You guessed it: it’s M Week!  We kicked the week off on this magical Monday by welcoming our fourth new Tugboat this month: Zoe!  Many of the HCS students already know Zoe, so we were very excited to have her officially join our class.  The Tugboats loved showing Zoe their favorite toys around the classroom, where she could find her Circle Time cushion, and how to read the Job Chart.  We even got a chance to show her how we “Caterpillar Up” to go to the playground after a week of too-frigid temperatures kept us indoors!

When we returned inside from our time at the park, we embarked on our first project of M Week: maracas!  Kristy, a curriculum team member and our fabulous parent helper today, designed a project that would integrate music, math, and fine motor development.  Kristy prepared several empty water bottles by writing a number on the cap, then placing that number of stickers on the bottle.  Upon the small tables were bowls of dry rice, red beans, black beans, white beans, peas, and corn.  Each child selected a cap, then had to match it up to its corresponding bottle.  Once they matched their bottle and cap, they were given recipe cards indicating how many scoops of each type of bean they should add to their bottles.  Once their “recipes” were complete, they compared the sounds their maracas made with their table mates.  We also played some marching band music and encouraged them to shake and dance along to the music!  Each child got a chance to practice counting and one-to-one correspondence with the individual assistance of a grown-up.  They also combined independent and group work as they created their own maracas, but also observed and even helped one another as appropriate.  And they got a fun musical instrument to take home!