Whew! we have had a busy time here in the Kindergarten classroom. For math we have been working on becoming more confident in writing and counting from 1-100 as well as dipping our toes into the concept of addition.
We have also been learning about the life and works of Claude Monet as well as Pablo Picasso. It’s been fun to see how the class is forming their own opinion about which artists they like the best!
We also went on an excursion into the woods just outside our school yard and talked about various ways to stay safe while we are out in nature… the students had several great ideas!
We have also been busy learning about what both an author and an illustrator do, and the class has been very busy designing both a story and a scene to write their own story.
Added to all this the friends have had a lot of science fun lately learning about the life cycle of the frog, cracking geodes, and finally they had a chemistry professor and two graduate students come to do some science experiments with them! While in the class our visiting scientists discussed what a hypothesis is, and how we go about testing our hypothesis. They also spoke to the class about what is in the air we breathe, and states of matter. To illustrate some of the topics they discussed, Dr. Schulz and his group members used liquid nitrogen to freeze various objects such as balloons, raquette balls and blades of grass then ask the students to predict what would happen with each object. This was a fun day which included the student asking Dr. Schulz and his team to stay for lunch to try the wonderful stone soup made by the class! To top it all off, the class experienced the joy of watching three butterflies emerge from their chrysalis, then they released them back into nature.
Finally, the children have enjoyed exploring the life and music of Johann Sebastian Bach and have been sharing what they see as the differences between his music and the music of Mozart.
As you can see it has been a fun and busy two week, and there is more yet to come!
