Friendship Celebration Part 1, and the Start of Migration Presentations

This week was full of many Whale wishes for our friends who were resting at home! As always the Whales were so supportive of the idea of changing our big friendship celebration to next week so we can celebrate with all of our Whale friends. However, we still had so many friendship activities throughout the day. For meditation we went around our circle and complimented the person next to us to the whole group. As a group we agreed that when we receive compliments, and when we give compliments it fills our buckets! The compliments did not stop there! At the end of friendship day, we got into a friendship circle. In our friendship circle, we held a ball of yarn, threw it to a friend and made a compliment to that friend. At the end it showed how connected we are in our classroom! It was beautiful and heart warming to see our community express our feelings about each other aloud. See below for a video on the Whales all being connected.

This week we started our migration presentations. So far we have learned about the Humpback Whale, the American Eel, and the Arctic Tern. During the Humpback Whale presentation, we measured how long a Humpback Whale can be (62 ft). The measuring tape went all the way from the reading couch in our classroom, to the drying rack in the atelier! Can you believe that! The Whales also thought it would be a great idea to lay down and see if all the Whales together would be as long as a Humpback Whale. We weren’t even close! Below you can see the video of the Whales laying down to try to be as long as a Humpback Whale. After the Humpback Whale, we listened to the American Eel presentation. We learned that the American Eel is born in the Sargasso Sea, as a baby swims to freshwater. While in freshwater it goes through the various phases of its life. Once it is a grown adult, it swims back to the Sargasso Sea to have its babies. We thought how extraordinary it is that the American Eel knows exactly where it needs to go. On Friday, we listened to the Arctic Tern presentation. We learned that the Arctic Tern is one of the greatest migrators as it travels around 28,000 miles a year (going from the Arctic, to Antartica, and then back again in 1 year). The Whales are becoming migrating experts and have been stretching themselves in this unit of study.

Friday was a jam packed day. We had migration presentations, sharing, engineering with 3D shapes, freeze dance for wiggle time, a birthday celebration, and we finished our chapter book James and the Giant Peach. WOW! The Whales are excited for a long weekend so we can all rest and be ready for Friendship celebration part 2 on Feb. 20th.