Dear Brancher families,
Where do we begin? March proved to be quite a busy month… it was challenging to fit in all the learning activities, and art planned, but we did it! We began our ‘Rainbows & Rhymes’ study by rhyming! What better way to introduce the concept of rhyming words than by reading anything and everything, Dr. Seuss, the rhyming genius!? After just a few short days, it was safe to say that our Branchers had the rhyming concept down! Throughout the month, the rhymes became more advanced and creative.
Now, onto rainbows! As we began our discussion, we discussed the rainbow, its colors, and its shape. As a whole group, we discussed how a rainbow is created. Our Branchers discovered that a rainbow is formed when sunlight shines through raindrops. It’s a simple explanation but a significant result! Our Branchers were so excited to learn just how a rainbow was formed! As we made our way outside that morning after our discussion, many friends in the classroom ran outside to search the sky for a beautiful rainbow.
THANK YOU to Charlie’s family for bringing beautiful rainbow soap to brighten our classroom! All the Branchers were so excited to take home their soap, and our classroom smelt extra wonderful.
With all the excitement of discovering different facts and knowledge about rainbows, it was time for a bit of voting! As you know, our classroom votes every day. Whether it is voting on a book to read or an activity to do, we allow our Branchers to give their opinion and have a chance to stand out and say what they like! Our voting topic of the day was, “What is your favorite color in the rainbow?” Each Brancher could stand before their friends at circle time and state their favorite color. Once they voted, a colored circle was added to a rainbow graph on our window corresponding to their vote. When the voting was doneand the rainbow graph was up, Violet won with eight votes; indigo, orange, and red tied for second place with three votes each.
This month, for our self-portraits, each Brancher created a rainbow border around their self-portrait. The details in their self-portraits continue to impress us! The rainbow border looked beautiful and helped solidify their newfound knowledge that rainbows are not arches but circles. We can only see an arch on the ground, but if we were in the sky, we would see a circle.
We also grew a rainbow in the spirit of spring and brightening up our classroom! Using soil, plastic cups, and wildflower seeds, each Brancher could plant their seeds and watch them sprout in the classroom! Watching the seeds grow as we planted our rainbow of colors has been so fun.
Primary colors were next on our discovery list! We introduced a new book called Mix it Up! by Herve’ Tullet at circle time. In the book, we learned that there were three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. The book interactively explained how adding colors together could create secondary colors (orange, green, and purple.) We also discovered that adding white to colors would make them more pastel while adding black would make them darker. Who knew red, yellow, and blue could be so magical? After learning about color theory, the Branchers tested their knowledge with some art of their own. They mixed primary paint colors to make so many unique and beautiful shades of secondary colors on their papers! We also made play-doh together; we separated the play-doh into three equal parts and added yellow food coloring to one, blue food coloring to another, and red food coloring to last. After enjoying playing with the three primary colors separately, we mixed bits of the colors! The Branchers loved experimenting with color mixing and seeing what would happen when they combined the coloring.
As you may know, we had a fun leprechaun visit before St. Patrick’s Day! As we entered our classroom one day, we discovered that the leprechaun had left us a note. We learned that his name was Liam, Liam the Leprechaun. He was a leprechaun who stood a mere two inches tall. He was so small that we could never find him, but we knew he was there! As we read the note, we discovered that Liam was searching for his lost gold and needed the Brancher’s help to find it! It’s a good thing our Branchers love a challenge because, after a few more notes, clues, and fun activities, they found every missing piece of gold for Liam! As a sweet “thank you!” Before making his way back to Ireland, Liam left each Brancher a single piece of candy and a piece of gold in their shoe!
We also took some time leading up to the holiday to have fun with shamrocks! We made beautiful new shamrocks to hang in our classroom and some Shamrock math. Each Brancher was given a few confetti shamrocks, and they got together in pairs to practice adding some. They learned how to count by adding two numbers together. Our Branchers are becoming quite the mathematicians!
As we say goodbye to March and all the fun learning it provided, we are so excited to welcome the month of April and all that it brings! Next up: WEATHER and all its wonders!
Miss Gracen & Miss Heather
