New Kinds of Play- Outside and In

 It felt like a long wait but the new playground is here and already being enjoyed!  Despite the ominous skies, Mr. T and Miss Abby introduced all four Kindergarten classes to the new structure and got things off to a safe and happy start.

For added excitement, last week also brought us "May the fourth".  For those who aren't huge Star Wars fans the significance may take a minute...  "May the fourth be with you?" ... ah, now you see.

We had some fun with Star Wars themed yoga and one friend even created a favorite character with a new math material called Cuisinaire Rods.  Have a look...

Whether working alone or collaboratively, these building pieces inspire great things and I can't wait to show the kids next week that we can actually "do math" with them too!  Each size rod has a value such that a white and a light green (a 1 and a 2) equal a yellow (a 3) etc.  Stay tuned!

We looked at outside and inside fun, but Farm to School brought a little of both!  In perfect timing with our classroom science learning about seeds and plants, we were able to plant some spinach and cucumber seeds with our Farm to School teacher AND sample some green juice.  We'll continue taking care of these seed starts along with the peas we planted in our recycled milk and yogurt containers!

Spring Has Sprung...For Real!

 Frequent visitors to the blog might recall posts about classroom celebrations for earning 100 apple cores.  We've had some fun ones in the past...remember Fancy Day and Kids-Run-The-Morning-Day?  Our latest celebration, "Beach Day", was no exception.  Here's a quick look-

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These pictures show classmates checking in at the morning message, enjoying time with summer clothes, and making "shell and flower" (paper) necklaces and crowns.  Our Beach Day was also the first day we met our fifth grade Big Buddies!  It doesn't get too much more fun than that.  

There's a display outside our room that's titled "What's the Scoop with Learning Buddies?" and each duo or trio of buddies has an ice cream cone that says their individual favorite flavors as well as something they have in common.  Exactly one week later, our Big Buddies helped us do a little "Orchard Grounds Green-Up".  Here are some pics-

Collectively, the kids exceeded my expectations for picking up a season's worth of liter!