Farm to School Gets Into Squash

Need some inspiration for a winter recipe?  Just ask your Kindergartener!  Last week we worked to grind cinnamon and chop apples while learning about the vitamin power of Butternut Squash.  With a little added olive oil and maple syrup we enjoyed tastes of a delicious dish.  You can always get links to the lesson and recipe off the Orchard School site. 

The Friendship and Humor of Gerald and Piggie

Remember some of the best friend characters that shaped your early learning AND made you laugh?  Bert and Ernie?  Maybe Frog and Toad?  Well, fortunately for these kiddos Mo Willems came up with Gerald and Piggie!
 Gerald (the grounded and practical elephant) and Piggie (the joyful and optimistic pig) are besties that show us a range of emotions through their talking and thinking bubbles.

Learning From Each Other...Games and Candle Days

We continue to have fun with the games that classmates bring for their Share. Throughout my years of teaching, the routine of having a monthly theme for Sharing has proved to be a wonderful way of cultivating the collective knowledge and experience of the group.  It's really cool to see the children take the lead in teaching and listening to one another.

And of course, CANDLE DAYS!  A fabulous break from our routine when we can learn about the lives of our classmates outside of school.  Take a look at us getting into being fit with some burpees led by an older brother.  I wish you could here the giggles!

Deep Into Winter

The depths of winter can be a little dark- we can have some stretches of indoor recess due to wind chill or ice, but it's also a time for some excellent stories, fun with indoor crafts, and learning about the science of snow.  Our class really enjoyed learning about a real Vermont hero- Wilson (Snowflake) Bentley who was the first person to take enlarged photographs of individual snowflakes.  Here's a link to a book we love. Snowflake Bentley  Below you can see us making collage snowpeople and then some pictures of them on display in the hall.

It's Not ALL Fun and Games...just some of it!

We dubbed last week "Snow Week" in our room in the hopes of getting some more fresh flakes to play in.  Outside our classroom in the hallway you can have a look at the morning message questions from each of the five days with tasks ranging from writing or drawing a word the rhymes with snow, to figuring out how many points are on 2 snowflakes if we know that each flake has 6 points. Have a look at us making snowflakes with our buddies, enjoying our extra EARNED recess in the snow, concentrating on more of that repeated addition in math, AND playing games from home as part of this month's sharing theme.

Personal Designs and Collaborative Moves

Our tech session last week was nothing short of inspirational and I hope these pictures can covey the spirit of both independence and group effort that was present.  After introducing the idea of clicking and dragging familiar yoga poses to make a self designed sequence, the children set to work on their individual chromebooks. Step two was tucking in your chair, standing up, and trying out your eight pose flow with the challenge of holding each pose for three breaths. The final step allowed a choice: either team up with a friend and try each other's sequences together or come to the rug and join the group in moving together by following one classmate's sequence projected on the screen. A huge thank you goes out to Ms. Courcelle who helped me to create the eight frame template AND took the pictures! We'll revisit this activity for sure!