Last week we began a project with our reading buddies, creating a board game focused on each child's nature name.  We continued this again on Thursday and on Friday kindergarteners were excited to  spend time playing their games.  While they vary in complexity and specific procedures, they are all based on getting the animal back to its home, and all involve rolling a die and moving game pieces along a numbered game board.  Some of these are still works in progress, but eventually they will be laminated and sent home for you to try!

With the return of snow and cold we stuck with a winter theme for ECO on Wednesday.  We began the morning talking about different sled designs, contemplating which design would be fastest. Children then had an opportunity to design and build their own mini sleds using materials from the recycling bin.  Everyone was impressively engaged during this task and we ended up with a variety of imaginative sleds.  Several had covers for protection and one is meant to be steam operated. Unfortunately it remained to cold for us to test the sleds outside, but hopefully we will have a chance to do that before the snow is gone for good.

We spent time reviewing animal gaits, focusing on waddling, walking, hopping, and bounding, using yoga mats to try out the various gaits.  Ask your child which gait is most challenging!  Children also worked in groups to set track trails down the hall leading to the animal that would make that particular track.  Each group then had a chance to follow a different set of tracks to its corresponding animal.   While half of the class was "tracking"  the other half began working on a tracking story background that will eventually be used in a short shadow puppet show for each child's nature name.  (We didn't have time to complete this today, but will get to it next week.)   Despite not being able to go outside we had a fun morning.