The Great Outdoors and More

This week brought "May the fourth [be with you]" for Star Wars Fans, a Cinco de Mayo dance party with great music courtesy of Mr. White, and several opportunities to learn in nature.  Below you can see us spotting a nest under the eaves of the building on our second bird walk with Julie from Americorps.  We also spotted a Turkey Vulture and laid down pretending to be dead in the hopes of luring it closer! (A little morbid but we were being dedicated birders). In connection with our Farm to School lesson about beans- we made bean dip with Miss Meg and also planted some peas of our own in the courtyard.  And of course there's always work to be done collecting and arranging natural materials for the fairies in among the newly blossomed tulips and daffodils.

And when you plant peas, you sometimes find other special things like a snail!

Highlights from the Week Before April Break

We are all grateful that spring has finally sprung and with that comes Kindergartners looking older and wiser.  In this post you can have a look at the children learning about "word families" with flip books.  Understanding how to read and write words that rhyme because their ending sounds are the same is a great way to build up a bank of sight words.  The children also worked with their big buddies to type out some word families that we turned into a display of  "word flowers" on our back bulletin board to use as a reference.  On another note, we completed our science unit on force and motion by playing with cardboard pinball machines!  If you are not familiar with the Burlington startup that launched  The Pinbox 3000, you should definitely check them out!  Lastly, we learned about dedication, discipline, and strength through a classmate's Candle Day presentation about Taekwando. It was inspirational! 

Garlic, Games, Gizmos and the Great Outdoors

I'm not sure where the title of this post would make sense other than for something connected to a Kindergarten classroom!  The words in the title are key for describing several important events from our week.  
Garlic- because on Monday, when the sun was actually shining, we got out to the garden to plant garden with our buddies.  Maybe the little bulbs will think it's fall?!

Games- because we learned a new math game this week that's helpful in practicing plus and minus 1, 2, and 3.

Gizmos- for all the fun we are having with Lego robotics!  Thanks to Donna MacDonald and some willing parent helpers the children are building models and programming them to move, light up and make sounds with Ipads.

Great Outdoors- is referring to our birding expedition with Julie, a visiting Americorps Science Educator who took us out into the woods with binoculars and an appreciation for our feathered friends.

Firing on All Cylinders!

Some posts have a theme or a focus and some try to capture certain events of the week.  This post is definitely the latter type.  With engaging games, projects and experiments happening across all areas of the curriculum, I with have lots to share at upcoming conferences. For now, I will try to supplement what you may have read in the newsletter with some photos.

On the Science and Tech front... we used our coding skills to draw with Bee Bots and furthered our learning about Force and Motion by experimenting with friction on an inclined plane with some help from our big buddies.

In Literacy the children were extraordinarily focused on creating stories and illustrations in the style of Tomie dePaola...

Above (right) you can see friends acting out a scene from Strega Nona with Popsicle Stick Puppets!

In Math the children are enjoying mixing groups with Ms. Garland's class.  Here you can see friends playing a cooperative game about putting teen numbers in order.

And for continued learning with  Social Skills and Guidance...

The Puppets In Education imparted empowering messages about personal safety and being an upstander.  

Learning Independently and In Community

In last week's post I highlighted the concentration and focus that students were bringing to their work- the time was right to  introduce IN SCHOOL book packs much like the leveled books that I send home for practice. The new routine involves students finding a solo space, working their way though on-level books using all their superpowers (see previous post), and logging the titles of books they have read in a reader's notebook. At other times during the day (Quiet Time and Explore) I pull children aside to check in on their fluency and comprehension and add a little note in their log. We are building independence each day!

You've seen what the children are doing independently and now you can have a look at the class meeting "The Marble Challenge" with their big buddies.  This was a hands on experiment connected to our Force and Motion unit in science.  Check out the ways in which children are making the marble: move without using their hands to push it, turn a corner, hit a target and move an object.

Lastly, I wanted to share the lesson on handwashing that Nurse Casani brought to our class.  Through the use of a special lotion and a black light, we were able to practice handwashing techniques that will insure the germs are scrubbed away!

Shining Stars

I think this happens at this point in the year every year but it always amazes me!  Truly, I feel so fortunate to witness this kind of development- I think it's one of the reasons I love Kindergarten so much.  This post is dedicated to children "taking that leap"- seeing themselves as capable and recognizing their own strengths and achievements.  Here you can get a glimpse if one student co-leading the intro to the bowling unit in P.E.

Next, have a look at students self monitoring their popcorn words with word rings- words they are confident with on one side and challenge words on the other.

Here you can see a glimpse of whole group handwriting instruction.

And lastly, some future female mathematicians!  Look at the concentration and focus.