News from the Outdoors 

Gnomes continued to abound this week as the detectives uncovered more magic at Woodend! At the ultimate climber, the classes created their own fairy and gnome houses with sticks, fallen bark and found stones. The detectives also used their sleuthing skills to find toadstools hidden in the bird blind! The toadstools made up our colored matching game from inside the classroom, those tricky gnomes must have just wanted to play with us!

On our hike with Alex this week, we looked for fairies and gnomes at the sunken pond by the compost bins at the mansion. We used the bamboo as fishing poles as we talked about the hibernating wood frogs, as well as spied a gnome hiding in some new spring flowers!

On Thursday the detectives found both fairies and gnomes enjoying their very own tea party in the bamboo forest next to the preschool! We also headed to the lookout on Thursday, where we were lucky enough to spot a sleeping raccoon in the nook of a tree.

News from the Classroom

The detectives found more magical activities in the classroom this week as we prepped for our fairy and gnome tea party on Thursday! We created our own fairy and gnome houses by painting rocks from the forest, we made rainbows in shaving cream by mixing in colored paints, as well as created our own recycled rainbows! Both classes created new class books this week, filing them with all of the fairy and gnome knowledge we have acquired through our studies.

In the lab table this week, we experimented with melting magical ice chests to uncover gems! We experimented with salt, rock salt (aka fairy crystals), as well as using a magic potion (vinegar) to dissolve the ice chests (made out of baking soda) into bubbles!

This weeks block challenge was to build fairy and gnome homes! The detectives rose to occasion, creating fairy castles and gnome mansions!

On Thursday, we enjoyed our very own fairy and gnome tea party! All the detectives got to create their very own fairy crown or gnome hat, as well as enjoy a special toadstool snack made out of marshmallows and apples with a fairy-sized cup of apple cider. The detectives had lots of fun setting up their own tea parties in the dramatic play, as well as creating their own rainbow rice potions in the lab table with test tubes!

Books We Read

Flower Fairies Magical Doors by Cicely Mary Barker

The Winter Warming by Jane Patience

Mouse Letters by Michelle Cartlidge

The Dragon and the Unicorn by Lynne Cherry

Weekly Top Hits

Rainbows in my Bubbles

Welcome (Tune: Twinkle Twinkle)

Fairies, gnomes and people too,

Welcome to our nature school,

We have so much fun each day,

We hope you’ll come and join our play!

We love nature and animals it’s true,

And we know that you do too!

Spolier Alert:

Next week we are learning about dinosaurs!