Kindergarten class

Hello Families,

Below you will be able to read about some things we’ve been involved with in the kindergarten since coming back from the winter break. Keep in mind, this is always just a window into our world and is far from comprehensive. A lot of what we spend time with is not quantifiable or easily described in blog format, falling more into the category of discussion on social/emotional issues, role playing, class meetings, and whatever is needed for the group to move through the day smoothly. Play and free choice activities are a good portion of every day and we consider these as important, if not more important, than teacher-directed lessons. It is important at this age to develop and nurture interests and not always rely on being steered in one direction or another. Filling one’s own time is an invaluable skill, as is learning how to interact cooperatively and collaboratively with peers. These abilities are fostered most when children are left to their own devices.

Math:

We are slowly but surely going through the “golden numbers” and will reach the study of the number 7 later this week. For 4, we examined 4-sided shapes, mammals because they have 4 legs, the compass rose with the 4 directions, and cars with 4 wheels. For 5, the children learned how to draw a 5 pointed star and for 6, they drew 6 pointed stars. They also looked at similar number equations to determine all of the ways to add up numbers to reach a sum of 6.

Also in math, the children heard the story The Napping House and used this story as a jumping off point for folding origami houses, drawing everyone who lives in their homes, 2 legged or 4 legged, and counting up and writing the total number of feet inhabiting their houses. This gave some practice with adding and counting by 2s.

Language Arts:

The children have fully explored their names, learning this month how to write full names, with first, middle, and last names, and also how to write their initials. They made initials with bread dough, and then baked and ate these, and they started necklaces with letters forming their names.

We also started a unit on writing letters to pen pals — they have been paired up with one or two pen pals from Bonny Doon Community Preschool — so they now have little buddies, as well as their Orchard big buddies. We’ve discussed some writing conventions (Dear, From, how to greet someone, introduce yourself, sign off with a pleasantry like “write back soon” and so forth). For the most part, the kids are dictating the body of the letter so they are freed up to ask lots of questions and divulge a lot of information about themselves without tiring of the actual manual task of handwriting. They also been hand making envelopes and with Mirna’s tools, they’ve been sealing these with wax, and learning about historical traditions with letter writing and the postal system.

With Kathleen, they’ve been exploring winter themes through handwork, stories, and science. They have made heart-shaped books with the writing prompt “I love…”. She’s shared a couple of special stories/puppet shows with them that highlight kindness and compassion including the Japanese story, “Straw Hats for Jizo” about an old couple who have no food to celebrate the New Year but are shown selflessness by the Jizos with a gift of abundant food. Another story they’ve enjoyed is The Tomtem, a Scandinavian story about an old man who cares for the animals in the heart of winter, kindly providing them with food. In this spirit, the students made bird feeders, stuffing half lemon rinds with a bird seed/suet mixture to smooth the passage of winter for our local birds.

Other Handwork Activities:

Needle felting woolen hearts

Completing sewing projects — pillows filled with lavender and stuffed with sheep and our very own alpacas’ wool, hand carded by the kids

Threshing wheat and separating kernels from the chaff — they will plant the wheat to start a new cycle next month.

Science:

We’ve been exploring weather cycles — the water cycle (we did a group science experiment to make it “rain” in the classroom) and the children made water cycle posters. On that same day, we went on the deck and were able to see evaporation, condensation and precipitation in real time — steam was rising up from the deck as the sun shone after a rainy day and the water was collecting on the cold roof of the deck and then dripping back down onto the deck floor as rain!

Blow painting with sumi ink. Blossoms will be added soon. Come visit in class to see the finished products.

Tomorrow we look at wind — the kids have already explored wind hands-on by making paper fliers that are designed like maple seeds and twirl as the come down to the ground, paper airplanes, and kites. They also used their breaths as wind to move paint across paper through a straw and make cherry blossom trees in honor of spring coming and the Chinese New Year. We will make wind socks too this week.

With Kathleen, the children made decorative snowflakes by growing crystals on pipe cleaners using a borax water solution.

We also looked at compasses and went on a North walk — the kids tracked which way was north and then we took off walking with a bag of flour to mark our course. You may have seen the flour line heading straight across campus to the white house. This was an introduction to a unit we will explore more fully soon where we’ll make compasses and look at magnets.

Also, we went on the field trip to the Seymour Center for the hands on lab called Survival Structures to find out how animals adapt to their habitat in order to survive and thrive. See pictures below.

Mirna has been helping out in class a lot. Thank you, Mirna. She is dedicated to setting up stations for the kids to experiment and explore. I love how she puts out beautiful materials and lets them run loose with their imaginations without much guidance. She is truly allowing them to discover for themselves. Having her, also means we can split into groups of three, with three kids in each group — a really nice ratio allowing much more individual attention. Here is a color exploration center she set up using watercolors.

Luz found a vestal tiger moth and we marveled at its black white and red markings and its plump furry body.

Asa lead the kindergarteners in the dragon dance across the fields and into and out of every classroom during the Chinese New Year celebration.

We enjoyed another visit with the big buddies. The elders helped their little friends decorate Valentine’s boxes. They also presented them with little gnomes they sewed for their littles when I subbed in their art class last month.

Wet on wet watercolor painting. A chance to watch the color move across the page almost with a mind of its own. A chance to discover what colors you get when you mix the primary colors. A chance to create something stunningly abstract and not feeling hung up on not yet having the tools to produce representational art that matches your complex imaginings.

Here’s a slideshow of our bus trip to the library. We had an exciting time traveling up the road by bus in a rainstorm!