A peek into the Olive Room

Geography: We made a few more stops as we traveled through the continent of Europe. We traveled through the largest country in Europe, Russia.  The children were reminded that Russia also spans across Asia. Italy is easy to recognize on any world map, as the country is shaped like a high-heeled boot. It looks like the boot is kicking a ball, which is the island of Sicily. Our last stop was France.  Paris is the capital and largest city of France.

Art: The Eiffel Tower located in Paris; France was the inspiration for this art piece.  We learned about the famous artist Georges Seurat who was born in Paris.  He is best known for inventing Pointillism.  His method of painting by putting little dots of paint next to each other.  We used a pencil eraser to form our smaller dots and a cork for the larger ones.

Sensorial: Two new Geometric Solids have been added to our shelf – the triangular-based pyramid and the square-based pyramid.

The  Large hexagon box was presented.  With this box of Constructive Triangles, the children can construct a hexagon, an equilateral triangle, a rhombus, and a parallelogram.

Science: Another group of vertebrates have been introduced - Reptiles! Reptiles are cold-blooded they need the sun’s heat for energy to move around.   They have dry skin, covered either with scales or have a bony external plate such as a shell. The scales are made of a substance called keratin, like human fingernails. Most reptiles lay eggs on land. Reptiles alive today include lizards, snakes, tortoises, turtles, crocodiles, and alligators. Reptiles can be found on every continent except for Antarctic.

We studied the parts of the turtle.  You might hear your child naming not only their shell but using the words Carapace (top of shell) and Plastron (underside of shell).

Boom! Boom! Dinosaurs came pounding into our classroom.  The children get very excited about these extinct Reptiles. We expanded our vocabulary: The word dinosaur means “terrible lizard”.    Scientists who study fossils are paleontologists. Fossils are Dinosaur bones that over a long time turned into rocks. We learned that some dinosaurs were bigger than buildings.  Others were as small as ducks.  Some dinosaurs walked on all four legs, some on two.  The children know that the kind of teeth a dinosaur has tells us what kind of food it might have eaten.  Flat teeth are plant eaters [Herbivores].  Sharp, pointed teeth are meat eaters [Carnivores]. A paleontologists work that was available to choose was matching a skeleton to its replica. 

Birds: We are currently learning about Birds. Birds are the only animals that have feathers.  A bird’s feathers are what help them fly and stay warm or cool in different environments. Remember, there are some birds that are "flightless" (do not fly), e.g., penguin and ostrich. Birds are warm-blooded, lay eggs and are vertebrates. We learned that a bird’s beak, or bill, is different depending on the diet of the bird. If a bird is a meat eater, such as a bald eagle, they have a sharper curved beak.  Birds that live off the water, such as ducks and swans, have flat rounded bills, which help them root around in marshes and soft soil for plants. Birds that eat insects, such as sparrows, have short pointed beaks, which help them pull out bugs from the ground or trees. We are learning the names of birds that might visit your backyard.