Liberty Orchard Trip

The kindergarten classes enjoyed beautiful early fall color, and crisp apples on our trip to Liberty Orchard today. Mr. Brees was a wonderful host, and taught us about his orchard and the apples he grows there. For many kindergartners this was their first ride on a school bus (a thrill on its own). It was a wonderful way to introduce our next kindergarten life cycle theme. Thank you to all of the parents who joined us! What a memorable day.

Our kinder's heads are too short to see over the bus seats.

Farmer Brees

Great teamwork!

Headed back to school on the bus.

"Once upon a time there was a caterpillar, crawling along in the dirt..."

All of the kindergarten classrooms have been singing a special butterfly song these last two weeks to help us learn about the life cycle of a butterfly. We celebrated the conclusion of our unit by coming together and singing our song in the big gym wearing our beautiful butterfly crowns. Our Superintendent, Dr. Brian Ricca, joined us along with Principal Bradley and our mascot, Screech! What a memorable day!

Reading in Kindergarten

The children have been busy these last two weeks building stamina in reading, by practicing "Read to Self". We are using a structure for our reading time that is based on the work of Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. These two teachers created what is called "The Daily 5" which helps students develop habits of good reading, and enables them to work independently while the teacher can focus in on individual student needs and small group support. Everyday we try to increase the amount of time the children are reading for a sustained period. We began with three minutes, and have now worked our way up to 8 minutes of reading. Reading includes reading the words, "reading" the pictures, and retelling a story that you have already read. The students are doing an amazing job with this! Eventually, we will work to include phonics and sight word work, writing, listening to reading (books on tape), and reading with a partner. For more information on The Daily 5, please visit: http://www.the2sisters.com/the_daily_5.html

A Butterfly Is Born!

Life cycles are one of the major themes in the kindergarten year. We began our investigation by observing and formulating questions about butterflies. We have been lucky to be able to observe live monarch caterpillars in our classroom. After caring for them for several days, our caterpillars continued their life cycle by turning into a chrysalis, then 10 days later, we were rewarded with a butterfly. We tagged the butterfly in order to help others learn more about butterfly migration, then let it go. We have one more monarch chrysalis and three painted ladies that will emerge soon. Ask your child to share more about our learning!

Painted lady caterpillars form a "J" shape in preparation for the chrysalis phase of their life cycle.

The monarch butterfly.

Off goes the butterfly!

Bridges in Mathematics

We started our Bridges math program this year working with the calendar. The children are learning about the month, year, and days of the week. We keep track of the days we have been in school, and add a new day to the calendar using numbered shapes. The shapes (triangle, square, circle, and rectangle) help reinforce math concepts such as recognizing numbers, patterns, shapes, and counting. We sing songs about each shape and learn how to write the day’s number. After our calendar time, we have a short lesson around a specific concept such as sorting or counting, and then start our math workplaces. In the beginning of the year, students are learning how to use different math manipulatives such as pattern blocks, unifix cubes, polydron shapes, and geoboards. Check out the pictures below for a glimpse into our workplace time.

Guided Discovery

Using our school’s Responsive Classroom approach, the kindergarteners have been learning about the materials in our class using “Guided Discovery”. Students learn how to take care of our classroom tools and explore their uses. So far, we have experimented with crayons, colored pencils, scissors, glue, and watercolors. In the upcoming days we will also explore oil pastels, and modeling clay.

What an amazing first week of kindergarten! What an amazing group of children! I feel so lucky and privileged to be their teacher. These first few days of school have been filled with song, stories, and adventures. We have been practicing many new routines to help lay the framework for our learning throughout the year, and have been getting to know each other's favorite things. Thank you parents for sharing your after school stories with me. I'm so glad the children are excited to be at school and love to hear what school activities have made an impression on them. You may have heard them singing some of our favorite songs such as the "Good Morning" song that opens our Morning Meeting: Good morning, good morning, good morning everyone. Good morning, good morning, come out and greet the sun. We clap our hands, and stamp our feet. We turn around and sing. We turn around and sing. Here's to a great start to the school year!