Kindergarten

This week in the library, Kindergarten shared a group of humorous and colorful animal stories: Dear Bear by Joanna Harrison, Big Wolf Little Wolf by Sharon Phillips Denslow, A Bed full of Cats by Holly Keller, and Meeow and the Big Box by Sebastien Braun. Each story was accompanied by a corresponding animal call. We also talked about why authors give human characteristics to animals (such as talking, painting, driving) in stories.

We concluded with Book Browsing and Checkout. Happy Reading!

We’ve had busy, full weeks.  Working backwards:

We celebrated Kate’s sixth birthday today.  Kate’s parents and third grade sister Stella were able to join us.  Stella did a great job reading one of Kate’s favorite books.  At snack we enjoyed delicious blueberry muffins.  Thank you, Koethi, Stephen, and Stella, for making Kate’s birthday a special one!

Our assembly on Courage (the second theme of our expanded social curriculum) took place yesterday.  Kindergarten-Grade 3 students presented their projects.  Kindergarten drew pictures based on the books we had read that addressed bullying, telling the truth, and civil rights.  They did a great job! Below is a video of the kindergarten presentation.  (If it doesn’t work, let me know and I’ll try again!)

Last week held Alaska Day and the children had a blast trying different activities such as Alaskan outdoor games, decorating a totem pole, running the “BCD Iditerod”, and making s’mores over a campfire.  And there was even snow – a very welcome surprise in this mostly-snowless winter.  It was a fun afternoon.

In the morning we enjoyed seeing the Mardi Gras and Carnevale celebrations presented by the Middle School.  The plays and songs in French and Spanish were terrific.  We also got to taste some of the special foods that going along with those two holidays.

Inbetween these fun events the children made pages for their book on the four seasons, using cray-pas and blue paper.  In math, we finished up our unit with Venn diagrams and each child made a wonderful final project using colored pasta.  We continue to work hard in Language Arts, learning the sounds of J, P, L and G.

I hope all you have a happy and fun March Break.  School resumes on Tuesday, March 27 (Monday is a professional in-service day for teachers.)

Think Spring!

Andrea

These past two weeks have held tons of fun.   On the 100th Day of School we shared our collections, including a 100-piece Lego construction, 100 silly bands, a snake made out of 100 bottle caps, 100 small dolls and accessories, as well as a very heavy backpack filled with 100 wheeled vehicles!  We counted by fives and tens to 100 in different games and we tried (unsuccessfully) to stay quiet for 100 seconds.  For a language arts activity, the class made wonderful writing and drawings describing what they might look like and what they might be doing when they are 100 years old.  Math held two different activities – each child created a necklace of 100 beads (10 each of 10 different colors), and each created a “self-portrait graph” using bars of color to describe the school activities they like the most.  Most of these are on display in the room, so came and take a look!

Valentines Day also held many fun activities.  Hidden around the classroom were 100 paper hearts.  As the children found them, they began to create a large number chart on the rug.  We also learned the sign language for “I love you” and read favorite Valentine books together.  The class also wrote a piece on what “love” means to them.  Our afternoon culminated with a great party.  Thank you, Tyler, for organizing this, and a big thank you to everyone who sent in food, decorations, and/or showed us to help us celebrate!  It was great fun.

In Language Arts, we continue to make good progress, learning more letters and their associated sounds and learning how to write both upper and lower case properly.  In math, we’ll be finishing up our unit on sorting by two attributes in the next week or so.

Mr. Lindenmaier stopped by one day, moments after Charlie lost his first tooth.  He told us he had the perfect book to read, and returned a few moments later with One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey.  Mr. Lindenmaier has an excellent Maine accent, and you can see by the photos that the children thoroughly enjoyed it!

Arts Week begins February 27.  There will be a piece of art work from every child on display in the Gym.  This is always a great show, so please make time to stop by. Also mark your calendar for Parent-Teacher conferences beginning Thursday, March 1 at 3:15.  A sign-up sheet will be available online shortly.

There’s no school next Monday and Tuesday, February 20 and 21.  Enjoy the long weekend!

Andrea

What fun these last two weeks have been!  Sally Eagle came last week to show us her slides of Antarctica.  Sally, a professional photographer, spent two weeks in Antarctica several years ago.  The children were entranced by her photos of penguins, elephant seals, and icebergs, and with her stories of encounters with friendly and not-so-friendly creatures.   Her presentation was enjoyed by all.

Last week, we celebrated Pajama Day, a beloved tradition for BCD’s youngest students.  Gathering early in the morning with the PreK, students (and teachers!) arrived at school in their pajamas. The children enjoyed playing in small tents with sleeping bags and stuffed toys and reading books by flashlight.  We had a “Night Meeting” followed by several activities that involved glow-in-the-dark stars and stickers.  Popcorn and hot cocoa were offered at snack.  We read special books (What! cried Granny, an Almost-Bedtime Story by Kate Lum was the absolute favorite).  All agreed that Pajama Day was awesome!

Last week we began something that I hope will become a monthly tradition.  On the last Thursday of every month, under the direction of Claire Pollart, BCD students help staff “Open Table”  in Stockbridge serving food to approximately40 people, mostly senior citizens, who come there for a hot meal and friendly conversation.  Kindergarten was able to help contribute to this meal by baking cookies and sending them with Claire in time for dinner.  The class was very excited when I explained to them about Open Table and asked if they wanted to help feed the guests there by baking dessert.  They were also quite sad when told that we would not be eating any of the cookies.  It is important to me that children learn that they can help others and that their contributions can make a difference in the lives of others.  We will be making table decorations and baking for Open Table again at the end of this month.  And I did promise the class that we would bake Valentine’s cookies  for ourselves, which made then all quite happy.

We had a fine trip to the Norman Rockwell Museum yesterday to see the artwork of Margaret and A.H. Rey, the husband and wife team that created the Curious George books.  The original watercolor illustrations are still fresh and bright.  We also saw an exhibit on pop-up books, and each child had a chance to make a card using their own hands as the pop-up.  We went with PreK and had great time together.

We ended the week with a fabulous Lunch Bunch.  Homemade mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, fresh berries and chocolate chip cookies made for a wonderful meal.  Thank you to Elise De, Emily Bernard, and Amy Elmore for providing us with such a great lunch.  Yum!

Upcoming events include Valentine’s Day and the 100th Day of School Celebration.  Information about both events will come in your email this weekend, so stay tuned!

Andrea