We’ve enjoyed two wonderful weeks together since our return from vacation. We’ve begun a new unit on farms, with an small emphasis on cows (no surprise there!) In class, we’ve been reading both factual books about farm animals as well as some very humorous fictional stories. We’ve done some farm animal dot-to-dot pages, which help the children’s facility with letter and number ordering. The children have also been making a farm mural, and we’ll be taking a trip to visit a farm towards the end of the month.
In math, we’re working on several things simultaneously – continuing our work on adding and subtracting numbers to see how many different ways you can make the number “8”, for example, and also using two different types of scales to create these balanced equations. The symbol > (“greater than”) has been introduced and next week we’ll add < (“lesser than”). And with the introduction of short /i/ this week in language arts, we’ve learned what an inch is, so that’s led us into exploring measurement using rulers, as well as enjoying singing The Garden Song (“Inch by inch, row by row… Gonna make this garden grow!”) One of the best things in Kindergarten is the way our curriculum intertwines through so many different subject areas.
Today we had two super events. I have a friend who is a Sign Language Interpreter who came to spend an hour with the children to talk about hearing impairment. Using diagrams of the ear, Rita first explained what hearing loss is, how it can sometimes be helped and then showed us her doll with hearing aids. Rita explained why many hearing impaired people also use sign language to communicate. The children had multiple opportunities to ask her to show them the signs for words they wanted to learn and the class was eager to sing the songs using ASL that they’ve learned this year. At the end of the hour, we all had a great tine learning to sign “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”. The children had many thoughtful questions and learned a lot.
In the afternoon we got on a school bus with all of Lower School and PreSchool and went to Ventfort Hall in Lenox, where we saw a delightful marionette show, “The Princess and the Pea”. The children were a great audience and seemed to enjoy this too!
Upcoming events: Many of our children will be in the Talent Show tomorrow, which promises to be another fun event. Next Wednesday we have a Class Lunch Bunch, courtesy of Chase and family, and then Pizza Friday two days later.
Have a great weekend!
