Turkeys

We have been learning about turkeys! We read a book about turkeys in the wild and labeled a turkey (what is a caruncle? A wattle?) Then we recorded new facts we learned about this bird. 

After, we read Turkey Trouble, a sily story where the turkey has many disguises to try and trick the farmer so he won't get eaten! We created our own turkeys and fun disguises!

4 Winds- Snags and Logs

This 4 Winds might have been the best yet! Ellen and Meredith came in with some amazing materials and we even spent some lovely time outside in the sunshine looking for snags and logs.

They brought a time machine! We got to see what would happen to logs after, 4, 9 and 12 years!

What made these scratches on the logs?

Book Binding

Last week, Ellen Kucera came and taught us about book binding. She read us an incredible book about being creative and making art and then she showed us how to bind books with stitches. Then we got to try it ourselves. Stay tuned to see what we make these incredible books into!

Ellen shows us how to use the jig.

And how to use the awl.

Folding the pages was the first step.

Venah uses the awl to poke holes in her pages.

Arie smoothes his edges with a special tool made from antler.

Then, using needles and thread, we sewed the pages together making sure to do it in the right order!

Which numeral will win?

Another new math work place! It's called Which Numeral Will Win and the kids love it. They need to spin and read which number to write on the recording sheet.

paper airplanes

One of my favorite parts of choice time is seeing what the children discover in the classroom. Sometimes it's a new puzzle, sometimes a new art medium and sometimes it's just something neat to make out of paper! Today someone started a class wide interest in paper airplanes. We started by a few kids trying out different airplane models. In the afternoon, we used the stage as a safe place to fly them. When we had had two trials, some children decided they wanted to modify their plane design to see if they could make it fly further. Some added staples, others added tape and some chose to cut off parts of their planes. How did those modifications affect the flight?

String Quintet

Yesterday we went to hear a string quintet play in the gym. We sat with our buddies and really enjoyed learning about the different instruments and hearing them play. This morning on the morning message, children had to choose which instrument they liked the best. Most chose the bass!

Toilet paper rolls and cereal boxes, fabric and yarn

Our classroom is looking for some donations of toilet paper rolls and cereal boxes for our weaving unit. We also are trying to hunt down strips of fabric in a variety of colors, patterns and lengths and any yarn too!
Thanks!

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

On the 18th we'll be heading to the Flynn theater to see Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. We will eat lunch on the road, so please pack a cold lunch. I also need to collect $8.00 from each student to pay for the tickets. We only have enough seats reserved for students and teachers, so we cannot bring any parents along on this trip. It's going to be great!

Buddy Game Time

We always love getting together with our buddies, but today we had a special buddy time. Our kindergarteners are loving learning and playing lots of new games- Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, Uno, Connect 4 and many more. So many of these games reinforce the skills we are working on in class- numeral recognition, 1 to 1 counting, being a good sport and playing by the rules. Puzzles are also a hit. We have some huge ones!