Wintertime Fun!
/The Whales classroom is filled with glittering, magical, snowy wintertime fun!
In numeracy we've been exploring the concept of addition as putting together, and subtraction as taking apart. Using glittery pieces of snow and ice, we've been looking at the number 11 and 15 this week. Whales have discovered that there are so many ways to create the numbers by adding two, three, four, even 8 numbers together! When we began to explore the concept of subtraction, we split into two groups. Ms. Ellie told a story about a blizzard, and some friends disappeared in the storm! Whales had to decide how many of their friends were gone. Whales had lots of practice in sharing their mathematical thinking with their friends.
Whales have been studying the popular holiday plant poinsettia. We have learned that the red and green foliage of the plant is actually leaves and not petals. Whales looked with a scientific eye as they painted and drew the plant, looking hard at the shapes and colors they saw. Whales will explore the history of poinsettias next week.
On Wednesday, Whales were surprised to find that a lovely gold package had been placed on our reading couch. Ms. Ellie and Ms. Julie had no idea who had placed the package there. We all could see the glitter leading to the beautifully wrapped box, and many of the Whales were convinced it was left there by a fairy. We could hardly wait to open the package during our classroom meeting. When we opened the box, we discovered a beautiful letter from Felicity The Handwriting Fairy, along with sweet little penmanship books, nifty markers, and our own mechanical pencils! Along with the books and writing utensils, Felicity gave us some very special magic fairy dust that helps us slow our hands down and write our letters beautifully!!
