Preschool/Kindergarten Ms. Renee Brohamer Ms. Kathleen Bastien
We are back to work after a wonderful winter break. We started off the New Year talking about safety. The fire fighters visited, dressed up in their firefighting gear, and they brought a fire truck. We learned about having a family plan for if ever there was a fire at home; about getting out quickly and having a special place to meet. We learned about crawling to avoid smoke, “stop, drop, and roll”, and 911. The children in our class are also working on learning their phone numbers so that if they should ever be lost or separated from their parents they can be quickly reunited with them with a phone call. As part of our discussion about safety we talked about finding a safe person to help if one does get lost. On January 23 we celebrated our 100th day of school. Each of the children did a project at home with their families and then brought it in to share as part of the celebration. It was a fun day of sharing, counting, creating and eventually eating 100 small healthy treats. As a part of our unit study of the world, we ventured from Mexico to the bottom of Central America. We learned about Panama, with its mountains and its rain forest. We considered how the great explorers who were so desperate for a way to get to Asia by way of going east had such a long way to travel around the bottom of South America to do it. The children learned about the Spanish explorer Balboa and how he climbed the mountains of Panama and discovered how close they actually were to the Pacific Ocean. Izzie and her mom brought a special guest from the University of Florida, Professor Townsend. He showed the children how the people used large machines to dig the Panama Canal. He demonstrated using power point how the canal’s lock system works and how the canal is actu-
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