Seabury Prekindergarten

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Sunny days!

All we are missing on this scavenger hunt is
sunglasses.

We went on the search for signs of spring
armed with a clipboard and a magnifying glass.

Mentor challenge: design a road for a hexbug that
includes a bridge to go over or under.

This is how we learn French at Seabury, whole child learning
at its best.

Lunch at the fountain on a beautiful day.

New mentor challenge: build a marble run that includes elevation,
a curve and ends in a container to catch the marbles.

It's been a full week for the Ladybugs! STEM challenges, theater visit, scavenger hunt and camels, rhinos and naked mole rats. Don't you wish you were a Ladybug?

Sunday, April 22, 2018

One of our older Seabury students (who used to be
a Ladybug) put together a powerpoint on animals in Zimbabwe.
He did an excellent job of telling the Ladybugs about his observations
of these fascinating animals.

It takes this many kids to be as long as a crocodile!

This week's challenge: using craft sticks,
binder clips and clothespins; build a structure to
support weight.

We had some amazing structures.

With the promise of sun in the forecast, we planted seeds
on Friday afternoon!

Friday, April 13, 2018

Crepuscular ??

Today's challenge in mentoring:

you have 40 cups and 20 minutes to build the highest tower.

Challenge part 2: combine your cups to make
a bigger structure.

The winning design used a circular base and ended up over 6
feet high. The clean up was huge.

Crepuscular? Our new word for the day. It came up in our discussion of lions in Africa. It means animals that are active at dawn and dusk. We learn something new everyday.

Friday, March 30, 2018

Solar System

The Ladybugs and Bumblebees have been learning about space for the past several weeks. We learned about the asteroid belt, the sun, 8 planets plus 5 dwarf planets and the aurora borealis. The kids painted and cut and dictated important information about all of these things. They wrote a group book about Pluto (mostly 'cause they felt bad that it is no longer a planet) and also wrote a book about space that has been sent in the publisher. This week they finally got to take home the books they made and they are wonderful. We finished this unit of study with a visit to the planetarium, presenting what we learned at the school gathering and making a bead necklace representing the solar system to scale (thanks to the big kids for helping with that one). This unit was so much fun and so much learning!

Friday, March 16, 2018

Science in the Ladybugs

Stomp rockets, lots of fun . . .

and a good demonstration of the laws of physics.

We only lost 2 rockets to the big trees and one to the roof.

Another opportunity for science exploration,

film canisters, paint and alka seltzer equal a chemical
reaction and beautiful art (and a big mess and happy kids!).

We love science fair time of the year! It reminds us of just how much we love doing science experiments with our young students. The excitement and ah ha moments of discovery are inspiring no matter how many times we, as teachers, have set up these opportunities for learning. We can't wait to see what our Ladybugs come up with for science fair!

Friday, March 9, 2018

Space

Writing a book...

is hard work and takes lots of concentration.

We started our auction project at Open Arts Studio, it's
going to be a winner!

Building straw rockets with the big kids...

it's a fun way to demonstrate Newton's Law of Motion.

Space provides the Ladybugs with lots of opportunities for discovery. Little kids love the idea of space and learning new things. This is the perfect vehicle for new vocabulary, math, and science. We are painting planets and learning interesting facts about each of the planets and putting them in books.