Science Activities in the New Year - Science Room News

Hope everyone is having a great break!  We have such a treasure here in our back yard - Briar Bush Nature Center.  They have just announced a series of family events for the new year that you won't want to miss.  I've included a few for you here, but if you want to see their full calender go to the Briar Bush website.

Winter Fun Day

Saturday, February 4
1-4pm
Free!
Nature doesn't mind the cold or snow and neither should you! Winter is a great time to get outside so head to Briar Bush for winter-only fun in the woods - take a hike to look at the shapes of trees, hunt for animal tracks and watch birds search for food at the Bird Observatory. Feeling chilly? Warm up by the campfire or come inside for crafts, story time, animal shows and warm drinks.

Animal Open House

1st and 3rd Saturdays
Briar Bush's museum is home to over 30 animals, including rabbits and rats, skinks and snakes, chinchillas and tarantulas. Come learn about our animals, and even give them a pat.

Nature’s Classroom

2nd and 4th Saturdays
Touch, explore, and use interesting natural and scientific items, from skulls and skins to magnifying glasses and microscopes.

---

Beginning January 2012

Stop in the first Saturday of the month between 10-11am for a chance to meet your favorite Briar Bush animals up-close and hands-on. Registration not required. This program is free with admission to the museum.

Chris, Vivian and Sylvia Share Family Holiday Traditions

Sylvia's parents Chris and Vivian visited with us to share their holiday traditions. Chris' family is from Germany and he shared many German Christmas traditions. Chris bought beautiful candelabras that were bought back from Germany that are very special to their family. The children loved looking at the beautiful candle holders and enjoyed watching the candles glow. Chris told us the German name for many of the things that he brought to share with us and then sang the traditional song Oh Christmas Tree in German. We listened to the song on his I Phone in both German and English and sang along all together which was lots of fun!

We also learned that Vivian's family is from Indonesia. When she was a little girl she sang a special song before holidays. Sylvia, Vivian and Chris together sang this special song for us and told us the meaning of the words in the song. It was really interesting to listen to two new languages and we loved learning more about our friend Sylvia and her family.

In Northern Germany children celebrate the holiday of St. Nick which comes around December 5th. The children put their shoes outside their houses before going to bed and sometimes St Nick leaves special treats in their shoes.....

We took off our shoes and left them outside our classroom to see if it were possible that maybe St. Nick would visit us and leave something in our shoes....

Chris and Vivian read the beautiful story of Polar Express and the the children were fully engaged in listing to this classic . While we were listening to the Polar Express....something very strange happened... a few children thought they saw a flash of something in the sky that looked like a "skateboard" or a "sled" with " someone wearing something red.."........

We went into the hallway and low and behold.. every pair of shoes was filled with little bags that were filled with chocolate coins, a cookie and a tangerine!

What an exciting morning......

Smilebox slideshow" src="http://smilebox.com/snap/4d6a677a4e5459334d7a633d0d0a.jpg" style="border: medium none ;">

slideshow - Powered by Smilebox" src="http://www.smilebox.com/globalImages/blogInstructions/blogLogoSmileboxSmall.gif" style="border: medium none ;">

Personalize a photo slideshow

Robin Shares Hanukkah Traditions

Miranda was so excited to have her mom, Robin visit with our Prek class this morning and share their family traditions of Hanukkah. Robin told the story of the miracle of lights and of Hanukkah. She read the books Sammy Spider 's First Hanukkah by Sylvia A. Rouss and Hanukkah by Roni Schotter which delightfully told the story of traditions that surround this holiday. Robin also brought the book Latkes, Latkes Good to Eat by Naomi Howland to read at a later time during the day. This book is a story that combines a classic fairy tale plot with a shtetl setting and depicts the story of Hanukkah in a friendly, folk-ish art way. The children loved listening to all of these wonderful books of Hanukkah today.

Robin and Miranda lit the menorah and sang the Hanukkah blessings together. One of the traditions which some families partake in is to eat jelly filled donuts during this holiday. Robin and Miranda shared jelly filled munchkins with the children. A traditional game of dreydel is played at this time and Miranda gave every child a dreydel and a few chocolate coins to take home that also symbolizes her family traditions. Learning about each other's families and their traditions brings us closer as a PreK family and for that we are very grateful. The children loved learning about Miranda's family traditions and Miranda absolutely loved having her mom share with her friends.

Create your own free photo slideshow

Winter Concert

The Winter Concert was wonderful! The children took great pride in this performance and were so thrilled to share this special time with their family and friends. The feeling of community and connection to our Lower School friends was felt by all! The feelings of joy and happiness that is experienced from working together in a collaborative way will be a special memory that our children and families will hold dear. Thank-you for your continued support of our program. Enjoy the photos!

Emily Visit To PreK

Maggie's mom, Emily is a priest and she visited with our class today to talk to us about her role as a community helper. We learned many things about Emily's work as a priest and the children were very interested in her work as a community helper. Emily's beautiful robe was especially interesting to the children they had many questions about when she wears the robe as well as why she wears a robe. Emily said that her robe is like her 'uniform' that tells everyone in the church that she is a priest. She leads Sunday services in her robe and loves the special feeling of getting dressed up in something so beautiful to lead the Sunday services in. We learned that Emily loves to help people in her family community at church and often visits people at home and in the hospital who may not be well enough to go to church. Emily wears her robe only in church on Sundays.

Emily showed us the special things she takes with her when she is visiting with someone at home or in the hospital. She loves being a priest and most importantly she loves helping people and praying with people.

Enjoy our photo album that captures this wonderful visit!

Make a photo album

PreK Visits Abington Memorial Hospital

The excitement of taking our first field trip together on a real school bus was felt by all! The energy in the classroom on the days building up to the trip was quite amazing to observe and the pure joy of the thought of riding on a school bus filled conversations at lunch, snack, meetings and quiet rest time! We were reminded about the simple things in life and the importance of honoring and celebrating what is truly important and meaningful to our children..

Visiting Abington Memorial Hospital was a wonderful way to extend our study of community. Throughout the past several weeks we have explored community in the context of our classroom community, our connections and relationships with people in our AFS community, places in our Jenkintown community, what it means to be a community helper and how certain community helpers work to keep every community in safe. Visits from firefighters, police officers, nurses, therapists, SPCA volunteers and principals were just a few of the community helpers who visited our classroom and talked to our children about their role in the community. Visiting our local community hospital seemed like a perfect way to continue to support the children's interest and learning about community. Several of our children had selected a health care community helper to research and we observed tremendous interest and joy as the children played with their doctor and nurse dress-up props whenever they were open in our Dramatic Play area.

The volunteer department of the hospital offers a wonderful, age appropriate private lesson that acquaints the children with many aspects of a hospital visit. The children watched a brief video of children coming into the hospital for an overnight stay and seemed to get a glimpse of what that experience may look like. Seeing children in hospital night -gowns, resting in hospital beds and talking with their doctors and nurses helped to bring this experience into a much more realistic light. The children tried real stethoscopes and listened to each other's heartbeats. Our session focused on healthy bones and keeping our bodies healthy and we were fortunate to have a orthopedic nurse lead a in-depth session on this topic. The life size skeleton was a favorite for all and the children had the opportunity to look at ex-rays, casts for the arm and leg, and crutches. We discussed healthy eating and exercise that supports the development of healthy bones and the children received a fun activity book to take home.

This picture slideshow created with Smilebox