Kindergarten Class May/June
Well here we are. The end of the year. And your last blog. It’s a quickie since I’m also busy planning graduation and writing student evaluations. We’ve had a good two months. Things have been relaxed and fluid. Lots of play time, friendships are solid, and Orchard feels like a home away from home at this point for this group.
A big highlight the past few weeks has been spending time with the 4/5s who started out as pen pals but have now officially taken on the role of big buddies. After inviting their class to us twice, for guided tours of the rock museum and the “me” museum, the buddies have invited us to their tent for reading time. Last week the kids played board games together and tomorrow they’ll have sack relay races.
The Me Museum project, written about last blog post, came to an end. We made a giant school map on the tile room floor and then invited the buddies to come visit. The kindergartners sounded pretty sweet explaining the different museum exhibits to the older students, who were polite in their interest and appreciation for the work of their younger counterparts.
We got to spend some time with the 1/2/3 last week as well with the kinder cafe which I’m sure you heard about. The kids made menus, cooked up a storm, sorted play money into packets, rehearsed their roles (waiter, host, cashier, chef), and set up a restaurant. This was a multi-day project incorporating math, language arts and lots of fun. See a small sampling of pictures below. I was just too busy coordinating to take very many.
Our field trip to the Natural History Museum and the beach was great. The children learned a lot about animal adaptations, got to play some fun games with the docents, climb on the whale statue of course, and then have beach time. One field trip only for the whole year meant maximum enjoyment and appreciation. Hopefully next year will be field trip rich.
I’m so glad we got to fit in pool time twice. If it’s hot next week I’ll try one more visit.
We fit in one more sewing project — the felted bags the kids brought home. They all really got the hang of sewing, my most advanced sewing group ever, I think. They even learned to sew on a button!
Rest time. We shifted to the chicken coop area for rest — both to get away from kinder rebuild construction noise, but also to give the chickens “recess time”. They can only be let out of their coop with supervision so as to not fall victim to bobcats or coyotes. They really love it when we let them out. The kids have become expert chicken herders when it’s time to get them back in. You should see the team work required. Again, they are an expert group. They also like rest time with the chickens because I allow them to choose their spots rather than have them in assigned rest places. And the rooster keeps us entertained with his crows, punctuating story time with his racket.
Scenes from pottery class. I finally made it over there to take a few photos for the yearbook:
Scenes from felting class:
Photo captures from Jane’s classes. The kids made collages, bread, and 3 D art with yarn and pipecleaners inspired by a lesson on aboriginal art.
Other work/play not captured with photos: The children made books and wrote stories based on the math story “Ten Little Dots”. They finished their Me books which came home recently. They worked on a page of a wish book we made for Junie’s new baby brother, Griffin. We made paper airplanes, with the children following complicated folding instructions. We played math bingo and other board games. They painted golden rocks to place in the labyrinth at the graduation ceremony. And that’s only the things I can remember.
