Penguins, Snow, and Valentine Love

Whew!  I've been out of the loop for awhile!  I feel terrible to have neglected my blog but I've just been swamped.  We moved on Feb. 1st and that took every ounce of energy I had to spare-- and then some!  Moving is such a pain in the you know what great experience.  We are still getting settled and have a bazillion boxes left to go through are almost unpacked.  It is unreal how much stuff you can acquire, isn't it?

Of course, in the classroom, the show must go on, right?  We have had a great and fun-filled month so far!  We did a penguin directed drawing and they turned out really cute!  I did these in small groups.

Last week we had a visitor come from a local museum (Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose) and do a presentation called "Snow Day" to kick off our upcoming unit on weather.  The kids got to use microscopes to look at artificial snow.  They checked it out dry, then with water, then with salt and compared and contrasted how it looked and changed.  They loved it!

 The kids worked in pairs.

 They learned how to adjust the focus.

 This was also a great exercise in following directions.

This experience really gets them excited to learn about weather, and also gets them talking about snow which is something we don't see around here.  It snowed a little a couple of years ago, but normally "cold" is around 55 here in the Bay Area of CA.  (Unless you're my hubby.  Then "cold" is 74, and 55 is downright freezing!.)   My group this year tends to be a little, shall we say, chatty and they did have to be threatened reminded a few times to be good listeners but, all things considered, it was a great day!

Of course, we also celebrated Valentine's Day this past week.  We are allowed to have 2 parties per year so I always do one on Valentine's Day.  No matter what, this always ends up being one of our best days ever!  I had parents sign up to bring cookies, fruit, and juice.  We passed out cards and did some fun coloring sheets.  For class parties I strongly adhere to the old K.I.S.S. method, if you catch my drift.  Especially with the energetic bunch I have this year!  Oh my.  It's an experience just opening the door each morning.  I am counting down the days til Summer finding ways to channel their energy, but it's one of those years I cannot be off my game for even a minute!

Anyway, I want them to find learning fun so I do try to incorporate lots of arts and crafts whenever possible.  We did this cute one from Miss Kindergarten and used it as our Valentine card.  For now, I only ran off the bear.  I think I am going to do the cute bunny for Easter/Spring!

It was a super cute, fun, and easy-to-prep craft!

And now....I am off for a whole week!  My district doesn't get any extended breaks before December, but after that we have some nice mental health breaks vacations sprinkled in!  It's so nice to have time to relax with my family, unpack and get my new house in order, sleep in, and hopefully work on some new items for my TpT Store!  

Do you get any time off this week for President's Day?