Penguins and fairy tales....

We finished up our penguin study with a science experiment to show how blubber helps Emperor Penguins stay warm in Antarctica. We filled a container with ice and cold water....we could hardly keep our hand in it!

Then we took turns wearing a "blubber glove" - a double layered glove filled with shortening (the blubber). We had no difficulty keeping our hand in the ice water with the blubber to insulate it! Of course, we wrote about our experiment in our journals. 

Now that we have learned a lot about penguins, we are moving on to a huge fairy tale unit! Albert Einstein said, "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." This week we learned that fairy tales have specific traits, including magic, special beginnings (Once upon a time...), talking animals, royalty and good/evil characters. We read several versions of "Red Riding Hood" and were able to name the good/evil characters and we noticed it had talking animals and a "once upon a time" beginning. We also read a version called "Red Riding Hood and the Sweet Little Wolf" which helped us understand things from a different perspective. We made Red Riding Hood, her basket and the wolf! 

Don't forget...next Wednesday is a 1/2 day and it is Global School Play Day. Your child may bring one toy from home to use during Centers that day. 

February also begins kindness and empathy month at Loon Lake. We will attend an assembly on February 6 to hear from a local high school student and his project to help the homeless and those who live in shelters. Caleb White is a WL student who began this project several years ago.  Loon Lake will have a penny drive next week and children are welcome to bring their spare pennies/coins to school - all of the money raised will go to Caleb for the Caleb White Project.