New ECO Schedule

Due to our delayed starts last week, the kindergarten team has changed our ECO schedule for the year. Please toss the old schedule. We will be going out this Wednesday with Mrs. Koch’s class. Please let me know if you are available this Wednesday, or for any upcoming ECO days. Thanks! Linda Dostie lindad@mpsvt.org

Reading to End Racism

We had a fabulous guest teacher today as part of the Reading to End Racism program our school takes part in every year. Danielle, a friend of mine and community member, presented a wonderful lesson around the ideas of "same" and "different". She taught us the sign language signs for both words, told a personal story about how she was teased as a child for being different and how that made her feel, and did a puppet show about a ladybug who was teased for being different. After the puppet show the children made a puppet of themselves, and the wise old ladybug who was in our puppet show, told them all how unique and beautiful they were. To learn more about Reading to End Racism, please visit their website at: http://rercentralvt.org/

A Visit From Screech!

To our surprise this morning, we received a special delivery from Screech the owl! Our class has earned 1000 hoots, and Screech personally delivered them to us along with "high fives" for all the kids. What a treat!

What did you do at school today?

I've had several parents mention to me that it's difficult to get their children to open up about what they did at school. I have the same trouble with my own daughter, but have the luxury of knowing what they are doing since she's in my colleague, Mrs. Koch's, kindergarten class. Here are some ideas for things you could ask this month: 1. What happened when you melted the icicles you brought inside? 2. Tell me about weighing things on the scale and finding out if they weighed less or more. 3. Tell me about some of the books Mrs. Dostie read recently (see Shelfari on the blog’s sidebar). 4. What math workplace did you do today? 5. What are you writing about in Writer’s Workshop? 6. What greeting did you do today at Morning Meeting? 7. What do you plan to share on your sharing day? 8. What is your “heart word” this week? 9. Show me the letters you have been practicing lately (v, w, z, q). How do you write them and what sounds do they make? 10. Tell me about “listening to reading”. I hope these sentence starters spark some good conversations!

A Busy Week Indeed!

The kindergartners had an exciting end to a very busy week with our Day in the Dark celebration. Here's a re-cap of some of the highlights. Monday: We put the finishing touch (icing)on the gingerbread cookies we made as gifts for the staff at school. This was the culminating activity to last week's literacy lessons on characters, problem, and solution in which we compared different versions of the classic gingerbread story. Tuesday: Anya's dad, Brian, came to our classroom to teach a Four Winds lesson. We watched a puppet show and played several games around the topic of predators and prey. Wednesday: We had a lovely day for our ECO Celebration. All five kindergarten classes met at Harrison Field and forest for fun activities including building with snow, making tea in the woods, snowball throwing and games, and a winter scavenger hunt. Thank you to all the volunteers who made this day a success! Thursday: We completed our Kinder Art paintings modeled after Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night. We also took part in the forth "Kindergarten Sing" with our latest song, Mole in the Ground, which complimented one of our December themes of animals in winter. Friday: Our week ended with the Day in the Dark. Through story, writing, games, and art, we celebrated the winter solstice by spending the entire day in a darkened room with lot's of fun light up toys and flashlights to see by. What a special way to end 2012 with the children! I hope everyone has a restful, joyful break and returns healthy and happy. Take Care, Linda

Word Bird

Has your child mentioned anything to you about word bird? Word bird is a robin in our class who flies in each Monday with a new word for us to learn. These words become our "heart words", or words we know how to read and write by heart and we do various activities throughout the week to support memorizing them. Help your child look for these heart words in the books, magazines, or other other print you are reading. Happy hunting!

Music Update from Ms. Sales

Kindergartners have been doing a great deal of singing and moving. Our focus for most of the is how to use our singing voices, alone and with others. We have used our voices to sing shapes, sing a cowboy call and make a yummy sound while hearing a story about ice cream! Kindergarten kids have also learned echo songs and have been singing all together in unison as well as solo. The Kindergarten teachers have invited me to be a part of the Kindergarten Sing which happens once a month. So far we've learned a Tree Song, a song about the life cycle of a butterfly, a song of thanks and a song about what animals do in winter. We have also been learning to move to music, both classical and folk. Right now we are working on circle dances. We're having lots of fun in Kindergarten music!