Week 11: Friday, Nov 12 - 16, 2012

 Sowing seeds and measuring the rows,
and in the spring we'll be checking on it as it grows. 

Kinderbees

News

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS  

Many thanks to Maeve’s parents, Kerry Leslie and Stephen Gawalt, for the 5 large buckets of compost, bale of hay and spinach seeds for our Kinderbee Garden of Green.  We enjoyed working for the past few weeks digging up the perennial gardens, digging holes, and turning the soil.  I read Tomie dePaola’s, Strega Nona’s Harvest, a Thanksgiving story about gardening,  (following directions!), and generosity.  We used a ruler to help guide us to sow the spinach seeds in rows,  and then tucked them gently under a bit of soil and flakes of hay.  Because the beds were made with pressure-treated wood I asked the Farm to School group to organize students to perform a soil test to ensure it’s safety.  They enlisted the 6th grade.  I will share the results when they come in.  

Now that we tucked the garden into bed, we will wait patiently for the warm breezes in spring to plant more rows of spinach and/or other veggies. It is my hope we can harvest them before we break for summer. 

Phonics & Journal Writing:  We had a very full week learning new letter sounds and letter names. We introduced two vowels /o/, /u/ and two consonants /g/ and /l/.  Lessons reinforced the understanding of vowels and consonants.  We are practicing writing more and learning to tap out sounds to write short words and use our Writer’s Gum to write longer words.  

Language Arts & Phonics: I hope you have enjoyed playing Memory Sound Game that was sent home last week. If you missed it and/or didn’t have time to play, let me know and I will pack it in your child’s Ziplock so you can play next week.  Also coming home soon will be tins of c-v-c (consonant-vowel- consonant) words that your child can sound out. 

Getting to Know Cookie First Hand. 

Cookie the black and white calf:    Two weeks ago the K-2 students elected “Cookie” as the winning name for Kelly Meacham’s calf.  She visited us on Wednesday.  We went outside to greet her.  She enjoyed meeting us and letting us pet her. 

Share:  We enjoyed a week of free shares:  /f/ox, /f/rog, chain /s/aw, /c/amera, /b/ear.   Next week share theme is the sound /p/. Please brainstorm with your child some things that begin with the sound /p/ and help them choose a share that fits our theme.  

We have been enjoying the warmer weather and continue to get outside for run-arounds and recess, and even a snack. 

Snack time in the sunshine.

CALENDAR:

• Tuesday, November 19th: The Kindergarten wing is planning a Thanksgiving Friendship Feast on Tuesday, 11/19 at 1:45pm which is the last period of the day.  We are asking that children bring in a piece of fruit (or can) -- please no pineapple as someone has a allergy sensitivity.   We will be learning about the origins of Thanksgiving and learning how to express our own thanks.  

• No School on Wednesday-Friday next week. There will not be a newsletter next week, but look for photos and some editorial on our classroom web page.  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! 

Chance helps prepare the strawberries.

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS:

• Group Snack: Thank you to Chance’s family for contributing this week’s healthy snack! We enjoyed wonderful choices throughout the week: from homemade pumpkin bread to fresh strawberries and yogurt.   Next week’s snack will be provided by me and the following week after Thanksgiving will be provided by Morgan’s family. Thanks to all for making our group snack possible the children are really enjoying it as well as benefiting from the opportunity to eat a shared healthy snack. 

• Outerwear:  Colder weather is headed our way.  If snow falls, please send in winter boots, mittens, and hats. Please help your child learn to zip up their jackets on their own.  It will help us get them ready to go outside more easily. 

Sincerely, 

Mrs. Bodnar 

Election Day! November 7, 2012

Election Day!

Voting lines were longer than at the Town Hall,
but the children were patient and excited to vote!

Bryant tucks his ballot in the box

It's official, the polls are closed. You weren't the only ones to vote today. Your children also enjoyed voting! All the students in K-2 voted on the name for one of Kelly Meacham's calf's.

Kerridwyn peeks out from the
voting curtain.

Nominated names were: Caspar, Cookie and Columbus. This week we have discussed the concept of voting to help them understand democracy and we gave them the opportunity to vote. It gave the children an opportunity to experience voting first-hand. Democracy at work.  I will post the results of the tight race in Friday's newsletter. Stay tuned!

Taking turns to vote is citizenship in action. 

Snowflakes are falling!

Kinderbees

News

Maeve and Paige working together
to examine a snowflake.

Early this week we celebrated our first snowfall!.... however light it was. We stopped our morning meeting and celebrated the moment by going outside by catching them on our tongue and examining their beauty under a magnifying glass.

YUM!

Week 9: Oct. 30 - Nov. 2, 2012

Kinderbees

News

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS 

Bryant takes a turn mashing the apples in the sieve to make applesauce.

On Wednesday, we made applesauce from the apples we picked on our field trip earlier in the month.  The children each had an opportunity cut an apple in half and then cut each half again to make quarters.  I helped each child carefully cut each apple.  We talked about safety and that we don’t cut apples at home without an adult.  They were very excited for their first baking project.  After cutting the apples we put them in a pot, added a little water and simmered them on a stove in the Health room.  After lunch we used a sieve and mashed the apples until the apple sauce streamed through the sieve into the mixing bowl. We added two tablespoons of cinnamon and a 1/4 cup of maple syrup.  We enjoyed the applesauce before the end of the day with festive cookies from Keira.

Phonics & Journal Writing:  This week’s letter sounds were /c/ and /k/ and /e/.  The /c/ and

Isaac writes about bats.

/k/ action is related to castanets. The children pretend to click castanets in the air.  The /e/ sound is the action of cracking an egg on the side of a bowl.   Continue to encourage your child to complete the workbook pages on a weekly basis. With two to three sounds being introduced each week, they don’t have to do a page every night, just about a page every other day.   They all seem eager to learn the new sounds and actions. 

At Home Activity: Now that we have 3 different vowels, you can begin to play guessing games.  For instance, choose a consonant-vowel-consonant word like map.  Do the actions and see if they can guess the word.  If you don’t feel comfortable doing the actions, give them a c-v-c word and have them translate it silently into the actions. 

Language Arts (and Science ! ):  November calls for another two ELA assessments.  November’s assessment which we worked on this week is related to informational text.  We read the non-fictional book, Bats, by Gail Gibbons. This book was packed full of information about different kinds of bats. The children thought about one new fact they may have learned and then drew a picture and wrote a sentence.  As we read about bats we focused on the /m/ share theme too. They are mammals, they eat moths, mosquitos and even mice.

The past several weeks of school have been spent exploring our kindergarten room with activities and lessons.  We read Mrs. Bindergarten has a Wild Day in Kindergarten and thought about all the different areas and learning spaces in our room.  We are beginning to be introduced to some sight words, so the children completed this sentence, “I like...” and completed the sentence with something they like about our room.  I learned they like the blocks, the dollhouse, housekeeping, show and tell (share) and me!

Teamwork in the blocks center.

Explorations:  The children have been enjoying engineering buildings and other structures in blocks and role-playing in housekeeping. Several have rediscovered the art station with stamps, coloring and cutting.  The doll house is also enjoyed by both boys and girls. Aside from exploring a variety of genres and exercising their growing brains, they are learning important lessons about sharing, solving problems, and getting along.  They are fast becoming a tight group of buddies.

Paige tastes the soup. 

Share:  We enjoyed some fun /m/ shares: marbles, a magnet, a variety of Lego men, a toy motorcycle, a monster puppet, and even a mohawk hairstyle!  Next Week Share theme is the sound /n/. Please brainstorm with your child some things that begin with the sound /n/ and help them choose a share that fits our theme.  It can be a challenging but fun family activity, thank you!

CALENDAR:

❖   1^st Quarter Conferences: Please contact me if you did not receive a confirmation. I tried to accommodate everyone. I look forward to seeing everyone.

❖  PTSF Fundraiser: A School-wide fundraiser called SchoolMall is being sent home today. Please return by Next Thursday, November 8th. Directions are included inside the envelopes. Thank you!

❖  November Book Club:  Book Club magazines are included in this week’s Friday Folder.  If you would like to place an order, feel free to do it online or send a check before November 16.

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS:

Mr. Wright enjoys snack with the Kinderbees. 

❖   Group Snack: Thank you to Keira’s family for contributing this week’s healthy snack! We enjoyed wonderful choices throughout the week: homemade oatmeal cookies and homemade muffins, grapes, carrots and ranch dip,.  Next week’s snack will be provided by:  Tylor’s family.  Thanks to all for making our group snack possible the children are really enjoying it as well as benefiting from the opportunity to eat a shared healthy snack.

❖  Outerwear:  Colder weather is headed east. Please send your child to school with warm coats, mittens and hats.   

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bodnar