We are reading many versions of Gingerbread Man/Boy/Girl/Baby stories. We are comparing the stories and characters to see how they are the same and how they are different. This afternoon we painted large gingerbread people and listened to relaxing music as we painted. What a lovely afternoon!
Kindergarten students did a great job sharing what they learned about how animals change the environment. This was part of our Organisms unit in science. Have fun listening to each of their wonderful videos.
Today we went out in the woods for a story walk. We walked, skipped, and "flew" to the different pages posted
throughout the woods. We read the story, Thank You Omu! by Oge Mora. It is a wonderful book about a woman
who shares her homemade stew with many people in the neighborhood. When she goes to have dinner that
night she realizes she doesn't have any stew left. Then all the people that she has given food to come to her
apartment and bring her dinner and treats. They have dinner together, dance, and enjoy the evening. The book
celebrates giving. At the end of our story walk, we ran in the fields and rolled down the hills.
What a great afternoon!
The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities. Coding helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic, and creativity.
Our class participated in the Hour of Code this week. We broke it into a few sessions. Students used iPads and accessed the app Scratch Jr. They were able to use simple code to move their animal or whatever they wanted in different ways. Kindergarten students were amazing and did a great job with coding.
We are currently working on identifying and making 2D shapes. Today students made shapes with rubberbands on geoboards. They were excited at the number and size of the different shapes they could make. Yesterday we made our shapes with playdough.
Today students designed and painted gratitude rocks. They discussed the many reasons they were thankful. Students shared how grateful they were to others for snuggles, spending time with them, taking them to McDonald's, taking care of them, etc. Kindergarten students took their rocks home as gifts of gratitude to others.
The weather has been so beautiful the past couple of days. We have spent quite a bit of time outdoors. Today we were busy measuring things in nature that were shorter and longer than our paper tower of ten cubes. What a great math class!
