Hello all,

Letter U is for Under the Sea Week was utterly unbelievable, unimaginably unique and uber-uplifting!  Read on below to learn about the fun that was had and learning that took place!

Although the letter U is not the most common letter in the alphabet, the students managed to fill the share box each day throughout the week!   Only a few of the shares actually started with U’s, however, the many shares related to the Under the Sea theme!  It seemed like every single species of sea creature was brought in!  Crabs, lobsters, clams, sharks, jellyfish, turtles, whales, to name a few.  Equally as popular as the sea creatures listed above was Ariel from the Disney hit movie, The Little Mermaid!  Oddly enough, many Ariels were brought in but only one student brought in an Ursula, the mean sea witch who also stars in the movie!  Ursula was one of the additions to the word lists that the students created in the afternoon on Monday and Tuesday! Despite the confusion early on with word suggestions like “You starts with U”, the students were able to come up with a lot of great U words!  Take a look below!

 

 

Also on Monday afternoon, the students were visited by a PPA Mommy as well as a big brother (a PPA alum!)  The older boy photographed below came in to read an Under the Sea-themed story to the students of PPA!  What a phenomenal reader this second grader has become!  Thank you for visiting us, we hope you had a great time!

 

 

The art exploration of the letter U and the Under the Sea theme began on Wednesday as the students started their day with a silly story about one of the cutest Under the Sea animals – the Sea Horse!    Using tissue-paper crumbles, the students created the most beautiful seahorses the teachers had ever seen!

 

 

On Wednesday afternoon, the students participated in a technology presentation all about life Under the Sea!  Seeing that the students were interested in Seahorses from earlier in the day, the teachers began by sharing several high definition photographs of seahorses for the students to observe.  The students all noted that seahorses were quite pretty!  They learned a plethora of extremely interesting facts about seahorses including the role Daddy (male) seahorses play in the baby seahorse process!  The students particularly loved learning that seahorses, despite living in the water, are not great swimmers! They are however great floaters! Seahorses use their long tail to wrap around and hold on tight to coral so they do not float away with the ocean current! An older student blew the teachers away as she made an amazing connection and compared that the way a seahorse uses its tail to the way a snake wraps his body around a tree limb! As if that real-world connection was not impressive enough, the students continued by saying that other animals like monkeys and possums also use their tales in a similar way!  Take a look at this seahorse who wraps his tail around a sea plant to help stay in one place while he is eating!

 

 

After learning all about the seahorse, the teachers then introduced an Under the Sea animal that the students were less familiar with – the Sea Dragon!  When asked to compare and contrast the two similar ocean creatures, the students noted that seadragons appeared to look leafy, almost like a plant.  The teachers explained that both Seahorse and Seadragons live in seaplants and coral reefs and looking like a plant helps them hide from predators (or other fish/sea animals that try to eat them).  They are also excellent at camouflaging!   Look very carefully to see for yourself below!  Wow, what an exciting and informative day it was!

 

 

Thursday morning began with a reading of Marcus Pfister’s, Rainbow Fish.  In the story, a beautiful fish, known as Rainbow Fish because of his beautiful and colorful appearance, struggles to make friends with the other fish because of his unwillingness to share.  After consulting some other fish and wise sea creatures, the Rainbow Fish learns that sharing is a very important part of being a friend!  To help remember this fact, the students created their own beautiful fish by selecting a particular color fish and adorning it with beautiful fish scales (or sparkles).  The teachers were so impressed that throughout their morning work,  the PPA students took the time to acknowledge how lovely all the classmates’ fish were looking.  It was decided that the entire “school” of fish would make a wonderful new addition to the classroom walls!  Be sure to check out the new bulletin board on your next visit to PPA!

 

 

Thursday afternoon (and the school week) wrapped up with another exciting technology presentation about life Under the Sea!  First, the students started off by observing some high definition footage of the vast and diverse sealife!  Their eyes widened as they journeyed below the sea to see all the amazing and DIFFERENT animals!  Take a look for yourself!

 

 

The students particularly loved singing along to as well as naming all of the different animals in the following “Under the Sea” clip – you may even recognize the song!

 

 

Well, that is all for “Letter U is for Under the Sea Week!”  As always, we thank you for reading.  Have a wonderful and safe Spring Recess!

-PPA

 

REMINDERS:

Next School Closing:

Spring Recess

Friday, 3/29- Friday, 4/5

School Resumes Monday, March 8th

THEME FOR NEXT WEEK: