All posts by website@magic-garden.org

Starlight & Twilight March Highlights

Starlight / Twilight

Starlight Highlights

Greetings Families … As I write on the week-end that Spring appears to have “sprung”, we moved from imagining pink snow and recovering lost mittens, to crafting love bugs and painting knickle-knackle birds. You can visit our exhibit in the Starlight Art Gallery. We have enjoyed participating in music, movement outdoors and embellishing the playground with chalk drawings! Moving along, we will follow the journeys of frogs: “Gem” in Holly Hobbie’s garden, and “Philippe” in Claude Monet’s garden.  Look for our upcoming Art Gallery Exhibit – All About Spring!

Twilight Highlights

One of our favorite outdoor activities is using clipboards with crayons.  Some of our most inspirational drawing places include:  under the climbing structure, on the very top of the climbing structure, over by the sandbox, and a quiet spot along the fence. The children have created nature inspired landscapes, pictures of their friends and teachers. The most popular designs are of maps leading to treasures, grandparents’ homes or vacation destinations, and maps depicting routes to and from school.

maggie

The children took a particular interest in maps that keep everyone safe.  These maps identify the locations of volcanoes, they show the paths of incoming asteroids, fault lines that cause earthquakes, and most importantly, they show the path to follow to stay safe!

March Sunshine Scoop and Starburst Happenings

Sunshine & StarBurst

Sunshine Scoop

Sunshine scientists have been learning about bears. We painted bear dens and used them as a prop for a math game which taught the concepts: less than, more than, and equal to. Graphing came into play as students graphed their favorite bear.  Polar bears took the lead! We used the excitement over polar bears as a springboard to explore cold regions; using sugar cubes we designed and constructed an igloo.

Our junior scientists took part in an experiment which illustrated the importance of blubber for animals living in extremely cold climates.  They coated gallon sized plastic bags with shortening and then plunged them into ice cold water.  This hands-on activity showed them how blubber “shortening” resists the water and keeps the cold from reaching the animals skin. The highlight of our science curricula was exploring the terms: liquid and solid.  We created beautiful magenta crystals made from Epsom salts. The results were really “cool”.

Going forward we will be culminating our bear unit and delve into spring activities.  Indoor planting will get us started, while we wait for the climate to be right for transplanting our seedlings into our outdoor gardens.

Starburst Happenings

Starburst kicked off March with a fun week celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday!  The silly tones of his books brought out an abundance of laughter from the children.  They were inspired to create their own silly stories, including what they thought would happen if, “Thing One and Thing Two” came to school.  The children have been spontaneously generating lists of rhyming words, the sillier the better!  We decorated our classroom with Truffala trees and paintings of  “Things One and  Thing Two”. The children also recreated an art mural inspired by Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat, depicting them looking out the window “on that cold, cold wet day”.

deng

We’ve enjoyed being detectives in search of signs of spring on campus.  We’ve been delighted to find buds on trees and shrubs, robins looking for worms, green shoots poking up from the earth, and, of course, mud! We also planted zucchini seeds in preparation for transplanting them into Peggy’s Garden.  Our spring inspired art includes: clouds with rainbow streamers and handprint daffodils, which sit atop beaded stems.

We are looking forward to expanding our rhyming exploration to include alliteration and playing with beginning, middle and ending sounds in words.  Next, off campus field trips to community destinations such as: Pierce Park for picnicking, play and ponding and deCordova Museum & Sculpture Park, for art influences and inspiration, are some of our favorite spring adventures!

Moonbeam March Blog

Moon Beam

We have been celebrating Friendship and Feelings in Moonbeam.  Learning about their own feelings helps children appreciate that other people have feelings too.  Social and emotional development is the foundation of lifelong success in school, work, families and friendships.  It is the foundation to resiliency; that special quality that helps us through all of life’s ups and downs.

The children especially loved making cards for all their friends. They decorated them with crayons, markers, stickers and jewels. Delivering cards to their friend’s mailboxes was a highlight. Supporting children in developing friendships is the focus of the Moonbeam Room.  We are exploring the words for different feelings such as happy, sad, angry, mad, scared, and our favorite, silly.

Moonbeam March Blog Photos 2

We’ve begun a new unit learning about shapes. We will learn about the different names of shapes, how to make them and what they can do. This activity is an important cornerstone to geometry.

As part of our preparations for Moonbeamers graduating to Pre-K, the children love going to visit the Sunshine and Starburst classes to see where the “Big Kids” go.  We are looking forward to a visit to Sunshine for a pancake snack and story time!