Winter is Here!

After a very warm winter thus far, colder weather is finally here!  The children have loved cutting snowflakes out of white paper, looking for ice on the playground, and dreaming of snow!  Please make sure your child has a warm winter coat, hat or hood, and gloves/mittens on these cold days.  We do go outside to play unless it is exceptionally cold.  

The new year has brought us a new science topic - magnets!  The children love to explore with the magnet set we have in the classroom and have made some wonderful discoveries about how magnets work.  We have watched kids science videos about magnets and have begun doing our own experiments.  The children have made predictions about how many objects they think a particular magnet will pick up and then tested this idea.  Magnets sure do pick up a lot of paper clips!  We counted the paperclips in piles of 10 - some magnets picked up over 70! 

            Life Skills - Connected and Respected 

This week in Life Skills we talked about kindness.  The children first brainstormed someone in their lives who was especially kind.  Then, as a whole Kindergarten we created a list of kind words and actions.  KA and KB are already experts at kindness - have you seen our Good Deed chains?  In each classroom the children report when someone has done a good deed for them.  We write it on a strip of paper which we then make into a paper chain hung around the room.  We are hoping to make the chains go all around the perimeter of the rooms by the end of the year.!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Peace

Our spiritual theme this month is "Peace" and we have been focusing on the life of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.  We read the story Martin's Big Words which detailed Dr King's life and his peaceful words and actions.  With our third grade reading buddies we decorated pieces of paper that had some of his important words on them.  These words and pictures with our buddies are out in the hallway for all to enjoy.  We learned that Dr King used his words to make changes in the world, not his fists.  He was able to fight back against adversity through peaceful protests and speeches.   We have had some wonderfully rich classroom discussions about Dr King - ask your children what they have learned!

Curriculum Highlights

Language Arts - Reading Horizons, letter sounds /n/, /p/, and /r/, slides with short vowels /a/ and /e/, adding to the Most Common Words list, punctuation.  Writing Workshop - publishing our first stories, Writer's Share, how to sequence a story or "how-to" book, creating covers for our books.

Math  - Number 10, creating 10 using different combinations of numbers, addition facts to 10, writing numerals and number words, word problems.

Science  - Magnets - "attract" vs "repel", experimenting with magnets, determining how strong magnets are, recording data, making predictions.

Social Studies - Roots - Sam, Johannes, Vivien, learning about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, I Dream of a World book and reflections, Martin's Big Words book and activity with Reading Buddies, talking about peace

Winter Radish Harvest!

The unusually warm weather this December led to our radishes cropping up - again!  Right before we left for the holidays we were able to harvest a good crop and brought our radishes to the Dining Hall for the salad bar!

Gingerbread Houses!

Happy New Year!  We are so glad to have everyone back.  We wanted to share some pictures of an amazing activity the children did before we left for the holidays.  Emmi Horne's mom Terry made each child and teacher their very own gingerbread house!  These houses were absolutely beautiful and carefully detailed.  The children added icing and candy pieces to decorate their houses before taking them home.  Thank you to Terry, Owen, and Emmi for sharing this special activity with us.  Please enjoy the pictures from school photographer Margaret Rosser in the "Photo Gallery" section of our blog.

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 

 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"

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

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!