SeeSaw

...at the Waterbury Fire Station

As we have moved to the SeeSaw platform for sharing information and pics of our kindergarten days, we no longer will be using this blog to share information. Thanks for checking in and Happy Fall!

Four Winds

We had our very first Four Winds lesson! Four Winds Nature Institute is a non-profit organization advancing the understanding, appreciation and protection of the environment through community-based natural science education and research. Our teacher, Ms. Emily, is from the Huntington Audubon Center (our field trip on Friday!). She taught us all about leaves. We learned that leaves come in all shapes and sizes, and they share a common function – making food for plants using just sunlight, air and water. We examined the structure of leaves, looking for similarities and differences, shared observations, and learned about the variety of insects that use leaves for their food and home!

All About Apples

We studied apples this week along with Mr. E's class during our science time. Today, we taste-tested three different varieties of apples; macintosh, golden delicious and granny smith. We tallied and graphed our results. We experimented with apples to find out why they turn brown and learned that lemon juice will slow down the browning process. We saw that apples keep their seeds in a star shape in their core, that the inside is called the flesh and the outside is the apple skin and that apples float but seeds sink!

Yoga Fun!

We had our first "formal" yoga session last Thursday. We stretched our bodies, practiced balancing and exercised muscles- even in our faces (we found this to be pretty silly!).

Insects!

We have begun a new science unit "All About Insects!" We are working along with Mr. E.'s class as we study these amazing creatures. Ask about our song, "Head, Thorax, Abdomen"! Ask us why all bugs are insects but not all insects are bugs! Ask us about exoskeletons! Ask us about antennae! Ask us where bugs live and what they eat! We have participated in many activities, including an inside bug search and an outside bug search with magnifying glasses. We will continue our study next week too.

Our New Math Curriculum

The first module of our new Math curriculum, Bridges, is all about the counting sequence to 20 and quantities of 10. We are also focusing on establishing our classroom routines that will provide structure for math class all year long. We have been working hard comparing similarities and differences of a variety of objects such as frogs, dinosaurs, buttons, animals, and even our shoes! We are sorting, describing and comparing attributes such as size, color, and shape. 

Welcome to Kindergarten!!!

We have had an awesome first week of school together; so many new faces, new routines, activities, things to learn! Our week began with a great read a-loud; "Chicka Chicka Boom-Boom". This is a story about some rather adventurous letters who climb up a coconut tree. We made coconut trees in our classroom, with coconuts and palm leaves, and the letters of our names. We even passed around a coconut, shook it to listen to the coconut water inside and then tried to open with a hammer! Mr. Gresham, our school custodian, did the final blows and opened it for us. We taste tested both the fruit and sweet water! 

 We practiced writing letters in shaving cream and read another story "The Letters are Lost".  During our Math time, we were introduced to different math work places. We explored polydrons, geo-boards, unifix cubes, pattern blocks and penny mats. We learned about Number Corner, a daily routine that teaches and reinforces many different number skills and concepts. 

We spent a lot of time learning about our classroom expectations. We read two "David" books and talked about expected and unexpected behaviors. We brainstormed ideas about how we can choose to behave in order to have a safe and happy day in school. We made pictures of David and agreed on our classroom rules.  As you can see, we have had a busy week here in Kindergarten. Enjoy the three day weekend!

HUUSD ART SHOW

Last week we had the wonderful opportunity to visit our school district wide art show at the Lareau Farm in Waitsfield. The artwork was extraordinary and our students were very proud of their work on display! 

Shelburne Farms

What a beautiful, fun-filled day we had at the farm! From a chicken parade, sheep, cows, goats, rabbits, a tractor ride, gardens to lunch with a view and a story hike through the woods, we had a fabulous day on this very special educational farm. 

The chicken parade!

We loved the donkey!

The goat barn

The Dinosaur Museum is Open!

 The Dinosaur Museum has been open all week. We have worked so hard on all of our exhibits and have shared what we have learned with many many friends in our school.

Our Dinosaur Experts!

Volcano Experts

Fossil Experts

Skeleton Experts

Habitat Experts

World Map Experts

Dinosaurs!

We have been soooo busy learning about Dinosaurs. We are sharing what we have learned by creating a dinosaur museum! We teamed up with Mr. E's class and signed up for dinosaur teams. Each team focused on a different area; habitat, dino experts, fossils, skeleton, world map, and volcano. Each group has been researching and creating an "exhibit" for our museum. 

Castles

We loved our chapter book read aloud of The Tale of Despereaux! We were inspired to make castle pictures  with some of the characters from the story.

Writer's Workshop

We continue to write stories, both fiction and non-fiction during our writing time. We are very excited to share our stories during parent teacher conferences next week!

Them Bones!

All About Bones! We continue to learn about the structure and function of the human body. Our focus has been on bones. We have learned that the human body has 206 bones! The smallest bone is in our ear called the stapes and the largest is in our leg called the femur.  We put together life size puzzles of bones and made x-rays of our own hands. Next week our focus will be on our organs!

Winter Olympics

Kindergarten had a blast participating in many events such as Penguin Waddle, Ariel Ski and Snowboard Jumping, Ice skating, Pillow Polo, curling and Mogul Skiing! 

Valentine's Day

Thank you all for the wonderful treats and cards! We celebrated our friendship with an afternoon party!

100 Days of Kindergarten

What a fun day!!! We participated in a variety of 100 day activities, we: counted our collections, took a "museum walk" to see other kindergarten collections, made 100 bead necklaces, did 100 exercises, made 100 dot pictures, and counted 100 words in a 100 word poem! 

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the...

We love Mo Willems books! Throughout the school year, they have been our favorite read alouds...Mo Willems is also a great teacher of Author's Craft, and we get many ideas for own writing during Writers Workshop. 

The Arctic

We have been learning about the Arctic along with Mr. E's class. We were very impressed with the size of a polar bears paw, its height and weight. Ask your child to name some animals that live in the Arctic!