On Thursday, March 5, we sang songs using rhythm sticks; children enjoy the sticks, something to hold, as well as learning the art of keeping time to music. I introduced a new song, "Come to the Castle," as a way of highlighting our fairy tale theme. We then read a book, "The Wolf's Chicken Stew," about a wolf who longs for chicken stew, but wants to fatten up the chicken before digging in to his dinner. After baking 100 donuts and pancakes and an enormous cake, he believes the chicken will be quite ready for the stew. To his consternation the chicken greets him at her door and all the little chicks kiss and hug "Uncle Wolf." So, he acclimates to his role of uncle and we presume adopts a chicken-free diet.

On Friday, March 6, we heard "Make Way For Ducklings," read in the library. The children listened and learned about the mallard ducks searching for a home and about Boston's swan boats, a great family outing. Later on in the day we had a group time about recycling and using cloth bags, as each child took an item from a cloth bag and placed it in the recycling bin. Spring is almost here, so we also had a chance to look at a forsythia branch that we will watch bloom inside.

On Friday the Chipmunks sing a song called, "We're going to Mexico," which involves clapping and other hand motions. Someone wants to go to the park, rather than Mexico, so we sing again. We join in a chant, "Five Little Monkeys," with a hand puppet glove with one monkey on each finger. Mr. Alligator approaches and one by one the monkeys are snatched up by the gator. Suspense builds. Even though we know what is coming, we still get excited. Finally, there are no monkeys left. Well, it is a fun way to count and learn subtraction and the children seem to get that this is, after all, just a pretend game. We move our chairs to the tables and each child receives a small piece of birthday "cake" (actually it is a play dough called flubber) and candles to put on the cake, after revealing how many candles are needed. The children cut their "cake," with plastic knives and chat. This is a simple math activity and also promotes eye hand coordination. Mrs. French

On Thursday, at our whole class meeting, I had something in my bag to show everyone. Once the children see a bag, all is quiet, as everyone waits to see what is in the bag. I guarantee this will get your child's attention, so you may try this at home. I brought out a small package of dental floss, and most of the children knew what it was and commented that someone in their house used it. Then, of course, this was followed by the toothbrush and toothpaste. I also had a battery operated toothbrush and we talked about the difference between the two. We talked about brushing our teeth and then looked at two other items, an apple and a carrot, as being foods healthy for our teeth because they have some crunch. We ended with the Raffi song, "Brush your Teeth," which is quite funny and a good reinforcement for healthy habits.

At circle, the Chipmunks sat in "bus" formation and we sang about the animals on the bus, a variation on the wheels on the bus, just to be silly and make animals sounds.

Tuesday - February 24

Welcome back Chipmunks and families from another school vacation. I hope once again that you were able to enjoy the time off with your children. Here we are now looking forward to the month of March and waiting for signs of spring. But it appears that March is coming in as a lion. But you know what? Your chipmunks came back to circle with a windy roar also. Yes that's right. We read the book "WINDS" which took us on to a windy journey of flying leaves, floating clouds, rustling papers. After exploring the book we decided that it would be important to act like scientists and perform an experiment with air. So with just the aide of cotton balls and a few plastic straws we saw what happened to the cotton ball with just a blow threw the straw. We also could experiment with the feel of the wind just by blowing on the palms of our hands.

Wednesday - February 25

Our Wednesday adventure included a rhyming song "Everybody do this just like me" which was acted out with our morning guest Mr. Elephant (of course which is from our lovable stuffed animal collection). The Chipmunks had fun laughing and imitating his moves and came up with their own ideas too. This fun was followed up by reading and singing along to the book "THE WHEELS ON THE BUS" a book children never get tired of.

Please continue to read on for more Chipmunk adventures. We welcome your feedback.

Mrs. Sullivan

Monday, February 23

We eased into circle time with a familiar good morning song, playing our jingle bells and singing good morning in Spanish, Japanese, Swahili, Italian, and English, followed by "Frere Jacques," and "Twinkle, Twinkle." One child asked to sing a song her Mom taught her and she did a solo of "You Are My Sunshine," and we all joined in on the second round. We brought our chairs to the table and enjoyed a few peaceful minutes using water color paints. Water colors are a soothing kind of art form and children like to mix colors and see what happens. It was a relaxing way to enter back into our little community after the winter vacation.

On Thursday, February 6, the Amaryllis bulb project was introduced to the children by taking out the bulb, noticing the small stem and roots, measuring the stem (2 1/2"), looking at the soil "pancake," adding water to the soil and watching it expand. Later the bulb was planted in the soil. This will be an ongoing science and math project on plant life, with, one hopes, a flower in 4 weeks.

At circle the Chipmunks were given crowns and learned a song about the king of the dinosaurs, T-Rex. Each child was given an opportunity to stand and/or bow when h/her name was sung out as the king/queen. As you might guess, there was a mixture of bows, smiles and a few stoic dinos. We decorated our crowns and some were worn through the day.

On Friday we tried a movement song called, "Stamp, Jump, Clap." Children are challenged to sing out those words and do the movements as we sing. It is actually quite a challenge to get your feet and hands to move in sequence. We read a book called, "Dinosaurs Roar," and then went on a hunt for dinosaur teeth (6" size) to place around the 10' t-rex mouth. The hunting and finding was the best part.

On Thursday, January 29, at meeting time, we talked about some of the differences between people and animals. It was a kind of guessing game. Children were shown a knife and fork (what is that for?) and then asked how animals eat. A cup and napkin were brought out as well. We had a hand glove with 5 little monkeys and an alligator looking for some lunch. As we counted 5, 4, 3, 2,1,0, it was noted that the alligator ate with h/her mouth, rather than a knife and fork.

On Friday, January 30, at circle we used two language charts pointing out the words and using our hands to do the motions for "The Chubby Little Snowman With A Carrot Nose," and "I'm a Little Snow person." We then played a counting game called, "11 Brown Bunnies at the Bakery Shop." Children are called by name and given an opportunity to buy one of the bunnies (on a flannel board) and pay as they take the bunny back to their place. Each child picks out a coin ahead of time. We count down the bunnies, until all are sold. We followed this up with making paper snowballs and tossing them in the air, attempting to catch them. This helps develop eye hand coordination.