January 22-26

The highlight of our week had to be our field trip to the Bishop Museum. We visited the dinosaurs and also had time to see the volcano exhibit. See pictures of our excursion in our photo gallery.

On Tuesday, in preparation for our field trip, the Dinosaur Group met to plan what they would look for while at the museum. Ms. Leigh asked each child to name one item that they would look for. A list was created, and each child in the group copied it. We were set to go. Look for a Dinosaur Group update soon.

EKS's mom, Aunty Suzanne, gave each child a special envelope to celebrate the new year. She taught us how to say "Happy New Year" in Japanese and explained that the envelope is given for the new year to symbolize happiness, love, and responsibility. She wrote each child's name in Japanese, too! Thank you, Aunty Suzanne! We always love your visits!

The children have been exploring paper in the atelier with Ms. Jordan. They are discovering different properties of paper, such as thicker paper making a louder noise than thinner paper when ripped. They are making collages, or paper sculpture. Each creation is unique, as is the child who made it!

They also found that a big pile of wet paper dries slower than a thin layer of paper. Here is the conversation from our reflection meeting:
IC: "Why is this one [big pile] still wet?"
TK: "Because it's bumpy."
GA: "This one [big pile] has more glue."
RB: "That one is bigger, and that one is smaller."
BW: "This one is flatter, and this one is bigger."
BM: "That one has more paper, that one is bigger, and that one is wet."
BH: "That one is big. It's not dry."
MF: "That one has too much water so the water can't come out so the leaks can't
come out, and that one is flat, and it can dry cause the light shines on it."

(flat) (big pile)
Check Ms. Jordan's website for more on the paper exploration.