Finnish Culture

Well obviously Finland is very important to us. And I found this list of everything we did the week we were studying Finland, which did not include the Finns, who were back in Finland.

• Making a “vitsa” for Easter

• Books
• Moomin Cookbook of Finnish Food
• Tove Jansson books - Who Will Comfort Toffle & The Book of Little My etc.
• The Canine Kalevala
• Cultures of the World: Finland
• Finland: History & Culture

• A documentary about the Sami and their relationship to Reindeer.
• Making Finnish shortbread
• Making a Finnish flag
• Having a sauna

Chinese Culture

This week we have been learning about Chinese Culture.

- We read My First Chinese New Year, which explains all the Chinese New Year traditions (cleaning, oranges, money) and the Chinese New Year parade.
- It is the Year of the Snake (coming up!) and so we collaborated on a Snake. I am especially interested in us finding projects we can work on all together, interspersed with individual projects. This Snake is now hanging from the ceiling in Sesatland.
- Roxanne taught us how to make dumplings (with cabbage wrapping for the Paleo among us!). These were delicious.
- Upcoming: Next week our friends Jed and Elisa will come to show us how to do Chinese calligraphy. We are getting tickets for the Chinese New Year's Parade, and we will go out for dim sum in Chinatown.

What we did on Monday January 28, 2013: Caterpillars and Butterflies

I just found this summary of what we were doing this past January. The very best part of it was rolling everyone up in brown paper -- cocoons, and letting them break out and become butterflies. We came up with that game spontaneously.

THEME: Butterflies, caterpillars, transformation
- Caterpillar, caterpillar Poem
- Caterpillar/Butterfly Song
- Hello Sunshine Song
- Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Art Project:
- Egg Carton Caterpillars

Science Project:
- Caterpillar Anatomy
- Hunted for Caterpillars in the park
- Talked about the stages of development of the caterpillar

Phys Ed:
Running around in the park

For lunch:
Caterpillar Salad

This week we will be learning about:

MONDAY:
Butterflies
- stages of growth
- identification
- male vs. female markings
- Monarch migration

WEDNESDAY: - dress to get dirty
Gardening
- worm composting
- cutting back the rosebushes
- raking up the dead stuff

Everybody will need:
- Two spiral sketchbooks
- A recorder
- Art supplies