Kindergarten

Kindergarten stayed warm in cozy in the January chill by sharing the adventures of Tacky the Penguin. Helen Lester’s beloved series unfolds the trials and tribulations of a non-conformist penguin named Tacky. Tacky’s peers (aptly named Lovely, Neatly, Angel, Goodly and Perfect) are model penguins who march, dress, splash and slide with appropriate penguin-ish consistency. In many of the Tacky tales, however, these penguin pets find themselves in a sticky situation, from which Tacky, and only Tacky, is able to extract them. This week we read several Tacky stories including Tacky and the Winter Games, Tackylocks and the Three Bears and Tacky the Emperor. More Tacky adventures to follow when we conclude our penguin play next week!

Students finished up the class with book browsing and checkout. Happy Reading!

First, a big thank you to all of you for your participation in the Holiday Gift Giving program.  Ms. Gratz delivered the presents to Head Start last week.  Please know that you’ve made some children very happy this season, and thank you again for your generosity.

We enjoyed seeing Knuffle Bunny at the Colonial!  While the overall story was the same as the book, there were many differences as well.  The class had a good opportunity to compare and contrast the two the next day.  Thank you to Sarah, Kate, Lauren, Emily and Tyler for coming along with us.  It was a fun trip!

Right before Thanksgiving, all students from PreK -Third Grade met for our assembly where we shared our projects on cooperation.  Below is a clip, courtesy of Mrs. Clausen, so you can see for yourselves just how well they did!

We enjoyed the Winter Holiday Concert last week.  The kindergartners enjoyed all the different choirs and instrumental groups.  This gave them a little tast of what’s in store for them, as they will be performing in the spring concert.

Peace!  These past few weeks, we’ve focused on creating a peaceful classroom, peacefully solving our problems, and learning about peacemakers.  We especially focused on the lives of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., as I was very inspired after my Civil Rights trip that I had taken earlier in the month.  Everybody completed papers that begin, “I am a peacemaker when…” – these are now hanging on the bulletin board.  And each student added a “peace” word to our world, in all different leanguages, an ongoing project that began in 2005 with the present sixth graders.  Languages this year included Javanese, Mongolian, Zulu, Breton, Romansch, Hmong, Finnish, Bosnian, Quenya, and Taglog.  Surrounding our world are our beautiful white doves of peace.  Take a look below!

When we return, our first Ski Friday will be January 6.  We’ll eat lunch in the classroom and then change into ski clothes.  Please send clothes only – do not send ski boots, skis, poles, or helmets.  You will bring those items with you when you meet your child at the mountain.  Do send thermal underwear and either smartwool or fleece socks, in addition to snow pants, sweater or fleece, warm jacket, and waterproof mittens or gloves.  A neck gaitor is a good idea, too, if you have one..

We ended today with a wonderful Class Holiday Party.  Many thanks to Tyler for planning and organizing this event.  We have had a very busy week and it was so nice to end by celebrating together.  The children have all made gifts for their families.  Much love and thought went into them.  I hope you enjoy them!  I wish you all a happy, safe and fun holiday break.  See you all in 2012!

Andrea

This week in the library, Kindergarten visited the country of Morocco. After learning a bit about this country’s geography and culture, we shared a beautifully illustrated adaptation of a Moroccan folktale, The Bachelor and the The Bean (by Shelley Fowles). We concluded with book browsing and checkout. Happy Reading!

Today in the library, Kindergarten shared several books from Cynthia Rylant’s series: Henry and Mudge. Each book finds Henry, and his cracker-loving dog Mudge in an adventure. Themes of friendship, loyalty and diversity are woven through the each story. Here in the BCD library, we have an extensive collection of these Ready-to-Read series which use captivating illustrations and small amounts of text on each page to engage the reader. Feel free to peruse our collection, located near the floor across from the picture books.

We concluded with bookbrowsing and checkout. Happy Reading!