PK3.3 Earth News
18th - 22nd April 2016
Hello Parents of PK3.3 !
What a wonderful week we have had celebrating our planet and looking for ways we can help Mother Earth to stay healthy.
We have been learning how we can take care of our planet by reducing, reusing and recycling at home and in our school, and thinking of ways we can help protect the earth and the environment. We identified ways to reduce - not using so much water; reuse with a refillable water bottle and recycle by putting things in recycling bins. The children were also very keen to tell me we should not throw trash on the floor or the ocean as it makes it dirty and can hurt the animals.
In our morning meetings we used words such as environment and explained it Is our natural world, where people, animals, and plants live. Later we introduced the word Pollution, meaning something has become dirty or not safe anymore.
At the end of the week we made pledges of how we will help our Earth to stay clean and safe.
Ocean Yoga and Community Circle
On Tuesday we looked at pictures of polluted and clean beaches and asked "which one would like to visit? "The clean beach of course! Our talked about how we can keep our oceans clean by taking trash home with us and recycling what we can. We then tried a little ocean life YOGA . I explained we were going to be doing some stretches to help calm our bodies and relax our minds. We began with the FISH pose; sitting tall and straight. We then lunged into the sea and stretched our bodies back long as we tried to gently touch our heads on the floor. We pushed our bellies up to complete the stretch. We then tried the playful DOLPHIN pose; flipping our tails high as we pretended to swim through the ocean.
I also wanted to introduce the children to the benefits of giving and receiving compliments. Who doesn't like to receive a compliment? It’s a great way to pass on good feelings and show others kindness. No matter what age, everyone can benefit by giving and receiving compliments. It costs nothing to compliment someone on their efforts and good qualities. It only takes being thoughtful about others and thinking about what makes them special or unique.
In a circle and one by one we gently squeezed the next child's hand as we told them something we liked about them, or even just a hello! After a nervous start it was wonderful to hear the children telling each other that they liked each others shoes, that they ran fast and they liked their hair! Hearing these positive words from our peers makes us feel valued and gives us a sense of belonging. It also gives us huge SMILES! Let's keep those positive words coming PK3 :)
Looking at Planet Earth!
The children have been exploring our planet in many different ways this week. We examined our globe and identified where we all come from. Marking our home countries and where we are now. It was a great way to show that although we all come from different places we share the same planet.
earth week activities:
In our small group activities this week we have been:
- planting a garden, complete with bugs!
- playing Earth day bingo
- creating with earth theme playdough mats
- building with recyclable materials
Fun with recycling.
Tuesday morning was such fun as the children shared the recycled toys they had made.
There was such creativity to see as we shared egg box caterpillars, a game of croquet, ring toss or number sorting. Drums, shakers, table football, rockets, cars, dolls, fish and dress up costumes. The children have had such fun playing with and sharing these toys all week.
Reduce, reuse, recycle. It's easy to do.
Earth week class rotations
We love to share ideas in PK3 so on Wednesday we visited each PK3 class to see what they were making with recyclable items:
In PK3.4 Ms Camilla shared the story of "ish - by Peter Reynolds". An encouraging story for children that their creations don't have to be perfect , if they are "like-ish" then that's okay. Not everything needs to be perfect, even imperfect things can still be enjoyed. Afterwards the children made and painted balls from paper.
recycle dress up day - what a great way to end a week of learning how we can continue to help our planet.
dates for your diary
Welcome back Waffles!
Waffles is back and getting lots of attention. The children are doing a great job at remembering to use their eyes for looking, not their hands and we have had lots of fun observing how she eats and moves around her cage.
Next week we will be doing an activity using environmental print from pet food packaging. Please can you save any boxes, labels, packets from pet products and send them (cleaned!) with your child. Please do not send any tins……just the labels.