Week 39

 Weekly Greetings!

What a full and fun time we had last week! It started with our field trip to the Division of Forestry on Monday. The class learned the importance of fire safety, and what is needed to be done to put out fires. They got to see firsthand how the Division of forestry operates and the equipment necessary to do their job.

 Jeff Hermanns was our guide, but we were introduced to many more key people in the forestry department, including Smokey the Bear.

 The students got to hear real radio calls and could follow the location of people in the field on the computer.

 Seth even got to model the special gear used when fighting a fire.

We learned about the different trucks that are needed when fighting a fire, and the important work the helicopter pilot does when scooping water to drop on fires.

 It was a full and interesting morning, but our trip to the burn area for a picnic had to be canceled due to the rain that day.

 The next day, Kay Lynn from the Tetlin Refuge visited our class again to share about the habits and habitat of moose.

 She also brought another biologist that called the students to the carpet for a story using a special moose calling devise.

 Kay Lynn read the fictional story If You Give a Moose a Muffin... and compared real and the make believe moose in the story.  After the story, the class was given delicious homemade muffins as a special treat! This tied in nicely to the "Here Come the Bears" theme I had started, in which we have been comparing real and make believe bears.

 Thursday was the PreK graduation, and there was a wonderful community turnout.

 Since the start of the 4th quarter, the graduating group has been visiting our classroom in the mornings to prepare for Kindergarten next year. It was fun to see them go through this final step by in their transition to elementary school.

 On Friday, we baked cookies in preparation for the "Teddy Bear Picnic" the next day when we had to make up a closure day and be at school on Saturday.

 I was really please to see 13 out of 16 students show up to school on Saturday, and we a fun time reading a story about a Teddy Bear picnic, and making a paper Teddy for an activity later.

 We also had a lot of visiting Teddy Bears for the event!

 At our morning recess time, the students played games with two special balls that make ice cream from being consistently moved. They kicked the balls around and then we played "Hot Potato."

 When the ice cream was ready, it was time for snack and we had lots of snack food to eat in addition to the ice cream they made. All the visiting Teddy Bears joined us at that time.

 We played a few games before having BBQ hot dogs, watermelon, and chips for lunch in our room while watching a DVD about bears. After lunch we had time for one more game called "Poor Cute Teddy, I Love You But You Can't Make Me Smile!" To win the game, the students had to try hard not to smile when the person in the middle with the Teddy Bear tried to make them laugh. We ended up with six winners that could keep a straight face! All in all, those in attendance a great time and our time together went really fast.

This week will be the last week I will send homework home. There will not be any homework on Wednesday, because of the field trip to Fort Greely. It will be a long day, and they will most likely be tired from all the activity and swimming that day.

Have a great week!

Kind Regards,

Julie Brown