Wednesday FouR Winds

Morning meeting....
Stop counting, we count every day the number of days we have been in school and we stop counting sometimes, pause and see if we can continue counting wher we left off.

Reading the chart just gets better and better every day! They recognize more and more words, and are developing great reading skills and using their clues to help them read. Hard to believe they couldn’t read many words or any at all
We also had the activity this morning to count the number of windows there are in the classroom.

We talked a little about Hanukkah. Do you knows what Hanukkah means.
Zoe- spin a dealer.
Luca- give things to other people.
Jack - give presents.
Light candles.

We read Happy Hanukkah Curious George by
We learned that it lasts for 8 days. There’s food, chocolate. There are good deeds that happen too or mitzfas! Which brings us to our kind deeds that we have been workin gone too. Another good deed is our boxes of cheer! Boxes of cheer are focused on providing boxes with kid created cards, ornaments, treats. These boxes go to some local folks who may not have family with them this time of year.

Math...,
We did some shape recognition. Sorting by colors, by sizes, by sides, etc.
Jack “This is fun!”
Zoe “This is easy.”

Four Winds.....
Today we learned about rocks and minerals. Stacey and Rachel came in to talk about how rocks are made. We pretended to be molecules which over time get together with more molecules and create bigger and bigger rocks. We got into small groups and described our rocks not using our eyes, but describing with touch. Then we looked at the rocks we described and found more characteristics about our rocks by seeing! We also made our own rock fossils, which we will bring home. Thank you Rachel and Stacey for taking time to teach us about rocks and minerals.

Compost

Morning Meeting.....
Composting Assembly this morning. We met in the gym to discuss the new composting system we will be participating in. Ask your child what "can" go into the compost and what "does NOT" go into the compost.
High five greeting...is all about seeing your neighbor and passing a high five and saying "good morning".  A great way to start the day.


Math....
Today we worked on describing and communicating positions of shapes using the words above, below, beside, in front of, next to and behind. 
We worked with partners while directions were given about where to "position" our bodies using the key words as described above.

Language Arts....
We reviewed all the letters of the alphabet that we have learned. We also learned a new letter Yy. Yellow crayon, yarn, yellow marker, yak, yams, yo-yo.

We can be teachers too! And teachers we are. We reviewed all the letters one at a time, each letter having a different child being the one to teach it to us then we repeat what we learned.

We read A Hat for Mrs. Goldman by Michelle Edwards. "[A] celebration of winter mitzvahs, or kind deeds. Karas’s adorable, radiant art adds to the heartwarming mood." 

We continue to talk about ways to be kind to others. It is important to continue this conversation at home as well as at school. Great lessons are being learned throughout the day about kindness, great habits to carry on as they get older too.

Sharing....
River "When I went on a play date with Baden he gave me this batman."
Zoe "Did he give you anything else?"
Stella "Is that a toy?"
River "Yes."
Thayer "Did he want it or was he being nice?"
River "Did not want it."

Ethan "a little cannon and this is the case."
Luca "Where did you get it?"
Ethan "I don't know."
Taber "How old is it?"
Ethan "I don't know."
Lenora "Is that a tire stuck on the bottom of it?"
Ethan "No it's the bottom of it."

Else brought in a picture of her and her cousin Amber.
Lenora "how old is your cousin?"
Else "16. That's like a teenager."
Willow "what is her name?
Else "Amber but I call her Am B."
Ashlyn "Where did you get it?"
Else "My grammy or mommy or daddy."



Snacks Snacks....We could use some snacks if you have the time to do so. Clementines, Goldfish, Granola Bars, Pretzels are all great. Thank you in advance for your help.

Snowflakes! Mustaches? Oh my!!!

REMINDER....
Blue day on Monday! Have your child wear blue as part of the Kindergarten Artists Color Day.





Kindness.....
We have been working hard on kindness. You may have seen some thoughtfully decorated cards with messages to you or someone in your family. We made pine cone bird feeders. We have our kindness jar that we put cubes in when we do something nice or kind to others.  We hope that you are noticing some kind actions at home. Thanks for supporting this at home too.


Clifford's Christmas by Norman Bridwell.

Math....

Collecting items in the room; a glue stick, a block and something from our Kindergarten kitchen and bring back to the circle. We used regular shapes that we observed yesterday with our 3D shapes. Today we looked at things from our room and compared what their shape was compared to the 3D shapes. 

We then played the "One less, One More" game. Beth held up a card with a number on it and the kids wrote on white boards the number that was one more or one less depending on what Beth called out. 

Language Arts....

We looked at a lot of pictures that started with the letter W for, Wink, wag, wed, win. V for vacuum, valentine, van, vegetables, vest, vet, vine, etc. We worked on our letter magnetic boards. Find and recognize letters when the sound of letter was said, they had to hunt for it on their letter boards. 

Practicing letter Vv. We review (every time we learn a new letter) how to make the letters correctly. Then we work in our handwriting book practicing to write the letter. 

Outside Play.....

Wishing Mother Nature could provide a little more snow! But in the mean time, we aren't gonna let this little bit stop of from having lots of fun just as we would with 2 feet of snow.

Smiles and laughter fill these girls.

Sailor, Thayer and Else

 Ethan and Zoe finding "Snow snake holes."

 

 Teeter totter trio.

Sedsel the Raindeer, Nora and Stella

 River challenged Beth in a game of Tether Ball.

Snow Day by Betsy Maestro. "No School Today! Out came the  snow suits, scarves and sleds And out come the shovels and tank trucks and snowblowers.  While children play in the snow, adults work hard to make the roads safe for travel... until the next snowstorm."

Making Snowflakes..... We have been so excited to play in snow (as little as it is) that we decided if we make them, flakes will fall! So we made many snowflakes and have put them on our window. Maybe Mother Nature will see that we are very much looking forward to playing in some real snow. 

And when you make snowflakes, you must discover the mustaches!

Letter Vv

Morning Meeting...
We noticed that the chart had all kinds of sentences. There was an exclamation, a question and periods.
Lenora brought in a book that she wanted us to read aloud. Pete the Cat Old McDonald Had A Farm by James Dean.

Math.....
Number Beep
We listen to the numbers Beth yells out then she says "beep!" We write the number on our white boards that would have been the "beep!" i.e.: "3, 4, 5, 6, beep!"   "8, 9 beep!" We also started learning about 3 dimensional shapes... sphere, cube, cone, cylinders, prisms, pyramids, We also started working with a ruler to make lines and connect shapes on our worksheet.

Language Arts....
A new letter came to class today, letter Vv. We then practiced finding objects on our page that start with our new letter Vv. We also had stations to do after our worksheet. We had the choice of iPads, Drawing or reading books.


Sedsel brought in her flies for fishing.
Thayer "Where did you get them."
Sedsel "From the store and my mom."
Lenora "Are they real or fake?"
Sedsel "Real but they don't fly they are only for fishing."
Willow "I like all the colors."
Sedsel "Thanks."

Morning Meeting....
We had a couple visitors this morning walking through the school collecting coins. As I am sure you have read in the latest bulletin "Project Elf" is now under way in our school. Our school helps to support families through donations during this sometimes challenging and stressful time. Students will be making their rounds to the classrooms during morning meeting times. They will be collecting small change from anyone who would like to participate. Feel free to bring in change if you can. You are not required to.

Started right off counting. We are now up to 60! We can count by 1's and by tens up to 60 (and beyond). The kids then counted how many more days until we get to 100 days in school.  On our chart we practiced writing the letter W.

Math....
Just Enough Carrots by Stewart J Murphy. "Elephants, rabbits, and birds shop in this funny grocery store. Can you guess what the little rabbit wants more of? Munchy, crunchy carrots, of course! And fewer of? Squirmy worms and chewy peanuts (yuck!). So why is his mother buying all those cans of worms?"

Today we practiced working with pattern blocks recognizing shapes and sides and colors. We played Simon says... "find a shape that has exactly the same 4 sides." "Look for a shape that is blue." "How many sides does it have?" "What shape is it?" Touch the shape to your ear." "Put it next to you." Put it behind you." "Put it in front of you." "Find a shape with 6 sides." "Simon says what shape is this?" "Put it on top of you."

Language Arts... 

We began today to look at what kinds of sentences there are. There are questions? Exclamations! Periods.  With these types of sentences you read them with the enthusiasm that you want people to get from the sentence. 

Sharing...

Baden "I found a fossil."

Jack "Where did you find it?"  

Baden "I found it at a lake."

Zoe "Was it in the lake?"

Baden "It was out of the lake."

Skyler "I have a necklace that is a stocking and is a crystal."

Jack "Where did you get it?"
Skyler "My mom."

Lenora "Were you with her when she got it for you?"

Skyler "No, I was a teeny tinsey baby."

Willow shared that her and Stella had a play date yesterday. They were making muffins when Stella had to leave.

Ashlyn "Sooo, were you guy having fun with the kittens?"

Willow "We played cat baby."

Lenora "What kind of muffins were you going to make?"
Willow "Blueberry."

Thayer "Did you like play there?"
Willow "Yes." 

Bird feeders

Morning Meeting....
Did you do something kinds for someone yesterday? Everyone had to write on the yes or no side. We counted up the most votes and found that yes had 12 votes and no had 3 votes.
Shape/color matching. We love this little game we play on a regular basis.

Math.....
Goldilocks and the Three Squares by Grace Maccarone. "Visiting the pentagon-shaped house of the three Squares, Goldie Locks is amazed by the cottage's geometrically shaped furniture and remembers an important mathematical fact just in time to escape when the Squares come home."

Recognizing shapes. Beth drew shapes on the whiteboard and the kids had to decide if she was drawing rectangles or not. Squares are part of the rectangle family so those counted too. She drew triangles as well. Those are not rectangles. We then worked with popcicle sticks to make some shapes.

We also did an activity that required us to walk around the room and find objects in the room that were circles or  hexagons. Here are some things kids found that were of those shapes.

Taber "I found a hexagon cup."

Nora "I found a dot shaped like a circle."

Sailor "I found a block like a hexagon."

Ehtan "I found a circle that was a ice cream cone with a circle on it."

Willow "I found a hexagon picture."

Lenora "I found a circle that was a cup."

Stella "I found a hexagon picture."

Jack "I found a picture of a hexagon on the tree fort."
Else "I found a hexagon stop sign."
Sedsel "I found a circle that was a lego."

Baden "I found a block that was a circle."
Ashlyn "I found a circle that was on a chart

Thayer "I found a top of a play dough that was a circle."
River "I found a marker shaped like a circle."
Zoe " I found a clock shaped like a circle."
Skyler "I found a circle in our circle."

Language Arts....
Letter match, we are so awesome at our letter recognition and we are really getting those sounds! If you find yourself in the car, at dinner, on your way to go skiing with your child, ask them what sounds the letters make. For example, what sound does Tt make? They are very proud of what they know!
Echo joined us today and reviewed all of the letters we know. Echo is so good at getting the attention of the kids and they love to "echo" what he says.
Echo's cousin came in to teach us our new letter. Today we learned the letter Ww.

Break Out At the Bug Lab  by Ruth Horowitz. "Max, a giant coakroach, is on the loose in the bug lab! To make matters worse, there’s a party there today. Leo and his brother have to find Max before he makes people scream — or worse."

Who were the characters? 

Cockroach, Max, Leo

What is the setting of the story?

Zoe "At the lab."

What was the problem?
Sedsel "The cockroach got out."
How did they solve it?

Jack "They found him."

Stella brought in a sea shell. 

Lenora "Is it a crab shell?"
Stella "Yeah."

Taber "is it real?"

Stella "yeah."

Jack "Can you hear the ocean in it?"

Sailor "This is my grandmas bell and this is my stuffy."

Willow "I like the bell and the penguin."

Else "Does the bell have a ringy dingy inside it."
Sailor "Yes."

Zoe "Does the penguin make sounds at all?
Sailor "no."

Zoe brought in her light up Christmas necklace.

Thayer "where did you get it?"
Zoe "The elves game it to us."

Willow "How did the elf deliver it?"

Zoe "We have a calendar with pockets in it and the elves delivered it."
Sailor "Where did you find it in your house?"
Zoe "It was in the calendar."

Kindness activity....

We made pine cone bird feeders with peanut butter and bird seed to bring home to hang up and put up for birds to have.

Choose your pine cone.

Smear the peanut butter all over the pinecone.

Roll the peanut butter covered pine cone in the bird seed. Ta da! 

Morning Meeting.....
Reading gets better and better every week! They are really starting to understand that by sounding out their letters in each word and blending it together makes a real word! We read the chart and more kids each day are reading words. Such a great success to see. Today we are going to Fayston School for the "Wonder" presentation. We read the book We're All Wonders again as a reminder of what the presentation will reflect. We had a big conversation about people who are different. But different doesn't mean bad.

Math....
Recognizing triangles. Seeing many different shapes and identifying the real triangles. We also worked with rectangles and squares. Squares are in the same family as rectangles. Rectangles is anything that has 4 sides. Squares is the same. They are related. Today's math page was about rectangles, coloring them and make your own.
At snack Skyler made a great discovery when he found that some of his snack was in the shape of rectangles. Great observation Skyler! Many others found squares and rectangles in their snacks too.

Sharing...
Nora brought in a picture of her riding a horse that her grandmother took.

River brought in her dads old tie to share.

Ethan brought in a fishing trophy that he got for catching the smallest fish.

Else brought in a Tin Tin book. It use to be her dads when he was little.



Field Trip to Fayston....
We went to see Sam Drazen who was born with Treacher Collins syndrome It was a great presentation. All of the kids really seemed engaged and interested in what Sam had to say about his condition, what he went through over the years, etc. Kindness is a big deal in our world. We talked a lot today about what are some kind things you can do. What it means or looks like to be kind. What are some things we could do to be really kind to others?

* Make cards for other people.
* Make wreaths
* Make our parents a gift
* Make birdfeeders
* Make gingerbread houses

Art reminder....
The next color day is Monday, December 11th. The color theme for that day is BLUE.