Kindergarten

Wow!  There hasn’t been a moment to stop.

We had a great trip to the Dakota restaurant and a wonderful tour.  Some of the most beautiful things we saw included a beaded white deerskin wedding dress and a birchbark canoe.  Many children were also taken with the porcupine quill headdress, the assortment of pottery from different tribes, and the skull crackers.  They asked good questions and we all had a great time.

Third Grade invited us to see their dioramas of Berkshire County.  Each student had chosen a local place of interest, researched its history and made a diorama.  They told each of us the history of their place and answered our questions, and did a great job.  Thank you, Mrs. Romano and the third grade!

Our Friendship Lunch with PreK was a huge success.  Together the children made homemade butter, placemats, and cookies.  We enjoyed delicious spaghetti and meatballs and excellent conversation with our Preschool friends.

We celebrated Jaidev’s school birthday this week. Elise and Arup and came to the classroom, and Arup read a great version of an Anansi the Spider story.  Jaidev played three short minuets on his violin for us – how wonderful it was to hear him play!!  And at lunch, delicious brownies.  Thank you, Elise and Arup, for coming in and making Jaidev’s birthday so special.

This morning, we gathered with PreK through Third Grade for our assembly on cooperation.  Each class presented their culminating project, which ranged from original songs to plays to artwork.  It was a great event and each class really did a wonderful job.  Our next overarching theme in “Courage”, and so our conversations for the next few months will revolve around that.

Thanksgiving Soup was another wonderful event.  All students as well as alumni gathered in Fitzpatrick Hall for this beloved Thanksgiving tradition.  It was a good end to a busy week.  I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  See you on Monday!

These weeks are full of seasonal activity, both Halloween and Thanksgiving!

Looking forward:  On Tuesday, Kindergarten makes its annual trip to the Dakota.  There we’ll  have a program tailored to this age group, and get to see their incredible collection of Native American art and artifacts.  These items (much of it on loan from the Andy Warhol collection) includes pottery, baskets, a white leather beaded wedding dress, weapons, a birchbark canoe and more.

On Thursday, we’ll have our Friendship Lunch with PreK.  This is always a fun time, as the kindergartners and the Preschool children make preparations together.

Please send in one bunch of celery on Monday, Nov. 21.  Kindergarten will chop it and it will go into our glorious Thanksgiving Soup!  Please remember that school lets out for Thanksgiving break at 1:00 on Tuesday, Nov. 22.

Looking backward:  We went to the Middle School Poetry Assembly.  The fourth, fifth, and sixth graders did a terific job.  We also saw the Third Grade play – hats off to all those wonderful actors!  We enjoyed both performances tremendously.

The Pumpkin Fairy visited us a few weeks ago.  She even came in the snow – what dedication!  We followed her to a field sprinkled with small pumpkins.  Magic!

Here is a link to a video of  the class (minus one absent student) performing one of our favorite Halloween poems, Spider Soup, written by Pam Pfeiffer.

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And then of course, there was Halloween!  We paraded with Lower School and had a terrific class party upon our return.   Thank you to everyone who sent in food or drinks or craft supplies or were able to be there with us on Halloween itself.  We had so much fun!

Today in the library we took a closer look at owls. We began by looking at picture cards of different types of owls: long-eared, barred, great-horned, burrowing, elf, snowy and barn. The students identified unique traits to all of these owls based on their appearance. Next, we played a matching game where they had to match and correctly identify the types. Our story, Barn Owl, by Phyllis Flower, was a realistic fiction account of the life of a barn owl from hatching to rearing is own young. Our owl exploration brings us one step closer to our visit with Kathryn Lasky on November 19. Lasky is the author of the owl-based series, The Guardians of Ga’Hoole, published by Scholastic.

Today in the library we took a closer look at owls. We began by looking at picture cards of different types of owls: long-eared, barred, great-horned, burrowing, elf, snowy and barn. The students identified unique traits to all of these owls based on their appearance. Next, we played a matching game where they had to match and correctly identify the types. Our story, Barn Owl, by Phyllis Flower, was a realistic fiction account of the life of a barn owl from hatching to rearing is own young. Our owl exploration brings us one step closer to our visit with Kathryn Lasky on November 19. Lasky is the author of the owl-based series, The Guardians of Ga’Hoole, published by Scholastic.

We concluded with book browsing and checkout. Happy Reading!