Traditions!

This week, we talked about cultures and traditions. We learned about how there are many different cultures and traditions and ways of celebrating. Even within the same culture, people celebrate different. Some have a tree, go caroling, wear matching PJ's, bake cookies or take pictures with Santa. Others might do something completely different like light a menorah (Hanukkah) or wear traditional African dress, sing songs, have a feast and/or light candles (Kwanzaa). Each of these traditions make us unique and are celebrations of the things we believe. Students shared about their traditions within their own families in small groups then wrote/drew about it.

New Year, New Roles!

This week, students have learned all about jobs: Why people have jobs, what kind of jobs there are--from the most obvious to the most obscure, how people get jobs and what would happen if we didn't have people to do jobs. Kiddos have learned about all the different classroom jobs that we need help with! We've filled out an application for the Kansas City Zoo as a class and learned about qualifications, experiences, and qualities that make people right for different jobs. Mrs. Satz interviewed Ms. Westlake for a position in the Cleaning Crew. We talked about eye contact, confidence, politeness and preparedness. Students filled out an application, listing their top 4 jobs and will begin interviewing next week! We got to a few interviews this week and oh my...we are just blown away!!! We've heard from a child wanting the role of Lunch Manager because they have experience setting the table at home and helping to clear it. We've also heard from a child wanting the role of Technology Support and stating that they might not have experience, but they are "studying...I've been watching others plug in the ipads at the end of the day and I think I could do it!" This has been SO fun! Looking forward to holding more interviews :)

Our Kindergarteners have officially kicked off our first project based learning unit. In this unit, scholars will be learning about how we can care for our garden so that our garden can care for us (our community). Throughout this unit Kindergarten scholars will be:

• plotting a garden
• using symbols to mark what has been planted
• constructing a map of our garden
• measuring daylight
• observing seasons
• studying local weather patterns
• using 1:1 correspondance
• surveying foods
• comparing category counts
• engineering a structure to provide shade for plants
• observing sun position
• determining what plants need to survive and how they adapt to their environment
• learning about surplus and scarcity
• researching structures and parts of a plant
• researching what tools gardeners use/need
• researching how much sun/water different plant species need
• researching how deep roots grow
• understanding that gardens can give back to a community

To begin our unit, kindergarteners "planted" a lima bean. On a daily basis, we will be recording our observations about how the bean has changed. The kids are absolutely loving this! We will have many guest speakers and field trips throughout this unit. On Tuesday, September 13 we have a soil expert that will come in and provide unique hands-on learning opportunity for our scholars. They will get to explore various soil types with magnifying glasses, tweezers, etc. On Friday, September 16, we will be taking the street car to River Market and shopping for our seeds at Planters. Pictures and work to come, continue to check back!!

Week of September 19:

• Seed Scavenger Hunt: Students collected seeds on a nature walk around our community. They used a reference card to determine if what they saw could be a seed. If it matched, they put it in their bag. In groups of four, students researched their findings. They looked at attributes and classified their seeds. Each group member had a job: tool manager, facilitator, presenter and recorder. Through this research, children are learning many valuable social skills as well as math and science related standards.

Week of September 26:

• In the same groups of 4 as above, students were given a bag that had a random assortment of the seeds we had all collected last week. As a group, they created a bar graph on large paper to share about the sample data they received. Groups presented their findings and as a class we practiced asking questions about their representations.

What We Are Working on Week of 9/19:

Math:

• We are in the process of collecting many points of data for each student. With this data, we will begin grouping children during our math workshop. On Monday's and Wednesday's, students will rotate through math centers geared towards their instructional needs. For some this may be one-to-one correspondence, number recognition, number writing, counting, etc. For others this may be work with tens frames, adding, subtracting, etc. On Tuesday's and Thursday's students will be spending the first half on ST Math and the second half will be a direct instructional lesson (we use Engage NY for our curriculum...). Friday's are spent playing math related games.

Reader's Workshop:

• We are learning that readers use tools to help them get smarter. Readers use highlighters, dog ear their pages and sometimes even write in their books! However, because these are classroom books, we started using sticky notes instead. We learned that these tools will help us remember what we wanted to share with others. We talked about how readers often find that when they are looking into a book they read or see things that are the same in their own life (connections!) and we also sometimes learn something we didn't know before. We have been working on finding connections and new learnings in our books and using sticky notes to mark it.

Writer's Workshop:

• Students are learning that writer's write about one topic and stay with it through their book. Children are also learning that "When they think they're done, they've really just begun!" This is helping them work on their stamina for one piece of writing. Students are focusing on the sounds that they hear in words and recording the letter that makes that sound.

What We Are Working on Week of 10/2

This week we began talking about our Seed Museum. The seed museum will be a catalyst for our upcoming writing unit on "How To" and "All About" topics. As a class we went on hunt for unique seeds. We brought back examples and talked about what made them unique from the millions of acorns, pods, pinecones and berries we've been working with already. We talked about how museums have a variety of things to show, not just the same picture on every wall. For this week, students are to be looking for unique seeds they find at home and to bring them back to school for our museum. Below are some examples of unique seeds.

What We Are Working onWeek of October 10-14

What a fun week in the world of seeds and gardening! Students have been working on their All About Books during Writer's Workshop. Our end product for this unit will be an All About Book with a focus on their seed contribution to the seed museum. Before we ask kiddos to give us their end product, we practice! This week students have begun learning about the writing process. We brainstormed topics, chose one to focus on and began writing an All About Book on a topic of their choice.

Marlena Dickinson, Illiaina's mom, brought an enormous sunflower from their garden for us to dissect and explore. We learned about the many many florets that makeup each of the cavities of a sunflower center, giving us the vibrant yellow color. We learned about stigmas that are found where the seeds eventually grow and we used tweezers to pick individual seeds out of the center. We looked at pictures that compared the size of the sunflowers to people and learned about how birds looooveee to eat those seeds! The children were totally fascinated!

On Friday, The 10th and Jefferson community garden invited us to come and help them harvest! It was a BLAST!! The kids got to harvest green onions, green peppers, yummy peppers, leeks and flower seeds. The community garden is supported by volunteers that work at DST. All of the food from the garden is donated to a soup kitchen and a food pantry in our community. We talked about what the word "volunteer" means and how we were volunteering our time to help, just like the people from DST.

Week of October 31st

Last week we started our Geometry unit. Our standards within this unit are:

• Describe objects in the environment using names of shapes and describe the relative positions of these objects using terms such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind and next to.
• Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size
• Identify shapes as 2-D or 3-D.
• Analyze and compare 2D & 3D shapes in different sizes and orientations, using informal language to describe their similarities and differences, parts and other attributes. (number of sides, vertices, corners)
• Model shapes in the world by building shapes from components (i.e.sticks and clay balls) and drawing shapes
• Compose simple shapes to form larger shapes

To kick off our 3D learning, we talked about how we needed our room to be "scary" for our visitors at the Fall Party and that haunted houses might be just the thing we needed. We told them that we would need to be able to identify shapes so if a friend was asking for something that they needed, they'd know what it was they were talking about. We used words like "above, over, next to, beside, etc." to construct the houses and asked for shapes by name. These turned out AWESOME!

Mad Scientists

We have officially kicked off our Mad Scientist Unit, complete with goggles, science journals, droppers, experiments and everything else you think of when it comes to science! Below is a brief outline of the activities your children will be embarking on during the next several weeks:

Week of Dec 5—Experiments

Monday: Prepare Science Notebooks

Mini Science Experiments:

Water dropper-- How many drops of water does it take to fill a penny?

Balance-- Choose two objects to weigh, which weighed more, which weighed less? What did you notice?

Tuesday: "What do scientists do” Students watched short clips about real scientists from all different fields. They learned about what scientists do-- ask questions, research, observe, read, help others, explore, share, use tools, collect data, think, listen, smell, taste (when it's safe), write, take pictures, investigate, communicate, explain and work with others. This website is AWESOME and the kids thoroughly enjoyed learning about all the different scientists! http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/scientists/

Mini Science Experiments (Round 2):

Magnifying Glass--Observe closely at things found outside and record these details

Kool Aid and Baking Soda-- Watch what happens when you mix kool aid, baking soda and water together! Predict and record.

Fill the Measuring Cup-- How many scoops of sand will it take to fill a measuring cup?

Wednesday: STEM Experiments

Thursday: STEM Experiments

Friday- Science City

Week of Dec 12— 5 Senses Investigations

Monday and Tuesday: Smell, touch, taste, hear— smell boxes, touch boxes, guess the sound, taste blind folded

Wednesday: Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired will be coming to talk about what they do and how they help people that can't see. They will be bringing in special glasses that kids can try on and see what it would look like to not being able to see well, along with many other props to help teach our children more about sight. This day will give our children a great lesson in empathy as well.

Thursday: Measurements

Friday: Polar Express Party! Children will be invited to wear PJ's, bring a comfy stuffed animal or pillow to snuggle with and to board the Polar Express! We will be using our 5 senses as we share in the experience the author creates in this classic holiday children's book. We will then watch the movie and compare and contrast the differences from the movie and the book. This day will be complete with a train ticket, cup of hot cocoa, popcorn, and a bell from the North Pole ;)