Wrapping Up the Year

It's hard to believe our kindergarten year together is almost over!  This week we will put our journal books together, finish our science water unit, explore around-the-room with math skills we have learned all year, collect all guided reading books, and have a picnic!  Don't forget school on Friday (picnic day) is 10:30-1:00 for ALL kindergarten kids.  IF IT RAINS (WHICH IT LOOKS LIKE IT MIGHT!) OUR PICNIC WILL BE MONDAY, JUNE 3.  FRIDAY IS THEN A NORMAL DAY WITH K1 IN THE MORNING AND K3 IN THE AFTERNOON.  I'll post some recess pictures later this week!

Kindergarten Tea

The K1 Kids

The K3 Kids

 The BIG DAY finally arrived last Thursday!  We worked so hard leading up to our musical performance.  We painted pots, planted grass seeds and took care of the grass while it grew, painted SYMMETRICAL butterflies for the backdrop, made plaster-of-paris handprints, memorized a poem, wrote about mom & dad, and made special placemats for their reserved spots.  The shows were wonderful!  The kids were "performers" before, during, in-between and after the songs.  I was very proud of them! Mom & Dad -- we hope you felt honored and loved by our efforts!

Water

Elise demonstrating how water sticks to itself.
She predicted how many drops would fit on her penny, and here she is testing her prediction. 

This week we learned that water sticks to itself.  That is how it can flow.  We saw water stick to itself on paintbrushes, just like it does when our hair gets wet... that is how we can make crazy hair in the bathtub!  We also experimented to show that water won't stick to grease or wax.  A duck's feathers have a special greasy coating on them, so their bodies won't get wet and cold from being in the water too long.

Jordan

Luke

Luke & Emily

Playing Subtraction Math Blaster on the iPads.

Subtraction

Reese, Camilla & Ryan.... Blue Table Pals.

This week we have worked a lot on the concept of subtraction.  We learned 3 new math games:  Shake & Share, Dice-in-a-Dice and Kindergarten Challenge Yahtzee.  Each game uses unusual playing objects... the kids loved using these new things!  Shake & Share is easy to make at home.  Pour a little bit of water out of a small water bottle.  Add a little food coloring (keep the water light in color) and two dice.  You can add glitter, a couple of sparkly gems, pom-poms or other small things for a fun visual, but don't add too many things.  Shake the bottle and let the dice settle.  Lift the bottle and see the numbers to add or subtract in a number sentence!
We also worked on some "super secret special projects" for our KINDERGARTEN TEA next week. We can't wait to perform for our moms, dads and/or grandparents!

Molly & Nick "editing" each other's writing while using "listening ears".

Earth Day, Dirt & Happy 50th Birthday OMS!

Ryan & Kaleigh dressing up for the decades!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OMS:  Last week Olive-Mary Stitt celebrated our 50th Birthday!  The week was very fun-filled..... We dressed up for the different decades, participated in a school-wide lip dub to the song "When Can I See You Again" by Owl City, took a school Rainbow picture (Kindergarten wore purple!), enjoyed a spirit-filled assembly and open house, and wrote our kindergarten favorites for the OMS Time Capsule.  Stop into the front office to see the whole-school rainbow picture.  The PTA will be selling the picture at cost... details to follow.

Campbell examining dirt.

DIRT:  We defined the "properties" of dirt and compared how it is made with how sand is made.  (See last week's blog for Jonathan's great definition of "properties".)  Some of the kids were not thrilled about getting dirty!  Go figure???  We added water to our dirt and "shook it up" to some music to make "dirt pop", and then we let it settle overnight to see what happened.  We observed the heavier stuff, like bark, that floated to the top.  We learned that dirt needs humus because it is like vitamins for the dirt.  (It's not to be confused with the hummus we eat, although we learned both are healthy!)  We've been calling it SOIL now, as we used it to plant grass in individual pots we each painted.  We'll be watching our grass grow now as we celebrate EARTH DAY all week!

Making "Dirt Pop".

Dulcinea working on her Earth Day craft.

Tessa & Brayden.

Sand

The sand table is open for fun!  Isn't that what kindergarten should be about???  We learned a lot about how sand is formed, the colors it comes in, what it looks like - smells like ("yucky!") and feels like.  We learned that scientists record the "properties" of the things they are studying.  Jonathan said the word property is "something you own" so that helped us understand that the properties of sand are the things that are unique to sand, like it's texture and color.  We used colanders, sieves, shovels and measuring dishes as science instruments.  Next week we will try to make sand!

Emma & Ume working on a Spring Crossword.
We learned a crossword is a PUZZLE and the words have to "connect".

Sophia looking at one of the many class books we have written.

Surveys

Makaila & Ellie and Asha & Elise surveying favorite seasons.

We have had so much fun learning about surveys!  We are finding out a lot about each of our interests. We tally up our results and are working toward having the final number surveyed = the number of children taking the survey.  We have learned what season most classmates prefer (summer, of course!) and how many classmates like rainy days... more than you would think!  This has been a great oral language and math activity... Look for the surveys to come home on the day it was done.  Don't forget NO SCHOOL tomorrow (Tuesday, April 9).  And check your email for information about our Kindergarten Tea on Thursday, May 9.

Kimani totaling his results.

Sophia & Camilla

Happy Spring!

Ume using a mirror to see symmetry

Happy Spring!  It's hard to believe we are in the last trimester of the kindergarten year!  This week we start our "Daily Dos".  This is a time to show our independent work skills.  Everyday, we will have a reading group OR Buddy Read.  We will also use this time to finish our "Beanbag Folders", Journal, practice math skills and do Word Work.  The kids get to choose what order they do their jobs in, and they like having this option.  In science, we will start a Dirt, Sand and Water unit.  More to follow on that later this week.  New sight word packets, April homework packets and April reading logs were sent home yesterday.  I'll email all parents a list of the January-April sight words, if you'd like to make flashcards for those.  I hope you had a great vacation time with your family!

Rock Science

The highlight of our week was learning about Rocks!  Both classes enjoyed the Rock Science Stations that were set up.  They used proscopes for the first time... those are like really good magnifying glasses.   They are hooked up to computers so the kids could take pictures of what a rock looks like very magnified.  They got to draw their observations in their Rock Books.

Rock Weighing

Counting grams to weigh rocks.

Madeline & Sophia sorting rocks.

The Weighing Station had the children using gram cubes to count how heavy 6 different rocks were.  The Sorting Station showed their creativity using "juicy" (exciting) words to describe different rocks.  Some favorite words were:  sparkly, pretty, ugly, spotty, bumpy and rough.

Pebble Go Earth Science

Brayden on Pebble Go.

Finally, the children enjoyed a different part of Pebble Go online research by listening to Earth Features.  They learned some pretty big words about Rocks!  They labeled "Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic" on the pictures of rocks in their Rock Books.  I was surprised and thrilled at all they learned this week and were able to show in the "True or False" facts trivia I asked.  I hope this week taught them to BE CURIOUS about rocks and nature and to ASK QUESTIONS like scientists do.

Presidents Week

Emma earned an "Outstanding Owl" sticker for working so hard on her craft!

We began Presidents Week talking about money.  We examined a penny and nickel up close with magnifying glasses.  We discussed what we observed on these coins and why those images and words were important enough to be on a coin.  We learned the values of each.... next week we will introduce the dime and quarter and will begin money exchanges.   We talked about Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.  The George Washington craft the children did turned out adorable!  They are very serious about showing respect to these important historical figures, and they displayed this respect in careful artwork and face drawings!  These will come home next week when the glue has dried.

Mystery Readers

Brody, his big brother Brandon & friend Jacob

Today in the afternoon, we had two mystery readers from third grade!  Brody's big brother Brandon and his friend Jacob earned high fives for good work in their class, and they chose to come read to us... what a treat!

Valentine's Day

Twins Molly & Nick

Thank you to our wonderful parent helpers for planning FANTASTIC parties in the morning and afternoon!  It was heard in both classes, "This is the best day ever!"
This week we read "The Valentine Express" about two bunnies who decide to make and deliver valentines to some neighbors who wouldn't be getting any other valentines.  It was a wonderful story about thinking outside of the box for this holiday.  It also started us thinking about how a story is sequenced by the order of events.  The children thought about someone special they could make a valentine for.  They journaled their thoughts (which we've made into a class book!), and they created the valentine for that special someone in their neighborhood.  Sweet thinking.
We enjoyed learning about Abraham Lincoln (and his TALL hat) and about our neighborhood.  The Time For Kids (TFK) was a highlight this week for some reason!  The children really enjoyed the mapping activity with it.  I hope you all saw that come home.
Next we will begin learning about money -- specifically the penny, nickel, dime and quarter.  We will learn the value of each coin and some history about each.  We will learn about making coin exchanges for equal value.  In social studies, we will learn about George Washington.  And coming up NEXT week in science is our study of Rocks!

100th Day!

We had SO much fun celebrating our 100th day of school.  Everyone brought in 100 items, and we spent the day sorting, counting, stringing beads to make a necklace, decorating 100 Day Owl crowns, dot painting, writing 100 words, counting cookie jars by 10s.... I'm tired just listing all that!  The children enjoyed the special Pajama Day!

Character Counts

Thank you to our wonderful parent volunteers who helped us experience disabilities.  We learned about braille, sign language and how much we use our hands to pick up and feel things.  The children shared their knowledge of differences in each of us and the point of acceptance of everyone was felt by all.

Mole and the Baby Bird

We read the story "Mole and the Baby Bird" about a mole who finds a baby bird and struggles with wanting to keep it as a pet and letting it go into its natural habitat.  Mole's granddad helps him see the situation from the baby bird's point of view.  The children were very focused using summary cards from the story to write about and illustrate their favorite part of the story.  We had a tender discussion about how emotions affect our actions.

Winter Animal Research Project

Winter Animal Research Projects have been completed!  Each child was given an animal to research on the computer on Pebble Go.  Their job was to find out what their animal did for the winter: hibernate, migrate, get ready or adapt.  Then, using iPads, they created a mini poster of their animal.  They chose a picture of the animal from several photos, and then explored with size, font, color and placement of objects while creating e-posters.  What a fun technology day!  Parents, check your email for the Dropbox Link and access information for Pebble Go, if you'd like to research further at home.  We continue to research winter animals... this week focusing on polar bears and the Arctic and next week focusing on penguins and Antarctica.  We are learning a lot about maps as we study these animals.  We are also looking frequently at the USA map as we continue to get post cards from our gingerbread man!  Most recently he was in Aspen, Colorado skiing!!  Don't forget to help your child collect 100 objects and bring in by next Wednesday (Feb. 6) for our 100th day of kindergarten!

Word from our Gingerbread Man!

We have heard from our Gingerbread Man!  In December, we had fun reading many different gingerbread man stories and comparing them.  We did math, science, writing and geography... all with the gingerbread man.  Well...... we baked a cookie and he ran away, through the school!  He left us photo clues throughout the building.  (Notice him reading in our LMC!  We really liked the one of him shooting a basket in the gym and answering the telephone at Mrs. Lettieri's desk!)  This week we received a post card from him!  He is at Disney World in Florida!  He said he would write again, so we are tracking his vacation on a USA and a world map in our hall.  If you are up at school, come down and see where he has been!

Winter Animals

January 7-11  This week we began learning about what animals do in the winter.  They either hibernate, migrate, get ready or adapt.  We are each making a Winter Animals book, which is a lot of cutting, gluing and following directions!  Next week we will each be researching an animal on Pebble Go.  We are busy counting down to our 100th day of school, so we are hitting the 100 grid hard this week, talking about even and odd numbers.  We have also been doing a lot with addition!