Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend! This week the children will definitely be planting their grass seeds (in the 1/2 egg shells) and pumpkin seeds! They should be ready to take home in time for safe planting in your garden/pot. We'll be learning a lot about seed growth as we continue our inquiry about life on the Earth and taking care of the Earth.
Last week we learned a song called "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" and read and coloured a matching booklet. We brainstormed why we love the Earth and the children's answers were so insightful and genuine. We also brainstormed How to reduce, recycle and reduce things and the children had a lot of great ideas. We reuse/repurpose a lot of things in Kindergarten! I will type up the children's answers and send them home with their "Earth Folder." The kids also painted beautiful Earths and nests in trees following my example. We went on a nature walk in the shale pit and the children had to find several nature items. Next week we will learn about what is inside the Earth. We'll also start our inquiry on plants and habitats.
The kids' folder on 2- and 3-D Shapes went home on Thursday. They are always so pleased to put their work in their folders because it reminds them of all the awesome learning they've done! to finish off this inquiry, we cut several shapes and, with our Reading Buddies, glued them together to make a puzzle in which at least 2 sides were touching. We did more thinking about day-to-day 3-D shapes, such as cylinders (twistables, jars, vases, cups, etc.) cubes (Bubbles the Beta Fish's tank!), rectangular prisms, spheres (balls, marbles, the Earth, eggs) and even triangular prisms (3-sided pencils). The children also made some cool art by cutting and stamping 2-D shapes.
The "Take-Apart Centre" is still a big hit and the kids have had a great time using tools to take apart a clock, a laptop (thank you Andrew!), keyboards (we reused the letters for the play doh centre), and a phone. If you have any more old electronics the kids learn so much from taking them apart and looking at how they're made under the magnifying glass.
Thank you for sending in the wallet-sized photos. A special thank you to Theo's mom who sent me a link of a Robin's nest which, over 4 weeks, showed eggs hatching and finally the babies flying from the nest! The children loved it! We are also watching the live cam of a Bald Eagle's nest in Pennsylvania. Thank you to Chris' mom who helped in the Computer Lab, to Camilla's sister and Ruby's mom who were our Mystery Readers, and to Samantha who brought in 3-D boxs shapes (a heart and a rectangular prism).
The sight words of the week were WAS and I'M. The children did a read-and-write booklet for WAS. They learned that I'M is a contraction of the two other popcorn words they know I and AM.
This upcoming week we will start a new inquiries on Habitats and Plants, and will continue our inquiry on the Earth.
That's the news from Room 166 - I hope you have a terrific week!
