Sunday, December 6, 2015

Celebrations of Light!

It's hard to believe the holidays are already upon us!  This month in Kindergarten we are focusing on light and the different celebrations of light around the world this time of year.  We will read stories and talk about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa as well as any other holidays that our Kindergartners celebrate during the winter months.  If your family would like to share about a holiday tradition or celebration please let us know!

Our spiritual theme continues to be Simple Gifts and Service.  We have been talking about how simple gifts come from the heart and how special they are to those who receive them.   Both classes made lists of simple gifts and then drew and wrote about their thoughts.  Check out their "packages" in the hallway.  Some of the Kindergartners did a service project Friday morning with reading buddies.  Our "Smart Sack" program involves SSFS students bagging up dry goods to send home with local elementary school students whose families are going through a difficult time.  The food we pack up ensures these children have healthy food for the weekends.  Half of the Kindergarten participated this week, and the other half will do this activity next week.  

We've had some exciting times and special activities the past few weeks.  On Friday, November 20th the entire Lower School went to the University of Maryland women's basketball game.  Our Lady Terps did an awesome job and the children loved going to the big university and seeing the game.  It was especially exciting when the mascot, Testudo, came and visited us in the stands. Right before the Thanksgiving break, Kindergarten celebrated all that we are thankful for by having a mini-feast.  Thank you for the parents who signed up to bring snacks!  And just this past week, Kindergarten participated in a Lower School tradition by making candles in the Art Barn with Kate.  We sang holiday songs as we walked around and dipped the wicks in wax.  Candles will be coming home before the holidays.


Life Skills - Connected and Respected 

This week in Life Skills we talked about feeling angry.  First the children went around the room and talked about something that "bugged" them.  We talked how we all feel angry sometimes and that is is OK to feel this way.  People feel anger in different ways - some people feel it in their tummies, some people feel it in their arms, etc  We then talked about different ways to handle anger. We emphasized that it's OK to feel angry, but it's not OK to be mean.  We brainstormed appropriate ways to express or handle anger such as taking a deep breath, counting to 10, yelling into a pillow, etc.  We will continue this discussion in coming weeks.


Curriculum Highlights 

Language Arts -  Reading Horizons - letters and sounds /l/, /m/, /j/, and the short vowel /e/, slides with short vowels /a/ and /e/, nonsense and real words with both vowels, Writing Workshop - creating "How to" books, breaking down processes into single steps, adding spaces between words, adding more detail to our work.  

Math -  Numbers 7, 8, and 9 - writing the numerals and words, combining quantities to make 7, 8, and 9, creating addition problems from the Morning Message, 

Science  - making "Goop" with cornstarch and water, exploring magnets 

Social Studies  - Roots - Toni, Davey, Michela, and Colette, Talking about Celebrations of Light, Community Service - "Smart Sacks"

Special Events  - Making candles in the art barn, special holiday craft with Reading Buddies, field trip to the University of Maryland women's basketball game, mini Thanksgiving feast 




Monday, November 16, 2015



 We are thankful....

In Kindergarten this month we have been focusing on the idea of feeling thankful.  To be thankful is to be grateful, and to recognize all that we have.  This can be a pretty hard thing to do in a world that keeps pushing toys and the latest gadgets in our faces!  We have read books such as The Secret of Saying Thanks (did your children tell you the secret?) and thought about all we have to be thankful for - family, friends, food, clothing, homes, etc  The children created paper turkeys and then wrote about what they were thankful for. Come see our turkeys on display in the hallway!

Connecting with the idea of thankfulness is our spiritual theme for November and December - Simplicity/Simple Gifts.  We have been talking about how everything doesn't have to be fancy or cost a lot of money.  Simple gifts come from the heart.  For example on Brenda Crawley's birthday, we gave her simple gifts - a song, some hugs, and homemade cards and notes.  Sometimes it's the simplest things that matter the most.  





Life Skills - Connected and Respected

In Life Skills we have been talking about our feelings.  We have many different feelings and some that we feel at the same time!  When we are feeling two things we call that a "double-dip feeling".  The children brainstormed and created an amazing list of different feelings - the teachers were very impressed.  Then, we made feeling soup.  Children represented the different feelings using facial expression and body language and joined the soup! Can you identify the feelings the classes are showing?
 



 Curriculum Highlights

Language Arts -   Reading Horizons - Most Common Words - "and", "the", and "of", capitalization rules - beginning of sentence and the letter "I", letter and sound for /h/.  Writing Workshop - What are we thankful for?, putting spaces in between words when writing sentences.
Math -   Comparing numbers from 1-5, math language "greater than", "less than", "same".  The number 6 - how can we combine numbers that will equal 6?
Science -  Nature walk, looking for different leaves outside and identifying them, looking for signs of fall.
Social Studies -  Roots - Cora, Katie, Alexa, and Toni, Learning about Divali with Anjali's family.
Special Events -  Making special thankful turkeys with our Reading Buddies, Third grade play - "Oliver Button is a Star"








Tuesday, November 3, 2015


Welcome November!

It's hard to believe October is over and that we are heading into November.  The last two weeks we have been exploring pumpkins and leaves and all that fall has to offer.  The children have enjoyed art projects such as using stamps and paint to create spooky Halloween pictures.  Painting on black paper gives the work a completely different feel!  We have been learning how pumpkins grow from seeds to fruit, and the children colored and sequenced pictures of the life of a pumpkin.  We were amazed at how many seeds were inside our pumpkins and enjoyed toasting them and nibbling on them!  Our campus is covered with with beautiful fall leaves this time of year.  Wherever we walk, the children notice the different hues and the shapes of the leaves.  It's been fun using leaf identification tools to figure out which kind of tree our leaves came from.  Of course, the highlight of last week was our Halloween Parade!  How fun it was to dress up in different costumes and parade to a cheering crowd. Thank you to all of the parents who were able to come help the children get in costume and who joined us in the parade.  Many thanks as well for the special Halloween snack!

Life Skills - Connected and Respected 

In Life Skills we talked about the word "cooperation".  The children had heard this word before, and shared what they knew.  We talked as a group about what "cooperation" means - to work together as a team and to help one another out.  The children brainstormed ways we use cooperation at school - in the classroom, on the playground, etc.  Then we practiced using cooperation as we created a "spider web" by passing around a ball of yarn.  Each person had to hold on to part of the yarn for this to work, and the children shared ideas on how to work together.  In the end, we had a beautiful class web, with each person holding onto a piece.  

Curriculum Highlights...

* Language Arts - Letters and sounds - D /d/, F/f/, and G/ g/.  Slides with consonants and the vowel "a", creating three letter words by adding another consonant to the end of a slide, nonsense words, marking vowels.  Writing Workshop - What do you do when you get stuck? (Hint - remember the Little Engine That Could), adding more detail to writing and drawing, the "king of -ing"

 * Math - Finishing up Chapter 1 -  Combinations that make 5, the number zero, correct number formation. Beginning Chapter 2 - Comparing numbers - learning new vocabulary "same" and "greater than".  Patterns on the calendar and 100's chart. Pumpkin glyphs 

* Science - Pumpkins - cutting open the pumpkin, scooping out seeds and "goop", learning the life cycle of a pumpkin, sequencing the life of a pumpkin, looking at fall leaves, trying to identify the leaves we find.

* Social Studies - Roots - Chloe, Ava, George







Monday, November 2, 2015

It's Pumpkin Time!

Kindergartners had a great time last week scooping out their pumpkins.  The teachers cut open the pumpkins and then the kids reached in and pulled out the seeds and goop.  Not everyone wanted to do this, but the ones that did had a fabulous time.  We separated the seeds out and toasted them in the oven with a little seasoning.  What a yummy fall treat!






Monday, October 19, 2015

Fall, Leaves, Fall!

Today we read the book Why Do Leaves Change Colors?  Prior to reading the book we asked the children what they thought the answer was.  Replies included, "Because they have to.", "Because they're old.", and "Because the weather is colder."  As we read through the book, we learned about words like "chlorophyll" and how some of the colors we see in the fall are hiding under the green color the whole time!  Ask your child why leaves change color in the fall and see what he/she says!  After we read the book, we went on a leaf walk on campus and collected some beautiful leaves.  Of course we also needed to run, jump in piles, and throw leaves in the air!









Sunday, October 18, 2015


Buzz, Buzz, Buzz


Kindergartners are becoming honeybee experts! We have been studying honeybees the past few weeks in anticipation of seeing a hive during our trip to the pumpkin patch.  The children learned about the parts of a bee's body (5 eyes!), the different bees in the hive and their jobs, and how bees make honey.  The children learned that the worker bees, who are all female, do all of the work in the hive and take care of all the other bees!  After learning how honey is made, the children taste tested three different kinds of honey and represented their preference on a graph.  By a very close margin, Wildflower Honey was the favorite!

 Community Day

Wednesday, October 7th was our annual Community Day at SSFS.  The day began with Senior Buddies picking up their Kindergartners and walking with them to the Sandy Spring Meeting House in the town of Sandy Spring.  It was a beautiful fall walk through the woods and fields.  After Meeting for Worship with the whole school, we rode the bus back to school for snack and a little playground time.  We then spent the morning working in our gardens and prepping them for the winter.  We also finished  
our pinwheels that we have been working on in relation to The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.  

After a fun pizza lunch in our classrooms, we rested quietly for a while before heading back outside.  We rejoined the entire school on the field for an aerial photo of our community.  Everyone helped form the letters SSFS and the year 15-16 and we waved as the helicopter flew over us and pictures were taken.  By the end of the day we were tired, but happy from a fun day of community and service to the school! 

Check out the photo gallery on the school website!  Click on the link - Community Day 2015




Curriculum Highlights 

* Language Arts - Beginning the Reading Horizons program, vowel A /a/, consonant B /b/, and sliding sounds from consonant to vowel, looking at Richard Scarry books and adding labels to our pictures, writing about Community Day,  handwriting A and B, fall, honeybee, and pumpkin books.

Math - Numbers 3, 4, and 5 - representing quantities on the 5 frame, writing the numerals and words, patterns on the calendar, graphing honey taste testing results and interpreting the graph

Science  - Honeybees - parts of the body,
learning about the drone, worker, and queen bee, how honey is made, honey taste test.  Field trip to the pumpkin patch!  Working in our gardens on Community Day. 

* Social Studies - Roots - Artin, Gavin, Emmi, and Katie M, spiritual theme of "community"

Special Events - Special playground time with Senior Buddies, Community Day, Trip to the Pumpkin Patch