January Newsletter
Let It Snow! This month we are venturing to the icy and snowy regions of both the North and South Pole. We will explore Antarctica the coldest, driest, and windiest continent and the Arctic Ocean. We will have out new winter snowflake and polar bear manipulatives for counting and Practical Life tonging and spooning activities. The children will work on fine motor development through different works like snowflake punching and cutting works and Q-tip and cotton ball painting and gluing to make winter scenes. We will be studying the different types of penguins that live in Antarctica including the Gentoo, the Emperor, the Adélie, the Chinstrap, the Rockhopper, and the Macaroni penguins. We will also be learning about the animals that live in the Arctic such as the polar bear, the arctic fox and arctic hare, the caribou, the narwhal, the walrus, the beluga, the muskox, the puffin, the orca, and so many others that travels between the Arctic and Antarctica. We will have new works out this month with a matching work for the types of penguins, polar animal three part cards, and exploring the body parts of the polar animals through labelling model plush animals and drawing diagrams. The children will determine which animals live in each polar region by making “snow” and creating sensory bins to sort the Arctic and Antarctic animals. Students will also make polar animal ice cubes and create an iceberg sensory bin.
We will discuss how the North Pole is in the Arctic and is water and the South Pole is in Antarctica and is land and the characteristics of each. This month, we will be digging deeper into our exploration of the world by discussing how we can protect our earth. We will be look at what happens when polar icecaps melt and conduct an experiment with a sensory bin for the South Pole and a sensory bin for the North Pole to see what happens when glaciers, or ice sheets, melt. The South Pole bin will have dough modeled to represent Antarctica and we will surround the land with water and add ice cubes on top to represent the ice on land. We will then fill the North Pole bin to the same water level to represent the Arctic and add ice directly to the water. As the ice melts, we will note the change in water level. The South Pole will have an increased water level because the melted ice runs into the ocean, while the North Pole will not have a rise in water level because the ice is already in the sea and contributing to the water level. We will add animals to this experiment to see how the melting ice caps affect the animals that live there and can lead to possible extinction. This experiment will demonstrate the importance of respecting and preserving our earth and the animals that live on it. It will also play into the solid, liquid, and gas lesson that we previously covered.
With so many interesting animals to study this month, we will be studying living and non-living this month and exploring the characteristics of living things. We will also be looking at the different landforms through comparing many of the manmade structures we explored in Europe to natural land and water forms, especially the geographical features of the polar regions. This will tie into our glacier student and the balance between land and water and what lives on or within it. We can’t wait to further expose the children to more geography and science concepts through our Antarctica and Arctic unit this month!
What is to come this month in holidays and events! We will also be discussing Martin Luther King Jr. Day this month and looking at what this means to us and why we celebrate it. Our older students will have a chance to explore their own dream of what they would do in our world to make it a better place, and we may work towards achieving one of those dreams as a school community. We will have NO SCHOOL Monday, January 15th for MLK Jr. Day. Re enrollment will be opening this month, so be on the lookout for an email about enrollment for next school year. We will also be having an information night in the next few weeks, so please stay tuned for more information regarding that! DOUG Day will be held in February, but the date has not yet been determined. We have a flurry of different activities and ideas to explore this month, and there is snow much to learn!
January Songs
On Top of An Iceberg *To the tune of “On top of Spaghetti”*
Lyrics
On top of an iceberg in the North Pole, A polar bear sitting as white as the snow Down in the arctic who could it be, Belugas and Narwhals swim in the sea
And in Antarctica near the South Pole, On ice penguins waddle and go for a stroll
Arctic and Antarctic
Baby Beluga
Reminders:
- January tuition is due at your earliest convenience before the end of the month. All tuition can be paid through check, or QuickBooks payment.
- Re-enrollment for Summer Program and 2024-2025 school year opening this month!
- Montessori information night COMING SOON!
- NO SCHOOL Monday, January 15th for Martin Luther King Jr. Day