Fine Motor

We continued our weekly Thursday fine motor classes with Mrs. Soloman today.  Students are continuing to develop muscle strength in their fingers to help them become more experienced writers.  To help us focus on building this strength, students traveled around the room in three centers today.  While some students worked on lacing/sewing, others pulled putty apart to find treasures and to build letters, and the rest used "chopsticks" to dig for bugs and small pieces of paper out of a cup.  Thanks for all your help Mrs. Solomon! 

Apple Printing

After learning a new art technique, students used sponges and apples to create their own apple tree depicting their favorite kind of apple (red, green, or yellow).  Earlier this morning, we made predictions about what apple we thought we'd like best and then actually tasted the three different apples to determine if we were right.  The apple trees in their picture show each child's favorite!  We then used an actual apple cut in half as a stamp for our tree!

Delicious, Tasty, Yummy!

Those were some of the words shared at the end of the day circle as we reflected on how the apple sauce tasted.  This afternoon we used a food mill to separate out the skins and turn our apples into a creamy bowl of applesauce!  The children enjoyed turning the crank, watching the applesauce come through the sieve and plop into the bowl below.  To many, it was fascinating and it was often heard around the classroom, "this is the best day ever!"  We are motivated to continue our cooking endeavors next week.  We'll be looking for some tools, so please read the blog for suggestions on how you could help!

Counting out enough cups and spoons for everyone!

Morning Meeting Greeting

To help create community , we begin each day with a greeting at morning meeting.  We spend 30 minutes a day learning about our peers, making each other feel welcome, singing, dancing, and playing games.  Eventually, we'll add in sharing.  We end our morning meeting with a message about the day ahead.  Children read the message and often spend a few minutes practicing important literacy skills.  Here is a short video of the "ball" greeting that we did this morning (students sitting down were already greeted).  INQUIRE with your child what greeting they have liked the best!  

Goodbye Summer, Welcome Fall

To help children learn about seasons and the months of the year, we often look closely at what it is we do during these months, the weather that we experience, and the things in nature that are changing.  This past week, we said goodbye to summer and recounted all that we've been enjoying in the warm weather, and welcomed fall.  INQUIRE with your child what they said goodbye and hello to.  Understanding that activities, weather, etc can happen in all seasons, we tried to look at things that are most likely to happen in a particular season and what is changing along with each season.

Explorations

While dissecting the sunflower today, some students discovered a worm squiggling around...and if you were there, you'd think someone had just won a million dollars!  The excitement shown and the observing, questioning and the cooperation seen between the children was a typical learning experience in a kindergarten classroom.  We caught a few minutes on video. Enjoy!

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Apples Galore

After brainstorming a plethora of ideas as a class about what to do with our apples, we decided to start with a batch of apple sauce.  Next week, we might dive into apple juice, apple tart, apple pie, or apple crisp but we'll take one day at a time!  Using an apple corer/slicer, the children prepped the apples for the crock pot and can't wait until tomorrow for step #2....straining out the sauce to separate the peels!  Oh, and of course for the taste test! 

Earlier today in math, students made a prediction of how many seeds they thought were inside their apple.  We discovered today that an apple tree and a butterfly are very similar - they both go through changes during a life cycle. Although an egg and a seed are vastly different, the children are beginning to make connections among these two things. INQUIRE with your child what the first stage is in the life cycle of an apple tree. 

After making predictions about how many seeds were inside, we constructed an apple out of paper before opening up to check how many seeds there actually were. This is one out of many opportunities children are having to practice using classroom tools.  Although cutting can be a challenging skill for a five year old, the children will get many chances for practice in school and hopefully at home too to help perfect this fine motor skill.  INQUIRE with your child how many seeds were in their apple! 

Completed Portraits

If you're around school, check out our completed self-portraits. They are for all to view and enjoy on the back wall of our classroom.  It's amazing how our classroom walls are quickly filling with student work! I look forward to creating 2 more self-portraits this year  and taking the time to reflect on the growth children make as the year progresses.

Hopes and Dreams

Before writing our classroom rules we brainstormed what we all want to be able to do in Kindergarten.  We talked about the endless opportunities we will encounter, the variety of subjects we will learn and individualized this and shared with one another many different ideas. We listened to our own ideas and those of Mrs. Wrigley's classmates.  Students discussed what they thought was meant by a hope and dream at school. To complete this activity which we have been working on over the last week, we decided to illustrate and share just 1 hope and dream that we want to accomplish in the next few months while at school.  Many of us had different ideas, although there seemed to be a common theme of learning how to read!  Throughout this activity, which is based on the Responsive Classroom, we have built a stronger community that is learning how to listen, respect, and share ideas.  I look forward to sharing their hopes and dreams and hearing more about yours next month!

Thanks

I wanted to express my gratitude to all families for your emails, calls, and letters showing gratitude and thanks for the time spent on the blog.  I'm so glad you are enjoying it, and please, if there is anything you think I'm missing, just let me know.  I've also heard that aunts, uncles, and grandparents are viewing it from afar!  Please feel free to comment to let us know who you are!  If any family is interested in having copies of pictures of their child, please let me know. I can be happy to share copies (your child only)  with you.

So many families also have been inquiring about my commute to work each day.  It's great to work in a community where so many people care!  I am so lucky to enjoy a great carpool, amazing sunrises and sunsets, and picture perfect moments. As the leaves begin to change, I look forward to the interstate drive!  Not so much come winter.... Check out the double rainbow seen today on the way home today!

Losing, Winning, and Cooperation

We continue to work on learning about cooperation and empathy during the school day.  Through board games and puzzles, students are practicing how to listen, take turns, lose, win, and help one another out...all while having fun!

Scientists at Work

During centers today, children were introduced to a new center.  The butterflies and caterpillars have been replaced by sunflower heads.  We have gathered the sunflowers that the first graders planted for us last year and will begin to study their life cycle. Through hands on exploration using a range of science tools (goggles, glasses, tweezers, and magnifying glasses) students spent time dissecting the head of the sunflower.  Students asked questions, made observations, and made predictions about how things happen.

Field Trip

 We were so lucky to avoid the downpour, hail, winds, etc this morning and instead enjoyed the sun, crisp air, beautiful views, laughter, fun, and apples at the orchard.  We have completed our study of butterflies and will be moving on to learn about the life cycle of an apple tree. Mr. Brees, the owner of the orchards gave us a brief overview of the apple trees (INQUIRE with your child how many trees he has!) and then we all set off to pick apples.  Upon returning to the classroom, we thought about which senses we used throughout the trip and made a graph of things we smelled, tasted, heard, saw, and touched while on our field trip.  Over the next few weeks, we will be learning more about our five senses and the life cycle of an apple tree.  We will be exploring apples though cooking, dissection, read-alouds, and many more activities. 

Thank you to Robert, Jennifer, Joan, Suzanne, Melanie, and Seth for accompanying us on our trip. (I apologize for not including everybody in this slideshow, but I could not track down one of the groups in the orchard!) If you have pictures to share and add to the slideshow, please email them to me!

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Gotta Go....Gotta Go....Gotta Go to Mexico!

Late Thursday evening I watched our butterfly emerge from its chrysalis (I'm hoping the 2nd one emerges during the school day)!  We spent Friday morning reading, Gotta Go, a children's book telling the story of the life cycle and journey of a butterfly to Mexico and discussed what will happen to the butterfly once released.  Although some believed it would stay in UES' butterfly garden on the lower playground, others were convinced it would head south.  We are lucky to be a part of a program that will allow us to (hopefully) track our butterfly on it's journey.  Please see http://www.monarchwatch.org/tagmig for more information.  We look forward to checking the site and hope our butterfly is spotted!  After saying goodbye to the butterfly and chanting, "GOTTA GO, GOTTA GO....GOTTA GO TO MEXICO, we released it and watched it fly away!