Panda Bears Newsletter – May 3, 2010

No. 12 Bamboo Garden Panda Bear Newsletter.

Dear Panda Bear Families:

Language: (What is made from trees?)
How important is a tree to us, to our earth? We had an open discussion about what is made from trees. By looking around the classroom, children tried to share what they thought were made from trees in the classroom. The children came up with a desk, chair, table, floor, shelves, paper, door, toys, etc. The teachers also brought some objects to share with the whole class such as a violin, drum, paper of different textures and colors, basket, pencils, letter sorter made of wood. After sharing the ideas, we wondered how people make paper.

Math: (Playing with beans)
Sorting by size: We had a sorting project where we counted the beans (different sizes) in a number of beans. After counting, the children needed to work on a worksheet and color the circle with the number of beans.

Music:
Who needs tree? We need trees. What about animals? What animals live in the trees? 小蚂蚁绕圈圈，小毛虫荡秋秋千，小松鼠跳树尖，小麻维在树间，咻，冲上天。

Art/Science: Make my own flower paper
Why do we try to recycle paper? Where does the paper go? What is recycled paper?
We used old newspapers to make new paper. The steps are listed below:
1. Children tore newspaper into small pieces and soaked them in the water for 2 days.
2. Children crushed flower petals
3. We used a blender to whip the newspaper into a pulp.
4. We filtered the pulp with a strainer so that extra water was disposed.
5. Children each received a ball of new paper and pressed it on a wire. They made whatever shaped paper they liked.
6. We are now waiting for the paper to dry.