Music Around the World Week 5--America

Wow! What an exciting day we had today at our last morning of our Music Around the World Club! Today we learned about our country--America! We focused on how Texans like to put a country twist on American favorites. After reviewing "Kye Kye Kule" and "This Little Light of Mine", we were treated to a special guest, Miss Todd's Dad, Mr. Todd. He played his guitar for us and sang, "Sneaky Snake", a song that he and Miss Todd sang together when she was our age. If you watch closely, you can also see a sneak peak of Gus, Miss Todd's dog, who loves music and enjoys singing along to Mr. Todd's playing. After enjoying Mr. Todd's presentation, we had the opportunity to create string things and washboards. We used these instruments to accompany our song, "You Are my Sunshine!" You can listen to our rousing rendition in the show we made below. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think about our fun day!

Don't forget to join us on Thursday night, April 30th at 7:00 P.M. for our presentation of our Music Around the World Celebration Night! You are going to enjoy seeing all of the instruments that we have created and songs that we have learned on our musical journey around the world!

https://vimeo.com/125972804

Northeast Texas Children's Museum

We were blessed this week to have the opportunity to visit the Northeast Texas Children's Museum in Commerce, Texas. During our stay, we learned about bubbles, the Texas armadillo, oximeters, and surface tension. Then, we were treated to a plethora of learning stations where we played, explored, and observed our world around us. If you ever get the chance to visit this children's museum, take it...you will be glad you did! :)

Here is a show and some pictures of our fun day! Leave us a comment and let us know what you think! :)

https://vimeo.com/126024882

Interesting Insects

This week we have been studying about insects. We learned that an insect has three body parts: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. They also have two antennas, two wings, and six legs. Ask us to sing our song about insects. It is sure to put a smile on your face and help you to never forget these facts about insects! During our lessons this week, we read a lot of fascinating books about insects. We were especially impressed with Eric Carle's collection of insect stories. One of our favorites was The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We enjoyed this story so much we decided to act it out for you. You can watch it right here! Leave us a comment and let us know what you think about our show!

https://vimeo.com/125975465

After hearing this story, we also learned about the life cycle of a butterfly by reading some nonfiction stories about butterflies. In order to help us remember the different stages of a butterfly's life, we used pasta to make these butterfly life cycle plates. Aren't they neat!

Finally, we took some time to make our own insect creations. You can see them in the show below! Don't forget to leave us a comment and let us know what you think of our cool creations!

https://animoto.com/play/w3Havhn3hqtCRDIqfxla0Q

Music Around the World Week 4--South America

What an exciting day we had at our Music Around the World Club today! We learned all about South America and one of their favorite instruments--the rainstick. After exploring some of the special places you can visit in Brazil, we were able to learn about a day in the life of a boy from Brazil. We also saw some of the different ways that you can make a rainstick. We enjoyed learning about the rainstick so much that we decided to make our very own rainstick. Then, we were treated to a visit from a guest musician--Mrs. Sheri! She is a very talented lady who can play the piano, guitar, and ukelele! She also sings like an angel! :) She shared her musical gift with us and allowed us the privilege of singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" with her. We also reviewed one of our favorite songs, "Kookaburra" with her, as she played the guitar. We had such a fabulous day and can not wait until next week! Here are some pictures and a video from our exciting day! Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!

https://vimeo.com/125361012

Mrs. Sheri, our guest musician

Powerful Plants

Just as a flower grows when tended to with love and care, we are continuing to grow in our learning each week. This week we focused on plants. We explored the parts of a plant, compared the different seeds that plants come from, and had an opportunity to plant our own lima bean plants. Here are some pictures from our science explorations from this week.

Seed Explorations

Plant Art

Lima Bean Plants

In math, we continued our study of measurement. We participated in measurement stations where we used beans and cups to measure capacity, items from the room and cubes to measure length, and zoo animals and a balance to measure weight. We had such a wonderful time! Then, we created tree maps to organize our thoughts and record some of the items that we discovered could be measured by length, weight, and capacity. Finally, we participated in a Measurement Show and Tell where we brought special things from home and explained to our friends how they could be measured.  Here are some pictures from our study and a video of our Measurement Show and Tell. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think! 

Length

Capacity

Weight

Measurement Tree Maps

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_CGJElEYcj8OHVQX2otblJxSmc/view?usp=sharing

Measurement Show and Tell