The little bit I was here last week :(((, we focused on what winter exactly means.
Since we are not here when the season actually changes to winter, I explained that it happens on December 21 and that North America will have fewer hours of sunlight than any other day in the year. That is the day of the winter solstice, the official first day of winter.
Since we are not here when the season actually changes to winter, I explained that it happens on December 21 and that North America will have fewer hours of sunlight than any other day in the year. That is the day of the winter solstice, the official first day of winter.
Winter lasts from the months of December through February. Winter is the season of the longest night, the shortest day, the least light, as well as the presence of snow, cold and wind chill. It is the slowest growing season for plant life. (And I ask them why they think this is) Food supplies dwindle and it is a hard time for animals (Again why). Winter poses many challenges to plants and animals.
Our good friend Bill Nye helped explained the seasons to us.
We watched Peep and the Whole Wide World Snow Daze.
So we wondered, why is it colder in the winter and warmer in the summer?
(I pulled out the old faithful globe and flashlight for this one)
As the earth travels around the sun, different regions receive more direct sunlight than others. The tilt of the earth on its axis is responsible for the different seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres. In the summer, when the North Pole is tilted toward the sun, the northern hemisphere gets more direct sunlight and the days are longer than during spring, fall and winter. In winter, the tilt is away from the sun and sunlight strikes the northern hemisphere at a lower angle.
We watched Hemispheres.
We also talked about the water cycle and how it creates snow. The water vapor in the clouds creates droplets and those droplets keep getting bigger and bigger until the fall. When temperatures get below freezing, it creates snow!
We are really hoping to get to play in the snow at least one day before winter is over!
We watched Snow and Snowflakes.
And Peep and the Big Wide World Quack's Tracks.
We also talked about how we get snow.
This brought up the water cycle, so we talked about that first.
Then we talked about snow.
We get snow when there is an area of disturbed weather, usually associated with a low-pressure system. The water vapor in the clouds creates droplets and those droplets keep getting bigger and bigger until the fall. When temperatures get below freezing, it creates snow!
This is when we get to pull out a pack of Instasnow! Which is a pack of awesomeness!
We looked at it before we added water since some of the students have not attended Campus School before and have not seen the before and after. This is the same stuff that is inside diapers :)
After everyone got to see and feel, we started adding water and more water and watched it absorb and grow!
It will be in the Discovery Center for a few weeks for the students to have some fun with.
We focused on -sh blend this week. The students easily came up with -sh words and located the blend individually, too.
One of our journal writings this week was, Would you rather live in an igloo or house? Why?
These were their answers. :)
This week in math we acted out winter mini-scenes that represented addition and subtraction facts.
They loved it!!!
And on Friday we traveled to Meridian to the Meridian Little Theatre to see The Magical Land of Oz.
And then we finished the trip with lunch at Chickfila!
Our Shared Reading book this week was Old Grizzly by Joy Cowley.
The students loved illustrating their version. Ask them to tell you about it!
"Grumpy old Grizzly tells people to go away, but is lonely. Finally he is invited to go to the circus and he is happy."
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