Friday, June 4, 2021

The Golden forest

 

As this was our official last Community day we decided to spend our morning
 in the golden forest and the field near by.

Before we left we asked the  class "What will we see at the golden forest.?"

Ann: The leaves aren't gonna be golden.
Ren: No red.
Max: There will be green leaves.
Kaia: When I was coming to school it wasn't golden.


 Students practiced their tree climbing skills.








Kept cool in the shade and played on the bleachers.



While others played games and explored the woods.




At the end of the morning we returned to the classroom to cool down, enjoy a popsicle from Doctor Yu and Ms Faubion, and listen to Mr Andrews story about George and Georgina, the clay puppets.





QUESTIONS
Who did George and Georgina meet ?
What do you remember about your visit to the  Golden forest today?

 Despite Co-vid, mask wearing, lots of transitions, and staying isolated from the rest of the lower school I feel it has been a successful year.  Your child has grown in so many ways.  I feel fortunate to have been their teacher  and I know Ms Lawrence feels the same.  I am sorry that Ms Castillo did not have an opportunity to visit, but we mentioned her in our morning song every day.   On Monday Ms Lawrence and I will be ready with lots of hugs and hopefully we won't shed too many tears as we say goodbye.


Enjoy the Summer!

Love Ms Small and Ms Lawrence

 













































Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Ren's Birthday





During workchoices we asked friends to come to their last Have to and draw their favorite memory from PreK.  Some friends found it difficult to pick just one and drew two or three pictures.


 










During our transition to Ren's birthday celebration I read a short book called Maybe.
A story about how amazing you are and how you can achieve what ever you put your mind to.













We celebrated Ren's 5th birthday.  The last birthday of the school year.  Celebrated in true PreK style with popsicles while Merceds read 'Wacky Wednesday'.  A fun book about a boy going to school who notices lots of wacky things going on in his home, school and around his neighborhood.









QUESTIONS
What was your favorite memory from PreK?
What happened at the end of the book 'Maybe'?
What was one wacky thing you remember that happened in 'Wacky Wednesday'?





































Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Tigers and Dogs

                              


                                           The class learned a lot about tigers and dogs today.


Max presented what he had learned about tigers.  Sharing where they live. What they eat and how much they can eat, an amazing 100 pounds of meat, equivalent to 400 hamburgers.   The class asked some great questions tracking  what Max was sharing.  Max answered most of the questions and when he was unsure was able to admit he didn't know the answer. 

Max talked about the differences between white and orange tigers

Charlotte: "Are they born white or do they turn white?

Max: "I don't know."

Ren: How many stripes they're gonna have?"

Max: "Not much stripes when they're born but they have more and more stripes each birthday."

Grace:"How many stripes do they have in real life?

Max:"Hard to tell."

Livio: "Do white tigers live in the snow?"

Max: "Siberian ones do.  They're orange."

Lucy: "Do they eat humans?"

Max: "Well, I heard on the news that they ate one."

Farrah:"How do tigers get their stripes?"

Max:"They get stripes when they're in their mom's belly."



Most of the classspent work choice time outside on the playground.  At the end of the morning we listened to Anne's presentation on dogs.  


She had learned how dogs help people.  Explaining "There are servant dogs, guide dogs, guard dogs, farm dogs, police dogs and fire dogs."   This sparked a lot of conversation as the children were surprised to learn that dogs did these jobs.

Charlotte:"I didn't know about any of those dogs."

Livio:"I didn't know that dogs can help people see."

Max: "I know that dog knows it can go if there's a red light."

Jenna:"How can they hold the thing that the person  drops? (sniffer dogs)

Anne:"He doesn't it just smells it." Anne got down on the floor to show us how a dog would sniff a scent.

Lucy:"How do they sniff it out?

Anne:"They have really good noses."

Anne told us that farm dogs are usually border collies.  Police sniffer dogs are usually blood hounds.

Ren:"I have a labrador dog."

Anne:"That is this one." pointing to the dog she had drawn for the fire dogs.  Explaining how they can find where a fire started.

When I asked if she had a favorite dog she replied,"My mom likes all these kinds of dogs....  I like all of them too.

The class enjoyed being outside and the time seemed fly by.


Making bubbles when you can't blow. Spin, spin, spin

Or move the stick up and down 
Making a pond

Looking at red tailed hawks


Digging in the sand


Practicing on the monkey bars


Thinking of ways to challenge yourself on the monkey bars


Making your own paint out of chalk and water


A little quiet time with a friend


Making a sculpture from items found in the playground


Making a trap


Wands for sale! What size would you like?

More water?


Creating in the inventions center


We also had time to read a story,  Eric Carle's book the tiny seed.   Telling the story of a seed that gets blown by the wind finding a place with sun, water and soil to help it grow.  This tied in with all the pea and pumpkin plants that we have grown and planted in the playground.



pea
pumpkin



















QUESTIONS


What happened to some of the other seeds in the story.

What does the tiger do with the animal if he can't eat all of it straight away?

Anne told us about six different dogs, which one was your favorite?





Friday, May 28, 2021

Flying fish presentation

 


Livio was happy to take his position in the blue chair and share his expertise on flying fish.
What eats them, and what they eat.  What part of the world you can find a lot of them and most importantly how they fly.


We made a variety of smoothies today using fresh fruit, juice and yogurt.  Everyone got the opportunity to help chop up fruit and switch the blender on.



Ms Vandervorste,  Mr Goeddeke the Kindergarten teachers, and Ms. DeRosa one of the teaching assistants joined us on the playground and answered all of the questions that our PK children had compiled.


Ms Vandervorste

Mr. Goeddeke
.                                                       



Ms. DeRosa



QUESTIONS
What fruit did we add to the smoothies?
What facts do you remember about flying fish?
What did you learn about Kindergarten?