next table. After a bit of time, our cereal seller decided to go out of business and leave the remaining cereal out for grabs. When he needed money to buy other goods, he then resorted to bartering his cereal for their product. It was a great lesson for everyone involved!

Upside Down Pumpkin Pie!

Our last two days before the Thanksgiving holiday involved a variety of Native American, Pilgrim and turkey centers. We had a special holiday treat of upside down pumpkin pie. (1 tsp of pumpkin, followed by seasoned vanilla pudding, followed by crushed graham cracker on top) Yum-oh!