Before Valentine's Day the at-school friends were given a tray each with a specific number of pattern blocks on it. Their challenge? Make a heart. The friends did an amazing and creative array of different hearts using just their pattern blocks. After they spent a while trying different combinations, they received a pattern to try and copy that would make a heart using all their blocks. After all this work they recorded the number of blocks they had used and the shape of each block. 

 

Kindergarten students, both at home and on campus, looked at the celebration of the Lunar New Year this week. The dragon dance particularly took everyone's fancy. You can tell that they learned that red is an important color in the Lunar New Year celebration. Students designed their dragons in whatever way they chose. Xin nian hao! Happy New Year!

 

This year the Bumblebees had the opportunity to "adopt" a calf at a dairy farm. They were so excited when their calf, Pearl, was born last November. This week the students designed and built a stall for Pearl. They needed to provide her with shelter, food, water, a place to rest and room to move around. They did amazing work designing and building these shelters, at their homes, out of any materials they chose. 

 

 

Here are some pretty amazing bald eagle drawings that the Bumblebees have done as they have studied Alaska. They have explored, and continue to explore, what it is like to live in a place so often covered in snow, what snow is, and how the animals that live there have adapted to the cold and dark  (or rarely to never dark in summer) environment they live in. I am so impressed with the care and skill the Bumblebees have used to make these Bald Eagles. They are a great addition to their Alaska books. 

Bumblebees studied the work and life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Afterward, they had this poem and hand to work with. They were to color or paint the hand in whatever way meant something to them and then think of the way they could, in their own lives, share Dr. King's message. Students decided they could be kind, share love, find ways to clean our oceans, give hugs and write about kindness that other's can read. Great work, Bumblebees. 

 

The Bumblebees enjoyed some exciting ice experimentation. Using something that everyone had at home, water and a freezer, the Bumblebees designed their own experiments, and had a great time doing it. Pictured are many of their experiments. Students told me about their experiments in our Zoom. They experimented with melting rates, excavation using Legos, toy animals, forks, meat tenderizers, screw drivers and hammers.  They tested the effect of salt and sugar on ice. They made ice of different colors, using colored water and dice which, when frozen, turned out to dye the dice the color of the water, or making ice jewels. They tried color combining, using red and blue food coloring to dye their ice purple. As always at Seabury, I am amazed by their ingenuity, creativity and willingness to think outside the freezer box! :) 

 

 Instead of talking about resolutions this new year the Bumblebees thought of things they would like to do in 2021. Here are some of their ideas:

In 2021 I want to go to Oklahoma.

I want to go sledding.

I want to make more people smile than frown.

I want to make my a's look like a's instead of u's.

I want to start a Things I Love art gallery.

I want to go to Great Wolf Lodge.

I want to visit Hawaii.

I want to build my Harry Potter Legos. 

I want to help Mommy shop for Christmas gifts.