Gingerbread Week

 

We are reading LOTS of variations of The Gingerbread Man and enjoying gingerbread activities this week. 

 

We made gingerbread play dough (it smells sooo good!!).  The Busy Bees asked me to post the recipe, so here's the one we used:

Gingerbread Play Dough

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 cup water

Mix together and knead until smooth.

We found that this recipe made very sticky dough, so we added cream of tarter until we got the texture that we wanted. 

 

 

 

By the way, this was our first day of outside recess since before Thanksgiving break!!  It has been raining for SO long!  Man, it was cold, but the Busy Bees sure were happy to be outside together.  Jack Frost must have painted our slide last night, because we found sheets of ice on that thing! 

 

 



Reindeer Week

We had so much fun last week learning all about reindeer.  Only the magical reindeer can fly, but ALL reindeer can do lots of other cool things!  Did you know....

 

Reindeer are excellent swimmers.

They can run at 40 mph!

Their broad hooves allow them to walk in ice and snow (like snowshoes!).

Male AND female reindeer have antlers.

They dig through snow to find lichen and moss to eat. 

 

We made reindeer snacks, sang Rudolph (a LOT), made antlers to wear, and lots of other fun stuff.  Just a little peek into our week:

 

 

 

And I HAD to post this cuties pie who lost her two front teeth during reindeer week!!  Everybody sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth....."



Thankful for our.....

 

FAMILIES!!!!

 

 



Ice, Ice, Baby.....

 

 

Our Experiment for the very COLD week of November 11-15 was...."What is the fastest way to melt an ice cube?"

 

 

 

First, we tried putting the ice cube into a cup of hot water.  This worked fastest for us because we had a lot of hot water, and our ice cubes were small.  We found out that the ice cooled the water, so we wondered if it might take a lot longer to melt a lot of ice with a small amount of hot water.... but that will have to be explored on another day......

 

Next, we used a hair dryer.  It was pretty fast.  Different hair dryers have different heat settings, so we decided that our time would be different at home (and you KNOW they ALL want to try this at home.... with parents helping).

 

Next, things got a little crazy and FUN. 

 

We tried rubbing the ice between our hands.  It was COLD!!!

 

 

Eden bravely volunteered to try her armpit!!!  We thought that armpits might be faster than hands since your mom can take your temperature there......

 

 

Finally, we decided to try it between our hand and tummy.... since our tummies produce lots of heat.  The ice did melt VERY fast on our tummies!  We think it would melt even faster if we rubbed it against our tummies.... maybe you can try that at home!

 

 

First grade is SO MUCH FUN!!!!!

 

 



Honoring Our Veterans

Our boys and girls made this awesome flag and these super-cute soldiers in celebration of Veteran's Day.  They also wrote acrostic poems using the word, "honor."  If you visit next week for our Thanksgiving lunch, be sure to check out our awesome display!!  It is on the main hallway, beside the music room. 

Character Dress-up Day in the Beehive