Kindergarten Caper Catch Up

SK South Entrance Skylight,  Fall 2012

Wow!   It is hard to believe that the school year is rapidly coming to an end.  It seems like your babies just tumbled into our new, gorgeous building with excitement and wonder.  I can still see us toting our umbrellas around our newly fenced playground and Yonder Tree,  peering into the cages of primates at the Toledo Zoo, and being more fascinated by the grey cat than the cows at the dairy farm.  I realize I will soon watch  these Kindergartners stop just short of the K classroom.  I may not be the recipient of the daily "surprise!"  but I will be listening by the door and waving them on!  I've had the time of my life!  Now onto something that won't make me tear up...


Kindergartners have been discussing many forms of "Reflection" this month!  Speaking of which, our  "Reflection's Night" was a wonderful example of the growth of the children's artistic and musical gifts and talents.  My colleagues, Tracy and Adam are awesome and  the children were adorable!  I am grateful to be able to witness such a lovely event!  Classroom "reflections" included a poem appropriately entitled "Reflections" from the book A Mural on Second Street and Other City Poems by Lilian Moore. Kindergartners have been practicing reciting and sight reading skills as well as speaking in front of an "audience of their peers. "   The poem itself is about the "phantom faces" that can be observed while window shopping.  Other ideas about reflections from the Kindergartners  included "remembering"...  "looking into the past"..., "what you see in the mirror" and "what you see in the water."


Kindergartners also heard a very
sweet story titled Grandpa Green by Lane Smith.  This beautifully illustrated picture book tells of how a little boy's great grandfather's way of "remembering" is with the use of an unexpected tool- a sculpture garden.  Kindergartners discussed the job of a "horticulturalist" and a "topiary" as a specially sculpted or trimmed bush or tree.  This was a great segue from our recent trip to the Oaken Transformation Sculpture (although different from sculpted) Garden in Brighton, MI mentioned in a previous blog entry.    During Choice Time, Kindergartners seized the opportunity to sculpt and cut paper (only fitting-made from trees!) into their own pop-up topiary greeting cards!  This activity afforded some great problem-solving (How do we make it pop-up?) and idea sharing! Children were also asked to incorporate various pen and ink shading techniques like in the story.  Some children even stated that they would be including  by name the "Billy Brown" technique (sketch technique  using short, colorful lines in various directions that resembles cross-stitching and creates movement.)   Our Art Teacher, Tracy will be proud!     In addition, we  had a lovely discussion about the effect of Alzheimer's disease on families and how sometimes, and for various reasons, we all forget things.   Kindergartners have also been enjoying an audio of Shel Silverstein reading his book of poetry, Where the Sidewalk Ends during our Quiet Time.

Andy Warhol's Cans have been the foundation for a lot of our math lessons this week!  We have examined more of Warhol's Graphic Design work that included the area of "product design."  We have various cans trickling in daily and are practicing our counting and data recording skills, and are practicing drawing "elipses" and "cylinders."   We are also becoming quite proficient at reading can labels!  Our first activity was to identify the weight of the cans in pounds (lbs.) and/or (ounces).  During a lesson one of the kids victoriously shouted, " I found the O-Z!"  Another activity included locating the "sodium content."  We will be discussing the topic of food preservation  further and hopefully with the help of 3/4 Grade Teacher Chris' class.  They have just returned from a trip to the a brinery.

We are incorporating in our can activity the use of weights and scales.  Ben and Mason's Dads seemed to have as much fun as the kids in determining just how much rice could actually balance on top of the weight scale!  We will be making some comparisons with our "standard" and "non-standard weights" in an upcoming project.  P.S.  Please submit a baby picture of your child with birth weight and length A.S.A.P if you have not done so already.  Thanks!

Our very sweet and helpful Concordia University Volunteer, Rachel, shared a recent trip to Hershey Pennsylvania's "World of Chocolate."   She explained and showed a video on her computer of   the process of chocolate making, did a mini Math lesson on how many "Kisses" equaled a Hershey bar, and discussed the reason she could not serve chocolate samples at our "Nut Aware" school was because of the product being created on an assembly line that produced items with nuts.  This was a great addition to our Product Design discussion!  Rachel is also working with our class while working on her Reading and Literacy project for her class.

Caterpillars are growing in the Kindergarten Room!  Because of the TLC  of all of the children (and Spring temperatures outside) the caterpillar larva have reached the chrysalis stage of their metamorphic process. 

 A "Butterfly 

Release Party" 

date for our

"Painted Ladies" 

will be forthcoming!

Other Science/Sensory activities included seeing just how much water the playground sand box could hold, cultivating a small wildflower garden in our playground, and Science classes with Dr. George!  One week entailed revisiting  the prototype "Hoop House" structure complete with a mini lesson in "Just how many different kinds of insects? live inside of  a tool shed.

  

After assisting with storing extra hoop house beams in the now tidied shed, we visited the new Hoop House structure to check the temperature guage.  The children hauled water and supplied it with much needed water to maintain its ideal temperature.  

This week's Science class involved exercising our muscles while disassembling and reassembling a structure made from the recently extracted parts from microwave ovens.

 

And speaking of a workout, last week's Yoga lesson with Dom included back bends and the use of a Medicine ball.  Kindergartners seemed to enjoy the deep stretch (and the change of perspective) that a turn on the medicine ball provided.

Kindergartners spontaneously "wrote" and produced their own play for an adoring and adorable (the rest of the class) audience.  Roles were distributed, rehearsals were made  and several performances were acted out.  The crew even included a "Stage Manager!" 

Just a reminder, Kindergartners have a field trip to tour the UMMA with Claude's Dad next  Friday, May 24th!   Departure at 10:00 A.M!

(Above) My own youngest baby, Jhordan (is she supposed to be sitting on that?) outside of the UMMA (University of Michigan Art Museum) on  Graduation Day-  Class of 2013!   Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Spanish.  (An honorary SK Kid!  She would have loved it here!)

And one of our very own SK Daddies!!!

A special Thanks to all of you lovely, lovely Parents and Grandparents for your awesome Kids/Grand kids,  your support and commitment to Progressive Education,  and for the delicious Staff Brunch (and attentive kid supervision and cool craft project) you provided for all of us teachers!  We appreciate you!!!  

                                        Kindergarten Class' Lost Tooth Count this week:  2!

Teachers Chris 3/4s and Elaine 1/2s having a very reflective (and Ocean's Eleven- like) moment gazing up at the Apple Blossom Tree outside of the South entrance of SK.  The scent of the foliage was captivating!



SK South Entrance Skylight, Spring 2013