Elmer the Patchwork Elephant

This week we have been exploring the series of Elmer books by David McKee.  Elmer is a patchwork elephant who is different from all the other elephants in the herd.  This was the perfect opportunity to talk about differences among people.  We had several discussions about being different.  It's amazing how much these children understand.  In addition to valuable discussions, we wrote books and made some beautiful elephants!

A little engineering. . .

a little science experiment . . .

suface tension . . .

A little time with the big kids. . .

A little art . . .

a little being read to . . .

 a little reading . . .

a lot of fun with Elmer!

Pete the Cat!

Surveying shoe colors.

Adding a page to our "Pete the Cat"  book.

Pete the Cat and his 4 groovy buttons.

Pete the Cat and his Magic Sunglasses.

A close up look at a Navigator's science project.

This is how the magnet moves inside the copper tube.

Lucky us!  A former Ladybug came back to class to explain why a magnet moves slowly through the copper tube.

We are loving Pete the Cat.  There is a series of these books written by James Dean and Eric Litwin that we having been using in class.  These books are colorful and appealing to the kids and give us many opportunities for writing, painting, counting and having fun.  So far, we've written 3 class books based on Pete the Cat.  We get to practice writing and being creative and we have a book to share with our friends.  As Pete would say, "It's all good!"

Science Fair

Check out our science fair pictures!  The projects were great and the kids did a fabulous job of explaining their experiments.  Thanks to the parents for helping the kids with these.