Let's All Save Water!

Creative Minds has always tried to be as “green” as possible, because our curriculum of respect includes respect for our environment. With the governor’s new water restriction rules and the worsening California drought, we have brainstormed a few new ideas to help even more. Please help us out by:

1. Bringing a reusable water bottle or sippy cup of water for your child every day. 
This will save us a lot of disposable cups and/or dishes to wash, and will avoid throwing out the remaining water whenever children pour more into the cup than they can finish at one time. We can refill your child’s water bottle as needed and take it outside with us when we play outdoors.

2. Packing lunch in microwavable containers.
This means glass or heavy-duty microwave-safe plastic. This will prevent making additional dishes to wash when we have to transfer the food to a microwavable plate. 

3. Remembering to bring your own blanket every Monday, and bring it home every Friday, for children who nap here at school.

When you forget, we do have extra school blankets, but they have to be washed if they’re used even once. That generates a lot of extra laundry.

These things help reduce our total “water footprint” for everyone. If you have other ideas, we’re all ears, because the drought is a big deal for everyone. Thank you all for helping our state to conserve water!

**Important Amendment**

Note: Glass is welcome here so we can safely microwave your child's food. Most public schools will not let your children bring glass containers of any kind, though, so for those of you going to kindergarten soon, high-quality plastic lunch containers and a high-quality plastic or metal water bottle may be a better investment for your family in the long run. It's up to you. Thanks!

St. Patrick's Day, Spring, and Letter 'U'

Hello Purple Room Families,

This week we had a special visitor in our classroom...

He left some clues behind...we tried hard, but couldn't trace him...

We gathered some clues like his footprints started from the floor, then he climbed up the shelf...



...then he climbed down the shelf...



...then he ran over the light table, down to the floor messing up some furniture, and ...



...again up on the circle table to our kitchen door! And then his prints disappeared...we even went outside to check if we could trace him. Friends had all sorts of explanations as to what must have happened and where he could be now. Keeping all that in our minds, we came back in and were surprised to see a tiny note. Friends further predicted that the leprechaun could read and write. The note mentioned that he left gold coins for us in our cubbies.



A felt the paint and said it was fresh and wet. That means he was just here...great spying, girl!



Along with the awww of missing his visit and not being able to trap him, friends were excited to see the gold coins in their cubbies...



This made our children think about making thank you cards for him and they wrote all sorts of messages! Cards and messages always make for a great literacy time!






In the end we stuck our cards on the wall right where he had left his note for us! We even wrote back to him in a tiny note from our classroom asking him to come again next year and thanking him for his thoughtfulness of leaving treats!



We later had fun with the green glitter Gak...






Our trap preparation...
We decided to trap him outside and worked to create a fun glittery trap.

Adding the pot of gold to deceive him in the trap...



That week we also made Irish soda bread...

We distinguished between all the dry and wet ingredients. We started with adding dry ingredients first...



Next we worked with the wet ingredients...we talked how dry ones don't change until wet things are added and it starts to turn into a gooey mixture.



Cracking eggs is always fun!



Mixing everything together...



We used our sense of taste to taste the buttermilk. Friends said that they had never tested this before. 90 percent said, "Eeek, it tastes awful!" The rest said it was ok, but they wouldn't drink it again :) I am proud that they all at least tried!

We even smelled the strong cinnamon and reactions varied!



On the contrary, everyone loved the smell of the vanilla extract and went "Wow!" with a sigh! It was interesting to see their different reactions and choices!

Spring brought us the opportunity of sowing, growing, and caring. We made grass creations where friends chose to make bears, mice, horses, dogs, cats, sheeps, and other animals that would grow funky green hair! We started potting the grass seeds in a nylon sock and molded the mud filled sock with hands to give it facial features!






Tying rubberbands we made the ears and noses.



We gave them some personality by decorating them. Friends added colorful eyes, hats, earrings, bow ties, hair, and many other things...






We even watered it regularly and waited for the green grass to grow!



Letter U
We collaged the letter U with umbrellas.



We even worked on rolling the playdough, making letter U, and then decorating it!
L, R, and K using their palms to roll the dough.



G adding eyes, eyebrows, ears, and a silly tongue to her letter U.



Other activities we did during the week...

Unifix cubes towers according to the number on the sheet...



Worked with nature drawings in our journals outside...



Friends used tanbark to make a camp fire and red, orange, and yellow markers to make the flames...



We did some soap and water play outdoors to cool off with the growing heat...






We are going to include more water play as summer and hot weather are approaching. Additionally, with our busy minds and bodies, we love to keep exploring our little world each day and in our own way!

Keep seeing you'll around,

Hugs,
Teacher Rashida

Bye bye butterflies, Pajama and Pancakes, Letter S, and Sheep to wool!

Hello Purple Room Families,

Last week we had five fully formed butterflies and was it time to care for them and release them. At the beginning of the week we fed them fresh flowers and fruits dipped in sugar water.



Friends enjoying seeing the butterflies flutter and play...






During the week as a team we all decided to free our butterflies into their natural habitat...however, before doing so we spoke all about the new world, the new tricks, the new things the butterflies will have to learn by themselves to adapt to the new habitat. Also friends wanted to make sure that the wings of the butterflies were dry enough for them to fly since this part had been a topic of our discussions. So they were really concerned. After assurance from teachers they felt good :)

We all gathered outside to bid farewell to our butterflies...



We opened the cover of the net and friends used encouraging words such as, "You can do it butterflies," "Go, go, go butterflies," "You will love the world, butterflies." Some even said, "We will miss you," "You are very pretty," "Come visit us again", "We love you," etc. It was a very touching moment!

Looks like after listening to their encouraging words, one butterfly flew to the edge of the net..."Yeah!" everybody exclaimed.



...and then it flew away. We watched for as long as we could :)



We even saw one butterfly who was using its long curly tongue to suck the nectar from the fruit. We had learned as a fact in one of our books. Friends were excited to see that black tongue in real life!



Soon one by one they all flew away and we wished them lots of luck in their lives!

That week was our Pajama and Pancake day which we all were waiting for! It was such a pleasure to be in our comfy jammies while enjoying hot pancakes.

The big box was heavy and everyone had a chance to lift it. Some said, "It is too heavy," while some shrugged their shoulders saying, "Oh, it's very light for m," showing off their muscles ;)



That day most of the group was wearing pink and blue and friends decided to make two batches of pink and blue pancakes! Luckily we even found matching bowls :)
We carefully read the recipe and stated putting ingredients one after the other in each colored bowl.



Again, egg cracking was just super fun!



Mixing is always a symbol of their self esteem where they want to feel competent and see a nice mixture when everything is blended and is ready to cook!



The last step was to add the chosen food colors!



Love the contrast...K in pink mixing the blue batch, and R in blue mixing the pink batch. Aren't colors so amazing and look so beautiful in contrast?



It was time for the final product. Everyone agreed to pink going first, so we spread butter on the flat griddle and poured the batter on to start cooking...

We even compared the different sizes and shapes of the hot cakes and saw them turn brown!



While the pancakes were cooking, we watched a video about an artist who makes art out of pancakes on griddles and enjoys eating them!



We tried doing the same thing and made butterfly art! We spoke about being ok if it didn't turn out quite as we wanted :)



But, tada...our hard work paid off. We enjoyed our creation and were so proud of it!



Enjoying the pink hot cakes with whipping cream and maple syrup!



Friends asked for more and more and enjoyed them to the last crumb!



Letter S

We decorated our letter S and made them look like snakes...



From sheep to wool...

N's mom C volunteered that week to talk to the children about sheep and shearing. She bought all of kinds of cool stuff to show, the most fascinating being the spinning wheel! We even saw videos on how the sheep's wool was cut, just like we get a hair cut, and talked about how sheeps feel, why they need that, what happens after, how do they grow back the wool, etc etc.



Friends feeling the raw wool that just came off the sheep.



J, C's friend also helped out. She showed us a manual spinner that made woolen threads out of raw wool. Children were amazed to see these new kinds of tools!



C showed us how wool was spun into thread/ yarn on the spinning wheel! Friends related the spinning wheel to a bike with two pedals :) Smart, huh!



We later did activities related to wool.
We washed and dried raw wool...



We brushed the wool to make it look like hair...



We made colorful sheep out of dyed wool...some friends glued wool like strings while some friends circled the wool like the curly wool on the sheep.



We tried weaving wool with a manual weaver and it was tricky, but fun.



Overall, it was a whole new experience for most of us. Thank you to N's mom for opening up a entire new topic of fun and interest. Children still remember their experiences and talk about it!

We ended our week by making animal creations with a stick and other open-ended accessories...

L colored his stick and is molding a clay head for his animal/bug...



K is gluing jewels on her creation...



M chose to color her stick with the colors of her dress and is giving her art many facial features...



L working on her decorations...



L adding sparkles to his bird wings...



D said his many eyed animal is laying an egg :)



While A chose to fix the egg as a tail in her creation...



Our children are so ready to explore the world and things around them with their unique perspectives in mind. Teachers are awed by their power of imagination and creations! Way to go, kiddos!

Keep seeing you around!

Hugs,
Teacher Rashida