Kindergarten

This week was a bit topsy-turvy!  Some of our planned special events have been postponed until next week – Alaska Day will be next Wednesday, and Mardi Gras on Friday.  Hayley’s Lunch Bunch will be on Wednesday, March 10, and Ryan’s will be a week earlier, on March 3.  And while you have your calendars out, please note that there is no Ski Friday next Friday due to public school vacation week (we will have a full day of school).  Ski Fridays will go through March 12.  And Parent-Teacher conferences will be held on March 4 & 5.  I’ll send an email letting you know when the sign-up sheet will be posted in the cubby room.

We ended our week with a wonderful Valentine’s celebration – thank you to Cara and Jenny for organizing it, and to everyone else who sent in food, drinks, and treats!  The table looked beautiful and the food (oh, those chocolate-covered strawberries!) divine.  The children had a great time.

In the green folders this week are the first Bonnie Kline stories.  We’ve learned all the sounds, and so each child should be able to read it to you, decoding any words they may not remember.  Please have them read both sides to you (and read again to everyone else – the more practice the better!)  The class is doing an excellent job with these.

We started a new unit this week in math, “Sorting and Classifying”.  After spending time sorting by one attribute (e.g. “Is it red?  Or is it not red?”), we’ve now moved on to two attributes (”Is it blue?  Is it a bus?  Is it blue and a bus?  Is it neither?).  This is much trickier to sort out, and the children are enjoying the challenge!

Enjoy your mid-winter break!

What a busy time!  We have wrapped up our penguin unit.  The children (and I) learned an amazing amount about penguins in a short time.  Their interest remained high throughout the month, and they had many fine questions.  We were especially fortunate to have Sally Eagle come in.  Sally and her husband Dan Mead are both well-known photographers, and they’ve recently returned from a month-long trip in Antarctica.  Sally offered to present a slide show of her photographs to the kindergarten.  The children were mesmerized for nearly an hour, and had lots of question for her.  It was a real treat to see her slides – they were truly spectacular.

The children continue to make excellent progress in Project Read.  They now have six consonants and one vowel (short a) in their “toolbox”.  We’ve been sounding out, reading, and spelling words all week.  The class got their first look at some short stories, exactly tailored to match the letter sounbds they know.  They were thrilled to really be decoding and reading!  Next week we’ll look at more stories and add some more consonants.

Next Wednesday is Alaska Day.  This is a beloved BCD tradition.  We’ll spend most of the day outdoors.  You’ll be receiving an email soon with some more details about the day, as well as how to dress your child so they stay warm all day.

On Friday, we’ll celebrate Valentine’s Day.  Valentines can be brought in any day next week.  Please make sure that they have one for every member of the class.  We’ll have a class party from 9:45-10:45.

Last week we had a great Lunch Bunch, courtesy of Jamie’s family.  The class enjoyed apple-chicken sausages, mac and cheese, cheddar bunnies and clementines.  Thank you, Courtney, for a most delicious lunch!

At rest time this week, I played Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint Saens.  I explained each section as it played, and the class loved listening for all the musical references and jokes. We’ve listened to a lot of classical music this year, and the class is starting to develop quite an appreciation.

Just a reminder that there will be no school on Monday and Tuesday, February 15 and 16.

Have a great weekend!

Andrea

Pajama Day, sledding on the berm, birthday of a certain cow….  this week had it all!

Pajama Day was great fun, with special books, art projects, and treats that we enjoyed with our PreSchool friends.   Everyone stayed cozy and warm and we had a nice relaxing day together.  The children had a lot of fun marching across campus in their PJ’s (to go to Music and Art), and we all thought that the older students were envious that they’re too old to wear their pajamas to school…

There was wonderful weather this week, and the class had a great time outdoors, mostly spending it by sledding on the berm.  A few brave souls even tried snowboarding – they were pretty successful at it, too!  It was great to see everyone cooperate by sharing the different kinds of sleds, and the air was filled with their laughter all morning long.

In Art with Mrs. Piasecki, the class has now completed their self-portraits.  These wonderful paintings are now on display in our room.  Also on display are the children’s most recent writings about penguins.  Be sure and take a look!

The BCD community has raised a substantial amount of money for Haiti.  Thank you all for your generosity, and for allowing your children to participate in this important work.

Another “Thank you” is due; this time a personal one from me to all of you for the wonderful birthday surprises!  There were lots of individual cards that the children made throughout the day, a great class card, and a wonderful treat to eat.  The Black-and-White cookies could not have been more perfect, and they tasted even better than they looked!  Awesome!!  Thank you all!

We’ve had fun this week.  We’ve written another Class Book.  This one, called Winter Is Here, features cray-pas illustrations.  The children had fun drawing in this medium, and we’re going to keep them out on the art cart.  And on Friday the children created sculptural collages using a variety of craft materials.  These are on display in the classroom; come and take a look!  There is a lovely variety of work.

We’ve been working on recognizing, reading, and writing numbers to 100.  The children completed a dot-to-dot of a penguin that asked them to count to 45 – easy for a few, but not most!  The class enjoyed the challenge.

Next Wednesday, PreSchool and Kindergarten will celebrate PAJAMA DAY!  Yes, your child can come to school in their jammies and stay in them all day!  Please also send a robe or footed pajama sleeper as a second layer, as our room can be chilly in the morning.  Please send a flashlight too.  Optional items are a cuddly animal and a blanket and pillow (or they can use their rest blanket).  We will do some fun activities with the PreSchool.  (PS – if you think your child will want to wear regular clothes to go home in, please send those too.)

On Monday, we celebrated Chase’s school birthday.  Joining Chase in the classroom were his mom, dad and grandmother.  And we had a special treat, as Chase himself read a book to the class!  It was a Dick and Jane winter story.  After lunch, we enjoyed “dirt cupcakes with worms” (actually, chocolate and gummy worms) – yum!  Thank you, Cara, Lance and Carol, for a fun birthday celebration!

On Wednsday, Aurora’s family provided a great Lunch Bunch – macaroni and cheese, fresh veggies and lemony pound cake.  Jenny and Jim (and even Henry) helped.  Thank you, Benson family, for a delicious lunch.

Please remember that Book Orders are due back on Wednesday, 1/20.  Thank you for your support!

Enjoy the long weekend!

Happy New Year!  We’ve enjoyed a great week together.  Our new unit is based on the BCD mascot – the penguin!  We’ll focus our study primarily on the two types of penguins that live in Antarctica, the Emperor and the Adelie.  In the weeks to come, we’ll create a rookery in one corner of our classroom, work on penguin puzzles, learn about the penguin life cycle, do related writings, learn penguin poems, and make penguin art projects.

In Project Read, we’re now learning the sound/symbol relationship of each letter.  The children are excited about this, and are busy applying their new skills by attempting to read more and more.  During this second half of the year, our focus in handwriting will be to write primarily with lowercase letters, as well as to gain more uniformity of size.

In math, we continue to work on memorizing phone numbers.  We’ll start to write numbers to 20 (or higher), and will continue to work on counting by 2’s and 10’s, and introduce counting by 5’s.

On Thursday we celebrated Ryan’s school birthday (his real birthday is December 31).  Theresa, Joe, big brother Tyler, and baby sister Ashley all joined us in the classroom.  Joe read Froggy’s Best Christmas by Jonathan London (and that was such a hit that we’ll do a mini-author study, as we have five other Froggy books in the classsroom to enjoy!)  After lunch, we enjoyed delicious cupcakes together.  Thank you, Sonsini family, for making Ryan’s school celebration so much fun!

Have fun in the snow!

We had a lot of fun this week.  Mixed in with our work, we also found time to finish some special holiday gifts for some special people.  The children put lots of time and effort and love into them.  I hope you enjoy them!

Our week ended with a spectacular class party.  A huge THANK YOU goes out to Cara and Jenny for organizing such a  festive end to our week, and also thanks to everyone who made or sent in food and/or came in and helped!  There was an enormous assortment of delectable treats and drinks – all delicious!  During the party, a trio of carolers, dressed in clothing from  a century ago,  stopped by to sing for us.   The children sat spellbound, enjoying familiar tunes sung with terrific harmonies by terrific voices.  We thank Sharon Smullen for inviting the carolers to BCD.  Our afternoon was filled with good music, good spirits, and good food.   Thank you again, Jenny and Cara, for giving us such a fabulous party!

We return to school on Tuesday, Jan 5.  The first  Ski Friday will be Jan. 8.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, filled with happiness.  See you in 2010!

The highlight of this week was our Friendship Lunch with the Preschool classes.  On Thursday we gathered in the PreK room where we had Morning Meeting together.  Afterwards, the children were split into three groups.  One group made corn muffins, one group made homemade butter by shaking (and shaking and shaking!) heavy cream, and the third group made gift tags for out holiday presents.  The children were rotated through all three groups,. so everyone got a chance to participate in everything.  We then shared a terrific lunch together of spaghetti and meatballs, fresh veggies and dip, apple slices, corn muffins, butter and chocolate cupcakes.  We had several parents come in and help, and especially want to thank Courtney McDonnell for all that she did!

We learned about Kwanzaa earlier in the week, and the class made beautiful mkeke (woven paper placemeats).  This coming week we’ll also learn about Chanukah and Christmas.

Our week ended with  wonderful Music Concert that included choirs, band, guitar ensembles and chamber music groups.  The children loved the concert, and it gives them a little taste of what’s in store for next year – Lower School Chorus!

This week we’ll have our Class Holiday party, scheduled for Friday afternoon.  More information will be coming from the Class parents.

I want to thank all of you for participating in the Holiday Gift Giving program.  Your gifts will certainly make some children happy, and will help to keep them warm this winter.  Thank you!

This is a busy time of year for all, and no less true in Kindergarten.  Last week we finished our Handwriting sheets and turned them into lovely alphabet books, which will be coming home shortly.  (Not all students are secure yet on writing all the letters, as we learned one letter/day, so please feel free to gently reinforce the correct way to write if you notice letters being formed incorrectly.)  We are finished up the proper formation of numerals, and will begin work on memorizing our phone numbers towards the end of the week.  After this we’ll revisit each letter of the alphabet, working on the associated sound, learning to blend them together to read and write words.  This work will take up most of the remainder of the year.  The children are super excited about reading and are making great progress!

We went to the Dakota last week and had a good trip there, learning a lot about the different roles for Wampanoag boys and girls, hearing some Native American music, learning to sing a lullaby, and seeing some wonderful art.  The children were polite and attentive throughout and especially enjoyed seeing the birchbark canoe and the white deerskin wedding dress.  A special “thank you” to Jenny Benson, who accompanied us, and to Mr. Bingham, who drove the bus for us.

We’ve been talking about peace a lot during the last week.  The class is learning two songs:  “Dona Nobis Pacem” (”Grant Us Peace” in Latin), and “Peace Is the World Smiling” by Viv Caputo (former BCD Music teacher).  This last one we are also learning in ASL  (American Sign Language).  We’ve made beautiful peace doves that decorate a tissue paper world, which has the word PEACE in many different languages.  We’ll also do individual writings about Peace later this week.

This Thursday we’ll have our annual Friendship Lunch with the PreSchool.  The menu will be spaghetti, sauce, meatballs, parmesan cheese, carrot and celery sticks, homemade cornbread with homemade butter, and apple slices and chocolate cupcakes for dessert.  Please send a lunch if your child prefers.  (Just a reminder that this week is filled with special meals:  Lunch Bunch on Wednesday, courtesy of the McDonnells, and Pizza on Friday!)

Enjoy the snowy weather and stay warm!

Winter surprised us today!  and many children were a bit on the chilly side when we went outside.  Please make sure to send a warm jacket, warm hat, and mittens or gloves (please make sure these are waterproof once there is snow).  Children will also need snow pants and winter boots, once it gets colder and/or there’s snow.  If you have an extra pair of snow pants, they can stay here at school.  We go outside to play almost every day, and the children are fine as long as they’re warm enough.

It’s a good idea to check their extra clothes bag and to tuck in some extra socks, as well as a sweater, sweatshirt, or a fleece layer, in case they get really chilled.

We try to keep our classroom floors as dry as possible in the winter, and request that you send in a pair of slippers to keep at school.  These should be slippers that are easy to wear, easy for your child to put on and off by themselves, and ones that will stay on their feet throughout the day.  This will help to keep our floors clean and dry.  If you have any questions about what to send, just ask me for clarification.

Because of all the extra gear that winter brings, it’s a good idea to send in a larger backpack if you have one (this only applies to a couple of the children).  If you don’t have one, we’ll make do, but if you do, it does make life easier when we pack up at the end of the day.

The last week before break, I’ll be sending home rest things to be washed; just send them back after break.

Thanks for your help and cooperation in all of this!  And enjoy the beginning of winter!