Beth's Kindergarten

Monday, February 12, 2018

Structure and Function

Morning Meeting....
This morning we had a new activity. We went around the circle passing around a funny question and a funny answer! " Do you want to buy a duck? "Does it quack?" "Yes, it quacks." "Sure I'll buy a duck." Seems a little goofy perhaps but it was pretty cute. This activity works on social skills, such as having a conversation and making eye contact with your friend.

Holding a marker the kids each say "This isn't really a marker, this is....." and come up with something, it can be real pretend, silly. Its all fun! Our imaginations really run wild sometimes!
Else "A chair"
Ethan "a toaster"

Willow "this is a Rhinoserous."
Lenora "a string."
Baden "an Elephant."
Thayer "an eraser."
Jack "its a boo boo."
Sedsel "its the whole school."
Zoe "this is a book."
Taber "these are shorts."
Narumi "this is your shoe"
Sailor "this is Beth."
Nora "its the whole wide world."
Oscar "its our whole universe."
River "this is a toothbrush."
Ashlyn "a donkey face.
Luca "all the planets."

Math....
In Math we made a math city and compared the shape and sizes of our buildings! It was great fun!

Where do I begin?

Hmmmm, What shape do I want?

Adding a roof and windows and doors

Adding detail.

Creating our own shapes.

How do we get it to stay on the paper?

Building in the making.

Same size

Shortest

Skinniest

Book Corner....
BIG and Little

The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room

The Berenstain Bears and the Greedy Gimmes

Science...
Structure and Function. We have started a new unit of Structure and Function about parts of the body.
We talked about how our body works. We talked about the brain, stomach, bones, heart, etc.
Whats the brains function? Boss of your body.
What the stomach function? Digestion!
What is the function of bones? "to keep your shape."
Lenora : "So you can be strong."
Thayer "helps your fingers move."
Your bones are to keep your shape. Oscar "yeah, you would just be a pile of skin without bones."
What is the function of a muscle? "To be able to move."
Oscar "so you are strong."
Zoe "they move your bones."
Beth "there are other things that don't have bones but are a muscle. Like your tongue."
What is the function of the heart? "To pump all the blood around your body."
What is the function of our lungs? "To breath!"

We did an activity focusing on different parts of the body that we cut out and had to place on our "paper body." When finished we hung them up in the classroom and kids had to let us know what the function of each of the parts was.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Kindness

REMINDER...... We would appreciate that you remind your child about our NO TOY policy. We can not have toys in school. Please leave them at home! We hope that with the sharing time for each child once a week, that will give the kids an opportunity to share something special from home, but limit the number of toys brought in, which do cause distractions and arguments. We have lots of toys, SOOO many choices of toys and activities to play with. Thank you for your understanding.

Kindness Jar. We have been working on this for a while. Today, Monday, we have filled the jar. We discussed what we should do about our kindness jar being filled. Here is what some had to say.
Baden "Have a party."
Jack "Keep being kind."
Oscar "We could get some treats."
Zoe "We can share our food."
Willow "Bring balloons."
Else "We could watch a movie."
Luca "Have popcorn and movie and have candy."
Jack "Make a pinata."
Lenora "We could have a bouncy house."

Well, Beth and I decided to have a little popcorn party with a short video called Peep and the Big Wide World. "Peep is a newly hatched chicken who goes on daily adventures with his friends Chirp the robin and Quack the duck. The pals live a large urban park they call "the big wide world" and is the setting for all their lessons. Peep learns specific science concepts on his travels, while the series also incorporates real kids playing and experimenting in their own big wide worlds." Peep and his friends are always doing kind things from showing each other how to do things or just being a good friend.

What's the news?
Else "I went to the mall the day before yesterday."
Ethan "I'm going to share my rock collection.'
Willow "Jay went to the hospital and hit his head, and came to our house."
Lenora "Me and Vinny were throwing toys at his friends and it was funny. Harley played and then he wasn't feeling good and we had to take him to the vet."
Baden "The news is that my boo boo on my foot right here it's like really hidden and you can't see much."
Thayer "I was skiing with my mom and on this trail was lots of wind and it picked up the snow and looked like a wave and it almost picked me up and blew me off the mountain."
I went to the mall and got a snake and Vera broke it this morning."
Sedsel "I actually have a lego that isn't finished yet and the last bag is #7."
Skyler "I was about to finish a trail and there was a snow tornado and I was like camoflauged and I flew right threw it and ripped through the tornado and I was faster than my Mom and brother and dad.
Zoe "When I was fishing in the pond by my house I caught a big fish and didn't know what it was and my Dadda told me it was a trout and we bring it inside and we were going to cook it for dinner and put cheese on it and call it Cheese Fish.
Taber " I was almost was in a snow tornado and hurt my leg."
Narumi "e are trying to get a woodchuck and it was eating the flowers and my mom was trying to put food in it and there was a skunk in it."
Nora "I skied with Thayer yesterday."
Oscar "There was a giant snow gun and I was skiing in it and my foot got caught and i went down.
Ashlyn "My mommy let me play with a tiny toy robot and it exploded."
Luca "When I woke up I didn't feel like my teeth was brushed enough. But it was really that I had a loose tooth."
Stella "I got this kinda slide that you can blow up."
Beth "I refilled my bird feeder and lots of birds came to visit."
Connie "I too went skiing yesterday and the wind was so hard it blew me backwards."

Book Corner......
Hooray For Pig!

Morning meeting....
"Hulla baloo hulla baloo this is what I say to you..."

...move like a kangaroo.

...move like a snail.

...move like a sea turtle.

...move like a horse.

...move like a snail.

...move like a rabbit.

Math....
Subtraction! It's the name of the game this week. We have been learning what it means to "take away" or subtract, using Unifix cubes. We played the game Snap! Hiding 10 Unifix cubes behind our back, we snap them apart and then show what is not left behind our back. How many were taken away from our 10 stick?

Free Choice....

Friday, February 2, 2018

Phil the Groundhog

Morning Activities...

Bones!

Letter matching

Drawing, stamping, coloring, never gets old with this group.

"Avocado, Avocado"

Dora and Boots clay models craftly made by Thayer.

More clay sculptures being made by Sky, Else and Ethan.

Bones, Bones and more bones! Stella and Sedsel take a close look.

Singing brought to you by Zoe and Sailor performing "Miss Merry Mack."

Maybe they can perform at the Superbowl this weekend!?!

Morning Meeting....
It's February!!! (Where did January go so quickly?) We reviewed the calendar and recognized the new month, 1st day of the month, etc. We counted the days we have been in school and we are up to 90 days!

"A groundhog can tell if its going to be a longer winter?"
February 2nd marks the day we learn about whether or not we will have an early spring or a late winter. Low and behold, VT always has more winter! And Phil the Groundhog has only been correct about his prediction about half of the time over the last 30 years. But hey, tradition is fun! Why not have a groundhog for a pet and make him nationally observed on our calendar!

Math....
More finger flashes! This time we are flashing 10 + more. (ie: 10+3 more is what?) This is a tricky task, but they are getting it. We will continue to practice this.
What does less mean?
Narumi "it is the opposite of more."
Stella "some are less."
River "Less means if you have 7 flowers and 5 goldfish, you would have less goldfish."