The children have been working with a variety of materials, tools and technologies that promote creative and critical thinking.  They also encourage problem solving skills (persevering when something doesn’t work and being flexible enough to try different ways of doing things) and working effectively in a group (working respectfully and constructively with others).  These were the challenges presented to the children;

• Keva Blocks – create a structure by stacking wood planks using no glue or connectors
• Snap Circuits – build a variety of circuits that do something like turn on a light or run a fan
• Coding Safari – learn the fundamentals of coding through this animal themed logic game
• Chatter Pix – use oral language skills to create a picture that talks
• Marble works – create a structure that uses chain reactions to move a marble through chutes
• Bee Bots – program the little robot to move in many directions  (a pre-cursor to coding)

The children have been learning about snowflakes.  We know that:

• Snowflakes have 6 sixes
• Snowflakes have a hexagonal shape
• Every snowflake is different
• All snowflakes are symmetrical

Based on the above criteria, they created their own unique snowflakes using loose parts.  Check out the creative designs in the children’s blogfolios.

On February 2, a groundhog is said to forecast the weather by looking for his shadow. If it’s sunny out, and he sees his shadow, we’re in for six more weeks of winter. On the other hand, a cloudy Groundhog Day is supposed to mean that we will have an early spring.  We celebrated Groundhog Day by learning all kinds of amazing groundhog facts – including what they eat, where they live, and how they make it through tough winters!

We also went outside to see if we could see our shadows, and we did not. . . so we predict that we will have an early spring!

This made us curious about shadows, so we learned how to make shadow puppets with our hands.   

Try this activity at home.  It was fun!