Hello All!
Goodness, what a beautiful week it has been! The children are loving the sunshine. As the days get warmer, please feel free to send a water bottle with your children to keep in their locker so they stay hydrated. That is extremely important with active children like the ones we have!
In math, the children have been practicing sequencing numbers and size, using a bar graph to represent data, and "bundling" sticks to start thinking about place value. I was working with Marlo and I was teaching her how to "bundle" 10 popsicle sticks and place it in the tens container. She confidently looked at me and said "Oh, like bundling your car and home insurance!" If that wasn't making a home to school connection, I don't know what is! The children are doing great with sequencing numbers and size, and leads right into many discussions on putting stories into correct order
The students are very excited to read and explore
Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons by the dynamic duo Eric Litwin and James Dean. The book came out on Wednesday, and next week we will take a deeper look into Mr. Eric's writing and the illustrations in the third book. The children just love Pete the Cat, so I know this book will be hit with them and I cannot wait to dive right in!
Learning about birds has been so fun for both myself and the children.We were able to go outside right after a rainfall to seek out worms. Luckily, the rain did bring out many worms, and the children were able to answer the question "Is rain helpful or harmful to birds?" It is helpful, of course! It gives them water to drink and brings worms above the ground to eat. We learned that the feathers on birds protect themselves during a rainfall. Pretty cool! Incorporating Pete the Cat into our bird studies, the students were wondering what the bird in all the illustrations was thinking when Pete continued to step into messy things. The children also explored different bird beaks by using different tools (clothespin, toothpick, and large spoon) to represent the beaks of different birds. They became very frustrated when they couldn't pick up much food with just a toothpick. Jordan exclaimed, "Yeah! This is exactly how a hummingbird feels!" We took a nature walk today, focusing on things we found out in nature that weren't supposed to be there.
How do you think they got there? What does this do for the animals and other humans? Some of the things we found were: litter, 2 old tires, wood, broken fench, an old tennis court, and a soccer ball. It was interesting to hear their thoughts on how the items got to be outside in nature. They are very concerned about the litter, and I just know this will develop into an ongoing project.
Isabella M. is working on representing the point of view of the bird from
Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes
Jordan working very hard on grabbing as much food as he could with a clothespin, representing a cardinal he has been studying about.
Nathan, Patrick, and Andrew checking for worms to put in their worm environment they had made. We started off with a mason jar and a little dirt for our worm environment, and after lots of research and investigation, we found all the right materials to keep the worms happy and healthy!
Well I am predicting, just as we do ever morning, that a big storm is rolling in. Everyone keep safe and dry!
Greetings! Only 2 1/2 weeks left of school.... where did the time go? As we are winding down the school year, the students have been spending a lot of time out in the garden. Last week, they worked hard weeding the garden and spreading compost and mulch throughout, preparing a healthy environment for our vegetables to thrive in. We are sharing our garden with the other Kindergarten class, teaching them about team work and helping others. The focus for the garden is fairy tales and nursery rhymes. This interest sparked around the time the students were going to the Akron Civic Theater to watch the Under the Sea ballet, a fairy tale classic. My class spent a lot of time studying the different elements of fairy tales, and they always wanted me to read more of the enchanting stories. Thus, the idea was brought up to incorporate fairy tales into our garden and POOF.... it was started. The students love putting gloves on and using a shovel or rake to do their gardening, though some preferred to use their hands. Jordan and Patrick especially loved to push and pull the wheel barrow, for they said it was a "boy's job." With the help of our kind parent volunteers, our garden is ready for vegetables! The students have already started thinking about adding their personal touches to the garden, such as making stepping stones to act as a pathway. The other Kindergarten class thought of building a wall that Humpty Dumpty could sit on. On Thursday, the students will be transferring the vegetables that they have been growing and watching since before Spring Break. If you would like to help out with this process, please let me know! We will be going outside at about 1:15 pm.
teamwork, teamwork, teamwork
During our time out in the garden, there is also a small group activity if the children choose to take a break from the garden and need a small rest. Last week's activity was a sensory activity, where the children took a gummy worm and burrowed through mud. Some made tunnels for their worms, others burrowed all around their papers going in all directions! The ending product? Beautiful mud art that will look great above your mantel!
On Monday, a master gardener came to our school to share her wisdom on worm composting. Worm composting in the classroom is a school-wide initiative that all classrooms are going to either start or continue in order to teach the students more about recycling and caring for the Earth. The students loved listening to her speak about the characteristics of worms and how they are our friends, holding worms, and building a compost system that would be suitable for a classroom.
Andrew, Isabella and Aidan pick out recycled vegetables to feed the worms. There are so many distractions in today's world that some children might never see the sun come up except by watching it on television. National surveys say most children spend very little or no time observing or interacting in their natural environment and surroundings. My hope is that an outdoor classroom such as the one we have will help the children understand at a young age about natural resources and what their job is in the environment.
