Hello all,
“Letter W is for Whisker Week” was Wonderful, Wondrous, at times Warm, WaCkY, and WiLd! Read on below to learn about the fun that was had and learning that took place!
As was to be expected, the students entered school ready to share some amazing letter W shares. The share box could have been changed to a share bucket or basket since was nearly overflowing! Some W shares this week included Watches, Wallets, Wings (on a bird), Warrior Weapons, Wonder Woman, Woody from Toy Story, Whistles, Worms (fake ones!), Wands, and even a large piece of Wood was sent in!
For their morning work, the students spent Monday and Tuesday completing their letter W tracing/writing identification coloring activities. The W fun continued as they worked in their morning stations around the classroom. Here is the list that they created during the afternoon on Monday. WoW! Talk about a lot of W Words!
Also on Monday, the students were visited by a PPA Mommy guest reader! What a wonderful way to start the day! A special PPA Thank You to the Mommy and younger sister photographed below for visiting!
Things got really WaCkY on Wednesday as the students began their art exploration of the letter W and the theme of the week – Whiskers! What better animal to discuss than a letter W animal with whiskers? Can you guess which animal the students learned about? Here is a hint – this animal looks like a rather large seal and has long tusks somewhat like an elephant! Do you know this letter W animal? If you guessed, “Walrus” then you are absolutely correct!
The students began their Walrus art project by creating the face of the walrus using googly eyes. Since this was a WaCkY WaLrUs, they used some colorful pipe-cleaners for the whiskers. Next, the students added some sparkly sequins to give their Walrus a bit of pizazz! Here is how the completed WaCkY WaLrUs art project turned out!
During the afternoon on Wednesday (and Thursday) the students participated in Spanish class where they reviewed their La Transportacion (Transportation) vocabulary.
Thursday began with a story that is all about another animal with whiskers. This time the animal of interest was much smaller than Wednesday’s walrus. See if you can figure out which whiskered animal the students learned about from these clues.
1. This whiskered animal is very tiny and very fast.
2. This whiskered animal loves to eat cheese!
3. The most famous pair of this whiskered animal is named Mickey and Minnie!
Do you know this whiskered animal?
If you said, “a mouse” then you are correct! The students started their day on Thursday with a read aloud of Felicia Numeroff’s classic tale, If You Take A Mouse To School. In the story, a tiny mouse tags along with his pal as he heads to school for the day! Shortly after arriving at school, the mouse realizes that he needs a few other things – like a lunch box, a notebook, pencils, and so on! After enjoying the story, the students were thrilled to learn that they would be transforming into mice themselves later in the day!
For their morning work, the students assembled their very own pair of wearable mouse ears! By Thursday afternoon the glue had dried so the mouse ears were assembled and placed on the head of each student. The students certainly made adorable mice with the ears but something was missing – of course, whiskers! Thankfully a little face paint did the trick and the kid-to-mouse transformation was complete! Before long, the PPA classroom was adorably infested with mice! Thankfully, these mice were much better listeners than the mouse in the story 🙂
Since the Thursday friends grew whiskers, it was only fair that the Friday friends would also get a turn to grow some too! Here is the morning work art project from Friday – needless to say, it was a hit!
After music class on Friday afternoon, the students participated in a discussion and technology presentation all about – you guessed it, WHISKERS! Through their investigation, the students learned about the word mammals – animals who have hair or fur and give birth to live babies. When asked to name some mammals, the students mentioned lions, dogs, cats, and mice. They were SHOCKED to learn that people are also mammals but after a closer look at their own arms and legs, they realized that people also have hair and have live babies! Once the term mammals had been identified, the conversation shifted to another feature of many mammals – whiskers! But what do whiskers do?
The teachers explained that many mammals use their whiskers to help understand the world around them. Much in the same way that humans have various senses like touch, taste, hearing, sight, smell and more, to help them; some animals have whiskers to help them too! The teachers told the students to imagine that whiskers on an animal were less like hair and more like fingers for the animal.
PPA BLOG PAUSE!
Let’s try an experiment right now! 🙂
Parents – ask your child to cover his/her eyes while you select a small item in front of you. Now, ask your child (remember: eyes closed!) to touch the item with his/her fingers and try to guess what item it was!
Okay, back to the Blog…
Well, how did YOU do? Did you guess the item correctly without peeking? If so, way to go! Now, let’s discuss why…
Just by touching the item in front of you, your fingers send a message to your brain that tells you about what you are feeling. Was the item you touched soft? Was it firm? Bumpy or smooth? You can figure all of this out just by using your fingers or your sense of touch. Of course, if you open your eyes and touch the item with your fingers, you can easily identify the item too but it is always fun to learn all of the ways our amazing brains work!
After participating in the same experiment at school, the students were able to see a few animals using their whiskers to help them navigate (or move around) in the dark! In the clip, the animals knew just when to keep moving or when to turn because they were close to a wall or corner. How neat!
Of course, no PPA technology presentation would be complete without a visit from the Wild and Wacky Storybots!
WoW! What a Wonderful Week it Was! As always, thank you for reading and have a Wondrous Weekend!
-PPA
REMINDERS:
Next PPA Event:
Mother’s Day Celebration
Friday, May 6th
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
(no aftercare available that day)
We kindly ask that attendance is limited to PPA Students and their Mommies. Thank you!
LETTER AND THEME FOR NEXT WEEK:
