It’s May
When we started school in September, May seemed very far in the future. But the future has arrived. The weather is still fickle; it can be warm or chilly. To be safe, it’s a good idea to send a light jacket to school every day during this season of unpredictability. Your children have been working this week on a project that will go home next week. It’s best not to ask any questions….it’s meant to be a surprise! In between the surprise project, they made and brought home forsythia and a flower painting made with the bottom of a plastic water bottle. Some activity choices were:
If all goes according to plan, we will watch our caterpillars transform into chrysalis and then into butterflies. This week our Painted Lady caterpillars arrived and every day we look at them. Also pictured is our friendly Dog that came to Circle Time all week.
This week we read the third of my favorite books written by Ezra Jack Keats. These stories tell of three different episodes in Peter’s life. This week’s book, Whistle for Willie, tells of Peter’s frustration when he is not able to whistle and his joy when he finally is able whistle for his dog, Willie. Peter’s Chair is about the difficulty Peter has when his old furniture is freshly painted for his baby sister. The Snowy Day tells of Peter’s adventures on a snowy day. There are many more Ezra Jack Keats books at Cary Library.
Spring is a wonderful time to hear many bird songs when we are outside. Our playground is surrounded by many trees to attract visiting birds. One of the trees that borders the area near the sandbox has a bird that has made a nest in a hole on a branch stump. This bird, a Red Bellied Woodpecker is there every day. It’s call is loud - I hear it when I arrive in the morning, the entire time we are on the playground, and again when I leave for the day. In my opinion, though the bird is beautiful it’s call is most annoying. I think the children have gotten used to it and do not comment about it. However, when the woodpecker first arrived, many children made comments. One day, one of our students stood below the tree looking up and with a loud voice repeatedly imitated the call. I don’t know if she was trying to ‘talk’ to the woodpecker or trying to tell him to be quiet. Below you can see the bird on the side of the branch below the hole. In the second picture you can see a Red Bellied Woodpecker that I photographed at my backyard bird feeder a few years ago. You can hear the querr call of the woodpecker at this link: https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/red-bellied-woodpecker
Thank you to all the parents who came in the last month to our classroom to read a book to the children and to the parents who were able to join us for Mrs. Wada’s Music Class this week.